Nintedanib effects on delaying cancer progression and decreasing COX-2 and IL-17 in the prostate anterior lobe in TRAMP mice

Lobe-specific responses of TRAMP mice dorsolateral prostate following celecoxib and nintedanib therapy

Delayed cancer progression in the ventral prostate of the Transgenic Adenocarcinoma of the Mouse Prostate (TRAMP) model has been previously reported upon celecoxib and nintedanib co-administration. Herein, we sought to further investigate the effects of these drugs association in some of their direct molecular targets (COX-2, VEGF and VEGFR-2) and in reactive stroma markers (TGF-β, αSMA, vimentin and pro-collagen 1) in the dorsolateral prostate, looking for lobe-specific responses. Male TRAMP mice were treated with celecoxib (10 mg/Kg, i.o.) and/or nintedanib (15 mg/Kg, i.o.) for 6 weeks and prostate was harvested for morphological and protein expression analyses. Results showed that combined therapy resulted in unique antitumor effects in dorsolateral prostate, especially due to the respective stromal or epithelial antiproliferative actions of these drugs, which altogether led to a complete inversion in high-grade (HGPIN) versus low-grade (LGPIN) premalignant lesion incidences in relation to controls. At the molecular level, this duality in drug action was paralleled by the differential down/upregulation of TGF-β signaling by celecoxib/nintedanib, thus leading to associated changes in stroma composition towards regression or quiescence, respectively. Additionally, combined therapy was able to promote decreased expression of inflammatory (COX-2) and angiogenesis (VEGF/VEGFR-2) mediators. Overall, celecoxib and nintedanib association provided enhanced antitumor effects in TRAMP dorsolateral as compared to former registers in ventral prostate, thus demonstrating lobe-specific responses of this combined chemoprevention approach. Among these responses, we highlight the ability in promoting TGF-β signaling and its associated stromal maturation/stabilization, thus yielding a more quiescent stromal milieu and resulting in greater epithelial proliferation impairment.

Association of anti-inflammatory and antiangiogenic therapies negatively influences prostate cancer progression in TRAMP mice

BACKGROUND

Chronic inflammation has been implicated in cancer etiology and angiogenesis is stimulated in this disease. In prostate, the crosstalk between malignant epithelial cells and their microenvironment is an essential step of tumorigenesis during which glandular stroma undergo changes designated as reactive stroma. Thus, the aim herewith was to evaluate the effects of associating anti-inflammatory and antiangiogenic therapies on cancer progression, correlating them with steroid hormone receptor (AR and ERα), reactive stroma (vimentin, αSMA, and TGF-β), and cell proliferation (PCNA) markers expression in the Transgenic Adenocarcinoma of Mouse Prostate (TRAMP) model.

METHODS

TRAMP mice (12-week old) were divided into the groups: Control (TRCON): received the vehicles used for drug dilution; Celecoxib (TRCEL): received oral doses of the anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib (15 mg/kg) twice daily; Nintedanib (TRNTB): received oral doses of the antiangiogenic drug nintedanib (10 mg/kg) daily; Nintedanib+Celecoxib (TRNTCEL): received the combination of drugs. After 6 weeks, mice were euthanized and ventral prostate samples were harvested for morphological, immunohistochemical, and Western blotting analyses.

RESULTS

While celecoxib led to fibromuscular hypertrophy attenuation, nintedanib significantly reduced the incidence of well-differentiated adenocarcinoma (WDAC) foci in relation to controls, both when administered per se or in association to celecoxib. Furthermore, drug combination was associated with unique effects, including lower incidence of HGPIN lesions; lower AR stromal distribution; changes in ERα localization from epithelial nuclei to stroma as well as significant decrease of TGF-β levels and associated angiogenesis. In parallel, all treatments applied resulted in reduced inflammatory marker and vimentin (VIM) expression.

CONCLUSIONS

Celecoxib plus nintedanib is an effective antitumor combination against prostate cancer progression in TRAMP mice, showing remarkable efficacy in relation to isolated therapies. Importantly, this efficacy might be due to drug association effect on driving AR and mainly ERα distribution in the prostatic tissue towards benign patterns. In addition, celecoxib and nintedanib impaired the development of a stromal reaction by reducing the recruitment of reactive stroma cells and maintaining a normal smooth muscle cell-rich prostate stroma in TRAMP mice. Collectively, these findings pointed to the beneficial effects of combining anti-inflammatory and antiangiogenic strategies to prevent or delay prostatic tumorigenesis.

Fluorine-Modified Rutaecarpine Exerts Cyclooxygenase-2 Inhibition and Anti-inflammatory Effects in Lungs

Inflammation is the first step that leads to inflammatory cell migration, cytokine release, and myofibroblast formation. Myofibroblasts can deposit excess amounts of extracellular matrix. Cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitor exhibits strong anti-inflammatory response; however, this is usually achieved with undesirable side effects. In this study, we demonstrated the effects of the fluorine-modified rutaecarpine (RUT), fluoro-2-methoxyrutaecarpine (F-RUT), in inflammatory damage in the lungs. Based on the results, F-RUT retained anti-inflammatory activity both in vitro and in vivo in lungs. Compared to the parent compound, F-RUT showed better COX-2 suppression as a COX-2-selective inhibitor with lower cytotoxicity, and enhanced molecular reactivity and biological activity. F-RUT was also observed to reduce reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and inflammatory infiltrating neutrophils in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated zebrafish and ovalbumin (OVA)/alum-challenged KLF-10-knockout mouse lungs, respectively. Furthermore, F-RUT ameliorated the respiratory function in OVA/alum-challenged BALB/c mice by maintaining the thickness of the blood-air barrier in mouse lungs. Overall, these data suggest that F-RUT may function as an effective therapeutic agent for inflammation-induced lung dysfunction, and a better selection for pharmaceutical purposes than conventionally used anti-inflammatory agents.