Sun Xiaoyan, Cai Xueting, Yang Jie, Chen Jiao, Guo Caixia, Cao Peng
Affiliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210028, China.
Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Jiangsu Province Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210028, Jiangsu, China.
Mol Cells. 2016 Dec;39(12):869-876. doi: 10.14348/molcells.2016.0023. Epub 2016 Dec 13.
Cantharidin (CTD) is an active compound isolated from the traditional Chinese medicine blister beetle and displayed anticancer properties against various types of cancer cells. However, little is known about its effect on human chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells, including imatinib-resistant CML cells. The objective of this study was to investigate whether CTD could overcome imatinib resistance in imatinib-resistant CML cells and to explore the possible underlying mechanisms associated with the effect. Our results showed that CTD strongly inhibited the growth of both imatinib-sensitive and imatinib-resistant CML cells. CTD induced cell cycle arrest at mitotic phase and triggered DNA damage in CML cells. The ATM/ATR inhibitor CGK733 abrogated CTD-induced mitotic arrest but promoted the cytotoxic effects of CTD. In addition, we demonstrated that CTD downregulated the expression of the BCR-ABL protein and suppressed its downstream signal transduction. Real-time quantitative PCR revealed that CTD inhibited BCR-ABL at transcriptional level. Knockdown of BCR-ABL increased the cell-killing effects of CTD in K562 cells. These findings indicated that CTD overcomes imatinib resistance through depletion of BCR-ABL. Taken together, CTD is an important new candidate agent for CML therapy.
斑蝥素(CTD)是从传统中药斑蝥中分离出的一种活性化合物,对多种癌细胞具有抗癌特性。然而,其对人类慢性髓性白血病(CML)细胞,包括对伊马替尼耐药的CML细胞的作用却知之甚少。本研究的目的是探讨CTD是否能克服伊马替尼耐药CML细胞中的伊马替尼耐药性,并探索与该作用相关的潜在机制。我们的结果表明,CTD强烈抑制伊马替尼敏感和伊马替尼耐药的CML细胞的生长。CTD诱导CML细胞在有丝分裂期发生细胞周期阻滞并引发DNA损伤。ATM/ATR抑制剂CGK733消除了CTD诱导的有丝分裂阻滞,但增强了CTD的细胞毒性作用。此外,我们证明CTD下调BCR-ABL蛋白的表达并抑制其下游信号转导。实时定量PCR显示CTD在转录水平抑制BCR-ABL。敲低BCR-ABL增强了CTD对K562细胞的杀伤作用。这些发现表明CTD通过消耗BCR-ABL克服伊马替尼耐药性。综上所述,CTD是CML治疗的一种重要新型候选药物。