scholarly journals Cancer Cells Can Exhibit a Sparing FLASH Effect at Low Doses Under Normoxic In Vitro-Conditions

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Adrian ◽  
Elise Konradsson ◽  
Sarah Beyer ◽  
Anders Wittrup ◽  
Karl T. Butterworth ◽  
...  

BackgroundIrradiation with ultra-high dose rate (FLASH) has been shown to spare normal tissue without hampering tumor control in several in vivo studies. Few cell lines have been investigated in vitro, and previous results are inconsistent. Assuming that oxygen depletion accounts for the FLASH sparing effect, no sparing should appear for cells irradiated with low doses in normoxia.MethodsSeven cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231, MCF7, WiDr, LU-HNSCC4, HeLa [early passage and subclone]) and normal lung fibroblasts (MRC-5) were irradiated with doses ranging from 0 to 12 Gy using FLASH (≥800 Gy/s) or conventional dose rates (CONV, 14 Gy/min), with a 10 MeV electron beam from a clinical linear accelerator. Surviving fraction (SF) was determined with clonogenic assays. Three cell lines were further studied for radiation-induced DNA-damage foci using a 53BP1-marker and for cell cycle synchronization after irradiation.ResultsA tendency of increased survival following FLASH compared with CONV was suggested for all cell lines, with significant differences for 4/7 cell lines. The magnitude of the FLASH-sparing expressed as a dose-modifying factor at SF=0.1 was around 1.1 for 6/7 cell lines and around 1.3 for the HeLasubclone. Similar cell cycle distributions and 53BP1-foci numbers were found comparing FLASH to CONV.ConclusionWe have found a FLASH effect appearing at low doses under normoxic conditions for several cell lines in vitro. The magnitude of the FLASH effect differed between the cell lines, suggesting inherited biological susceptibilities for FLASH irradiation.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Chao Hu ◽  
Xiaobin Zhu ◽  
Taogen Zhang ◽  
Zhouming Deng ◽  
Yuanlong Xie ◽  
...  

Introduction. Osteosarcoma is a malignant tumor associated with high mortality rates due to the toxic side effects of current therapeutic methods. Tanshinone IIA can inhibit cell proliferation and promote apoptosis in vitro, but the exact mechanism is still unknown. The aims of this study are to explore the antiosteosarcoma effect of tanshinone IIA via Src kinase and demonstrate the mechanism of this effect. Materials and Methods. Osteosarcoma MG-63 and U2-OS cell lines were stable transfections with Src-shRNA. Then, the antiosteosarcoma effect of tanshinone IIA was tested in vitro. The protein expression levels of Src, p-Src, p-ERK1/2, and p-AKt were detected by Western blot and RT-PCR. CCK-8 assay and BrdU immunofluorescence assay were used to detect cell proliferation. Transwell assay, cell scratch assay, and flow cytometry were used to detect cell invasion, migration, and cell cycle. Tumor-bearing nude mice with osteosarcoma were constructed. The effect of tanshinone IIA was detected by tumor HE staining, tumor inhibition rate, incidence of lung metastasis, and X-ray. Results. The oncogene role of Src kinase in osteosarcoma is reflected in promoting cell proliferation, invasion, and migration and in inhibiting apoptosis. However, Src has different effects on cell proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle regulation among cell lines. At a cellular level, the antiosteosarcoma effect of tanshinone IIA is mediated by Src downstream of the MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKt signaling pathways. At the animal level, tanshinone IIA played a role in resisting osteosarcoma formation by Src downstream of the MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKt signaling pathways. Conclusion. Tanshinone IIA plays an antiosteosarcoma role in vitro and in vivo and inhibits the progression of osteosarcoma mediated by Src downstream of the MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKt signaling pathways.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 175628481989543
Author(s):  
Amanda Braga Bona ◽  
Danielle Queiroz Calcagno ◽  
Helem Ferreira Ribeiro ◽  
José Augusto Pereira Carneiro Muniz ◽  
Giovanny Rebouças Pinto ◽  
...  

Background: Gastric cancer is one of the most incident types of cancer worldwide and presents high mortality rates and poor prognosis. MYC oncogene overexpression is a key event in gastric carcinogenesis and it is known that its protein positively regulates CDC25B expression which, in turn, plays an essential role in the cell division cycle progression. Menadione is a synthetic form of vitamin K that acts as a specific inhibitor of the CDC25 family of phosphatases. Methods: To better understand the menadione mechanism of action in gastric cancer, we evaluated its molecular and cellular effects in cell lines and in Sapajus apella, nonhuman primates from the new world which had gastric carcinogenesis induced by N-Methyl-N-nitrosourea. We tested CDC25B expression by western blot and RT-qPCR. In-vitro assays include proliferation, migration, invasion and flow cytometry to analyze cell cycle arrest. In in-vivo experiments, in addition to the expression analyses, we followed the preneoplastic lesions and the tumor progression by ultrasonography, endoscopy, biopsies, histopathology and immunohistochemistry. Results: Our tests demonstrated menadione reducing CDC25B expression in vivo and in vitro. It was able to reduce migration, invasion and proliferation rates, and induce cell cycle arrest in gastric cancer cell lines. Moreover, our in-vivo experiments demonstrated menadione inhibiting tumor development and progression. Conclusions: We suggest this compound may be an important ally of chemotherapeutics in the treatment of gastric cancer. In addition, CDC25B has proven to be an effective target for investigation and development of new therapeutic strategies for this malignancy.


2008 ◽  
Vol 294 (5) ◽  
pp. L843-L861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Tourkina ◽  
Mathieu Richard ◽  
Pal Gööz ◽  
Michael Bonner ◽  
Jaspreet Pannu ◽  
...  

Lung fibrosis involves the overexpression of ECM proteins, primarily collagen, by α-smooth muscle actin (ASMA)-positive cells. Caveolin-1 is a master regulator of collagen expression by cultured lung fibroblasts and of lung fibrosis in vivo. A peptide equivalent to the caveolin-1 scaffolding domain (CSD peptide) inhibits collagen and tenascin-C expression by normal lung fibroblasts (NLF) and fibroblasts from the fibrotic lungs of scleroderma patients (SLF). CSD peptide inhibits ASMA expression in SLF but not NLF. Similar inhibition of collagen, tenascin-C, and ASMA expression was also observed when caveolin-1 expression was upregulated using adenovirus. These observations suggest that the low caveolin-1 levels in SLF cause their overexpression of collagen, tenascin-C, and ASMA. In mechanistic studies, MEK, ERK, JNK, and Akt were hyperactivated in SLF, and CSD peptide inhibited their activation and altered their subcellular localization. These studies and experiments using kinase inhibitors suggest many differences between NLF and SLF in signaling cascades. To validate these data, we determined that the alterations in signaling molecule activation observed in SLF also occur in fibrotic lung tissue from scleroderma patients and in mice with bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis. Finally, we demonstrated that systemic administration of CSD peptide to bleomycin-treated mice blocks epithelial cell apoptosis, inflammatory cell infiltration, and changes in tissue morphology as well as signaling molecule activation and collagen, tenascin-C, and ASMA expression associated with lung fibrosis. CSD peptide may be a prototype for novel treatments for human lung fibrosis that act, in part, by inhibiting the expression of ASMA and ECM proteins.


Cancers ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mouna Sdiri ◽  
Xiangmin Li ◽  
William Du ◽  
Safia El-Bok ◽  
Yi-Zhen Xie ◽  
...  

The extensive applications of Cynomorium species and their rich bioactive secondary metabolites have inspired many pharmacological investigations. Previous research has been conducted to examine the biological activities and numerous interesting pharmaceutical activities have been reported. However, the antitumor activities of these species are unclear. To understand the potential anticancer activity, we screened Cynomorium coccineum and Cynomorium songaricum using three different extracts of each species. In this study, the selected extracts were evaluated for their ability to decrease survival rates of five different cancer cell lines. We compared the cytotoxicity of the three different extracts to the anticancer drug vinblastine and one of the most well-known medicinal mushrooms Amaurederma rude. We found that the water and alcohol extracts of C. coccineum at the very low concentrations possessed very high capacity in decreasing the cancer cells viability with a potential inhibition of tumorigenesis. Based on these primitive data, we subsequently tested the ethanol and the water extracts of C. coccineum, respectively in in vitro and in vivo assays. Cell cycle progression and induction of programmed cell death were investigated at both biological and molecular levels to understand the mechanism of the antitumor inhibitory action of the C. coccineum. The in vitro experiments showed that the treated cancer cells formed fewer and smaller colonies than the untreated cells. Cell cycle progression was inhibited, and the ethanol extract of C. coccineum at a low concentration induced accumulation of cells in the G1 phase. We also found that the C. coccineum’s extracts suppressed viability of two murine cancer cell lines. In the in vivo experiments, we injected mice with murine cancer cell line B16, followed by peritoneal injection of the water extract. The treatment prolonged mouse survival significantly. The tumors grew at a slower rate than the control. Down-regulation of c-myc expression appeared to be associated with these effects. Further investigation showed that treatment with C. coccineum induced the overexpression of the tumor suppressor Foxo3 and other molecules involved in inducing autophagy. These results showed that the C. coccineum extract exerts its antiproliferative activity through the induction of cell death pathway. Thus, the Cynomorium plants appear to be a promising source of new antineoplastic compounds.


Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (11) ◽  
pp. 2467-2467
Author(s):  
Richard A. Campbell ◽  
Haiming Chen ◽  
Daocheng Zhu ◽  
Janice C. Santos ◽  
Benjamin Bonavida ◽  
...  

Abstract Arsenic trioxide (ATO) induces apoptosis of plasma cells through a number of mechanisms including inhibiting DNA binding by NF-κB. These results suggest that this agent may be synergistic when combined with other active anti-myeloma drugs. To evaluate this we examined the effect of ATO alone and in combination with anti-myeloma treatments evaluated in vitro with MTT assays and using our severe combined immunodeficient (SCID)-hu murine myeloma models. First, we determined the effects of combining ATO with bortezomib or melphalan on the myeloma cell lines RPMI8226 and U266. Cell proliferation assays demonstrated marked synergistic anti-proliferative effects of ATO at concentrations ranging from 5x10−5M – 5x10−9M and melphalan concentrations ranging from 3x10−5M – 3x10−9M. Similar effects were observed when these cell lines were treated with bortezomib and varying concentrations of ATO (5x10−5 M – 5x10−10 M). We also investigated the potential of ATO to increase the efficacy of anti-myeloma therapies in our SCID-hu murine model LAGλ–1 (Yang H et al. Blood 2002). Each SCID mouse was implanted with a 0.5 cm3 LAGλ–1 tumor fragment into the left hind limb muscle. Mice were treated with ATO alone at 6.0 mg/kg, 1.25 mg/kg, 0.25 mg/kg, and 0.05 mg/kg intraperitoneally (IP) daily x5/week starting 19 days post-implantation. Mice receiving the highest dose of ATO (6.0 mg/kg) showed marked inhibition of tumor growth and reduction of paraprotein levels while there was no effect observed in all other treatment groups. Next, 27 days following implantation of our LAGλ–1 intramuscular (IM) tumor, LAGλ–1 mice were treated with ATO (1.25 mg/kg) IP, bortezomib (0.25 mg/kg), or the combination of both drugs at these doses in the schedules outlined above. ATO or bortezomib treatment alone had no anti-myeloma effects at these low doses consistent with our previous results whereas there was a marked decrease in both tumor volume (57%) and paraprotein levels (53%) in mice receiving the combined therapy. The combination of melphalan and ATO was also evaluated in this model. LAGλ–1 bearing mice received therapy with melphalan IP x1/weekly at 12.0 mg/kg, 6.0 mg/kg, 0.6 mg/kg, and 0.06 mg/kg starting 22 days post-implantation and showed no anti-myeloma effects. Twenty-eight days following implantation of LAGλ–1 tumor, mice received ATO (1.25 mg/kg) or melphalan (0.6 mg/kg) alone at doses without anti-myeloma effects, or the combination of these agents at these doses. The animals treated with these drugs alone showed a similar growth and increase in paraprotein levels to control mice whereas the combination of ATO and melphalan at these low doses markedly suppressed the growth of the tumor by >50% and significantly reduced serum paraprotein levels. These in vitro and in vivo studies suggest that the addition of ATO to other anti-myeloma agents is likely to result in improved outcomes for patients with drug resistant myeloma. Based on these results, these combinations are now in clinical trials with promising early results for patients with drug resistant myeloma.


Blood ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 118 (21) ◽  
pp. 1653-1653
Author(s):  
Silvia Locatelli ◽  
Arianna Giacomini ◽  
Anna Guidetti ◽  
Loredana Cleris ◽  
Michele Magni ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 1653 Introduction: A significant proportion of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients refractory to first-line chemotherapy or relapsing after autologous transplantation are not cured with currently available treatments and require new treatments. The PI3K/AKT and RAF/MEK/ERK pathways are constitutively activated in the majority of HL. These pathways can be targeted using the AKT inhibitor perifosine (Æterna Zentaris GmBH, Germany, EU), and the RAF/MEK/ERK inhibitor sorafenib (Nexavar®, Bayer, Germany, EU). We hypothesized that perifosine in combination with sorafenib might have a therapeutic activity in HL by overcoming the cytoprotective and anti-apoptotic effects of PI3K/Akt and RAF/MEK/ERK pathways. Since preclinical evidence supporting the anti-lymphoma effects of the perifosine/sorafenib combination are still lacking, the present study aimed at investigating in vitro and in vivo the activity and mechanism(s) of action of this two-drug combination. METHODS: Three HL cell lines (HD-MyZ, L-540 and HDLM-2) were used to investigate the effects of perifosine and sorafenib using in vitro assays analyzing cell growth, cell cycle distribution, gene expression profiling (GEP), and apoptosis. Western blotting (WB) experiments were performed to determine whether the two-drug combination affected MAPK and PI3K/AKT pathways as well as apoptosis. Additionally, the antitumor efficacy and mechanism of action of perifosine/sorafenib combination were investigated in vivo in nonobese diabetic/severe combined immune-deficient (NOD/SCID) mice. RESULTS: While perifosine and sorafenib as single agents exerted a limited activity against HL cells, exposure of HD-MyZ and L-540 cell lines, but not HDLM-2 cells, to perifosine/sorafenib combination resulted in synergistic cell growth inhibition (40% to 80%) and cell cycle arrest. Upon perifosine/sorafenib exposure, L-540 cell line showed significant levels of apoptosis (up to 70%, P ≤.0001) associated with severe mitochondrial dysfunction (cytochrome c, apoptosis-inducing factor release and marked conformational change of Bax accompanied by membrane translocation). Apoptosis induced by perifosine/sorafenib combination did not result in processing of caspase-8, -9, -3, or cleavage of PARP, and was not reversed by the pan-caspase inhibitor Z-VADfmk, supporting a caspase-independent mechanism of apoptosis. In responsive cell lines, WB analysis showed that anti-proliferative events were associated with dephosphorylation of MAPK and PI3K/Akt pathways. GEP analysis of HD-MyZ and L-540 cell lines, but not HDLM-2 cells indicated that perifosine/sorafenib treatment induced upregulation of genes involved in amino acid metabolism and downregulation of genes regulating cell cycle, DNA replication and cell death. In addition, in responsive cell lines, perifosine/sorafenib combination strikingly induced the expression of tribbles homologues 3 (TRIB3) both in vitro and in vivo. Silencing of TRIB3 prevented cell growth reduction induced by perifosine/sorafenib treatment. In vivo, the combined perifosine/sorafenib treatment significantly increased the median survival of NOD/SCID mice xenografted with HD-MyZ cell line as compared to controls (81 vs 45 days, P ≤.0001) as well as mice receiving perifosine alone (49 days, P ≤.03) or sorafenib alone (54 days, P ≤.007). In mice bearing subcutaneous nodules generated by HD-MyZ and L-540 cell lines but not HDLM-2 cell line, perifosine/sorafenib treatment induced significantly increased levels of apoptosis (2- to 2.5-fold, P ≤.0001) and necrosis (2- to 8-fold, P ≤.0001), as compared to controls or treatment with single agents. CONCLUSIONS: Perifosine/sorafenib combination resulted in potent anti-HL activity both in vitro and in vivo. These results warrant clinical evaluation in HL patients. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 122 (21) ◽  
pp. 3168-3168
Author(s):  
Anamika Dhyani ◽  
João Agostinho Machado-Neto ◽  
Patricia Favaro ◽  
Sara Teresinha Olalla Saad

Abstract Introduction ANKHD1 is a multiple ankyrin repeats containing protein, highly expressed in cancers, such as acute leukemia. Earlier studies showed that ANKHD1 is highly expressed and plays important role in proliferation and cell cycle progression of multiple myeloma (MM) cells. It was also observed that ANKHD1 downregulation modulates cell cycle gene expression and upregulates p21 irresepective of TP53 mutational status of MM cell lines. Objective The present study aimed to study the effect ofANKHD1 silencing on MM growth both in vitro (clonogenicity, migration) and in vivo (xenograft tumor mice model). The purpose was to investigate the feasibility of ANKHD1 gene therapy for MM. Methods In the present study, ANKHD1 expression was silenced using short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-lentiviral delivery vector in MM cell lines (U266 and MM1S). For control MM cells were tranduced by lentiviral shRNA against LacZ. Downregulation of ANKHD1 expression was confirmed by qPCR and Western blot. Colony formation capacity and migration of control and ANKHD1 silenced MM cells was determined by methylcellulose and transwell migration assays, respectively. For in vivo MM growth, NOD-SCID mice were divided in two groups injected with control and ANKHD1 silenced cells, separately. Mice were observed daily for tumor growth. Once the tumor size reached 1 mm3, mice in both groups were sacrificed and tumor was excised to measure tumor volume and weight. Results Corroborating the results obtained in our earlier studies, in the present study also inhibition of ANKHD1 expression suppressed growth of MM cells in vitro. MM cell lines tranduced with ANKHD1 shRNA showed significantly low number of colonies ten days after plating in methylcellulose medium as compared to control (p<0.05). Similarly, in transwell migration assay, cell lines transduced with ANKHD1 showed significantly less migration as in response to 10% FBS at lower chamber as compared to control group (p<0.05) in both the cell lines analyzed. Further in xenograft MM mice model, the growth of tumor was visibly suppressed in mice injected with ANKHD1 silenced cells compared to control group. There was significant difference in tumor size (volume) between these 2 groups (P< 0.006). The tumor weight of the inhibition group was 0.71 ±0.2 g, significantly lighter than those of the control group (1.211 ± 0.5 g, P =0.02) Conclusion Our data indicates ANKHD1 downregulation significantly inhibits colony-forming ability and migration of both glucocorticoid resistant (U266) and sensitive (MM1S) MM cells. Further, gene silencing of ANKHD1 also resulted in reduced in vivo tumor growth in NOD/SCID mice. Collectively, the result obtained indicates that ANKHD1 may be a target for gene therapy in MM. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e13545-e13545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bozhenko ◽  
Tatyana Michailovna Kulinich ◽  
Elena Aleksandrovna Kudinova ◽  
Andrey Boldyrev ◽  
Vladimir Alekseevich Solodkij

e13545 Background: MM-D37K is a synthetic peptide which consists of p16INK4a-specific inhibitor of complex cyclin D- CDK4 and CDK6 and cell penetrating peptide (CPP) – Antp (Penetratin). We investigated in vitro and in vivo cytotoxic, cytostatic and antitumor activity of MM-D37K. The level of cyclin A, Ki67,bax, bcl-2 and pRb phosphorylation was investigated. Full range of Toxicology tests and Pharmacokinetics experiments in mice, rats and rabbits were performed. Methods: Different cell lines (Jurcat, Raji, A549, MCF-7, Hct-116, Ht-29, HEK293) were incubated with 0.1-100 mM MM-D37K for 24-48 hrs. Proliferation (MTT), DNA-content, cell cycle (flow cytometry) and mRNA level of appropriate proteins (RT PCR) were investigated. In vivo experiments were conducted on xenograft model of HCT116, A-549 at concentration 5 and 10 mg/kg of MM-D37K. Toxicology experiments were made under RF Law and included 3 types of animals. LC-MS MMD37K method of detection in plasma was developed. Results: MM-D37K prevented pRb phosphorilation and proliferation activation in all investigated cell lines. Cell cycle was blocked in G1 phase. Cytostatic effect did not depend on p16 mutation or expression. MM-D37K induced apoptosis in 20-82% of investigated cells at 40 mM with lowest level for MCF-7. LD10 for rats was 100 mg/kg and no deaths were registered for rabbits (highest dose was 50 mg/kg). Concentration of MMD-37K in plasma after 2 min and bolus i.v. injection in dose 10 mg/kg was 72.16±5.64 mcg/ml. Concentration decreased in two phases. 1st – t1/2 = 2.39±0.39 min and for 2nd t1/2=2.39±0.39 hr. Antitumor effects in xenograft model were 53% for A-549 and 67% for HCT116. Conclusions: Our results proved cytotoxic, cytostatic and antitumor effects of MM-D37K in investigated cell lines in vitro and in vivo. Toxicological and pharmacokinetics results allow us recommend for I/IIa Phase clinical trial. (Support: MetaMax Ltd., RFFI, Minpromtorg RF.)


1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 603-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torsten E. Reichert ◽  
Simon Watkins ◽  
Joanna Stanson ◽  
Jonas T. Johnson ◽  
Theresa L. Whiteside

We have previously demonstrated that interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptors, IL-2 protein, and mRNA for IL-2 are present in human carcinomas in vitro and in vivo. Carcinoma cells synchronized in the G2/M-phase of the cell cycle express significantly more intracytoplasmic IL-2 as well as IL-2R-β and -γ than tumor cells in the G0/G1-phase. Here we evaluated immunohistologically the cell cycle-dependent distribution of the proliferation-associated Ki-67 antigen and expression of the cytokine IL-2 in four different carcinoma cell lines. In addition, 34 tissue samples from patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck were simultaneously analyzed for Ki-67 and IL-2 expression and the data were correlated to the histological grade of the tumors. All tumor cell lines were shown to express IL-2 in the Golgi complex. The strongest IL-2 expression was seen in tumor cells undergoing mitosis, identified by double staining with the antibody to Ki-67. In the tumor tissue, the highest level of co-expression of IL-2 and Ki-67 was observed in poorly differentiated carcinomas, with a labeling index (LI) of 67.2% for IL-2 and 68.8% for Ki-67. Well-differentiated carcinomas showed a significantly lower expression of both proteins (LI 35.0% for IL-2 and 26.5% for Ki-67). The correlation between the labeling indices was statistically significant ( r = 0.747; p<0.001). These results demonstrate that IL-2 expression in human carcinoma tissues is strongly associated with cell proliferation and significantly correlates with the histological tumor grade.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Weiya Cao ◽  
Xueke Liu ◽  
Yinci Zhang ◽  
Amin Li ◽  
Yinghai Xie ◽  
...  

Acquired resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to sorafenib (SFB) is the main reason for the failure of SFB treatment of the cancer. Abnormal activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway is important in the acquired resistance of SFB. Therefore, we investigated whether BEZ235 (BEZ) could reverse acquired sorafenib resistance by targeting the PI3K/mTOR pathway. A sorafenib-resistant HCC cell line Huh7R was established. MTT assay, clone formation assay, flow cytometry, and immunofluorescence were used to analyze the effects of BEZ235 alone or combined with sorafenib on cell proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, and autophagy of Huh7 and Huh7R cells. The antitumor effect was evaluated in animal models of Huh7R xenografts in vivo. Western blot was used to detect protein levels of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and related effector molecules. In vitro results showed that the Huh7R had a stronger proliferation ability and antiapoptosis effect than did Huh7, and sorafenib had no inhibitory effect on Huh7R. SFB + BEZ inhibited the activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway caused by sorafenib. Moreover, SFB + BEZ inhibited the proliferation and cloning ability, blocked the cell cycle in the G0/G1 phase, and promoted apoptosis in the two cell lines. The autophagy level in Huh7R cells was higher than in Huh7 cells, and BEZ or SFB + BEZ further promoted autophagy in the two cell lines. In vivo, SFB + BEZ inhibited tumor growth by inducing apoptosis and autophagy. We concluded that BEZ235 enhanced the sensitivity of sorafenib through suppressing the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and inducing autophagy. These observations may provide the experimental basis for sorafenib combined with BEZ235 in trial treatment of HCC.


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