The chemotherapeutic drug boanmycin induces cell senescence and senescence-associated secretory phenotype factors, thus acquiring the potential to remodel the tumor microenvironment.

Abstract

Boanmycin hydrochloride, a new antitumor agent, functions similarly to bleomycin, but has a shorter half-life and faster clearance in vivo. Therefore, it is used in clinical studies for lung squamous cell cancer. However, previous studies have shown that besides its antitumor effect, bleomycin also induces the generation of senescence fibroblasts, which secrete senescence-associated secretory phenotype factors that have protumorigenic potential, consequently altering the tumor microenvironment. Hence, it is critical to clarify boanmycin potential in remodeling the tumor microenvironment after the chemotherapy treatment of tumors. Bone is the favorite organ for lung cancer metastasis. Thus, in this study, lung fibroblasts and bone osteoblasts (OBs) were used to reflect the resident stromal cells in the primary lung and bone metastatic microenvironment, respectively. Lung fibroblasts (IMR90) and primary OBs were treated with 6.7 μl/ml boanmycin or bleomycin for 24 h and MTT was monitored from day 1 to day 9; senescence-associated β-galactosidase staining, which indicated the cell senescence, was performed on day 7; and well-established senescence-associated secretory phenotype factor interleukin-6 expression was detected on day 9. MTT data showed that boanmycin inhibited cell proliferation in both IMR90 and OBs. Moreover, senescence-associated β-galactosidase staining showed that in response to boanmycin, there were 90% senescence cells in IMR90 and 95% in OBs. However, in vehicle, there were only 40 or 30% senescence cells, respectively. Furthermore, quantitative PCR data also showed that the interleukin-6 expression was highly induced by boanmycin to six-fold in OBs. Boanmycin treatment for cancer chemotherapy has the remodeling ability to alter the tumor microenvironment and might contribute toward lung cancer relapse and metastasis on long-term treatment.