ISSN: 1449-2288International Journal of Biological Sciences
Global reach, higher impact
Int J Biol Sci 2021; 17(14):3728-3744. doi:10.7150/ijbs.62280 This issue Cite
Research Paper
Melatonin and hyperbaric oxygen therapies suppress colorectal carcinogenesis through pleiotropic effects and multifaceted mechanisms
1. Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan;
2. Clinical Medicine Research Center, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70403, Taiwan;
3. Center of Cell Therapy, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70403, Taiwan;
4. Divisions of General Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan;
5. Division of Colorectal Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan
6. Department of Computer Science & Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan;
7. Department of Healthcare Administration and Medical Informatics, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan;
8. Department of Statistics, Tunghai University, Taichung 40704, Taiwan;
9. Center for Shockwave Medicine and Tissue Engineering, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan;
10. Institute for Translational Research in Biomedicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan;
11. Department of Nursing, Asia University, Taichung 41354, Taiwan;
12. Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan;
13. Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Xiamen Chang Gung Hospital, Xiamen 361028, Fujian, China.
* contribute equally to this work
Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide. Colorectal carcinogenesis is frequently induced by hypoxia to trigger the reprogramming of cellular metabolism and gain of malignant phenotypes. Previously, hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy and melatonin have been reported to alter the hypoxic microenvironment, resulting in inhibiting cancer cell survival. Accordingly, this study tested the hypothesis whether HBO and melatonin effectively inhibited CRC carcinogenesis. In vitro results indicated that melatonin therapy significantly suppressed the malignant phenotypes, including colony formation, growth, invasion, migration and cancer stemness with dose-dependent manners in CRC cell lines through multifaceted mechanisms. Similar to in vitro study, in vivo findings further demonstrated the melatonin, HBO and combined treatments effectively promoted apoptosis (cleaved-caspase 3/ cleaved-PARP) and arrested tumor proliferation, followed by inhibiting colorectal tumorigenesis in CRC xenograft tumor model. Moreover, melatonin, HBO and combined treatments modulated multifaceted mechanisms, including decreasing HIF-1α expression, alleviating AKT activation, repressing glycolytic metabolism (HK-2/PFK1/PKM2/LDH), restraining cancer stemness pathway (TGF-β/p-Smad3/Oct4/Nanog), reducing inflammation (p-NFκB/ COX-2), diminishing immune escape (PD-L1), and reversing expression of epithelial mesenchymal transition (E-cadherin/N-cadherin/MMP9). In conclusion, melatonin and HBO therapies suppressed colorectal carcinogenesis through the pleiotropic effects and multifaceted mechanisms, suggesting melatonin and HBO treatments could be novel therapeutic strategies for CRC treatment.
Keywords: colorectal cancer, hyperbaric oxygen, melatonin, cancer growth, invasion, migration, cancer stem cell, carcinogenesis
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