Effect of Metabolic Reprogramming on Toxin Eliminating Therapeutics in Targeting Lung Cancer Stem Cells / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To observe the effect of realgar nanoparticles (a representative drug in toxin eliminating therapeutics) targeting hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF), which act as effector molecules on metabolic reprogramming of lung cancer stem cells, and to explore the effect mechanism of lung cancer stem cells and metabolic reprogramming in the process of lung cancer metastasis, so as to verify the effectiveness of toxin eliminating therapeutics in the prevention and treatment of lung cancer metastasis. Method:Lung cancer A549 cells were cultured in vitro, and lung cancer stem cells were then identified and selected. The stem cells were divided into blank control group, cisplatin group (5 mg·L-1), realgar nanoparticles low, medium and high dose groups (100, 200, 400 mg·L-1). After intervention, glucose oxidase method was used to detect the effect of realgar nanoparticles on the glucose metabolism of lung cancer stem cells, real-time polymerase chain reaction (Real-time PCR) was used to detect the mRNA expression levels of hypoxia-inducible factors-1α (HIF-1α), C-myc and p53, while Western blot was used to detect the expression of related proteins HIF-1α, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), protein kinase B (Akt) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1), pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1 (PDK1), pyruvate kinase M (PKM), phosphofructokinase(PFK), pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) expression. Result:As compared with the blank control group, realgar nanoparticles can reduce the glucose consumption of lung cancer stem cells, and the glucose consumption was reduced with the increase of dose in a time-and dose-dependent manner (P<0.01). Realgar nanoparticles can inhibit the mRNA expression of HIF-1α, a key factor in metabolic reprogramming of lung cancer stem cells (P<0.05, P<0.01), down-regulated C-myc mRNA and up-regulated the p53 mRNA expression (P<0.05, P<0.01), down-regulated protein expressions of PI3K, Akt, mTOR(P<0.05, P<0.01), and inhibited the expression of related enzymes GLUT1, PDK1, PFK, PKM, PDH, and LDH levels (P<0.05, P<0.01). With the increase of dose, the regulation and control ability of realgar nanoparticles gradually increased. Conclusion:Toxin eliminating therapeutics can drive the metabolic reprogramming of lung cancer stem cells by targeting HIF effector molecule, and then inhibit the invasion and metastasis of lung cancer.