The Effect of Duloxetine on Tau Protein and Migration in Breast Cancer Cell Line

Metastasis is one the most important causes of death among the patients diagnosed with breast cancer. Tau protein is a cytoskeletal protein which competes with paclitaxel and attenuates its effects. So increased tau protein may promote metastasis progression. Duloxetine is an antidepressant inhibiting serotonin, norepinephrine reuptake. In this study we tried to investigate the effects of duloxetine in tau gene expression in breast cancer cell line.
Duloxetine was prepared with the doses of 2, 20 and 100 µM per litter. MCF7 (Michigan Cancer Foundation-7) cell line was treated for 24 hours. The toxicity of duloxetine was estimated by 3-(4, 5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2, 5-diphenyl-2-H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT ) assay and the extent of tau protein expression was evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).
Statistically all concentrations of duloxetine significantly decreased cell viability in comparison to control groups. However, paclitaxel showed more cytotoxicity effects. According to the results of qRT-PCR, tau expression increased at 20 and 100 µM concentration of duloxetine.
It seems that duloxetine, a drug for pain relief in patients with cancer, should be used with caution for metastasis promotion in breast cancer patients.