The efficacy of cisplatin on nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells may be increased via the downregulation of fibroblast growth factor receptor 2
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR MEDICINE
Authors: Pu, Li; Su, Lizhong; Kang, Xixun
Abstract
Cisplatin is one of the primary compounds used in the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) has emerged to be a promising target for treatment in various tumors. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore whether the expression levels of FGFR2 in NPC tissues and cell lines were altered, and whether the efficiency of cisplatin was increased following the downregulation of FGFR2. The downregulation of FGFR2 was achieved by transfection with a small interfering RNA against FGFR2. Tissues of patients with NPC were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Cell viability was examined using a Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. Cell cycle analysis was performed using flow cytometry. mRNA and protein levels were measured by reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis, respectively. FGFR2 was observed to be overexpressed in cancer tissues of patients with NPC and in the NPC SUNE1, C666-1, 6-10B and HNE-3 cell lines, and resulted in an unfavorable prognosis. Cisplatin treatment decreased cell viability and increased FGFR2 expression. The silencing of FGFR2 was demonstrated to augment the effects of cisplatin treatment, including decreasing the cell viability and inducing cell cycle arrest, which involved the increase and decrease of the durations of G1 and S phases, respectively, and a decrease in the expression levels of cyclin D1 and CDC25A, and increasing the rate of apoptosis via the intrinsic apoptosis pathway, as demonstrated by the upregulation of cleaved caspase-3 and B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2)-associated X protein and downregulation of Bcl-2, in SUNE1 and C666-1 cell lines. FGFR2 was overexpressed in the cancer tissues of patients with NPC and in NPC cell lines, resulting in an unfavorable prognosis. The downregulation of FGFR2 decreased cell viability via cell cycle arrest at G1 phase, and increased the efficacy of the cisplatin-based induction of apoptosis through the intrinsic apoptosis pathway.
Cdk2-Null Mice Are Resistant to ErbB-2-Induced Mammary Tumorigenesis
NEOPLASIA
Authors: Ray, Dipankar; Terao, Yasuhisa; Christov, Konstantin; Kaldis, Philipp; Kiyokawa, Hiroaki
Abstract
The concept of targeting G(1) cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) in breast cancer treatments is supported by the fact that the genetic ablation of Cdk4 had minimal impacts on normal cell proliferation in majority of cell types, resulting in near-normal mouse development, whereas such loss of Cdk4 completely abrogated ErbB-2/neu-induced mammary tumorigenesis in mice. In most human breast cancer tissues, another G(1)-regulatory CDK, CDK2, is also hyperactivated by various mechanisms and is believed to be an important therapeutic target. In this report, we provide genetic evidence that CDK2 is essential for proliferation and oncogenesis of murine mammary epithelial cells. We observed that 87% of Cdk2-null mice were protected from ErbB-2-induced mammary tumorigenesis. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts isolated from Cdk2-null mouse showed resistance to various oncogene-induced transformation. Previously, we have reported that hemizygous loss of Cdc25A, the major activator of CDK2, can also protect mice from ErbB-2-induced mammary tumorigenesis [Cancer Res (2007) 67(14): 6605-11]. Thus, we propose that CDC25A-CDK2 pathway is critical for the oncogenic action of ErbB-2 in mammary epithelial cells, in a manner similar to Cyclin D1/CDK4 pathway.