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Nimbolide inhibits pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis through ROS-mediated apoptosis and inhibition of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.

ABSTRACT: The mortality and morbidity rates of pancreatic cancer are high because of its extremely invasive and metastatic nature. Its lack of symptoms, late diagnosis and chemo-resistance and the ineffective treatment modalities warrant the development of new chemo-therapeutic agents for pancreatic cancer. Agents from medicinal plants have demonstrated therapeutic benefits in various human cancers. Nimbolide, an active molecule isolated from Azadirachta indica, has been reported to exhibit several medicinal properties. This study assessed the anticancer properties of nimbolide against pancreatic cancer. Our data reveal that nimbolide induces excessive generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), thereby regulating both apoptosis and autophagy in pancreatic cancer cells. Experiments with the autophagy inhibitors 3-methyladenine and chloroquine diphosphate salt and the apoptosis inhibitor z-VAD-fmk demonstrated that nimbolide-mediated ROS generation inhibited proliferation (through reduced PI3K/AKT/mTOR and ERK signaling) and metastasis (through decreased EMT, invasion, migration and colony forming abilities) via mitochondrial-mediated apoptotic cell death but not via autophagy. In vivo experiments also demonstrated that nimbolide was effective in inhibiting pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis. Overall, our data suggest that nimbolide can serve as a potential chemo-therapeutic agent for pancreatic cancer.

SUBMITTER: Subramani R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4726267 | biostudies-other | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Nimbolide inhibits pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis through ROS-mediated apoptosis and inhibition of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.

Subramani Ramadevi R Gonzalez Elizabeth E Arumugam Arunkumar A Nandy Sushmita S Gonzalez Viviana V Medel Joshua J Camacho Fernando F Ortega Andrew A Bonkoungou Sandrine S Narayan Mahesh M Dwivedi Alok kumar Ak Lakshmanaswamy Rajkumar R

Scientific reports 20160125

The mortality and morbidity rates of pancreatic cancer are high because of its extremely invasive and metastatic nature. Its lack of symptoms, late diagnosis and chemo-resistance and the ineffective treatment modalities warrant the development of new chemo-therapeutic agents for pancreatic cancer. Agents from medicinal plants have demonstrated therapeutic benefits in various human cancers. Nimbolide, an active molecule isolated from Azadirachta indica, has been reported to exhibit several medici ...[more]

PMID: 26804739

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Project description:BackgroundPancreatic cancer is a lethal disease due to the high incidence of metastasis at the time of detection. CD133 expression in clinical pancreatic cancer correlates with poor prognosis and metastasis. However, the molecular mechanism of CD133-regulated metastasis remains unclear. In recent years, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been linked to cancer invasion and metastasis. In the present study we investigated the role of CD133 in pancreatic cancer metastasis and its potential regulatory network.MethodsA highly migratory pancreatic cancer cell line, Capan1M9, was established previously. After shRNA was stable transducted to knock down CD133 in Capan1M9 cells, gene expression was profiled by DNA microarray. Orthotopic, splenic and intravenous transplantation mouse models were set up to examine the tumorigenesis and metastatic capabilities of these cells. In further experiments, real-time RT-PCR, Western blot and co-immunoprecipitate were conducted to evaluate the interactions of CD133, Slug, N-cadherin, ERK1/2 and SRC.ResultsWe found that CD133+ human pancreatic cancer cells were prone to generating metastatic nodules in in vivo models using immunodeficient mice. In contrast, CD133 knockdown suppressed cancer invasion and metastasis in vivo. Gene profiling analysis suggested that CD133 modulated mesenchymal characteristics including the expression of EMT-related genes, such as Slug and N-cadherin. These genes were down-regulated following CD133 knockdown. Moreover, CD133 expression could be modulated by the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1/2 and SRC signaling pathways. The binding of CD133 to ERK1/2 and SRC acts as an indispensable mediator of N-cadherin expression.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate that CD133 plays a critical role in facilitating the EMT regulatory loop, specifically by upregulating N-cadherin expression, leading to the invasion and metastasis of pancreatic cancer cells. Our study provides a novel insight into the function of CD133 in the EMT program and a better understanding of the mechanism underlying the involvement of CD133 in pancreatic cancer metastasis.

Project description:It was already in the 18th century when the French surgeon LeDran first noted that breast cancer patients with spread of tumor cells to their axillary lymph nodes had a drastically worse prognosis than patients without spread (LeDran et al., ). Since then, metastatic spread of cancer cells to regional lymph nodes has been established as the most important prognostic factor in many types of cancer (Carter et al., ; Elston and Ellis, ). However, despite its clinical importance, lymph metastasis remains an underexplored area of tumor biology. Fundamental questions, such as when, how, and perhaps most importantly, why tumor cells disseminate through the lymphatic system, remain largely unanswered. Accordingly, no treatment strategies exist that specifically target lymph metastasis. The identification of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) as a mechanism, which allows cancer cells to dedifferentiate and acquire enhanced migratory and invasive properties, has been a game changer in cancer research. Conceptually, EMT provides an explanation for why epithelial cancers with poor differentiation status are generally more aggressive and prone to metastasize than more differentiated cancers. Inflammatory cytokines, such as TGF-β, which are produced and secreted by tumor-infiltrating immune cells, are potent inducers of EMT. Thus, reactivation of EMT also links cancer-related inflammation to invasive and metastatic disease. Recently, we found that breast cancer cells undergoing TGF-β-induced EMT acquire properties of immune cells allowing them to disseminate in a targeted fashion through the lymphatic system similar to activated dendritic cells during inflammation. Here, we review our current understanding of the mechanisms by which cancer cells spread through the lymphatic system and the links to inflammation and the immune system. We also emphasize how imaging techniques have the potential to further expand our knowledge of the mechanisms of lymph metastasis, and how lymph nodes serve as an interface between cancer and the immune system.

Dataset Information

Nimbolide inhibits pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis through ROS-mediated apoptosis and inhibition of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.

Publications

Nimbolide inhibits pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis through ROS-mediated apoptosis and inhibition of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.

Similar Datasets

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