Abstract
Breast cancer is one of the most highly diagnosed cancers in the US with African American (AA) women developing a more aggressive form of the cancer at a younger age. The complement system, part of the immune system, is tightly regulated and able to eliminate foreign invaders. Complement proteins can induce cancer cell apoptosis or increased proliferation. Cell surface expression of C1q, apart of the classical pathway of the complement system, and its receptor, gC1qR, is enhanced in malignant cells. Upon treatment with antibody to C1q, an antiproliferative effect in breast cancer cells was observed in vitro. Antibody recognizing gC1qR enhances breast cancer cell survival by promoting angiogenesis and metastasis. It was noted in a panel of breast cancer cell lines that MDA-MB-468, an AA derived cell line, did not express gC1qR compared to three Caucasian American (CA) derived cell lines. In a second study, a lower expression level of gC1qR in the membranes of three AA breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-468, HCC70, and HCC1500) compared to a CA cell line (MDA-MB-231) was observed. We hypothesize that treatment with anti-C1q will have an antiproliferative effect on breast cancer cell lines, while treatment with anti-gC1qR will have a pro-proliferative effect. One CA (MDA-MB-231) and three AA (MDA-MB-468, HCC1500, and HCC7) breast cancer cell lines were treated with anti-C1q in solution at increasing concentrations where an antiproliferative effect was observed. Coating the culture plate with C1q will determine differential expression. Therefore, the role of C1q and gC1qR on cytokinetics and in racial health disparities are being accessed.
Citation Format: Tiana N Reyes, Matthew G Digiovanni, Jennie L Williams, Berhane Ghebrehiwet. The effect of C1q and gC1qR in breast cancer: Racial health disparities [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2019 Sep 20-23; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl_2):Abstract nr B076.
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