Bratislava Medical Journal Vol.119, No.4, p.229-233, 2018

Morphine affects the risk of metastasis in cancer. The TLR4 gene promotes migration in adenocarcinoma cells. We investigated the effect of morphine on TLR4, MyD88 and NF-κ B-expression and migration. Migration of estrogen receptor-positive MCF7 breast cancer cells was studied after 24 and 48 hours incubation with morphine, with boyden chamber method. Morphine effect on TLR4, MyD88 and NF-κB mRNA expression was determined by quantitative Real-Time polymerase chain reaction. Migration was reduced at the doses of 0.5 and 5 µM (p < 0.05).

However, TLR4, MyD88 and NF-κBmRNA expression was decreased at the doses of 0.5, 5 and 500 µM. Morphine at the dose of 50 µM increased the expression of mentioned genes. MCF-7 cell line after 48 hours incubation with the dose of 0.5 µM morphine decreased the migration and at the dose of 0.5 µM down-regulated the mRNA expression of TLR4, MyD88 and NF-κB, however, the higher doses increased the expression of TLR4, MyD88 and NF-κB. Morphine affects TLR4expression in breast cancer cell, which depends on time and concentration (Tab. 1, Fig. 5, Ref. 24).