A novel bFGF antagonist peptide inhibits breast cancer cell growth.

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women worldwide. Elevated expression of the basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) has been found in patients suffering from breast cancer. We previously obtained a high-affinity bFGF-binding peptide (named P7) from a phage-display random heptapeptide library. In this study, we show that P7 peptides significantly inhibits the proliferation of the bFGF-stimulated MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line. Additional experiments revealed that the mechanisms of the P7 peptide inhibition of the cell proliferation of breast cancer cells stimulated with bFGF in vitro involved cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase, blockade of the activation of Erk and P38 cascades and the upregulation of the expression of the growth inhibitor, proliferation-associated protein 2G4. These results suggest that the bFGF-binding peptide may have therapeutic potential in breast cancer therapy.