Li Yang, Jiani Gao, Yuqin Zhang, Eduardo A Perez, Yuchen Wu, Tianan Guo, Cong Li, Hao Wang, Ye Xu
Background: Chronic or recurrent inflammatory injury to the intestinal mucosa is closely related to inflammation-related colorectal cancer (CRC). This study aimed to examine the protective effects of palbociclib, a stimulator of interferon genes (STING) antagonist, on colitis-related colorectal carcinogenesis.
Methods: Bioinformatic analyses, including Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), and network analysis, were conducted. Male C57BL/6 mice were administered azoxymethane (AOM) and dextran sulfate sodium (DSS), followed by treatment with palbociclib for 6 weeks. The general conditions of mice were observed and recorded. The colon histopathology was assessed based on hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining results. Relative messenger RNA (mRNA) expression levels of interferon b1 (), interleukin 6 (), and interleukin 1b ( in colon were estimated based on quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis.
Results: The STING signaling pathway was significantly upregulated in stages III and IV of CRC in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-CRC cohort. After treatment with AOM/DSS, the weight of mice decreased significantly, whereas administration of palbociclib partially reversed this trend. The mouse colon treated with AOM/DSS showed significant pathological damages, disorderly epithelial cell structure, atypical hyperplasia, and infiltration of several inflammatory cell types; however, the colon damage was remarkably reduced upon treatment with palbociclib. It was also found that palbociclib almost abolished the increase in the downstream effectors of STING-mediated transcription in the colon tissue treated with AOM/DSS, as evidenced by the transcription levels of , , and
Conclusions: These findings indicate that the STING pathway is closely associated with CRC. Palbociclib significantly alleviates tumor development in AOM/DSS-induced colitis-associated CRC.
