The effects of Trichinella spiralis tropomyosin on breast cancer MCF-7 cells

The excretory-secretory proteins (ESPs) of Trichinella spiralis (T. spiralis) muscle larvae have been confirmed to exert antitumor effects by modulating host immune responses or directly acting on tumor cells. Our research group previously identified that the ESPs of T. spiralis muscle larvae contain multiple proteins potentially related to antitumor activity, among which tropomyosin (TM) has attracted our attention. This study aims to introduce TM from Trichinella spiralis (T. spiralis TM) into breast cancer MCF-7 cells via transfection technology. Furthermore, we investigated the impact of T. spiralis TM on the gene expression profile of MCF-7 cells through transcriptomics. Finally, the study systematically evaluated its regulatory effects on apoptosis, proliferation, and migration. We are the first to comprehensively evaluated the anticancer effects of T. spiralis TM on MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Our findings showed that T. spiralis TM increases apoptosis by activating the mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis pathway and inhibits cell migration and proliferation by downregulating the expression of important hub genes, including PRKACA, CDK3, VPS35, and BCAR1. These findings provide a novel theoretical basis for the application of molecules linked to Trichinella in tumor therapy and support for potential new targets. In our study, we constructed a eukaryotic expression plasmid containing T. spiralis TM and transfected it into the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. We then used transcriptomics to assess the effects of T. spiralis TM on MCF-7 cells at the mRNA level and validated these findings experimentally.