RESUMO
Aim: Multidrug resistance (MDR) is frequent in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, which can be due to its fibrotic stroma. This work explores the combination of pentoxifylline, an anti-fibrotic and chitinase 3-like-1 (CHI3L1) inhibitor drug, with conventional chemotherapy to improve NSCLC treatment. Methods: The effect of pentoxifylline in the expression levels of P-glycoprotein (P-gp), CHI3L1 and its main downstream proteins, as well as on cell death, cell cycle profile, and P-gp activity was studied in two pairs of sensitive and MDR counterpart NSCLC cell lines (NCI-H460/NCI-H460/R and A549/A549-CDR2). Association studies between CHI3L1 gene expression and NSCLC patients' survival were performed using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) analysis. The sensitizing effect of pentoxifylline to different drug regimens was evaluated in both sensitive and MDR NSCLC cell lines. The cytotoxicity of the drug combinations was assessed in MCF10A non-tumorigenic cells. Results: Pentoxifylline slightly decreased the expression levels of CHI3L1, ß-catenin and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), and caused a significant increase in the G1 phase of the cell cycle in both pairs of NSCLC cell lines. A significant increase in the % of cell death was observed in the sensitive NCI-H460 cell line. TCGA analysis revealed that high levels of CHI3L1 are associated with low overall survival (OS) in NSCLC patients treated with vinorelbine. Moreover, pentoxifylline sensitized both pairs of sensitive and MDR NSCLC cell lines to the different drug regimens, without causing significant toxicity to non-tumorigenic cells. Conclusion: This study suggests the possibility of combining pentoxifylline with chemotherapy to increase NSCLC therapeutic response, even in cases of MDR.
RESUMO
Somatic angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE)has two homologous active sites (N and C domains) that show differences in various biochemical properties.In a previous study, we described the use of positionals canning synthetic combinatorial (PS-SC) libraries of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) peptides to define the ACE C-domain versus N-domain substrate specificity and developed selective substrates for the C-domain(Bersanetti et al., 2004). In the present work, we used the results from the PS-SC libraries to define the N-domain preferences and designed selective substrates for this domain. The peptide Abz-GDDVAK(Dnp)-OH presented the most favorable residues for N-domain selectivity in the P 3 to P 1 ' positions. The fluorogenic analog Abz-DVAK(Dnp)-OH (Abz = ortho -aminobenzoic acid; Dnp = 2,4-dinitrophenyl)showed the highest selectivity for ACE N-domain( k cat /K m = 1.76 µ m -1 · s -1) . Systematic reduction of the peptide length resulted in a tripeptide that was preferentially hydrolyzed by the C-domain. The binding of Abz-DVAK(Dnp)-OH to the active site of ACE N-domain was examined using a combination of conformational analysis and molecular docking. Our results indicated that the binding energies for the N-domain-substrate complexes were lower than those for the C-domain-substrate, suggesting that the former complexes are more stable.
