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Tan X, Gong L, Li X, Zhang X, Sun J, Luo X, Wang Q, Chen J, Xie L, Han S. Promethazine inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells by suppressing the PI3K/AKT pathway. Biomed Pharmacother 2021; 143:112174. [PMID: 34560542 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2021.112174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2021] [Revised: 09/03/2021] [Accepted: 09/07/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
AIM To elucidate the potential effect of promethazine on colorectal cancer (CRC) cells and the underlying mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS Targets of the drug promethazine (PMTZ) were identified by DrugBank and comparative toxicogenomic databases (CTD), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis was performed with STRING software. The effects of PMTZ were predicted to be associated with the PI3K/AKT pathway. Cell Counting Kit 8 (CCK-8) assays were used to evaluate the effects of different concentrations of PMTZ on the proliferation of various types of CRC cells. Flow cytometry and Western blotting analyses were used to detect the degree of CRC cell apoptosis and the expression of the apoptosis-related proteins Bcl-2, Bax and caspase-3 after PMTZ treatment. The expression levels of PI3K/AKT pathway-related proteins [PI3K, AKT, phosphorylated (P)-PI3K and p-AKT] in CRC cells treated with PMTZ were analyzed by Western blotting. RESULTS PMTZ inhibited the proliferation and promoted the apoptosis of CRC cells and suppressed the activation of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in a dose-dependent manner. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS PMTZ may suppress the proliferation and induce the apoptosis of CRC cells by inhibiting the PI3K/ AKT signaling pathway. This study reported, for the first time, the function of PMTZ in CRC cells and the underlying mechanism and further confirmed the potential antitumor effects of phenothiazine. The combination of bioinformatics analyses and experiments provides informative evidence for the reuse of drugs and the development of new drugs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinyue Tan
- Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shanxi 710061, PR China
| | - Liuyun Gong
- Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shanxi 710061, PR China
| | - Xinyue Li
- Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shanxi 710061, PR China
| | - Xinyue Zhang
- Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shanxi 710061, PR China
| | - Jiahao Sun
- Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shanxi 710061, PR China
| | - Xuehui Luo
- Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shanxi 710061, PR China
| | - Qi Wang
- Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shanxi 710061, PR China
| | - Jie Chen
- Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shanxi 710061, PR China
| | - Lina Xie
- Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shanxi 710061, PR China
| | - Suxia Han
- Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shanxi 710061, PR China.
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Liu Y, Tu CE, Guo X, Wu C, Gu C, Lai Q, Fang Y, Huang J, Wang Z, Li A, Liu S. Tumor-suppressive function of EZH2 is through inhibiting glutaminase. Cell Death Dis 2021; 12:975. [PMID: 34671029 PMCID: PMC8528894 DOI: 10.1038/s41419-021-04212-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2021] [Revised: 07/26/2021] [Accepted: 09/09/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Tumors can use metabolic reprogramming to survive nutrient stress. Epigenetic regulators play a critical role in metabolic adaptation. Here we screened a sgRNA library to identify epigenetic regulators responsible for the vulnerability of colorectal cancer (CRC) cells to glucose deprivation and found that more EZH2-knockout cells survived glucose deprivation. Then, we showed that EZH2 expression was significantly downregulated in response to glucose deprivation in a glucose-sensitive CRC cell line, and EZH2-knockdown cells were more resistant to glucose deprivation. Mechanistically, EZH2 deficiency upregulated the expression of glutaminase (GLS) and promoted the production of glutamate, which in turn led to increased synthesis of intracellular glutathione (GSH) and eventually attenuated the reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated cell death induced by glucose deprivation. Although EZH2 functioned as an oncogene in cancer progression and EZH2 knockout abolished colorectal cancer development in a mouse model, here we revealed a mechanistic link between EZH2 and metabolic reprogramming via the direct regulation of GLS expression and observed a negative correlation between EZH2 and GLS expression in colorectal cancer tissues. These findings further confirmed the importance of heterogeneity, provided an explanation for the clinical tolerance of cancer cells to EZH2 inhibitors from the perspective of metabolism, and proposed the possibility of combining EZH2 inhibitors and glutamine metabolism inhibitors for the treatment of cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yongfeng Liu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Gastroenterology, Department of Gastroenterology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
| | - Cheng-E Tu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Gastroenterology, Department of Gastroenterology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Xuxue Guo
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Gastroenterology, Department of Gastroenterology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Changjie Wu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Gastroenterology, Department of Gastroenterology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Chuncai Gu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Gastroenterology, Department of Gastroenterology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Qiuhua Lai
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Gastroenterology, Department of Gastroenterology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Yuxin Fang
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Gastroenterology, Department of Gastroenterology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Junqi Huang
- Laboratory for Regenerative Medicine, Ministry of Education, College of Life Science and Technology, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China
| | - Zhizhang Wang
- Department of Pathology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
| | - Aimin Li
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Gastroenterology, Department of Gastroenterology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
| | - Side Liu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Gastroenterology, Department of Gastroenterology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
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Davis AP, Wiegers TC, Wiegers J, Grondin CJ, Johnson RJ, Sciaky D, Mattingly CJ. CTD Anatomy: analyzing chemical-induced phenotypes and exposures from an anatomical perspective, with implications for environmental health studies. Curr Res Toxicol 2021; 2:128-139. [PMID: 33768211 PMCID: PMC7990325 DOI: 10.1016/j.crtox.2021.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2020] [Revised: 02/01/2021] [Accepted: 03/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) is a freely available public resource that curates and interrelates chemical, gene/protein, phenotype, disease, organism, and exposure data. CTD can be used to address toxicological mechanisms for environmental chemicals and facilitate the generation of testable hypotheses about how exposures affect human health. At CTD, manually curated interactions for chemical-induced phenotypes are enhanced with anatomy terms (tissues, fluids, and cell types) to describe the physiological system of the reported event. These same anatomy terms are used to annotate the human media (e.g., urine, hair, nail, blood, etc.) in which an environmental chemical was assayed for exposure. Currently, CTD uses more than 880 unique anatomy terms to contextualize over 255,000 chemical-phenotype interactions and 167,000 exposure statements. These annotations allow chemical-phenotype interactions and exposure data to be explored from a novel, anatomical perspective. Here, we describe CTD's anatomy curation process (including the construction of a controlled, interoperable vocabulary) and new anatomy webpages (that coalesce and organize the curated chemical-phenotype and exposure data sets). We also provide examples that demonstrate how this feature can be used to identify system- and cell-specific chemical-induced toxicities, help inform exposure data, prioritize phenotypes for environmental diseases, survey tissue and pregnancy exposomes, and facilitate data connections with external resources. Anatomy annotations advance understanding of environmental health by providing new ways to explore and survey chemical-induced events and exposure studies in the CTD framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allan Peter Davis
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States
| | - Thomas C. Wiegers
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States
| | - Jolene Wiegers
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States
| | - Cynthia J. Grondin
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States
| | - Robin J. Johnson
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States
| | - Daniela Sciaky
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States
| | - Carolyn J. Mattingly
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States
- Center for Human Health and the Environment, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States
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