Immunomodulatory effect of adriamycin in mouse 4T1 model of breast cancer

To explore the immunomodulatory effect of adriamycin on 4T1 breast cancer. We used a tandem mass tag-based quantitative proteomic method to detect differential proteins in breast cancer tissues, and multiple bioinformatics databases to analyze the differentially expressed proteins in the proteome. Also, we used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to detect the effects of adriamycin on helper T cells 1 and 2 in breast cancer tissues, and flow cytometry to detect CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells and regulatory T cells. We discovered the immunomodulatory targets of adriamycin in differential proteins. In total 170 differential proteins were significantly up-regulated, whereas 58 were markedly down-regulated. In addition, 73 proteins were involved in immune regulation. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes enriched important protein pathways related to cytokines and factor receptors, interleukin 17 pathway and cancer transcriptional regulatory pathways. These pathways and important differential proteins related to immunomodulatory functions were ultimately regulated by adriamycin on CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells and regulatory T cells, thereby affecting the prognosis of breast cancer. Moreover, adriamycin significantly increased interleukin 2, CD4+ T and CD8+ T (P<0.01) and markedly reduced regulatory T cells (P<0.05). The function of adriamycin against triple-negative breast cancer was closely related to the immunoregulation process of the differential proteins Ighm, Igkc, S100A8, S100A9 and Tmsb4x. Adriamycin could regulate the content of helper T cells 1 cytokines, CD4+ T and CD8+ T lymphocytes in breast cancer and reduce the number of regulatory T cells to produce immunomodulatory effects.