Differential expression of inflammasomes in lung cancer cell lines and tissues

Abstract

As pivotal elements involved in inflammation, inflammasomes represent a group of multiprotein complexes triggering the maturation of proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. Although the importance of the inflammasomes in inflammatory diseases is well appreciated, a precise characterization of their expressions in lung cancer remains obscure. This study aimed to determine the expressions of inflammasomes in various lung cancer cell lines and tissues to understand their potential roles in lung cancer. Our findings showed that inflammasome components were markedly upregulated in lung cancer and elicited the maturation of IL-1β and IL-18. In addition, enormous variations in subtypes and levels of inflammasomes were detected in lung cancers depending on their histological type and grading, invasion ability, as well as chemoresistance. Generally, AIM2 inflammasome was overexpressed in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), while NLRP3 inflammasome was upregulated in lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The high-metastatic or cisplatin-sensitive NSCLC cells expressed more inflammasome components and products than their counterpart low-metastatic or cisplatin-resistant NSCLC cells, respectively. In resected lung cancer tissues, high-grade ADC expressed more inflammasome components and products than low-grade ADC. Together, these findings suggest that inflammasomes may be crucial biomarkers for lung cancer as well as potential modulators of the biological behaviors of lung cancer. Further, pharmacotherapeutics targeting inflammasomes might be novel adjuvant therapy strategies for lung cancer.

Retracted:HBx‐mediated decrease of AIM2 contributes to hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis

“…Previous studies have shown that AIM2 was differently expressed and functioned as both a tumor suppressor and oncogene in human cancers. AIM2 was overexpressed in nonsmall cell lung cancer and facilitated cell proliferation (Kong et al ., 2015; Sorrentino et al ., 2015). AIM2 restoration in colorectal cancer cells induced the expression of invasion‐associated genes such as VIM and MCAM (Patsos et al ., 2010).…”

The Duality of AIM2 Inflammasome: A Focus on its Role in Autoimmunity and Skin Diseases

“…In support of the role of AIM2 inflammasome as a suppressor of cancer, it has been found that colorectal cancer patients, whose tissues showed a reduced AIM2 expression have a poorer prognosis compared to those with an up-regulation of AIM2 (Dihlmann et al, 2014). Moreover, AIM2 downregulation has also been reported in prostate cancer (Ponomareva et al, 2013), whereas increased expression has been detected in nasopharyngeal carcinoma Chen et al, 2012), oral squamous cell carcinoma (Kondo et al, 2012) and lung adenocarcinoma (Kong et al, 2015), suggesting that the differential expression of AIM2 in a range of tumor tissues could relate to its possible unique role in different types of cancer (Man et al, 2016). The mechanism by which AIM2 regulates tumorigenesis has been demonstrated by Wilson et al (2015) and described in a mouse model of colitis-associated colorectal cancer (Man et al, 2015b).…”

Is mitochondrial dysfunction a driving mechanism linking COPD to nonsmall cell lung carcinoma?

“…Components of the inflammasome pathway are also overexpressed in lung cancer, with AIM2 and NLRP3 as the major scaffolding proteins [118]. AIM2 is overexpressed in all subtypes of NSCLC while NLRP3 is upregulated in adenocarcinoma, with expression limited to the malignant epithelial cells [118].…”

“…AIM2 is overexpressed in all subtypes of NSCLC while NLRP3 is upregulated in adenocarcinoma, with expression limited to the malignant epithelial cells [118]. The role of the inflammasome activation in the pathogenesis of lung cancer remains uncertain.…”