Breast cancer is a disease that impacts thousands of people a year, and has various implications depending on factors such as stage. Telaglenastat (CB-839) is a drug that inhibits the production of glutamate from glutamine. Glutamine drives cancer cell growth in EO771 cells, a rapidly growing murine cell line of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer cells. By using various cultures throughout this experiment, different stages of cancer were mimicked, and the trials tested the efficacy of CB-839 in different stages. Suspension cultures mimic the state of breast cancer cells in metastatic cancer, and adherent cultures mimic the growth of early-stage breast cancer. If EO771 cells are exposed to CB-839 in adhesion and suspension cultures, they grow slower in both cultures because CB-839 inhibits glutamate production. 96-well plates were seeded, and cells were dosed with 1µM CB-839. Cell counts measured the growth of the cells after a 72-hour exposure period. A 2-sample left-tailed t-test determined that the calculated p-value for the experiment across all trials was <0.001, achieving statistical significance in both adherent and suspension cultures between the control and experimental groups. However, between the adhesion and suspension experimental groups, the overall p-value was 0.728, demonstrating that there’s no statistically significant difference between the drug’s effectiveness in either culture type. This research examined impacts of CB-839 on the growth rate of EO771 medullary breast adenocarcinoma cells in both adherent and suspension cultures and provided research regarding how the inhibition of glutamate will impact breast cancer in localized versus metastatic stages.

Keywords: EO771 cells, telaglenastat, glutaminase, suspension, adhesion

After completing cell counts, we analyzed our data under a 2-sample left-tailed T-test. The results concluded that there was a statistically significant decrease in cell growth due to achieving a P-value of <0.05. The results also yielded no statistically significant difference between the adhesion and suspension culture types. Based on the results, we concluded that Teleglenastat is effective in reducing growth in EO771 cells and is not more effective in either an early (adherent) or late-stage model (suspended). Future implications of this research involve moving towards an in vivo model to conclude whether Teleglenastat effectively reduces Triple-Negative Breast Cancer growth in the body.