Baicalein Suppresses Stem Cell-Like Characteristics in Radio- and Chemoresistant MDA-MB-231 Human Breast Cancer Cells through Up-Regulation of IFIT2

Resistance to both chemotherapy and radiation therapy is frequent in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients. We established treatment-resistant TNBC MDA-MB-231/IR cells by irradiating the parental MDA-MB-231 cells 25 times with 2 Gy irradiation and investigated the molecular mechanisms of acquired resistance. The resistant MDA-MB-231/IR cells were enhanced in migration, invasion, and stem cell-like characteristics. Pathway analysis by the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery revealed that the NF-κB pathway, TNF signaling pathway, and Toll-like receptor pathway were enriched in MDA-MB-231/IR cells. Among 77 differentially expressed genes revealed by transcriptome analysis, 12 genes involved in drug and radiation resistance, including interferon-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 2 (IFIT2), were identified. We found that baicalein effectively reversed the expression of IFIT2, which is reported to be associated with metastasis, recurrence, and poor prognosis in TNBC patients. Baicalein sensitized radio- and chemoresistant cells and induced apoptosis, while suppressing stem cell-like characteristics, such as mammosphere formation, side population, expression of Oct3/4 and ABCG2, and CD44(high)CD24(low) population in MDA-MB-231/IR cells. These findings improve our understanding of the genes implicated in radio- and chemoresistance in breast cancer, and indicate that baicalein can serve as a sensitizer that overcomes treatment resistance.