Imunomodulação do intérferon-gama sobre a citotoxicidade das células natural killer do colostro sobre linhagens de células de tumor de mama

Abstract

Breast cancer is an important public health adversity, being the leading cause of death worldwide. It is estimated that by 2050 there will be about 3.2 million new cases. This way, it´s essential to improve the existing therapeutic strategies or even to obtain more specific therapies for this kind of cancer. Considering the efficiency of the immune system, immunotherapies are potentially complementary to traditional therapies. Some practices, such as breastfeeding, are associated with lower incidence of breast cancer. Breast milk has different stages, the colostral stage being the most important when it comes to newborn immunity. Human colostrum differs from other secretions because it contains large amounts of viable leukocytes such as macrophages, neutrophils and lymphocytes. Even natural killer cells, but the action of these cells on breast cancer is still partially understood. Thus, the present study evaluated the effects of IFN-γ on the cytotoxicity of colostrum Natural Killer cells on MCF-7 cell lines. To evaluate the cytotoxicity of NK cells in the face of the proposed stimulus, we used 10 colostrum samples and these were subjected to cytotoxicity and immunophenotyping assays. It was observed that IFN-γ is able to increase the cytotoxicity and cytotoxicity receptor (CR3) expression rates of NK cells when in culture with MCF-7 cells. The results allow us to conclude that IFN-γ potentiates the cytotoxic response of NK cells against tumor cells and that expression of CR3 on NK cells favors to the cytotoxic capacity of these cells.