Abstract
Abstract Introduction Treatment of ovarian cancer (OC) usually consists of a combination of surgery and chemotherapy, with carboplatin, often in combination with paclitaxel, being the most employed drug regimen. While effective, this approach has significant side effects and is associated with long-term chemoresistance, highlighting the need for alternative therapeutic strategies. This study aims to evaluate, through in silico methods, the therapeutic potential of the secretome from menstrual blood-derived stromal cells (MenSCs) as a potential adjuvant to conventional OC therapy. Methods MenSCs (n=5) were cultured in DMEM with 1% ITS for 48 hours. The resulting conditioned medium was ultrafiltered (3 kDa) to obtain the secretome (S-MenSCs), which was then analysed using transcriptomics and proteomics. Bioinformatics tools were employed to identify OC-associated genes using DisGeNET, drug target genes via DGIdb, and to predict protein and miRNA interactions with these drug target genes using FunRich and miRTargetLink2.0, respectively. NcDR was used to establish miRNAs related to drug resistance. Subsequently, the proteins and miRNAs from S-MenSCs were compared with those previously identified, and various interaction networks were constructed using Cytoscape. Results S-MenSCs contained approximately one third of the proteins and miRNAs that interact with the target genes of both chemotherapeutics. Of these, 14 miRNAs were identified as chemosensitizers for paclitaxel. Conclusion S-MenSCs hold promise as an adjuvant agent, potentially allowing for the reduction of chemotherapeutic doses, thus decreasing adverse effects and overcoming chemoresistance, as determined in silico.
Published Version
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