Dataset Information

Anticancer agent shikonin is an incompetent inducer of cancer drug resistance.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Cancer drug resistance is a major obstacle for the success of chemotherapy. Since most clinical anticancer drugs could induce drug resistance, it is desired to develop candidate drugs that are highly efficacious but incompetent to induce drug resistance. Numerous previous studies have proven that shikonin and its analogs not only are highly tumoricidal but also can bypass drug-transporter and apoptotic defect mediated drug resistance. The purpose of this study is to investigate if or not shikonin is a weak inducer of cancer drug resistance.

Experimental design

Different cell lines (K562, MCF-7, and a MDR cell line K562/Adr), after repeatedly treated with shikonin for 18 months, were assayed for drug resistance and gene expression profiling.

Results

After 18-month treatment, cells only developed a mere 2-fold resistance to shikonin and a marginal resistance to cisplatin and paclitaxel, without cross resistance to shikonin analogs and other anticancer agents. Gene expression profiles demonstrated that cancer cells did strongly respond to shikonin treatment but failed to effectively mobilize drug resistant machineries. Shikonin-induced weak resistance was associated with the up-regulation of ?II-tubulin, which physically interacted with shikonin.

Conclusion

Taken together, apart from potent anticancer activity, shikonin and its analogs are weak inducers of cancer drug resistance and can circumvent cancer drug resistance. These merits make shikonin and its analogs potential candidates for cancer therapy with advantages of avoiding induction of drug resistance and bypassing existing drug resistance.

SUBMITTER: Wu H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3536779 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Anticancer agent shikonin is an incompetent inducer of cancer drug resistance.

Wu Hao H Xie Jiansheng J Pan Qiangrong Q Wang Beibei B Hu Danqing D Hu Xun X

PloS one 20130103 1

<h4>Purpose</h4>Cancer drug resistance is a major obstacle for the success of chemotherapy. Since most clinical anticancer drugs could induce drug resistance, it is desired to develop candidate drugs that are highly efficacious but incompetent to induce drug resistance. Numerous previous studies have proven that shikonin and its analogs not only are highly tumoricidal but also can bypass drug-transporter and apoptotic defect mediated drug resistance. The purpose of this study is to investigate i ...[more]

PMID: 23300986

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND:Pancreatic cancer is a deadly disease with a very low 5-year patient survival rate of 6-8%. The major challenges of eliminating pancreatic cancer are treatment resistance and stromal barriers to optimal drug access within the tumor. Therefore, effective molecular targeting drugs with high intra-tumor access and retention are urgently needed for managing this devastating disease in the clinic. METHODS:This study has used the following in vitro and in vivo techniques for the investigation of exceptional anticancer drug FL118's efficacy in treatment of resistant pancreatic cancer: cell culture; immunoblotting analysis to test protein expression; DNA sub-G1 flow cytometry analyses to test cell death; MTT assay to test cell viability; pancreatic cancer stem cell assays (fluorescence microscopy tracing; matrigel assay; CD44-positive cell colony formation assay); human luciferase-labeled pancreatic tumor orthotopic animal model in vivo imaging; pancreatic cancer patient-derived xenograft (PDX) animal models; and toxicology studies with immune-competent BALB/cj mice and beagle dogs. RESULTS:Our studies found that FL118 alone preferentially killed cisplatin-resistant cancer cells, while a combination of FL118 with cisplatin synergistically killed resistant pancreatic cancer cells and reduced spheroid formation of treatment-resistant pancreatic cancer stem-like cells. Furthermore, using in vivo-imaging, we found that FL118 in combination with cisplatin strongly inhibited both drug-resistant pancreatic xenograft tumor growth and metastasis. In PDX model, we demonstrated that FL118 alone effectively eliminated PDX tumors, while FL118 in combination with gemcitabine eliminated PDX tumors that showed relative resistance (less sensitivity) to treatment with FL118. These FL118 efficacy results are consistent with our molecular-targeting data showing that FL118 inhibited the expression of multiple antiapoptotic proteins (survivin, Mcl-1, XIAP, cIAP2) and ERCC6, a critical regulator of DNA repair, in treatment-resistant pancreatic stem-like cancer cells. Furthermore, FL118 toxicity studies in BALB/cj mice and beagle dogs indicated that FL118 exhibits favorable hematopoietic and biochemical toxicities. CONCLUSION:Together, our studies suggest that FL118 is a promising anticancer drug for further clinical development to effectively treat drug-resistant pancreatic cancer alone or in combination with other pancreatic cancer chemotherapeutic drugs.

Project description:BackgroundGlioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most malignant adult brain tumor. Current standard of care treatments have very limited efficacy, being the patients´ overall survival 14 months and the 2-year survival rate less than 10%. Therefore, the treatment of GBM is an urgent unmet clinical need.MethodsThe aim of this study was to investigate in vitro and in vivo the potential of ABTL0812, an oral anticancer compound currently in phase II clinical stage, as a novel therapy for GBM.ResultsWe showed that ABTL0812 inhibits cell proliferation in a wide panel of GBM cell lines and patient-derived glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) with half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50s) ranging from 15.2 µM to 46.9 µM. Additionally, ABTL0812 decreased GSCs neurosphere formation. GBM cells aggressiveness is associated with a trans-differentiation process towards a less differentiated phenotype known as proneural to mesenchymal transition (PMT). ABTL0812 was shown to revert PMT and induce cell differentiation to a less malignant phenotype in GBM cell lines and GSCs, and consequently reduced cell invasion. As previously shown in other cancer types, we demonstrated that the molecular mechanism of action of ABTL0812 in glioblastoma involves the inhibition of Akt/mTORC1 axis by overexpression of TRIB3, and the activation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress/unfolded protein response (UPR). Both actions converge to induce autophagy-mediated cell death. ABTL0812 anticancer efficacy was studied in vivo using subcutaneous and orthotopic intra-brain xenograft tumor models. We demonstrated that ABTL0812 impairs tumor growth and increases disease-free survival and overall survival of mice. Furthermore, the histological analysis of tumors indicated that ABTL0812 decreases angiogenesis. Finally, we investigated the combination of ABTL0812 with the standard of care treatments for GBM radiotherapy and temozolomide in an orthotopic model, detecting that ABTL0812 potentiates the efficacy of both treatments and that the strongest effect is obtained with the triple combination of ABTL0812+radiotherapy+temozolomide.ConclusionsOverall, the present study demonstrated the anticancer efficacy of ABTL0812 as single agent and in combination with the GBM standard of care treatments in models of glioblastoma and supports the clinical investigation of ABTL0812 as a potential novel therapy for this aggressive brain tumor type.

Dataset Information

Anticancer agent shikonin is an incompetent inducer of cancer drug resistance.

Purpose

Experimental design

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Anticancer agent shikonin is an incompetent inducer of cancer drug resistance.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets