| First Author | Wang L | Year | 2021 |
| Journal | Oncogene | Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 11 | Pages | 1974-1987 |
| PubMed ID | 33603170 | Mgi Jnum | J:303967 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6514594 | Doi | 10.1038/s41388-021-01682-z |
| Citation | Wang L, et al. (2021) Repurposing dextromethorphan and metformin for treating nicotine-induced cancer by directly targeting CHRNA7 to inhibit JAK2/STAT3/SOX2 signaling. Oncogene 40(11):1974-1987 |
| abstractText | Smoking is one of the most impactful lifestyle-related risk factors in many cancer types including esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). As the major component of tobacco and e-cigarettes, nicotine is not only responsible for addiction to smoking but also a carcinogen. Here we report that nicotine enhances ESCC cancer malignancy and tumor-initiating capacity by interacting with cholinergic receptor nicotinic alpha 7 subunit (CHRNA7) and subsequently activating the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway. We found that aberrant CHRNA7 expression can serve as an independent prognostic factor for ESCC patients. In multiple ESCC mouse models, dextromethorphan and metformin synergistically repressed nicotine-enhanced cancer-initiating cells (CIC) properties and inhibited ESCC progression. Mechanistically, dextromethorphan non-competitively inhibited nicotine binding to CHRNA7 while metformin downregulated CHRNA7 expression by antagonizing nicotine-induced promoter DNA hypomethylation of CHRNA7. Since dextromethorphan and metformin are two safe FDA-approved drugs with minimal undesirable side-effects, the combination of these drugs has a high potential as either a preventive and/or a therapeutic strategy against nicotine-promoted ESCC and perhaps other nicotine-sensitive cancer types as well. |
