No abstract

Nanomaterials are used in diverse fields including food, cosmetic, and medical industries. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2-NP) are widely used, but their effects on biological systems and mechanism of toxicity have not been elucidated fully. Here, we report the toxicological mechanism of TiO2-NP in cell organelles. Human bronchial epithelial cells (16HBE14o-) were exposed to 50 and 100 μg/mL TiO2-NP for 24 and 48 h. Our results showed that TiO2-NP induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in the cells and disrupted the mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum membranes (MAMs) and calcium ion balance, thereby increasing autophagy. In contrast, an inhibitor of ER stress, tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), mitigated the cellular toxic response, suggesting that TiO2-NP promoted toxicity via ER stress. This novel mechanism of TiO2-NP toxicity in human bronchial epithelial cells suggests that further exhaustive research on the harmful effects of these nanoparticles in relevant organisms is needed for their safe application.

Achievement of long-term survival of patients with lung cancer treated with conventional chemotherapy is still difficult for treatment of metastatic and advanced tumors. Despite recent progress in investigational therapies, survival rates are still disappointingly low and novel adjuvant and systemic therapies are urgently needed. A recently elucidated secretory pathway is attracting considerable interest as a promising anticancer target. The cis-Golgi matrix protein, GOLGA2/GM130, plays an important role in glycosylation and transport of protein in the secretory pathway. In this study, the effects of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) constructs targeting GOLGA2/GM130 (shGOLGA2) on autophagy and lung cancer growth were evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Downregulation of GOLGA2/GM130 led to induction of autophagy and inhibition of glycosylation in A549 cells and in the lungs of K-ras(LA1) mice. Furthermore, downregulation of GOLGA2/GM130 decreased angiogenesis and cancer cell invasion in vitro and suppressed tumorigenesis in lung cancer mice model. The tumor specificity of sequence targeting GOLGA2/GM130 was also demonstrated. Taken together, these results suggest that induction of autophagy by shGOLGA2 may induce cell death rather than cell survival. Therefore, downregulation of GOLGA2/GM130 may be a potential therapeutic option for lung cancer.

No abstract

Osteopontin (OPN) serves as an indicator of resistance to radiotherapy. However, the role of OPN in the development of acquired radioresistance in human lung cancer cells has not yet been fully elucidated. Therefore, the potential importance of OPN as a marker of lung cancer with a potential significant role in the development of radioresistance against repeated radiotherapy has prompted us to define the pathways by which OPN regulates lung cancer cell growth. In addition, autophagy has been reported to play a key role in the radiosensitization of cancer cells. Here, we report that increased OPN expression through induction of nuclear p53 following irradiation was inhibited by exogenous beclin-1 (BECN1). Our results clearly show that BECN1 gene expression led to induction of autophagy and inhibition of cancer cell growth and angiogenesis. Our results suggest that the induction of autophagy abrogated the radioresistance of the cancer cells. Interestingly, we showed that knockdown of OPN by lentivirus-mediated shRNA induced the autophagy of human lung cancer cell. Taken together, these results suggest that OPN and BECN1 can be molecular targets for overcoming radioresistance by controlling autophagy.