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Shao J, Xu Z, Peng X, Chen M, Zhu Y, Xu L, Zhu H, Yang B, Luo P, He Q. Gefitinib Synergizes with Irinotecan to Suppress Hepatocellular Carcinoma via Antagonizing Rad51-Mediated DNA-Repair. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0146968. [PMID: 26752698 PMCID: PMC4709237 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146968] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2015] [Accepted: 12/23/2015] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Chemotherapy is the only choice for most of the advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, while few agents were available, making it an urgent need to develop new chemotherapy strategies. A phase II clinical trial suggested that the efficacy of irinotecan in HCC was limited due to dose-dependent toxicities. Here, we found that gefitinib exhibited synergistic activity in combination with SN-38, an active metabolite of irinotecan, in HCC cell lines. And the enhanced apoptosis induced by gefitinib plus SN-38 was a result from caspase pathway activation. Mechanistically, gefitinib dramatically promoted the ubiquitin–proteasome-dependent degradation of Rad51 protein, suppressed the DNA repair, gave rise to more DNA damages, and ultimately resulted in the synergism of these two agents. In addition, the increased antitumor efficacy of gefitinib combined with irinotecan was further validated in a HepG2 xenograft mice model. Taken together, our data demonstrated for the first time that the combination of irinotecan and gefitinib showed potential benefit in HCC, which suggests that Rad51 is a promising target and provides a rationale for clinical trials investigating the efficacy of the combination of topoisomerase I inhibitors and gefitinib in HCC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinjin Shao
- Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Zhifei Xu
- Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Xueming Peng
- Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Min Chen
- Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Yuanrun Zhu
- Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Li Xu
- Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Hong Zhu
- Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Bo Yang
- Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Peihua Luo
- Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
- * E-mail: (PL); (QH)
| | - Qiaojun He
- Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Anti-Cancer Drug Research, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
- * E-mail: (PL); (QH)
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Takeba Y, Sekine S, Kumai T, Matsumoto N, Nakaya S, Tsuzuki Y, Yanagida Y, Nakano H, Asakura T, Ohtsubo T, Kobayashi S. Irinotecan-induced apoptosis is inhibited by increased P-glycoprotein expression and decreased p53 in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Biol Pharm Bull 2007; 30:1400-6. [PMID: 17666793 DOI: 10.1248/bpb.30.1400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Irinotecan, a DNA topoisomerase I inhibitor, is widely used in cancer chemotherapy. However, little is known of the mechanisms of its antitumor effects and the development of drug resistance in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study, we investigated the effects of short-term culture with SN-38, the active metabolite of irinotecan, on apoptosis in Huh7 cells. The cells were cultured with SN-38 for 24, 72, and 120 h, and apoptosis was determined using the terminal dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay. The expressions of p53, apoptosis-related proteins, and P-glycoprotein (P-gp), a protein conferring the multidrug-resistant phenotype, were analyzed using Western blotting. Induced expression of P-gp was detected using fluorescence microscopy. SN-38 significantly induced apoptosis in Huh7 cells at 24 h. SN-38 also increased the expression of p53, Bax, and caspase-9 and decreased Bcl-xL expression in Huh7 cells. SN-38 decreased p53 expression and increased P-gp expression after 120 h, resulting in inhibition of apoptosis. This inhibition was reversed by the addition of verapamil to the culture medium during 120 h incubation. SN-38-induced P-gp expression was additionally enhanced by p53 decoy oligodeoxynucleotide. The changes in P-gp expression were directly moderated by p53 gene downregulation, suggesting that it plays a role in the mechanism of drug resistance. These results suggest that the accumulation of irinotecan in HCC leads to the development of drug resistance.
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MESH Headings
- ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Subfamily B, Member 1/biosynthesis
- ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Subfamily B, Member 1/physiology
- Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic/pharmacology
- Apoptosis/drug effects
- Blotting, Western
- Camptothecin/analogs & derivatives
- Camptothecin/pharmacology
- Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/metabolism
- Cell Line, Tumor
- Humans
- In Situ Nick-End Labeling
- Irinotecan
- Liver Neoplasms/metabolism
- Microscopy, Fluorescence
- Oligonucleotides/pharmacology
- RNA, Neoplasm/biosynthesis
- Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
- Tumor Suppressor Protein p53/biosynthesis
- Tumor Suppressor Protein p53/physiology
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuko Takeba
- Department of Pharmacology, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, 2-16-1 Sugao, Miyamae-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 216-8511, Japan.
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Takeba Y, Kumai T, Matsumoto N, Nakaya S, Tsuzuki Y, Yanagida Y, Kobayashi S. Irinotecan activates p53 with its active metabolite, resulting in human hepatocellular carcinoma apoptosis. J Pharmacol Sci 2007; 104:232-42. [PMID: 17609585 DOI: 10.1254/jphs.fp0070442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The topoisomerase I inhibitor irinotecan is widely used in anticancer therapy, although the detailed mechanism is still unclear. We investigated the apoptotic mechanisms of irinotecan in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines (Huh7). SN-38 caused a significant decrease in cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in Huh7 cells and HepG2 cells. SN-38 significantly increased the expression of p53 protein and its phosphorylation at Ser(15) in the nucleus and apoptosis-inducing proteins Bax, caspase-9, and caspase-3, while it significantly decreased the antiapoptosis protein Bcl-xL of Huh7 cells. SN-38-induced apoptosis was recovered after p53 antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (AS ODN) pretreatment, while Huh7 cells were precultured with p53 AS ODN, followed by the addition of SN-38 for 24 h. Furthermore, increases in p53 DNA-binding activity were observed in the nuclei of Huh7 cells after SN-38 treatment as shown by electrophoretic mobility shift analysis. SN-38 binding motifs were detected in the proximal promoter of p53 (bases -433 to -317 and -814 to -711). These results suggest that the p53-mediated apoptosis pathway is important in the anticancer effects of irinotecan in hepatocellular carcinoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuko Takeba
- Department of Pharmacology, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, 2-16-1, Sugao, Miyamae-ku, Kawasaski, Kanagawa 216-8511, Japan.
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Abstract
Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for approximately 15% of all cases of lung cancer and is a particularly aggressive form of lung cancer characterised by a poor prognosis, rapid tumour growth, and early metastasis. Roughly, two-thirds of patients with SCLC present with extensive disease (ED) and one-third with limited disease (LD). Combination chemotherapy is the most effective treatment modality for SCLC, and several new agents, including carboplatin, ifosfamide, taxans, and topotecan, have been demonstrated to be active; however, there are no data on the survival benefit of these drugs. A CPT-11+ cisplatin regimen has shown improvement in overall survival over the global gold standard regimen, etoposide + cisplatin (Japanese Clinical Oncology Group: JCOG 9511), and three confirmatory randomised controlled trials are in progress to determine the reproducibility of the JCOG 9511 study. JCOG is evaluating the role of CPT-11 and a new triplet regimen containing CPT-11 in limited-stage SCLC. Strategies and the current protocols of the JCOG are presented and discussed. In the future, it will be essential to evaluate molecular target-based drugs for LD and ED SCLC with new standard combination chemotherapy regimens that include CPT-11.
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Affiliation(s)
- N Saijo
- Internal Medicine and Thoracic Oncology Division, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tuskiji 5-1-1, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan.
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Abratt RP. Commentary on “Novel Doublets in Extensive-Stage Small-Cell Lung Cancer: A Randomized Phase II Study of Topotecan Plus Cisplatin or Paclitaxel (CALGB 9430)”. Clin Lung Cancer 2002. [DOI: 10.1016/s1525-7304(11)70644-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
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