title: Biochemistry of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitors and molecular pathology of COX-2 in neoplasia.
abstract: Several types of human tumors overexpress cyclooxygenase (COX) -2 but not COX-1, and gene knockout transfection experiments demonstrate a central role of COX-2 in experimental tumorigenesis. COX-2 produces prostaglandins that inhibit apoptosis and stimulate angiogenesis and invasiveness. Selective COX-2 inhibitors reduce prostaglandin synthesis, restore apoptosis, and inhibit cancer cell proliferation. In animal studies they limit carcinogen-induced tumorigenesis. In contrast, aspirin-like nonselective NSAIDs such as sulindac and indomethacin inhibit not only the enzymatic action of the highly inducible, proinflammatory COX-2 but the constitutively expressed, cytoprotective COX-1 as well. Consequently, nonselective NSAIDs can cause platelet dysfunction, gastrointestinal ulceration, and kidney damage. For that reason, selective inhibition of COX-2 to treat neoplastic proliferation is preferable to nonselective inhibition. Selective COX-2 inhibitors, such as meloxicam, celecoxib (SC-58635), and rofecoxib (MK-0966), are NSAIDs that have been modified chemically to preferentially inhibit COX-2 but not COX-1. For instance, meloxicam inhibits the growth of cultured colon cancer cells (HCA-7 and Moser-S) that express COX-2 but has no effect on HCT-116 tumor cells that do not express COX-2. NS-398 induces apoptosis in COX-2 expressing LNCaP prostate cancer cells and, surprisingly, in colon cancer S/KS cells that does not express COX-2. This effect may due to induction of apoptosis through uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation and down-regulation of Bcl-2, as has been demonstrated for some nonselective NSAIDs, for instance, flurbiprofen. COX-2 mRNA and COX-2 protein is constitutively expressed in the kidney, brain, spinal cord, and ductus deferens, and in the uterus during implantation. In addition, COX-2 is constitutively and dominantly expressed in the pancreatic islet cells. These findings might somewhat limit the use of presently available selective COX-2 inhibitors in cancer prevention but will probably not deter their successful application for the treatment of human cancers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, 60612, USA. efosslie@uic.edu
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fosslien
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D051546:Cyclooxygenase 2; D052246:Cyclooxygenase 2 Inhibitors; D016861:Cyclooxygenase Inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism*; D017931:DNA Primers; D006801:Humans; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000378:metabolism*; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology*; D011451:Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D052246:Cyclooxygenase 2 Inhibitors; D016861:Cyclooxygenase Inhibitors; D017931:DNA Primers; D007527:Isoenzymes; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D051546:Cyclooxygenase 2; C496540:PTGS2 protein, human; D011451:Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases