DEPTOR improves cisplatin chemosensitivity in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells by inducing Caspase-1-mediated pyroptosis / 药学学报

ABSTRACT

Chemotherapy resistance is the main cause of poor prognosis in patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Pyroptosis is one of the anti-tumor mechanisms by chemotherapy drugs. Studies have shown that DEP-domain containing mTOR-interacting protein (DEPTOR) is correlated with sorafenib and gefitnib resistance, which is discovered as a naturally negative regulator of mammalian/mechanistic target of rapamicin (mTOR). In this study, DEPTOR knockdown (shDEPTOR) lentivirus was used to establish the stable DEPTOR knockdown ESCC cell lines. The results showed that knockdown of DEPTOR reduced chemosensitivity to cisplatin in ESCC cells in vitro. The lower expression of DEPTOR caused less extensive morphological characteristics of pyroptosis than that was observed in sh-con cells with the treatment of cisplain. Further studies showed that knockdown of DEPTOR induced downregulation of Caspase-1 expression and reduction of Caspase-1 activation, thereby inhibiting the activation of the classical pathway of pyroptosis. This paper demonstrates that DEPTOR can improve cisplatin chemosensitivity in ESCC cells via inducing Caspase-1-mediated pyroptosis.