Investigations into the effects of cholesterol inhibitors on cancer cells in vitro

Cholesterol-rich membrane microdomains have a significant role in cancer progression, particularly in metastasis, and there is evidence that cholesterol inhibitors, most notably statins, can change the behaviour of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Cholesterol-rich rafts act as loci for signal receptor-ligand binding, providing a stable scaffold for protein interaction. The purpose of this research was to test the hypothesis that the abundance of these inclusions can be controlled with cholesterol inhibitors and to investigate the effects of these treatments on cancer cells using simple in vitro assays. Flask shaped cholesterol-rich scaffolds in the membrane called caveolae, characterised by the presence of the protein Caveolin-1, are generally associated with proliferation suppression during oncogenesis but with tumour promotion during metastasis. This dual role may be coordinated by the cholesterol content of the raft environment and so be vulnerable to cholesterol inhibitors such as the statins