All cell lines responded to the anticancer agents tested. Treatment with AS plus CT resulted in a significantly stronger inhibition of viability than the NS plus CT control in the majority of combinations, indicating an AS specific enhancement effect. For example, ASt2331 plus MMC decreased viability to 17%in contrast to NS plus MMC (58%) in EJ28 cells. All ASt2331 plus CT combinations specifically increased the rate of apoptosis 1.3 to 3.0-fold compared with NS plus CT. Apoptosis induction was associated with caspase 3 activation.
Enhancement of cytotoxic drug effects on the growth of TCC cells by hTERT AS-ODNs presented herein allows a dose decrease in chemotherapy and confirms the suitability of hTERT as a target in a specific therapy approach.
Monolayer cultures of RT112 (G1, p53 wild type), RT4 (G1-G2, p53 wild type), T24 (G3, p53, mutant type), and SUP (G4, p53 mutant type) cells were incubated in medium with gemcitabine. Electron beam radiation was applied alone, simultaneous, or 3, 6, 12, and 24 hours after gemcitabine. Jurkat leukemia cells were used as controls for radiation toxicity. Cell survival was determined 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours after radiation by microculture tetrazolium assay. DNA damage was evaluated by flow cytometric assessment of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, and apoptosis was determined by terminal-deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling and flow cytometric assessment after annexin-V and propidium iodide labeling.
In all TCC cell lines, radiation alone caused only little and insignificant growth inhibitory effects at 10 Gy. Gemcitabine alone had a dose-dependent cytotoxic and apoptosis inducing effect on all TCC cell lines independent of p53 status. Assays combining radiation with gemcitabine in different dose and time schedules demonstrated no radiosensitizing effect in TCC cells.
Gemcitabine is effective in TCC cell lines independent of p53 status. A radiosensitizing effect could not be demonstrated. Again, p53 status was not predictive of the radioresponse in the bladder cancer cell lines. Clinical studies with gemcitabine and radiotherapy might nevertheless yield different results but should be performed with utmost caution.
Demethylating Agent 5-Aza-2′-Deoxycytidine Enhances Susceptibility of Bladder Transitional Cell Carcinoma to Cisplatin