Epithalon decelerates aging and suppresses development of breast adenocarcinomas in transgenic her-2/neu mice.

Bulletin of experimental biology and medicine2002PMID: 12459848

Animal StudyEpitalon

Plain Language Summary

Epitalon extended both average and maximum lifespan in breast cancer-prone transgenic mice by 13.5% and 13.9% respectively. The peptide significantly reduced mammary tumor development, metastasis, and multiple tumor occurrence while prolonging survival even in mice that did develop tumors, likely by suppressing the HER-2/neu cancer gene.

Abstract

Female transgenic FVB/N mice carrying the breast cancer gene HER-2/neu received epithalon (Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly) in a dose of 1 mg subcutaneously 5 times a week to from the 2nd month of life to death. Epithalon prolonged the average and maximum lifetimes of mice by 13.5 (p<0.05) and 13.9%, respectively. The peptide prolonged the average lifetime of animals without neoplasms (by 34.2%, p<0.05). Epithalon decelerated the development of age-related disturbances in reproductive activity and suppressed the formation of neoplasms. The peptide decreased the incidence of breast adenocarcinomas, lungs metastases (by 1.6 times, p<0.05), and multiple tumors (by 2 times). Epithalon 3.7-fold increased the number of mice without breast tumors (p<0.05), while the number of animals with 6 or more breast tumors decreased by 3 times (p<0.05). Epithalon prolonged the lifetime of mice with breast tumors by 1.4 times (p<0.05). These results indicate that Epithalon possesses geroprotective activity and inhibits breast carcinogenesis in transgenic mice, which is probably related to suppression of HER-2/neu expression.

Authors

Anisimov, V N; Khavinson, V Kh; Alimova, I N; Semchenko, A V; Yashin, A I