Introduction
Gastric cancer (GC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths and the fifth most common malignancy in worldwide [
1,
2]. The 5-year survival rate of GC largely depends on clinical stage, ranging between 10 and 93% [
2,
3]. Patients with GC are often treated with surgery and/or chemotherapy according to the patients’ specific condition, but recurrence and metastasis are usually common and prognosis is often poor [
4,
5]. Chemotherapy is still the main treatment for advanced GC. Therefore, finding new drugs is urgent for the treatment of patients with GC.
Microtubules participate in many biological processes in cells, such as maintenance of cell shape, cell motility and mitosis. Disrupting microtubules’ function can affect the spindle checkpoint and cell cycle progression, resulting in cell death [
6,
7]. So, targeting microtubules, such as paclitaxel, vinblastine and docetaxel, are efficient strategies for cancer treatment and have been used to treat different types of human cancers [
8]. However, they still have substantial defects such as lack of oral bioavailability, narrow therapeutic windows, potential side effects and cardiovascular events in clinical chemotherapy [
9]. To overcome these problems, it’s urgent to explore novel microtubule-targeting agents. CYT997 is a new microtubule-targeting agent selected by Cytopia’s small molecule library and has been proved to have anti-tumor functions by damaging cellular microtubules and preventing tubulin polymerization [
10,
11]. It also has been studied in phase I clinical trials that CYT997 had vascular disrupting activity and potent cytotoxicity in several cancers, including pancreatic adenocarcinoma, non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer and colorectal cancer. Therefore, it might optimally be performed in anti-cancer therapeutics [
12,
13].
Reactive oxygen species (ROS), active forms of oxygen, have toxic effects on various cells. ROS play an important role in tumorigenesis and progression [
14]. ROS have been targeted by a number of anticancer drugs. Antitumor drugs anthracyclines and topoisomerase inhibitors such as doxorubicin, adriamycin, daunorubicin, and epirubicin can block DNA synthesis, topoisomerase II activity and complex I/II and increase mitochondrial ROS production to kill tumor cells [
14,
15]. Platinum-based drugs including cisplatin, carboplatin and oxaliplatin also can induce tumor cell death by maintaining very high levels of ROS [
16,
17]. Therefore, ROS should be exploited as a therapeutic target to inhibit tumor growth.
Previous studies have shown that CYT997 inhibited the proliferation of many types of tumors. For example, in acute myeloid leukemia, CYT997 killed acute myeloid leukemia cells via activation of caspases and inhibition of PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway [
18]. Teng et al. also reported that CYT997 inhibited proliferation and invasion of prostate cancer cells by inhibiting Src activity [
19]. In addition, CYT997 induced cells death by enhancing ER stress in osteosarcoma [
20]. Although these researches provided the mechanisms of the anticancer activity of CYT997, the effects and molecular mechanism of CYT997 in GC remain unclear. In this study, we explored the effects of CYT997 on the proliferation of GC cells as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms of these processes.
Materials and methods
Cell lines, primary gastric cancer cells and cell culture
Human GC cell lines SGC-7901, MKN45, AGS, and BGC-823 were purchased from the Cell Bank of the Shanghai Institute for Biological Science (Shanghai, China). All cells were cultured in RPMI-1640 (Hyclone, Thermo Fisher, USA) medium with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) (Hyclone). The cells were maintained at 37 °C in a humidified incubator with 5% CO2.
The fresh GC tumor tissue from GC patient was acquired and washed three times with PBS containing 1% penicillin/streptomycin (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA), then, dissociated as small as possible with scissors, digested with collagenase IV (Sigma), 90 min at 37 °C, stopped digestion and centrifugated with 1000 rpm, 3 min, finally, resuspended and cultured with DMEM/F12 (Hyclone) medium containing 10% FBS and 1% penicillin/streptomycin.
Reagents and antibodies
CYT997 (MF: C24H30N6O2, MW: 434.53, purity: 99.46%), IL-6 and Mitoquinone (MitoQ) were bought from MCE (Shanghai, China). 3-methyladenine (3-MA) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich. GAPDH, Cyclin B1, p21, PARP, cleaved PARP, caspase 3, cleaved caspase 3, LC3B, Beclin-1, phosphorylated JAK2 (p-JAK2), JAK2, phosphorylated STAT3(Tyr705)(p-STAT3), STAT3, Bcl-2, Survivin, Cyclin D1 and PCNA antibodies were purchased from Cell Signaling Technology (Beverly, MA, USA).
Cell proliferation was performed with a CCK-8 kit (Dojindo, Tokyo, Japan). Cells (1× 104) were seeded in 96-well plates. After 6 h, they were treated with different concentrations of CYT997. The OD value was measured at a wavelength of 450 nm. For colony formation assays, 500 cells were plated in each well of a 6-well plate, cultured in RPMI-1640 medium with 10% FBS. CYT997 was added in each well for about 14 days until the cells become visible colonies. Colonies were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde and stained with crystal violet for 15 min at room temperature. Each experiment was performed in triplicate.
Cell cycle and apoptosis analysis
Cells were seeded in six-well plates, pretreated with serum starvation for 12 h, then treated with CYT997 for 12 h. For cell cycle analysis, the cells were collected, fixed in 75% ethanol at 4 °C overnight and stained with PI/RNase staining buffer for 15 min. For apoptosis analysis, cells were collected, washed twice with cold PBS and resuspended in binding buffer containing Annexin V-FITC and PI (Invitrogen Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA). The cell cycle and apoptosis analyses were performed on the Accuri C6 (BD Biosciences, Mountain View, CA, USA) and the data were analyzed by ModFit LT software (FACSCalibur).
Western blotting analysis
Samples including cells and tissues were lysed in ice-cold RIPA with phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride and protease inhibitor (Thermo Scientific, Fremont, CA, USA) for 30 min. Lysates were collected, centrifuged and the supernatant was collected. The concentration of protein was measured by a Pierce BCA protein assay kit (Thermo Scientific, Fremont, CA, USA). Equal amounts of protein were separated by SDS-PAGE and transferred to polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membrane (Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA). The membranes were blocked in 5% non-fat milk at room temperature for 1 h and then incubated with specific primary antibodies at 4 °C overnight, washed 3 times by TBST, and then incubated with secondary antibodies for 1 h. Signals were detected by enhanced chemiluminescence kit (Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA).
Measurement of intracellular ROS and mitochondrial superoxide
Intracellular ROS production was measured by using the Reactive Oxygen Species Assay Kit (Beyotime, Shanghai, China). Cells were seeded in six-well plates overnight and exposed to CYT997 for 12 h.Then, cells were collected, incubated with 10 μM DCFH-DA for 30 min in the dark and washed 3 times. The level of ROS was determined by fluorescence microscopy (Leica, Wetzlar, Germany) and flow cytometry (BD Biosciences; San Jose, CA, USA). Through using MitoSOX Red dye (Invitrogen), mitochondrial superoxide level was detected.
Mitochondrial membrane potential detection
JC-1 Assay Kit (Beyotime, Jiangsu, China) was used to measure the mitochondrial membrane potential according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Briefly, cells after treatment with CYT997 (50 nM) for 12 h, stained with JC-1 for 20 min at 37 °C and then analyzed by a confocal laser scanning microscope and flow cytometry.
GFP-LC3 puncta assay and LysoTracker red staining
Cells were transiently transfected with GFP-LC3 plasmid using Lipofectamine 3000 (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. After 24 h, cells were treated with 50 nM CYT997 for 24 h.Then cells were washed with PBS, incubated with 50 nM of LysoTracker Red DND-99 (Invitrogen) in the dark for 30 min, washed with PBS again, fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde for 15 min and incubated with 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) for 5 min. Images were obtained by using a confocal laser scanning microscope (Leica, Germany).
Plasmid construction and transfection
The coding genes of human STAT3 and JAK2 were cloned into the mammalian expression vector pcDNA3.1. SGC-7901 cells were transiently transfected with the pcDNA3.1-STAT3 plasmid and pcDNA3.1-JAK2 plasmid through using Lipofectamine 3000 according to the manufacturer’s instruction (Invitrogen, Gaithersburg, MD, USA).
GC patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mice experiment
The GC tumor tissue from a GC patient was acquired and kept in culture medium on ice for engraftment within 2 h of resection. Then, the tissues were washed with PBS three times. A piece of about 5mm3 tissue was cut and implanted subcutaneously into the flank region of six-week-old BALB/c nude mice by using a trocar. Female athymic BALB/c nude mice (6–8 weeks old) were purchased from Shanghai Experimental Animal Center, Chinese Academy of Science. Until the tumors reached ~ 50 mm3, the mice were randomly assigned to two groups: (1) control group (n = 8), injected intraperitoneally with normal saline (NS). (2) treated group (n = 8): injected intraperitoneally with CYT997 (15 mg/kg) every day. The experiments were approved by the animal research committee in Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Immunohistochemistry (IHC)
For immunohistochemical staining, slides were deparaffinized, rehydrated, incubated in 3% H2O2 to block endogenous peroxidase activity. After antigen retrieval processed by boiling in sodium citrate for 30 min, slides were blocked by using 10% goat serum for 15 min, followed by incubation with specific primary antibodies at 4 °C overnight. Primary tumor samples were immunostained with p-STAT3 (1:50), PCNA (1:3000), cleaved caspase 3 (1:50) and LC3B (1:500). Then slides were washed 3 times, incubated with the second antibody at room temperature for 30 min, washed 3 times and incubated with diaminobenizidine (DAB) for 3 min. Finally, the nuclei were counterstained with Mayer’s hematoxylin.
Statistical analysis
Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 19.0 software (IBM Corporation, Chicago, USA). Student’s t-test was used and all data were presented as mean ± SD. P-values< 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.
Discussion
Microtubule targeting agents disrupting the normal function of the mitotic spindle have been proven to be one of the main chemotherapy treatments in GC [
9]. Microtubules exert a critical role in cellular functions, such as chromosome segregation during cell division, intracellular transport, cell motility, and the maintenance of cell shape [
31]. Microtubule targeting agents disrupt the tubulin dynamics by binding to the distinct sites on protein tubulin and block their polymerization dynamics, causing mitotic spindle disorder, resulting in prolonged mitotic arrest, subsequent growth arrest and cell death [
8,
32]. Therefore, finding new microtubule-targeting drugs is important in GC therapy. CYT997, as a novel synthetic microtubule-disrupting agent, its function in GC treatment hasn’t been deeply explored yet. In our study, we explored CYT997 efficacy in treating GC and found CYT997 inhibited cell proliferation, induced G2/M phase arrest, triggered apoptosis and autophagy in GC cells. More importantly, we further elucidated the underlying antitumor mechanisms of CYT997 in GC and proved that CYT997 could suppress GC cell growth and induce apoptosis through upregulating ROS product to inhibit activation of STAT3 signaling pathway. Meanwhile, CYT997 could trigger autophagy to prevent GC cells apoptosis, suggesting that the combination therapy of CYT997 and autophagy inhibitor in GC could achieve a better antitumor efficacy than separate application.
Normally, ROS are formed in oxygen metabolism and mainly produced by mitochondrial redox chain [
33,
34]. During normal physiological metabolism of tumors, elevated ROS can be regulated to keep a balance by antioxidant systems to maintain tumor cell survival. ROS are critical signaling molecules, exerting important function in promoting cell autophagy and apoptosis [
25,
35,
36]. Antitumor drugs such as docetaxel, cisplatin often break the balance of oxidant and antioxidant systems, damage mitochondrial membrane potential, increase ROS production and silence some signaling pathways such as Akt/mTOR signaling pathway to lead to tumor cell apoptosis [
37‐
39]. In this study, we found that CYT997 induced GC cell apoptosis through increasing mitochondrial ROS production, suggesting that CYT997 may be a promising antitumor drug. The ROS scavenger, NAC and MitoQ, distinctly weakened the effects of CYT997 on GC cells. Therefore, mitochondrial ROS exert a critical role in CYT997-induced GC cells apoptosis.
STAT3 (Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3), a critical transcriptional factor of tumorigenesis and a point of convergence of most activated oncogenic pathways, plays a pivotal role in tumor initiation and development [
40,
41]. Activated STAT3 was found in diverse cancers, such as GC, promoting tumor cell growth, proliferation, anti-apoptosis, cancer angiogenesis and metastasis [
30]. Some antitumor drugs, such as targeting microtubule paclitaxel, have been proved to inhibit activation of STAT3 to induce tumor cells apoptosis [
42]. Given its fundamental role in tumor proliferation and progression, STAT3 has emerged as a promising target for cancer treatment, especially in GC therapy [
43]. Furthermore, related researches have proved that upregulated ROS could abrogate JAK2/STAT3 signaling to suppress tumor growth in cancers such as hepatocellular carcinoma [
44], multiple myeloma [
45], and colorectal cancer [
46,
47]. Therefore, activated ROS production played a key role in suppression of JAK2/STAT3 signaling. In our study, we found that CYT997 remarkably suppressed expression of p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 in GC cells. Furthermore, CYT997 suppressed IL-6-induced STAT3 activation. In addition, overexpression of STAT3 significantly attenuated the effect of CYT997 on GC cells. We found that ROS triggered by CYT997 inhibited JAK2/STAT3 pathway in GC cells. Therefore, all results indicated that CYT997 inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis by regulating of JAK2/STAT3 pathway in GC cells.
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