Advisory Committee Chair
David D Ku
Advisory Committee Members
Gary A Piazza
Mahmoud H El Kouni
Isam-Eldin Eltoum
Mohammad Athar
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2013
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Heersink School of Medicine
Abstract
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as sulindac sulfide (SS) have shown promising antineoplastic activity in multiple tumor types, but toxicities resulting from cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibition limit their use in cancer prevention. We recently described a N,N-dimethylethyl amine derivative of SS, sulindac sulfide amide (SSA), that does not inhibit COX-1 or -2, yet displays potent tumor cell growth inhibitory activity. Here, we studied the basis for the growth inhibitory effects of SSA on human lung adenocarcinoma cell lines and evaluated its preclinical pharmacology. SSA potently inhibited the growth of lung tumor cells with IC50 values of 2-5 μ compared with 44-52 μ for SS. SSA also suppressed DNA synthesis and caused a G0/G1 cell cycle arrest. SSA-induced cell death was associated with characteristics of autophagy, but significant caspase activation or PARP cleavage was not observed after treatment at its IC50 value. siRNA knockdown of Atg7 attenuated SSA-induced autophagy and cell death, while pan-caspase inhibitor ZVAD was not able to rescue viability. SSA treatment also inhibited Akt/mTOR signaling and the expression of downstream proteins that are regulated by this pathway. Overexpression of a constitutively active form of Akt was able to reduce markers of autophagy and confer resistance to SSA-induced cell death. Our findings provide evidence that SSA inhibits lung tumor cell growth by a mechanism involving autophagy induction through the suppression of Akt/mTOR signaling. SSA displayed a striking lung accumulation in pharmacokinetic studies but had poor solubility and oral bioavailability. A series of SSA analogs were synthesized that had improved oral bioavailability, showed efficacy in an orthotopic lung tumor model and retained their ability to induce autophagy. The unique mechanism of action and pharmaokinetics, along with increased potency and lack of cyclooxygenase inhibition support the development of SSA or related analogs for the prevention and/or treatment of lung cancer.
Recommended Citation
Gurpinar, Evrim, "Sulindac Sulfide Amide as a Novel Agent for the Prevention and Treatment of Lung Cancer" (2013). All ETDs from UAB. 1824.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/1824