Paclitaxel and CYC3, an aurora kinase A inhibitor, synergise in pancreatic cancer cells but not bone marrow precursor cells
Menée sur des lignées cellulaires de cancer du pancréas, cette étude évalue l'activité antitumorale d'un nouvel inhibiteur de la kinase Aurora A, CYC3, en combinaison avec le paclitaxel
Background: Amplification of aurora kinase A (AK-A) overrides the mitotic spindle assembly checkpoint, inducing resistance to taxanes. RNA interference targeting AK-A in human pancreatic cancer cell lines enhanced taxane chemosensitivity. In this study, a novel AK-A inhibitor, CYC3, was investigated in pancreatic cancer cell lines, in combination with paclitaxel. Methods: Western blot, flow cytometry and immunostaining were used to investigate the specificity of CYC3. Sulforhodamine B staining, time-lapse microscopy and colony-formation assays were employed to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of CYC3 and paclitaxel. Human colony-forming unit of granulocyte and macrophage (CFU-GM) cells were used to compare the effect in tumour and normal tissue. Results: CYC3 was shown to be a specific AK-A inhibitor. Three nanomolar paclitaxel (growth inhibition 50% (GI50) 3 nM in PANC-1, 5.1 nM in MIA PaCa-2) in combination with 1
μM CYC3 (GI50 1.1
μM in MIA PaCa2 and 2
μM in PANC-1) was synergistic in inhibiting pancreatic cell growth and causing mitotic arrest, achieving similar effects to 10-fold higher concentrations of paclitaxel (30
nM). In CFU-GM cells, the effect of the combination was simply additive, displaying significantly less myelotoxicity compared with high concentrations of paclitaxel (30 nM; 60–70% vs 100% inhibition). Conclusion: The combination of lower doses of paclitaxel and CYC3 merits further investigation with the potential for an improved therapeutic index in vivo.