ArticleCancer cell international2024
Toxoplasma gondii suppresses proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells by regulating their transcriptome.
Article in Cancer cell international, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Parasite based biotherapy for cancer therapeutic strategies and preclinical applications.Discover oncology · 2026Review
- Bugs as drugs: parasite biomolecules as novel therapeutics against breast cancer.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2026Review
- Polarity protein Par3 deficiency promotes metastasis of bladder cancer via interaction of Ppp1r12c.Biology direct · 2026Article
- Seroprevalence and risk factors for Toxoplasma gondii infection in women with breast tumors in Eastern China.American journal of translational research · 2026Article
- Reconstruction of the evolutionary landscape of biological processes involved in the early stages of the metastatic cascade.Genetics and molecular biology · 2026Article
- Toxoplasma gondii as a drug for anti-tumor immunotherapy: mechanisms, challenges, and perspectives.Parasite (Paris, France) · 2026Review
- Structures and functions of the MICOS: Pathogenesis and therapeutic implications in Alzheimer's disease.Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2025Review
- Molecular mimicry between parasites and cancer: a novel approach for developing cancer vaccines and therapeutic antibodies.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2025Article
- Unveiling the anti-neoplastic potential of Schistosoma mansoni-derived antigen against breast cancer: a pre-clinical study.European journal of medical research · 2025Article
- Small Biological Fighters Against Cancer: Viruses, Bacteria, Archaea, Fungi, Protozoa, and Microalgae.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Detection ofInfection and drug resistance · 2025Article
- Culture supernatant ofOncology letters · 2025Article
- Transcriptional profiles analysis of effects ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBreast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) has shown anticancer activity in breast cancer mouse models, and exerted beneficial effect on the survival of breast cancer patients, but the mechanism was unclear.
methodsThe effect of tachyzoites of T. gondii (RH and ME49 strains) on human breast cancer cells (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells) proliferation and migration was assessed using cell growth curve and wound healing assays. Dual RNA-seq was performed for T. gondii-infected and non-infected cells to determine the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and Protein-Protein Interaction Networks analysis (PPI) were performed to explore the related signaling pathway and hub genes. Hub genes were validated using the Kaplan-Meier plotter database, and Pathogen Host Interaction (PHI-base) database. The results were verified by qRT-PCR.
resultsThe tachyzoites of T. gondii decreased the expression of Ki67 and increased the expression of E-cadherin, resulting in suppressing the proliferation and migration of infected human breast cancer cells. The inhibitory effect of T. gondii on breast cancer cells showed a significant dose-response relationship. Compared with the control group, 2321 genes were transcriptionally regulated in MCF-7 cells infected with T. gondii, while 169 genes were transcriptionally regulated in infected MDA-MB-231 cells. Among these genes, 698 genes in infected MCF-7 cells and 67 genes in infected MDA-MB-231 cells were validated by the publicly available database. GO and KEGG analyses suggested that several pathways were involved in anticancer function of T. gondii, such as ribosome, interleukin-17 signaling, coronavirus disease pathway, and breast cancer pathway. BRCA1, MYC and IL-6 were identified as the top three hub genes in infected-breast cancer cells based on the connectivity of PPI analysis. In addition, after interacting with breast cancer cells, the expression of ROP16 and ROP18 in T. gondii increased, while the expression of crt, TgIST, GRA15, GRA24 and MIC13 decreased.
conclusionsT. gondii transcriptionally regulates several signaling pathways by altering the hub genes such as BRCA1, MYC and IL-6, which can inhibit the breast tumor growth and migration, hinting at a potential therapeutic strategy.
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