Synergistic inhibition of GP130 and ERK signaling blocks chemoresistant bladder cancer cell growth

Abstract

Multidrug resistance is a major treatment obstacle for recurrent and metastatic bladder cancer, which often leads to disease progression and poor clinical outcome. Although overexpression of interleukin-6 (IL-6) appears to play a critical role in the development of chemotherapy resistance, inhibitors for IL-6 alone have not improved clinical outcomes. Since the IL-6/IL-6R/GP130 complex is involved in multidrug resistance, another strategy would be to focus on glycoprotein-130 (GP130) since it dimerizes with IL-6R/CD26 as a membrane-bound signaling transducer receptor and initiates subsequent signaling activation and may be a potential therapeutic target. Currently, the role of GP130 in chemoresistant bladder cancer is unknown. In the present study, we demonstrate that GP130 is over-expressed in cisplatin and gemcitabine-resistant bladder cancer cells, and that the inhibition of GP130 expression significantly reduces cell viability, survival and migration. Downstream of GP130 is PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling, which is inactivated by SC144, a GP130 inhibitor. However, Raf/MEK/ERK signaling, which also is downstream of GP130 is activated by SC144. This activation is likely based on a mTOR/S6K1/PI3K/ERK negative feedback loop, which is presumed to counteract the inhibitory effect of SC144 on tumor aggressiveness. Blocking both GP130 and pERK resulted in synergistic inhibition of cytotoxicity, clonal survival rates and cell migration in our chemotherapy resistant bladder cancer cells. This vertical inhibition offers a novel therapeutic strategy for targeting human chemoresistant bladder cancer.