• Kostyantyn Krysan, Harnisha Dalwadi, Sherven Sharma, Mehis Põld, and Steven Dubinett.
• Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, University of California at Los Angeles Lung Cancer Research Program of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, 90095, USA.
• Cancer Res. 2004 Sep 15; 64 (18): 6359-62.

AbstractElevated tumor cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) expression is associated with increased angiogenesis, tumor invasion, and promotion of tumor cell resistance to apoptosis. In our previous studies using non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines constitutively expressing COX-2 cDNA in sense and antisense orientations, we demonstrated that constitutive overexpression of COX-2 leads to stabilization of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein survivin resulting in the elevated apoptosis resistance of COX-2-overexpressing cells. Genetic or pharmacologic suppression of COX-2 activity increased proteasomal degradation of survivin and cellular response to apoptosis induction. Our data show that expression of survivin in non-small cell lung cancer cells can be significantly down-regulated by RNA interference. Whereas COX-2-overexpressing NSCLC cells have significantly higher apoptosis resistance than the parental cells, inhibition of survivin expression by small interfering RNA decreases apoptosis resistance to the level of the parental non-small cell lung cancer. We conclude that COX-2-dependent expression of survivin is critical for apoptosis resistance in non-small cell lung cancer.

34 keywords...

hide…