We previously showed that methyl-F-
anandamide, a stable analogue of the
anandamide, inhibited the growth and the progression of cultured human
breast cancer cells. As accumulating evidences indicate that the constitutive activation of the canonical Wnt pathway in human
breast cancer may highlight a key role for aberrant activation of the β-
catenin-TCF cascade and tumour progression, we studied the
anandamide effect on the key elements of Wnt pathway in
breast cancer cells. In this study we described that the treatment of human
breast cancer cells, MDA MB 231 cells, with methyl-F-
anandamide reduced
protein levels of β-
catenin in the cytoplasmic and nuclear fractions inhibiting the transcriptional activation of
T Cell Factor (TCF) responsive
element (marker for β-
catenin signalling). The
anandamide treatment resulted in up-regulation of epithelial markers, like
E-cadherin with a concomitant decrease in
protein levels of mesenchymal markers, including
vimentin and Snail1. We, furthermore, observed that the induction of experimental epithelial-mesenchymal transition by exposure to
adriamycin in MCF7 human
breast cancer cell line was inhibited by
anandamide treatment. In the present study we reported a novel anticancer effect of
anandamide involving the inhibition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, a process triggered during progression of
cancer to invasive state.