Kong Hui, Wang Yanli, Zeng Xiaoning, Wang Zailiang, Wang Hong, Xie Weiping
Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, 300 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, 210029, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
Tumour Biol. 2015 Sep;36(10):7501-13. doi: 10.1007/s13277-015-3473-4. Epub 2015 Apr 25.
As pivotal elements involved in inflammation, inflammasomes represent a group of multiprotein complexes triggering the maturation of proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. Although the importance of the inflammasomes in inflammatory diseases is well appreciated, a precise characterization of their expressions in lung cancer remains obscure. This study aimed to determine the expressions of inflammasomes in various lung cancer cell lines and tissues to understand their potential roles in lung cancer. Our findings showed that inflammasome components were markedly upregulated in lung cancer and elicited the maturation of IL-1β and IL-18. In addition, enormous variations in subtypes and levels of inflammasomes were detected in lung cancers depending on their histological type and grading, invasion ability, as well as chemoresistance. Generally, AIM2 inflammasome was overexpressed in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), while NLRP3 inflammasome was upregulated in lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The high-metastatic or cisplatin-sensitive NSCLC cells expressed more inflammasome components and products than their counterpart low-metastatic or cisplatin-resistant NSCLC cells, respectively. In resected lung cancer tissues, high-grade ADC expressed more inflammasome components and products than low-grade ADC. Together, these findings suggest that inflammasomes may be crucial biomarkers for lung cancer as well as potential modulators of the biological behaviors of lung cancer. Further, pharmacotherapeutics targeting inflammasomes might be novel adjuvant therapy strategies for lung cancer.
作为炎症过程中的关键元件，炎性小体是一组触发促炎细胞因子白细胞介素（IL）-1β和IL-18成熟的多蛋白复合物。尽管炎性小体在炎症性疾病中的重要性已得到充分认识，但其在肺癌中的表达精确特征仍不清楚。本研究旨在确定炎性小体在各种肺癌细胞系和组织中的表达，以了解其在肺癌中的潜在作用。我们的研究结果表明，炎性小体成分在肺癌中显著上调，并引发IL-1β和IL-18的成熟。此外，根据组织学类型、分级、侵袭能力以及化疗耐药性，在肺癌中检测到炎性小体亚型和水平存在巨大差异。一般来说，AIM2炎性小体在非小细胞肺癌（NSCLC）中过表达，而NLRP3炎性小体在肺腺癌（ADC）和小细胞肺癌（SCLC）中上调。高转移或顺铂敏感的NSCLC细胞分别比其低转移或顺铂耐药的NSCLC细胞表达更多的炎性小体成分和产物。在切除的肺癌组织中，高级别ADC比低级别ADC表达更多的炎性小体成分和产物。总之，这些发现表明炎性小体可能是肺癌的关键生物标志物以及肺癌生物学行为的潜在调节因子。此外，针对炎性小体的药物治疗可能是肺癌新的辅助治疗策略。
