Institute of Pathology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Mol Cancer Ther. 2017 Nov;16(11):2502-2515. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-17-0136. Epub 2017 Jul 20.
Increasing the efficacy of approved systemic treatments in metastasized pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNET) is an unmet medical need. The antiangiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib is approved for PanNET treatment. In addition, sunitinib is a lysosomotropic drug and such drugs can induce lysosomal membrane permeabilization as well as autophagy. We investigated sunitinib-induced autophagy as a possible mechanism of PanNET therapy resistance. Sunitinib accumulated in lysosomes and induced autophagy in PanNET cell lines. Adding the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine reduced cell viability in cell lines and in primary cells isolated from PanNET patients. The same treatment combination reduced tumor burden in the Rip1Tag2 transgenic PanNET mouse model. The combination of sunitinib and chloroquine reduced recovery and induced apoptosis , whereas single treatments did not. Knockdown of key autophagy proteins in combination with sunitinib showed similar effect as chloroquine. Sunitinib also induced lysosomal membrane permeabilization, which further increased in the presence of chloroquine or knockdown of lysosome-associated membrane protein (LAMP2). Both combinations led to cell death. Our data indicate that chloroquine increases sunitinib efficacy in PanNET treatment via autophagy inhibition and lysosomal membrane permeabilization. We suggest that adding chloroquine to sunitinib treatment will increase efficacy of PanNET treatment and that such patients should be included in respective ongoing clinical trials. .
增加转移性胰腺神经内分泌肿瘤(PanNET)已批准的系统治疗的疗效是一个未满足的医学需求。抗血管生成的酪氨酸激酶抑制剂舒尼替尼被批准用于 PanNET 的治疗。此外,舒尼替尼是一种溶酶体靶向药物,此类药物可以诱导溶酶体膜通透性和自噬。我们研究了舒尼替尼诱导的自噬作为 PanNET 治疗耐药的可能机制。舒尼替尼在溶酶体中积累,并在 PanNET 细胞系中诱导自噬。添加自噬抑制剂氯喹可降低细胞系和从 PanNET 患者分离的原代细胞的细胞活力。相同的治疗组合可减少 Rip1Tag2 转基因 PanNET 小鼠模型中的肿瘤负担。舒尼替尼和氯喹的联合治疗可减少恢复并诱导细胞凋亡,而单一治疗则没有。与舒尼替尼联合使用关键自噬蛋白的敲低显示出与氯喹相似的效果。舒尼替尼还诱导溶酶体膜通透性,在氯喹或溶酶体相关膜蛋白(LAMP2)敲低的存在下进一步增加。这两种组合都导致细胞死亡。我们的数据表明,氯喹通过自噬抑制和溶酶体膜通透性增加来增加舒尼替尼在 PanNET 治疗中的疗效。我们建议将氯喹添加到舒尼替尼治疗中,以提高 PanNET 治疗的疗效,并且应将此类患者纳入正在进行的临床试验中。