TY - JOUR AU - Atalay Şahar, Esra AU - Döşkaya, Mert AU - Karakavuk, Muhammet AU - Can, Hüseyin AU - Gül, Aytül AU - Gürüz, Adnan Yüksel AU - Değirmenci Döşkaya, Aysu AU - Yeniay, Levent PY - 2020/10/31 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Toxoplasma gondii destroys Her2/Neu-expressing mammary cancer cells in vitro using a continuous feed medium approach JF - The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries JA - J Infect Dev Ctries VL - 14 IS - 10 SE - Original Articles DO - 10.3855/jidc.12820 UR - https://jidc.org/index.php/journal/article/view/33175718 SP - 1204-1209 AB - <p>Introduction: <em>Toxoplasma gondii</em> is an opportunistic protozoan and can be grown using several human cell lines. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women. Her2/Neu-expressing mammary cancer cell lines called TUBO can be grown <em>in vitro</em>. In recent years, protozoan parasites have become popular means of use in cancer therapy research. In this study, we analyzed whether <em>T. gondii</em> tachyzoites can destroy TUBO cells using a novel continuous feed medium approach.</p><p>Methodology: Two sets of flasks (each containing four groups) containing TUBO cells were inoculated with <em>T. gondii</em> Ankara strain tachyzoites. First set containing 5×10<sup>6 </sup>TUBO cells were inoculated with TUBO-tachyzoite ratios of 1:2, 1:1, 2:1, and 4:1 and second set containing 1×10<sup>6 </sup>TUBO cells were inoculated with TUBO-tachyzoite ratios of 10:1, 100:1, 1000:1, and 2000:1. Thereafter, culture supernatants were harvested at various days until TUBO cells were destroyed and tachyzoites were counted.</p><p>Results: In the first and second sets of flasks, TUBO cells were destroyed between days 8 to 12 and 12 to 25, respectively. In addition, the amount of tachyzoites increased 7- 43 and 595 to 112500 times in the first and second set of flasks, respectively.</p><p>Conclusions: These results show that <em>T. gondii</em> tachyzoites successfully destroy Her2/Neu-expressing mammary cancer cells using a continuous feed medium approach. Although this idea may be too premature for the moment, the approach defined herein may support future researchers investigating the relationship between cancer and parasites which can make important progress toward saving cancer patient lives.</p> ER -