TITLE:
Breast Cancer MCF-7 Cell Spheroid Culture for Drug Discovery and Development
AUTHORS:
Guangping Chen, William Liu, Bingfang Yan
KEYWORDS:
MCF-7 Cell, Spheroid Culture, 3D Cell Culture, Estrogen-Dependent Breast Cancer, Cancer Drug Development, Personalized Cancer Drug Development
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Cancer Therapy,
Vol.13 No.3,
March
9,
2022
ABSTRACT: In vitro 3D cancer spheroids (tumoroids) exhibit a drug resistance profile
similar to that found in solid tumors. 3D spheroid culture methods recreate
more physiologically relevant microenvironments for cells. Therefore, these
models are more appropriate for cancer drug screening. We have recently
developed a protocol for MCF-7 cell spheroid culture, and used this method to
test the effects of different types of drugs on this estrogen-dependent breast
cancer cell spheroid. Our results demonstrated that MCF-7 cells can grow
spheroid in medium using a low attachment plate. We managed to grow one
spheroid in each well, and the spheroid can grow over a month, the size of the
spheroid can grow over a hundred times in volume. Our targeted drug
experimental results suggest that estrogen sulfotransferase, steroid sulfatase,
and G protein-coupled estrogen receptor may play critical roles in MCF-7 cell
spheroid growth, while estrogen receptors α and β may not play an essential role
in MCF-7 spheroid growth. Organoids are the miniatures of in vivo tissues and reiterate
the in vivo microenvironment of a specific organ, best fit for the in vitro studies of diseases and
drug development. Tumoroid, developed from cancer cell lines or patients’ tumor
tissue, is the best in vitro model of in vivo tumors. 3D spheroid technology will be the best future method for drug
development of cancers and other diseases. Our reported method can be developed
clinically to develop personalized drugs when the patient’s tumor tissues are
used to develop a spheroid culture for drug screening.