Lidocaine inhibits cytoskeletal remodelling and human breast cancer cell migration.

BACKGROUND: The metastatic potential of breast cancer cells has been strongly associated with overexpression of the chemokine CXCL12 and the activity of its receptor CXCR4. Lidocaine, a local anaesthetic that can be used during breast cancer excision, inhibits the growth, invasion, and migration of cancer cells. We therefore investigated, in a breast cancer cell line, whether lidocaine can modulate CXCL12-induced responses. METHODS: Intracellular calcium, cytoskeleton remodelling, and cell migration were assessed in vitro in MDA-MB-231 cells, a human breast cancer epithelial cell line, after exposure to lidocaine (10 µM or 100 µM). RESULTS: Lidocaine (10 or 100 µM) significantly inhibited CXCR4 signalling, resulting in reduced calcium release (Fluo 340 nm/380 nm, 0.76 mean difference, p<0.0001), impaired cytoskeleton remodelling (F-Actin fluorescence mean intensity, 21 mean difference, P=0.002), and decreased motility of cancer cells, both in the scratch wound assay (wound area at 21 h, -19%, P<0.0001), and in chemotaxis experiments (fluorescence mean intensity, 0.16, P=0.0047). The effect of lidocaine was not associated with modulation of the CD44 adhesion molecule. CONCLUSIONS: At clinical concentrations, lidocaine significantly inhibits CXCR4 signalling. The results presented shed new insights on the molecular mechanisms governing the inhibitory effect of lidocaine on cell migration.

Hexamethylene bisacetamide inhibits malignant phenotype in T-ALL cell lines.

T acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell lines treated with hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA) undergo a delay in cell cycle progression and increase susceptibility to apoptosis, although they never overcome the differentiation block. In accordance with changes in cell cycle and apoptosis, transitory p53 pathway activation commonly occurs. Bcl-2 inhibition further favours the pro-apoptotic effect of HMBA. Notch1 expression is down regulated by reduction of its transcription level. Accordingly, Notch1 protein and transcriptional activity were affected. Even if HMBA generally reduces Notch1 level in T acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cell lines, this does not commonly influence the biological response; in fact all the analysed cell lines, except CEM cells, display no biological effect following DAPT-induced Notch inhibition.

Innate immune cells express IL-17A/F in acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis and generalized pustular psoriasis.

Acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP) and generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP) are rare pustular skin disorders with systemic involvement. IL-17A/F is a proinflammatory cytokine involved in various neutrophilic inflammatory disorders. Here we show that IL-17A/F is highly expressed by innate immune cells such as neutrophils and mast cells in both AGEP and GPP.

Altered balance between Th17 and Th1 cells at mucosal sites predicts AIDS progression in simian immunodeficiency virus-infected macaques.

Loss of CD4(+) T cells in the gut is necessary but not sufficient to cause AIDS in animal models, raising the possibility that a differential loss of CD4(+) T-cell subtypes may be important. We found that CD4(+) T cells that produce interleukin (IL)-17, a recently identified lineage of effector CD4(+) T-helper cells, are infected by SIV(mac251)in vitro and in vivo, and are found at lower frequency at mucosal and systemic sites within a few weeks from infection. In highly viremic animals, Th1 cells predominates over Th17 T cells and the frequency of Th17 cells at mucosal sites is negatively correlated with plasma virus level. Because Th17 cells play a central role in innate and adaptive immune response to extracellular bacteria, our finding may explain the chronic enteropathy in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Thus, therapeutic approaches that reconstitute an adequate balance between Th1 and Th17 may be beneficial in the treatment of HIV infection.

CD4+ T-cell loss and delayed expression of modulators of immune responses at mucosal sites of vaccinated macaques following SIV(mac251) infection.

Systemic immunization of macaques with a combination of DNA-poxvirus-based vaccines confers protection from high level of both systemic and mucosal viral replication following rectal exposure to the pathogenic SIV(mac251). Here we investigated early post-infection events in rectal and vaginal tissues, and found that the loss of CCR5+CD4+ T cells was equivalent in vaccinated and control macaques, despite a three logs reduction at mucosal sites of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) RNA in the vaccinated group. Even though a normal CD4+ T cell number is not reconstituted at mucosal sites in either group, vaccination appeared to confer a better preservation of the CD4+ CCR5+ T cells that replenish these sites. Analysis of rectal tissues RNA following challenge exposure demonstrated a decreased expression in vaccinated macaques of transforming growth factor-beta, cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4, FoxP3, and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, an immune suppressive enzyme expressed by dendritic cells that converts tryptophan to kynurenine and limits T-cell responses. Accordingly, the ratio of kynurenine and tryptophan in the plasma was significantly reduced in the vaccinated animals respect to the controls. Thus, preexisting adaptive immune responses induced by these vaccine modalities, although they do not protect from CD4+ T-cell depletion, nevertheless, they contain SIV(mac251) replication and delay expression of markers of T-cell activation and/or suppression at mucosal sites.