Effect of platelet-like particles on the behavior of breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231 in fluidic system

• Grant number: 25/11773-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Morphology - Cytology and Cell Biology
• Principal Investigator: Vanessa Morais Freitas
• Grantee: Murilo Camargo de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 25/00135-0 - Changes in Circulating Tumor Cells and Endothelial Cells: The Role of Shear Stress and Extracellular Vesicles in Cellular Interactions, AP.R

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most relevant diseases of the century, with recent predictions suggesting that around 20% of the population may develop it in their lifetime, with breast cancer being the most incidente in women. The metastatic process is related to higher lethality, with the capacity of colonizing secondary sites. It occurs through circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that survive the flow of the circulatory system. In the circulatory system there is a relevant population of immune cells and the interactions and modulations that occur between CTCs, leukocytes and other blood elements is vital to the interruption of the metastatic process. Accounting for the elements in blood, there are platelets, cellular fragments derived from megakaryocytes, that possess a variety of interactions with CTCs that assist the tumor to propagate and protect itself from many different types of stress that can be found in the circulation. This project aims to investigate in vitro how the platelet-tumor cells interaction can affect the success rate of adhesion and of their viability after exposure to the conditions of fluid shear stress similar to those found in the circulatory system. Therefore, there will be utilized platelet like particles (PLP) derived from the megakaryoblastic lines MEG-01 and SET-2 and breast cancer cells from the MDA-MB-231 line, in microfluidic system, after validating the similarities of these particles to the behavior of endogenous platelets, and make adhesion and viability assays with spectrometry techniques. Through this study, the utilizations of megakaryoblastic cell lines in microfluidic system will be patronized and a greater understanding of the effect of platelets on the adhesion process, considering FSS, will be achieved. (AU)