Ciclopirox targets cellular bioenergetics and activates ER stress to induce apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer cells

• Published in: Cell communication and signaling Vol. 20; no. 1; p. 37
• Main Authors: Lu, Junwan, Li, Yujie, Gong, Shiwei, Wang, Jiaxin, Lu, Xiaoang, Jin, Qiumei, Lu, Bin, Chen, Qin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central 24.03.2022; BMC
• Subjects: Acidification; Antitumor activity; Apoptosis; Bioenergetics; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - pathology; Cell adhesion & migration; Cell culture; Cell cycle; Cell death; Cell growth; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell migration; Cell Proliferation; Cellular bioenergetics; Cholecystokinin; Ciclopirox; Ciclopirox - pharmacology; Ciclopirox - therapeutic use; Clinical trials; Drug development; Endoplasmic reticulum; Endoplasmic reticulum stress; Energy Metabolism; Epithelial-mesenchymal transition; Flow cytometry; Homeostasis; Humans; Lung cancer; Lung Neoplasms - pathology; Medical prognosis; Mesenchyme; Metastases; Non-small cell lung cancer; Non-small cell lung carcinoma; Oxygen consumption; Protein folding; Proteins; Reactive oxygen species; Reactive Oxygen Species - metabolism; Small cell lung carcinoma; Solid tumors; Xenografts; United States > US; China; Epithelial-mesenchymal transition; Cellular bioenergetics; Ciclopirox; Non-small cell lung cancer; Endoplasmic reticulum stress
• ISSN: 1478-811X; 1478-811X
• DOI: 10.1186/s12964-022-00847-x

Lung cancer remains a major cause of cancer-related mortality throughout the world at present. Repositioning of existing drugs for other diseases is a promising strategy for cancer therapies, which may rapidly advance potentially promising agents into clinical trials and cut down the cost of drug development. Ciclopirox (CPX), an iron chelator commonly used to treat fungal infections, which has recently been shown to have antitumor activity against a variety of cancers including both solid tumors and hematological malignancies in vitro and in vivo. However, the effect of CPX on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the underlying mechanism is still unclear. CCK-8, clonal formation test and cell cycle detection were used to observe the effect of inhibitor on the proliferation ability of NSCLC cells. The effects of CPX on the metastasis ability of NSCLC cells were analyzed by Transwell assays. Apoptosis assay was used to observe the level of cells apoptosis. The role of CPX in energy metabolism of NSCLC cells was investigated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) detection, glucose uptake, oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) experiments. Western blot was used to examine the protein changes. We report that CPX inhibits NSCLC cell migration and invasion abilities through inhibiting the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, impairing cellular bioenergetics, and promoting reactive oxygen species to activate endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced apoptotic cell death. Moreover, CPX intraperitoneal injection can significantly inhibit NSCLC growth in vivo in a xenograft model. Our study revealed that CPX targets cellular bioenergetics and activates unfolded protein response in ER to drive apoptosis in NSCLC cells, indicating that CPX may be a potential therapeutic drug for the treatment of NSCLC. Video Abstract.