title: Chloroquine rescues A549 cells from paraquat-induced death.
abstract: Paraquat (PQ) is a widely used herbicide associated with a high mortality rate, yet, there are no effective treatments for PQ poisoning. PQ may damage alveolar type II cells leading to moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The present study was undertaken to show that PQ causes alveolar type II (A549) cell death and to evaluate whether chloroquine (CQ) can protect A549 cells against PQ-induced cell death. The results showed that high concentrations of PQ resulted in toxicity, as indicated by a decrease in cell viability. More importantly, for the first time, CQ was found to improve cell viability of PQ treated A549 cells. Moreover, our data demonstrated that CQ increased lysosome-associated membrane protein-1, lysosome-associated membrane protein-2 and light chain-3 expressions, suggesting that the mechanism by which CQ rescues PQ-induced cytotoxicity may be through protection of the lysosomal membrane or up-regulation of autophagy. In conclusion, our study indicates that CQ may be used as a potential drug to rescue PQ-induced ARDS.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Emergency Medicine , Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College , Beijing , China and.
authors.forename: Lingjie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: b Beijing Tsinghua Hospital, Tsinghua University , Beijing , China.
authors.forename: Zhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001343:Autophagy / Q000187:drug effects*; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002738:Chloroquine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006540:Herbicides / Q000633:toxicity*; D006801:Humans; D007425:Intracellular Membranes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D051907:Lysosomal Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D010269:Paraquat / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D006540:Herbicides; D051907:Lysosomal Membrane Proteins; D002738:Chloroquine; D010269:Paraquat
keywords: A549 cells; autophagy; chloroquine; cytotoxicity; paraquat