PLX-4720 Programmers Join Forces
To get further insights into the molecular circuitries underlying vitamin B6-mediated chemosensitization, we performed targeted metabolomic determinations and metabolomic profiling. We found that, in pre-apoptotic conditions, NSCLC cells treated with CDDP and PN exhibited a bioenergetic defect (measured in terms of Atkinson��s energy charge?= [ATP]?+ 0.5 [ADP] / [ATP]?+ [ADP]?+ [AMP]) (Atkinson, 1968) that was not present in cells incubated with either these compounds alone selleck kinase inhibitor (Figure?5A and Figures S5A�CS5C). Moreover, A549 cells succumbed to CDDP while manifesting a decrease in the intracellular levels of GSH (Figures 5B and 5C) as well as of three metabolites with molecular weights of approximately 161, 203, and 217 Da, which were identified as carnitine, acetyl-carnitine, and propionyl-carnitine, respectively (Figures S5D�CS5F). Such a decrease in GSH and redox-relevant metabolites was largely aggravated by PN (Figures 5B, 5C and S5D�CS5F). Still, only GSH (Figure?4A) (but not carnitine metabolites, Figures S5G and S5H) could protect cells against the cytotoxic effect of CDDP plus PN. These results indicate that vitamin B6 exerts chemosensitizing effects by interfering in a multipronged fashion with the redox metabolism. We therefore hypothesized that the vitamin B6 metabolism might have a general impact on the cellular management of stress. Indeed, PN rendered A549 cells more sensitive to hyperthermia, ionizing irradiation, hypoxia, respiratory chain Cefaloridine inhibition (with high doses of KCN), and nutrient depletion (Figure?5D). As in the case of CDDP (Figure?3F), PN-mediated sensitization was abrogated by the siRNA-mediated knockdown of PDXK (Figures 5D and S3D). Given the profound implication of vitamin B6 and PDXK in the response of NSCLC to CDDP as well as in the management of cellular stress, we wanted to investigate the influence of PDXK expression Osimertinib levels in the clinical setting. To this aim, we developed an immunohistochemical staining method that specifically detects PDXK (as demonstrated by the fact that siRNA-mediated depletion of PDXK results in the complete loss of the signal) (Figures S6A and S6B) and applied it to specimens from a first NSCLC patient cohort. These patients were affected by localized NSCLC and underwent surgery followed by optional adjuvant CDDP (Table?1). Upon immunohistochemical analysis (Figure?6A), samples were divided into two groups with high (>median) and low (