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The Gender of Cell Lines Matters When Screening for Novel Anti-Cancer Drugs

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Abstract

Current reports indicated that the gender origin of cells is important in all facets of experimental biology. To explore this matter using an anticancer high throughput screening platform, seven male- and seven female-derived human cell lines, six from cancer patients in each group, were exposed to 81 novel cytotoxins. In this screen, the findings revealed that 79 out of 81 of the compounds consistently inflicted higher levels of toxicity towards male derived cells, emphasizing that there is indeed a gender-related difference in cell sensitivity to these anti-neoplastic agents. This gender-related drug sensitivity and toxicity explored at the molecular and cellular level emerged from a drug discovery enterprise.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this work was provided by the NIGMS SCORE grant 1SC3GM103713-01 to R.J.A., as well as a CIHR-RPP Saskatchewan grant to J.R.D and U.D. We thank the Cytometry, Screening and Imaging Core Facility at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) which was supported by a RCMI program grant 8G12MD007592 to the BBRC-UTEP from the NIMHD-NIH. E.R-E, Y.S-V and N.M.O. were supported by NIGMS RISE training grant R25 GM069621-10. N.M.O. was also supported by MARC U*STAR program grant 2T34GM008048.

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Correspondence to Renato J. Aguilera or Armando Varela-Ramirez.

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Nunes, L.M., Robles-Escajeda, E., Santiago-Vazquez, Y. et al. The Gender of Cell Lines Matters When Screening for Novel Anti-Cancer Drugs. AAPS J 16, 872–874 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1208/s12248-014-9617-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1208/s12248-014-9617-4

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