Activation of the mTOR pathway is an important and early event in tobacco carcinogen-induced lung tumorigenesis, and therapies that target mTOR could be effective in the prevention or treatment of lung cancer. The biguanide metformin, which is widely prescribed for the treatment of type II diabetes, might be a good candidate for lung cancer chemoprevention because it activates AMPK, which can inhibit the mTOR pathway. To test this, A/J mice were treated with oral metformin after exposure to the tobacco carcinogen NNK. Metformin reduced lung tumor burden by up to 53% at steady-state plasma concentrations that are achievable in humans. mTOR was inhibited in lung tumors but only modestly. To test whether intraperitoneal administration of metformin might improve mTOR inhibition, we injected mice and assessed biomarkers in liver and lung tissues. Plasma levels of metformin were significantly higher after injection than oral administration. In liver tissue, metformin activated AMPK and inhibited mTOR. In lung tissue, metformin did not activate AMPK but inhibited phosphorylation of IGF-IR/IR, Akt, ERK, and mTOR. This suggested that metformin indirectly inhibited mTOR in lung tissue by decreasing activation of IGF-1R/IR and Akt upstream of mTOR. Based on these data, we repeated the NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis study using intraperitoneal administration of metformin. Metformin decreased tumor burden by 72%, which correlated with decreased cellular proliferation and marked inhibition of mTOR in tumors. These studies show that metformin prevents tobacco carcinogen-induced lung tumorigenesis, and support clinical testing of metformin as a chemopreventive agent.

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable cancer deaths in the United States. Nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) have been developed to aid in smoking cessation, which decreases lung cancer incidence. However, the safety of NRT is controversial because numerous preclinical studies have shown that nicotine enhances tumor cell growth in vitro and in vivo. We modeled NRT in mice to determine the effects of physiological levels of nicotine on lung tumor formation, tumor growth or metastasis. Nicotine administered in drinking water did not enhance lung tumorigenesis after treatment with the tobacco carcinogen, NNK. Tumors that develop in this model have mutations in K-ras, which is a commonly observed in smoking-related, human lung adenocarcinomas. In a transgenic model of mutant K-ras-driven lung cancer, nicotine did not increase tumor number or size, and did not affect overall survival. Likewise, in a syngeneic model of lung cancer cell lines derived from NNK-treated mice, oral nicotine did not enhance tumor growth or metastasis. These data show that nicotine does not enhance lung tumorigenesis when given to achieve levels comparable to those of NRT, suggesting that nicotine has a dose threshold, below which it has no appreciable effect. These studies are consistent with epidemiological data showing that NRT does not enhance lung cancer risk in former smokers.

K-ras mutations are associated with smoking-induced lung cancer and poor clinical outcomes. In mice, K-ras mutations are sufficient to induce lung tumors, which require phosphoinoside-3-kinase (PI3K) and further downstream, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) activation. However, the roles of individual Akt isoforms that link PI3K and mTOR are unknown. Here, we show that deletion of Akt1 but not Akt2 or Akt3 prevents lung tumorigenesis in a tobacco carcinogen-induced model and a genetic model. Akt1 deletion prevented tumor initiation as well as tumor progression, coincident with decreased Akt signaling in tumor tissues. In contrast, deletion of Akt3 increased tumor multiplicity in the carcinogen model and increased tumor size in the genetic model. Fibroblasts lacking Akt1 are resistant to transformation by mutant K-ras and stimulation by epidermal growth factor. Human lung cancer cells with mutant K-ras and diminished Akt1 levels fail to grow in vivo. These data suggest that Akt1 is the primary Akt isoform activated by mutant K-ras in lung tumors, and that Akt3 may oppose Akt1 in lung tumorigenesis and lung tumor progression. Given that Akt inhibitors in clinical development as cancer therapeutics are not isoform selective, these studies support specific targeting of Akt1 to mitigate the effects of mutant K-ras in lung cancer.