Combined treatment with TNF-alpha/gefitinib alleviates the resistance to gefitinib in PC-9 cells.
Gefitinib has been approved for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer. However, its efficiency is limited by the development of drug resistance. Additional treatments for cases of non-small cell lung cancer relapsing with treatment with gefitinib are urgently required. To investigate the mechanisms of acquired resistance to gefitinib, we established PC-9-ZD, a human lung cancer cell line resistant to gefitinib after long-term exposure to the drug. PC-9-ZD cells showed more resistance to gefitinib than their parental PC-9 cells. We show that gefitinib reduces p-Akt levels, concomitant with elevation of p21 levels and suppression of cdk2/4 and cyclinE/D1 activities, which result in impaired cell cycle progression through G1 arrest only in parental PC-9 cells, in which it inhibits growth. Our present data suggested that after long-term exposure to gefitinib, the survival of PC-9-ZD cells with heightened levels of p-Akt and reduced levels of p21 resisted further gefitinib-induced inhibition of cell growth. To explore a new strategy to improve the efficacy of gefitinib, we treated the cells with tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and found that the cells with acquired resistance to gefitinib showed increasing sensitivity to TNF-alpha, which correlated with the low activation level of nuclear factor (NF)kappaB/p65 in PC-9-ZD cells. TNF-alpha treatment induced an elevated activated NFkappaB/p65, concomitant with induced p21 levels, which resulted in increased sensitivity to gefitinib in PC-9-ZD cells. Consistent with our earlier observation that p21 is induced in an NFkappaB/p65-dependent manner, we conclude that p21 plays an important role in mediating cell growth inhibition by gefitinib. Thus, we proposed that combined treatment with TNF-alpha/gefitinib is an efficient therapeutic strategy for tumors that develop resistance to gefitinib.
Ji
Yuan
Y
Department of Pathology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Ma
Sheng-Lin
SL
Zhang
Yi-Ping
YP
Tang
Juan-Juan
JJ
Wu
Yan-Ming
YM
Lu
Yan-Jun
YJ
D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000187:drug effects; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D050759:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21 / Q000378:metabolism; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm / Q000187:drug effects*; D000077156:Gefitinib; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt / Q000378:metabolism; D011799:Quinazolines / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology
D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D050759:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21; D011799:Quinazolines; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D000077156:Gefitinib