Gefitinib Enhances Mitochondrial Biological Functions in NSCLCs with EGFR Mutations at a High Cell Density.

Abstract

Gefitinib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and has been approved for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) with EGFR mutations. Here we demonstrated that gefitinib induced a significantly enhanced biological activity of succinate-tetrazolium reductase (STR) in mitochondria and mitochondrial membrane potential in HCC827 cells (EGFR mutation NSCLCs, sensitive to gefitinib) at a high cell density. We assessed the biological activity (STR, mitochondrial membrane potential, expression level of Bcl-2 family proteins) of gefitinib on NSCLCs at different cell densities. The 3D cell culture experiments showed the enhanced mitochondrial biological activity in clustered cell culture treated with gefitinib. Interestingly, the expression levels of Bcl-xL and Bax, were affected by the cellular number and gefitinib treatment. We also found that gefitinib prevented additive anticancer activity in the combinational treatment with doxorubicin, which induces mitochondria-dependent apoptotic cell death. Our results indicate that gefitinib may work as a mitochondrial protector against combinational treatment with mitochondria-dependent anticancer agents in high-cell-density.