Multidrug resistance and tumor migration and invasion are the major obstacles to effective breast cancer chemotherapy, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigated the potential of transgelin 2 and salvianolic acid A to modulate the resistance and the migration and invasion abilities of paclitaxel-resistant human breast cancer cells (MCF-7/PTX). MCF-7/PTX cells were found to exhibit not only a high degree of resistance to paclitaxel, but also strong migration and invasion abilities. Small interfering RNA-mediated knockdown of TAGLN2 sensitized the MCF-7/PTX cells to paclitaxel, and inhibited their migration and invasion abilities. In addition, we also observed that combined salvianolic acid A and paclitaxel treatment could reverse paclitaxel resistance, markedly inhibit tumor migration and invasion, and suppress the expression of transgelin 2 in MCF-7/PTX cells. These findings indicate that salvianolic acid A can reverse the paclitaxel resistance and inhibit the migration and invasion abilities of human breast cancer cells by down-regulating the expression of transgelin 2, and hence could be useful in breast cancer treatments.
Keywords: breast cancer; invasion; migration; paclitaxel resistance; salvianolic acid A; transgelin 2.