Synergistic effects between natural compounds and chemotherapy drugs are believed to have fewer side effects with equivalent efficacy. However, the synergistic potential of prodigiosin (PG) with doxorubicin (Dox) chemotherapy is still unknown. This study explores the synergistic mechanism of PG and Dox against oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells. Three OSCC cell lines were treated with different PG/Dox combinatory schemes for cytotoxicity tests and were further investigated for cell death characteristics by cell cycle flow cytometry and autophagy/apoptosis marker labelling. When OSCC cells were pretreated with PG, the cytotoxicity of the subsequent Dox-treatment was 30% higher than Dox alone. The cytotoxic efficacy of PG-pretreated was found better than those of PG plus Dox co-treatment and Dox-pretreatment. Increase of Sub-G1 phase and caspase-3/LC-3 levels without poly (ADP-ribose) polymeras (PARP) elevation indicated both autophagy and necrosis occurred in OSCC cells. Dox flux after PG-priming was further evaluated by rhodamine-123 accumulation and Dox transporters analysis to elucidate the PG-priming effect. PG-priming autophagy enhanced Dox accumulation according to the increase of rhodamine-123 accumulation without the alterations of Dox transporters. Additionally, the cause of PG-triggered autophagy was determined by co-treatment with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress or AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) inhibitor. PG-induced autophagy was not related to nutrient deprivation and ER stress was proved by co-treatment with specific inhibitor. Taken together, PG-priming autophagy could sensitize OSCC cells by promoting Dox influx without regulation of Dox transporter. The PG-priming might be a promising adjuvant approach for the chemotherapy of OSCC.
Keywords: autophagy; doxorubicin; influx; priming; prodigiosin.