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Choline acetyltransferase: A novel molecular target in lung adenocarcinoma therapy
Author(s) -
Richbart Stephen D,
Akers Austin T,
Friedman Jamie R,
Bow Eric W,
Rimoldi John M,
Hardman Elaine W.,
Dasgupta Piyali
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2019.33.1_supplement.496.2
Subject(s) - gefitinib , choline acetyltransferase , cancer research , adenocarcinoma , lung cancer , medicine , erlotinib , apoptosis , autocrine signalling , nicotine , pharmacology , chemotherapy , oncology , biology , cancer , acetylcholine , epidermal growth factor receptor , biochemistry , receptor
The clinicopathological properties of lung adenocarcinoma (LAC) in smokers is divergent from LAC in non‐smokers. One of the distinctive features of LAC in smokers is that the disease is relatively resistant to targeted molecular therapies. For example, targeted therapeutic agents like EGFR‐inhibitors (erlotinib and gefitinib) are highly effective in LACs in non‐smokers. However, these agents display much lower anti‐tumor activity in LACs in patients who are active smokers. Similarly, lung cancer patients (who are active smokers) show a lower response to chemotherapy than those who are non‐smokers. However, the majority of LAC patients are smokers. This underlines the need to identify viable drug targets for LAC therapy in patients who are exposed to cigarette smoke. A survey of literature reveals that nicotine (the addictive component of cigarette smoke) accelerates the growth of lung cancers, as well as confers resistance to chemotherapy. One of the mechanisms underlying the mitogenic activity of nicotine is that it promotes the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) from LAC cells. ACh is known to be an autocrine growth factor for LAC cells and is synthesized by the enzyme choline acetyltransferase (ChAT). The present study investigates the feasibility of ChAT as a molecular target for LAC in smokers. We find that ChAT levels are upregulated in human LAC cell lines and tissues in analogous to their smoking history. Finally, the ChAT inhibitor BW813U causes robust apoptosis in human LAC cell lined and LAC cell lines isolated from patients. The magnitude of BW813U‐induced apoptosis is similar across LAC cell lines irrespective of smoking history; however, the concentration of BW813U which causes apoptosis is lower in LAC cell lines belonging to heavy smokers. The anti‐tumor activity of BW813U is also observed in H838 cells (belonging to an 80 pack‐year smoker) xenografted on athymic mice. Our studies show that antagonists of ChAT like BW813U may have therapeutic applications in the majority of the population of LAC who are smokers. Support or Funding Information Funding for our study was supported by a NIH R15‐AREA Grant (2R15CA161491‐02). Furthermore, this study was supported in part by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Grant number P20GM104932 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and the Research Core B of COBRE, a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .