We studied the effect of the integrin inhibitor cilengitide in glioma

We studied the effect of the integrin inhibitor cilengitide in glioma cells. cells radiation beclin-1 Malignant gliomas including anaplastic astrocytomas and glioblastomas are the most common main brain tumors happening at a rate of approximately 6.08/100 000 individuals annually within the United Says. 1 Current treatment options include surgery treatment radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Unfortunately prognosis remains extremely poor and the median survival of 12-14 weeks for individuals with glioblastoma has not changed appreciably.2 Limitations to therapy include the distinctly infiltrative nature of these tumors and their prominent angiogenesis and vasculogenesis.3 Integrins control cell attachment to extracellular matrices (ECMs) and participate in cellular defense against genotoxic assaults.4 The integrin αvβ3 binds diverse ECM ligands with an exposed arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (“RGD”) sequence.5 In glioblastomas αvβ3 and αvβ5 integrins and their ligands are overexpressed and they regulate the cellular behavior of these tumors and support growth Lycorine chloride factor-mediated cell survival.6 Pharmacological antagonists of the integrin αv?3 have been used in glioma tumor models. Interference with integrin αv?3 induces cytotoxic effects in glioma and endothelial cells and prolongs survival in orthotopic glioma models.7 Currently αv integrin antagonists including cilengitide (EMD121974) which is Lycorine chloride a cyclic RGD-containing peptide 5 are in clinical tests. Cilengitide has also been shown Rabbit Polyclonal to HSF2. to synergize with radiotherapy to increase efficacy in breast tumor 8 non-small cell lung carcinoma 9 and glioblastoma xenograft models.10 11 Although cilengitide offers been shown to induce cytotoxic effects in glioma cells 12 13 the mechanisms underlying its effects and its ability to radiosensitize glioma cells are not completely understood. Autophagy is definitely a highly conserved process in which cellular organelles and long-lived proteins are Lycorine chloride sequestered into double-membrane vesicles autophagosomes and delivered to the lysosomes to be degraded or recycled.14 The triggering of autophagy Lycorine chloride Lycorine chloride is largely associated with the inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) which leads to the activation of various autophagy-related proteins (Atgs)14 15 and different signaling pathways.16 Autophagosome formation requires the conjugation of ATG12 to ATG5 and that of phosphatidylethanolamine to light chain (LC)3/ATG8 via ubiquitin-like conjugation systems. Activation of the autophagy process is dependent within the cellular context and on the duration and strength of the inducing signals.17 Thus in addition to maintaining cellular homeostasis autophagy can either be cytoprotective or mediate a type II form of programmed cell death.17 Autophagy is induced in response to various anticancer therapies.18 Indeed malignant gliomas undergo autophagy in response to various treatments such as radiation 19 20 temozolomide (TMZ) 21 arsenic trioxide 22 curcumin 23 cisplatin 24 and cannabinoids.25 In addition to autophagy induced by anticancer treatments detachment of cells from your ECM which is usually associated with anoikis and prospects to apoptotic cell death can also induce autophagy in some cells.26 With this study we found that cilengitide decreased cell viability via the induction of autophagy followed by cell apoptosis. Combined cilengitide and γ-radiation treatment induced a larger degree of autophagy and improved cell cytotoxicity. Materials and Methods Materials Anti-beclin-1 antibodies were from Santa Cruz Biotechnology. Anti-LC3 and active caspase-3 antibodies were from Cell Signaling Technology. Cilengitide was provided by Merck KGaA. Vitronectin was from Millipore and was Lycorine chloride used at a concentration of 5 μg/mL. Cell Transfection The glioma cell lines U251 and U87 were managed as previously explained.11 Cells were transfected with SureSilencing Beclin1 (Qiagen) or control small-hairpin (sh) RNA plasmids (SA Biosciences) by electroporation using the Nucleofector device system A027 as described20 (Amaxa Biosystems). Glioma Stem Cell-like Cells and Enrichment of CD133+ Cells The generation of the glioma stem-like cells (GSCs) and the enrichment of CD133+ cells and their characterization were recently described.20 All GSCs employed in this study exhibited self-renewal and mulitipotentiality and generated tumors in nude mice. Spheroids.