Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Hainan General Hospital, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, HuaXiu Road 19th, Haikou, 570311, Hainan, China.
Department of Obstetrics, Hainan General Hospital, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, 570311, China.
In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Anim. 2023 May;59(5):381-393. doi: 10.1007/s11626-023-00770-6. Epub 2023 May 17.
It is known that IL-17A inhibits autophagy of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells, thus contributing to the carcinogenesis of HCC. Starvation therapy can promote the autophagic death of HCC cells by blocking the nutrition supply. The purpose of this study was to explore whether the pharmacological antagonist of IL-17A, secukinumab, and starvation therapy have a synergistic effect on the autophagic cell death of HCC. Here, it could be observed that compared with serum-free condition, the combination of secukinumab and serum-free status better promoted autophagy (observed by LC3 conversion rate, p62 protein expression and the formation of autophagosomes), and more significantly inhibited the survival and function (observed by Trypan blue staining, CCK-8, Transwell, and scratch assays) in HCC HepG2 cells. Moreover, secukinumab significantly decreased BCL2 protein expression under serum-normal and serum-free conditions. However, both the addition of recombinant IL-17A and overexpression of BCL2 blocked the regulation of secukinumab on the survival and autophagy in HepG2 cells. Nude mice experiments demonstrated that compared to the lenvatinib-alone group, the combination group of lenvatinib and secukinumab better inhibited the in vivo tumorigenesis of HepG2 cells and enhanced autophagy in xenotumor tissues. Furthermore, secukinumab significantly decreased BCL2 protein expression in xenotumor tissues without or with lenvatinib application. In conclusion, the antagonism of IL-17A with secukinumab, due to the upregulation on BCL2-related autophagic cell death, can cooperate with starvation therapy in inhibiting HCC carcinogenesis. Our data suggested that secukinumab can become an effective adjuvant for the treatment of HCC.
已知白介素-17A(IL-17A)可抑制肝癌(HCC)细胞的自噬,从而促进 HCC 的发生。饥饿疗法可通过阻断营养供应促进 HCC 细胞的自噬性死亡。本研究旨在探讨 IL-17A 的药理学拮抗剂司库奇尤单抗与饥饿疗法对 HCC 细胞自噬性死亡是否具有协同作用。结果表明,与无血清状态相比,司库奇尤单抗联合无血清状态可更好地促进自噬(通过 LC3 转化率、p62 蛋白表达和自噬体形成观察),并更显著地抑制 HCC HepG2 细胞的存活和功能(通过台盼蓝染色、CCK-8、Transwell 和划痕实验观察)。此外,司库奇尤单抗在血清正常和无血清条件下均显著降低 BCL2 蛋白表达。然而,重组 IL-17A 的添加和 BCL2 的过表达均阻断了司库奇尤单抗对 HepG2 细胞存活和自噬的调节。裸鼠实验表明,与仑伐替尼单药组相比,仑伐替尼联合司库奇尤单抗组能更好地抑制 HepG2 细胞的体内致瘤作用,并增强异种肿瘤组织中的自噬作用。此外,无论是否应用仑伐替尼,司库奇尤单抗均能显著降低异种肿瘤组织中的 BCL2 蛋白表达。综上,司库奇尤单抗拮抗 IL-17A 通过上调 BCL2 相关自噬性细胞死亡,可与饥饿疗法协同抑制 HCC 发生。本研究数据表明,司库奇尤单抗可成为治疗 HCC 的有效辅助药物。