EVALUATION OF HEPCIDIN AND HEPARANASE EXPRESSION IN DU-145 AND PC-3 CELL LINES AFTER TREATMENT WITH PORCINE HEPARIN.

• Grant number: 24/22960-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Pharmacology - General Pharmacology
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Caleb Júnior de Lima Santos
• Grantee: Juliana Kaori Kawamura
• Host Institution: Instituto Nacional de Farmacologia (INFAR). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to study castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) cells from DU-145 (isolated from brain metastasis) and PC-3 (isolated from bone metastasis) cell lines when treated with porcine heparin, specifically analyzing the expression of hepcidin, the iron-regulating hormone, and heparanase. CRPC, being resistant to androgen deprivation hormonal treatment, has a higher chance of developing to a metastatic stage, which poses a greater risk to the patient and significantly increases the risk of mortality. Therefore, treatments that can help contain cell proliferation, an essential part of the metastasis process, may be crucial for providing a better prognosis.Heparin, although used as an anticoagulant, has been studied as a potential adjunct drug in cancer treatment because it acts on pathways that affect cell proliferation. Hepcidin and heparanase, two proteins that have been reported to have some relationship with cancer, may experience concentration changes in the body with the administration of heparin.For this study, cells treated with different concentrations of porcine heparin will be used, which will then undergo protein extraction for analysis by Western blot. They will also be utilized for the MTT cell viability assay to verify whether treatment with porcine heparin indeed has any effect on the proliferation of metastatic cells.