Inhibition of autophagy can promote the apoptosis of bladder cancer cells induced by SC66 through the endoplasmic reticulum stress pathway

Lu Wang; Rundong Song; Minghai Ma; Yuhang Chen; Yunzhong Jiang; Jianpeng Li; Zezhong Yang; Lu Zhang; Minxuan Jing; Xinyang Wang; Mengzhao Zhang; Jinhai Fan

doi:10.1016/j.cbi.2023.110725

Inhibition of autophagy can promote the apoptosis of bladder cancer cells induced by SC66 through the endoplasmic reticulum stress pathway

Chem Biol Interact. 2023 Oct 1:384:110725. doi: 10.1016/j.cbi.2023.110725. Epub 2023 Sep 21.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
² Department of Vascular Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China. Electronic address: zhangmz10@163.com.
³ Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China; Oncology Research Lab, Key Laboratory of Environment and Genes Related to Diseases, Ministry of Education, Xi'an, China. Electronic address: jinhaif029@126.com.

PMID: 37741534
DOI: 10.1016/j.cbi.2023.110725

Abstract

Bladder cancer is among the ten most prevalent cancer types worldwide, and its prognosis has not improved significantly in the past three decades because of cognitive limitations in the molecular mechanisms that drive the malignant progression of bladder cancer. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify new therapeutic drugs or molecular targets to improve the prognosis of patients with bladder cancer. SC66, a novel allosteric inhibitor of AKT, has recently been reported to exert potent anticancer effects on various cancer cells. However, the mechanisms underlying its anticancer effects in bladder cancer remain largely unknown. Consequently, this study aimed to conduct a series of molecular and cellular biology experiments to verify the anticancer effect and potential mechanism of action of SC66 in bladder cancer in vitro. A xenograft tumor model was established to confirm its anticancer role in vivo. Our results showed that SC66 inhibited cell proliferation, triggered mitochondria-mediated apoptosis, and initiated autophagy in bladder cancer cells dose-dependently. In addition, our results suggested that SC66-caused apoptosis and autophagy were endoplasmic reticulum stress-dependent. Interestingly, the activation of autophagy can partially protect bladder cancer cells from apoptosis under endoplasmic reticulum stress induced by SC66 treatment. This study shows that SC66 exerts its anticancer impact on bladder cancer by inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis. It also reveals that inhibiting autophagy can increase the cytotoxic effects of SC66 in bladder cancer. Overall, this is the first study on the anticancer effect of SC66 mediated by the endoplasmic reticulum stress pathway and the first report on the AKT-independent anticancer mechanism of SC66 in bladder cancer. Conclusively, exploring the relationship between apoptosis, autophagy, and endoplasmic reticulum stress induced by SC66 indicates that SC66 is a promising novel agent for patients with bladder cancer.

Keywords: Apoptosis; Autophagy; Bladder cancer; Endoplasmic reticulum stress; SC66.