We found that manifestation of stemness in breast cancer stem-like cells was associated with an elevated production of reduced glutathione (GSH) maintained by upregulation of glutamate cysteine ligase catalytic subunit (GCLC) and consequently, lowered ROS levels.
Thus, we speculate that pharmacological inhibition of NQO1 and GCLC may be new therapeutic strategies for overcoming tamoxifen-resistance in breast cancer patients.
Although many research showed that GCS could affect mdr1 in cancer cells, nobody knows that whether mdr1 can affect GCS in breast cancer.Our study aims to verify that.