Taxanes in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer

Mechanism of Taxanes in the Treatment of Lung Cancer Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking

Taxanes are natural compounds for the treatment of lung cancer, but the molecular mechanism behind the effects is unclear. In the present study, through network pharmacology and molecular docking, the mechanism of the target and pathway of taxanes in the treatment of lung cancer was studied. The taxanes targets were determined by PubChem database, and an effective compounds-targets network was constructed. The GeneCards database was used to determine the disease targets of lung cancer, and the intersection of compound targets and disease targets was obtained. The Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network of the intersection targets was analyzed, and the PPI network was constructed by Cytoscape 3.6.0 software. The hub targets were screened according to the degree value, and the binding activity between taxanes and hub targets was verified by molecular docking. The results showed that eight taxane-active compounds and 444 corresponding targets were screened out, and 131 intersection targets were obtained after mapping with lung cancer disease targets. The hub targets obtained by PPI analysis were TP53, EGFR, and AKT1. Gene Ontology (GO) biological function enrichment analysis obtained 1795 biological process (BP) terms, 101 cellular component (CC) terms, and 164 molecular function (MF) terms. There were 179 signaling pathways obtained by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. Twenty signaling pathways were screened out, mainly pathways in cancer, proteoglycans in cancer pathway, microRNAs in cancer pathway, and so on. Molecular docking shows that the binding energies of eight taxanes with TP53, EGFR, and AKT1 targets were less than -8.8 kcal/mol, taxanes acts on TP53, EGFR, and AKT1 targets through pathways in cancer, proteoglycans in cancer pathway and microRNAs in cancer pathway, and plays a role in treating lung cancer in biological functions such as protein binding, enzyme binding, and identical protein binding.

Mechanisms of drug combinations: interaction and network perspectives

Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying synergistic, potentiative and antagonistic effects of drug combinations could facilitate the discovery of novel efficacious combinations and multi-targeted agents. In this article, we describe an extensive investigation of the published literature on drug combinations for which the combination effect has been evaluated by rigorous analysis methods and for which relevant molecular interaction profiles of the drugs involved are available. Analysis of the 117 drug combinations identified reveals general and specific modes of action, and highlights the potential value of molecular interaction profiles in the discovery of novel multicomponent therapies.

Iressa strengthens the cytotoxic effect of docetaxel in NSCLC models that harbor specific molecular characteristics

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most lethal malignant tumor and is also considered one of the most chemoresistant cancers. Despite the benefits obtained from platinum-based therapy, the majority of patients treated will progress and die. In the continuing quest for personalized therapy based on the biomolecular characteristics of each single patient, clinical practice now seems to be oriented towards combining conventional drugs with molecular-targeted agents. In the present study, we evaluated the antitumor activity of docetaxel, one of the most widely used drugs for second-line treatment, and Iressa, an EGFR-targeting tyrosine kinase inhibitor, administered singly or in sequence. The study was performed on three human NSCLC cell lines (ChaGo-K1, CAEP and RAL) that exhibit different expression of proliferation and apoptosis-related markers, and do not harbor EGFR mutations. The efficacy of docetaxel and Iressa differed in the three cell lines and an important synergistic interaction was observed with the sequence 1-h docetaxel --> 72-h Iressa during which Iressa doubled the fraction of docetaxel-induced apoptotic cells, amplifying a caspase-dependent apoptosis and inhibiting docetaxel-induced p21 hyperexpression. Moreover, the important role of MAPK-dependent modulation of this molecular marker was shown using a specific inhibitor. The results from the present preclinical study demonstrate the cytotoxic activity of Iressa and its ability to increase taxane activity in a model that does not harbor EGFR-specific mutations, thus highlighting the importance of focusing on alternative molecular targets of Iressa activity.