MMTV-PyMT Murine Breast Cancer Treatment

Hemizygous MMTV-PyMT (mouse mammary tumor virus-polyoma middle tumor-antigen) female mice were obtained from The Jackson Laboratory. Since MMTV-PyMT mice develop spontaneous mammary tumors that closely resemble the progression and morphology of human breast cancers, the mouse model is widely used and well characterized⁸⁴ . Mice at 4-weeks old were randomized into control (N = 7) and azurin-treatment (N = 5) groups. Control animals received PBS and azurin-treatment animals received 2.5 mg/kg of azurin in sterile PBS i.p. 3× week for nearly two months (80 days old). Based on azurin levels in CF patients’ sera, the highest level of azurin was 32 µg/ml. In order to reach this level of azurin in mouse (25 g-body weight, 2 ml total blood volume), azurin does at 2.5 mg/kg was determined. Tumor volume and body weights were determined three times weekly. All tumors were excised and weighted at the end of the study. All experiments were approved by University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and conformed to the guidelines set by United States Animal Welfare Act and the National Institutes of Health.