The effect of low dosage of procaine on lung cancer cell proliferation

X.-W. Ma, Y. Li, X.-C. Han, Q.-Z. Xin

Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital and College of Clinical Medicine of HENAN University of Science and Technology, Luoyang City, Henan, China. maxiaowumaxiaowu@126.com

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• Pharmacology

OBJECTIVE: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type of human lung cancer leading cause of cancer death worldwide. However, first-line drugs such as gefitinib and erlotinib showed great drug resistance in the clinical.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The cell proliferation was evaluated by MTT assay; gene expression was detected by qPCR assay. The protein expression was analyzed by Western blotting.

RESULTS: Our results showed that in mouse models of lung cancer by A549 or NCI-H1975 xenograft, the local anesthetic drug Procaine (PCA) with 50 mg/kg specifically attenuated tumors compared with the vehicle-treated group. In vitro, PCA suppressed both two human NSCLC cell lines A549 and NCI-H1975 proliferation in a lower dose (at nM grade). The cell proliferation marker PCNA was also downregulated after PCA treatment in vivo. Furthermore, low-dose of PCA could inhibit the mRNA expression of the key NSCLC target EGFR selectively in the A549 cells, however, it was not observed in another cell line NCI-H1975, implying a specific signaling by PCA in the cell type.

CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our data indicate that PCA treatment leads to suppression of tumor growth and proliferation in A549 and NCI-H1975, and there is an EGFR transcription pathway by PCA in A549 cells.

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