Niclosamide overcomes acquired resistance to erlotinib through suppression of STAT3 in non-small cell lung cancer
Menée in vitro et à l'aide de xénogreffes, cette étude met en évidence un mécanisme de résistance à l'erlotinib dans le traitement d'un cancer du poumon non à petites cellules et suggère que le niclosamide permet de restaurer la sensibilité des cellules cancéreuses à l'erlotinib
The emergence of resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor therapy is a major clinical problem for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The mechanisms underlying tumor resistance to inhibitors of the kinase activity of EGFR are not fully understood. Here we found that inhibition of EGFR by erlotinib induces STAT3 phosphorylation at Tyr705 in association with increased Bcl2/Bcl-XL at both mRNA and protein levels in various human lung cancer cells. PTPMeg2 is a physiologic STAT3 phosphatase that can directly dephosphorylate STAT3 at the Tyr705 site. Intriguingly, treatment of cells with erlotinib results in downregulation of PTPMeg2 without activation of STAT3 kinases (i.e. JAK2 or c-Src), suggesting that erlotinib enhanced phosphorylation of STAT3 may occur, at least in part, from suppression of PTPMeg2 expression. Since elevated levels of phosphorylated STAT3 (pSTAT3), Bcl2 and Bcl-XL were observed in erlotinib-resistant lung cancer (HCC827/ER) cells as compared to erlotinib-sensitive parental HCC827 cells, we postulate that erlotinib-activated STAT3/Bcl2/Bcl-XL survival pathway may contribute to acquired resistance to erlotinib. Both blockage of Tyr705 phosphorylation of STAT3 by niclosamide and depletion of STAT3 by RNA interference in HCC827/ER cells reverses erlotinib resistance. Niclosamide in combination with erlotinib potently represses erlotinib-resistant lung cancer xenografts in association with increased apoptosis in tumor tissues, suggesting that niclosamide can restore sensitivity to erlotinib. These findings uncover a novel mechanism of erlotinib resistance and provide a novel approach to overcome resistance by blocking the STAT3/Bcl2/Bcl-XL survival signaling pathway in human lung cancer.
http://mct.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2013/07/26/1535-7163.MCT-13-0095.abstract