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Virgin olive oil minor components as natural drugs for the treatment of breast cancer: preliminary experiments on squalene

  • Original Article
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Mediterranean Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism

Abstract

There is a need for the development of novel agents, which maintain the fundamental characteristics of cytoprotective drugs together with a low toxicity profile. The present study was designed to investigate the potential interest of squalene in the combinatory therapy of breast cancer with adriamycin in the breast cancer cell line MCF7. Results showed a dosage-response decrease of adriamycin on cell viability, and for all adriamycin dosages, squalene decreased or did not change viability. Squalene reduced or did not affect adriamycin apoptosis, and finally no effect of squalene was found on G0–G1 phase of the cell cycle. These results, together with previous studies, suggest that as for other natural compounds, potential anticancer effects of squalene could depend on the phenotype. Thus, there is still a need for further investigations aimed at ascertaining the real potential of squalene, using in vitro, but more importantly in vivo models.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Excelentísima Diputación Provincial de Jaén. We thank Dr. Nieves Rodríguez and Dr. Jaime Lazuen, from the Scientific Instrument Service of the University of Granada, for their technical assistance with the cell culture maintaining and flow cytometry analyses, respectively.

Conflict of interest

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de Alimentos “José Mataix Verdú”, Centro de Investigación Biomédica, Parque Tecnológico de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Granada, Avenida del Conocimiento s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain

    José L. Quiles, Sergio Granados-Principal & M. Carmen Ramirez-Tortosa

  2. Department of Physiology, UGR, Granada, Spain

    José L. Quiles

  3. Department of Oncology, Complejo Hospitalario de Jaén, Jaén, Spain

    Pedro Sánchez-Rovira

  4. Department of Pathology, Complejo Hospitalario de Jaén, Jaén, Spain

    César L. Ramirez-Tortosa

  5. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, UGR, Granada, Spain

    Sergio Granados-Principal & M. Carmen Ramirez-Tortosa

  6. Department of Biochemistry, Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

    Enrico Bertoli & Maurizio Battino

Authors
  1. José L. Quiles
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  2. Pedro Sánchez-Rovira
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  3. César L. Ramirez-Tortosa
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  4. Sergio Granados-Principal
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  5. Enrico Bertoli
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  6. Maurizio Battino
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  7. M. Carmen Ramirez-Tortosa
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Correspondence to José L. Quiles.

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Quiles, J.L., Sánchez-Rovira, P., Ramirez-Tortosa, C.L. et al. Virgin olive oil minor components as natural drugs for the treatment of breast cancer: preliminary experiments on squalene. Mediterr J Nutr Metab 3, 221–225 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12349-010-0019-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12349-010-0019-6

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