Fig. 6From: FKBPL and its peptide derivatives inhibit endocrine therapy resistant cancer stem cells and breast cancer metastasis by downregulating DLL4 and Notch4ALM201 alone or in combination with tamoxifen delays tumour recurrence in vivo which correlates with reduced number of mammospheres ex vivo. a Established MCF-7 xenografts (100–150 mm3) were treated with vehicle control (n = 5), tamoxifen (n = 4) or ALM201 (n = 4) alone or in combination (n = 4) for 21 days. Mammosphere formation was assessed ex vivo following excision and disaggregation of established MCF-7 xenografts; n ≥ 3 replicates per mouse. b Tumour cells from the treated xenografts were re-implanted into secondary mice and tumour occurrence was monitored twice a week and time to tumour initiation calculated (vehicle control, n = 13; tamoxifen (Tam), n = 14; ALM201, n = 5; tamoxifen + ALM201 (Tam + ALM201), n = 5). c Mammosphere formation following excision and disaggregation of established MCF-7 xenografts from the second generation mice without any further treatment in vivo (control, n = 6; Tam, n = 4; ALM201, n = 2; Tam + ALM201, n = 3); n ≥ 3 replicates per mouse. d Real-time qPCR analysis of DLL4 in MCF-7 xenografts treated with tamoxifen and ALM201 in vivo (n = 2). The difference in gene expression was presented as a fold change relative to the expression of the housekeeping genes, GAPDH and ß -Actin. Data points are mean ± SEM. n ≥ 3. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001 (one-way ANOVA with post-hoc Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test)Back to article page