Effect of Botulinum Toxin A on Proliferation and Apoptosis in T47D Breast Cancer Cells

Breast cancer in women is a major health problem worldwide, with approximately 1.3 million women was estimated to be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 (Smith et al., 2012; Bray et al., 2013). Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease in terms of gene expression, morphology, clinical course, and response to treatment. Therapeutic options for this breast cancer include surgery, adjuvant chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormonal therapy or targeted therapy (Kim et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2012; Sendur et al., 2012; Truin et al., 2012; Zhou et al., 2012; Edge, 2013). The most widely known action of botulinum toxin A (BtxA) is its relaxing effect on skeletal muscles. BtxA is therefore widely used for the symptomatic relief of spasticity, and other movement disorders. Recently there has been great interest in the use of botulinum toxin type A for prostate cancer. This interest stems from the fact that BtxA inhibits the growth of LNCaP human prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo and induces apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner (Mazo et al., 2008; Karsenty et al., 2009; Proietti et al., 2012). Moreover, BtxA has been shown for up-regulate 167 genes and down-regulate 60 genes relevant to focal adhesion, cell adhesion molecules, adherents and gap junction related pathways in carcinoma cell lines (Thirunavukkarasusx et al., 2011; Gorgal et al., 2012; Nam et al., 2012; Tegenge et al., 2012). The