The effectiveness of lung radiotherapy is limited by radiation tolerance of normal tissues and by the intrinsic radiosensitivity of lung cancer cells. The chemopreventive agent curcumin has known antioxidant and tumor cell radiosensitizing properties. Its usefulness in preventing radiation-induced pneumonopathy has not been tested previously. We evaluated dietary curcumin in radiation-induced pneumonopathy and lung tumor regression in a murine model. Mice were given 1%or 5%(w/w) dietary curcumin or control diet prior to irradiation and for the duration of the experiment. Lungs were evaluated at 3 weeks after irradiation for acute lung injury and inflammation by evaluating bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid content for proteins, neutrophils and at 4 months for pulmonary fibrosis. In a separate series of experiments, an orthotopic model of lung cancer using intravenously injected Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cells was used to exclude possible tumor radioprotection by dietary curcumin. In vitro, curcumin boosted antioxidant defenses by increasing heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) levels in primary lung endothelial and fibroblast cells and blocked radiation-induced generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Dietary curcumin significantly increased HO-1 in lungs as early as after 1 week of feeding, coinciding with a steady-state level of curcumin in plasma. Although both 1% and 5% w/w dietary curcumin exerted physiological changes in lung tissues by significantly decreasing LPS-induced TNF-α production in lungs, only 5%dietary curcumin significantly improved survival of mice after irradiation and decreased radiation-induced lung fibrosis. Importantly, dietary curcumin did not protect LLC pulmonary metastases from radiation killing. Thus dietary curcumin ameliorates radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis and increases mouse survival while not impairing tumor cell killing by radiation.

Cervical cancer is the second most common malignancy among women worldwide and is highly radioresistant, often resulting in local treatment failure. For locally advanced disease, radiation is combined with low-dose chemotherapy; however, this modality often leads to severe toxicity. Curcumin, a polyphenol extracted from rhizomes of the plant Curcuma longa, is a widely studied chemopreventive agent that was shown to have a low toxicity profile in three human clinical trials. Here, we show that pretreatment of two cervical carcinoma cell lines, HeLa and SiHa, with curcumin before ionizing radiation (IR) resulted in significant dosedependent radiosensitization of these cells. It is noteworthy that curcumin failed to radiosensitize normal human diploid fibroblasts. Although in tumor cells, curcumin did not significantly affect IR-induced activation of AKT and nuclear factor-B, we found that it caused a significant increase in the production of reactive oxygen species, which further led to sustained extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 activation. The antioxidant compound N-acetylcysteine blocked the curcumin-induced increased reactive oxygen species (ROS), sustained activation of ERK1/2, and decreased survival after IR in HeLa cells, implicating a ROS-dependent mechanism for curcumin radiosensitivity. Moreover, PD98059 (2Ј-amino-3Ј-methoxyflavone)-, PD184352-[2-(2-chloro-4-iodo-phenylamino)-Ncyclopropylmethoxy-3,4-difluoro-benzamide], and U0126 [1,4-diamino-2,3-dicyano-1,4-bis(2-aminophynylthio)butadiene]-specific inhibitors of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1/2 (MEK1/2) blocked curcumin-mediated radiosensitization, demonstrating that the sustained ERK1/2 activation resulting from ROS generation leads to curcumin-mediated radiosensitization. Together, these results suggest a novel mechanism for curcuminmediated radiosensitization involving increased ROS and ERK1/2 activation and suggest that curcumin application (either systemically or topically) may be an effective radiation modifying modality in the treatment of cervical cancer.

Curcumin, a plant polyphenol, is a widely studied chemopreventive agent with demonstrated antitumor activities in preclinical studies and low toxicity profiles in multiple clinical trials against human malignancies. We previously showed that curcumin radiosensitizes cervical tumor cells without increasing the cytotoxic effects of radiation on normal human fibroblasts. Here we report that an inhibitory activity of curcumin on the antioxidant enzyme thioredoxin reductase-1 (TxnRd1) is required for curcumin-mediated radiosensitization of squamous carcinoma cells. Stable knockdown of TxnRd1 in both HeLa and FaDu cells nearly abolished curcumin-mediated radiosensitization. TxnRd1 knockdown cells showed decreased radiation-induced reactive oxygen species and sustained extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 activation, which we previously showed was required for curcumin-mediated radiosensitization. Conversely, overexpressing catalytically active TxnRd1 in HEK293 cells, with low basal levels of TxnRd1, increased their sensitivity to curcumin alone and to the combination of curcumin and ionizing radiation. These results show the critical role of TxnRd1 in curcuminmediated radiosensitization and suggest that TxnRd1 levels in tumors could have clinical value as a predictor of response to curcumin and radiotherapy.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) contributes to tumor radioresistance, in part, through interactions with the catalytic subunit of DNA-dependent Protein Kinase (DNA-PKcs), a key enzyme in the non homologous end joining DNA repair pathway. We previously demonstrated that EGFR-DNA-PKcs interactions are significantly compromised in the context of activating mutations in EGFR in non small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and human bronchial epithelial cells. Here, we investigate the reciprocal relationship between phosphorylation status of DNA-PKcs and EGFR-mediated radiation response. The data reveal that both the kinase activity of DNA-PKcs and radiation-induced phosphorylation of DNA-PKcs by the Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM) kinase are critical prerequisites for EGFR-mediated radioresponse. Alanine substitutions at 7 key serine/threonine residues in DNA-PKcs or inhibition of DNA-PKcs by NU7441 completely abrogated EGFR-mediated radioresponse and blocked EGFR binding. ATM-deficiency or ATM inhibition with KU55933 produced a similar effect. Importantly, alanine substitution at an ATM-dependent DNA-PKcs phosphorylation site, T2609, was sufficient to block binding or radioresponse of EGFR. However, mutation of a DNA-PKcs auto-phosphorylation site, S2056 had no such effect indicating that DNA-PKcs auto-phosphorylation is not necessary for EGFR-mediated radioresponse. Our data reveal that in both NSCLCs and HBECs, activating mutations in EGFR specifically abolished the DNA-PKcs phosphorylation at T2609, but not S2056. Our study underscores the critical importance of a reciprocal relationship between DNA-PKcs phosphorylation and EGFR mediated radiation response and elucidates mechanisms underlying mutant EGFR associated radiosensitivity in NSCLCs.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling has been implicated in hypoxia-associated resistance to radiation or chemotherapy. Non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLC) with activating L858R or ΔE746–E750 EGFR mutations exhibit elevated EGFR activity and downstream signaling. Here, relative to wild type (WT) EGFR, mutant (MT) EGFR expression significantly increases radiosensitivity in hypoxic cells. Gene expression profiling in human bronchial epithelial cells (HBEC) revealed that MT-EGFR expression elevated transcripts related to cell cycle and replication in aerobic and hypoxic conditions and down-regulated RAD50, a critical component of non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) and homologous recombination (HR) DNA repair pathways. NSCLCs and HBEC with MT-EGFR revealed elevated basal and hypoxia-induced γ-H2AX-associated DNA lesions that were coincident with replication protein A in S-phase nuclei. DNA fiber analysis showed that, relative to WT-EGFR, MT-EGFR NSCLCs harbored significantly higher levels of stalled replication forks and decreased fork velocities in aerobic and hypoxic conditions. EGFR blockade by cetuximab significantly increased radiosensitivity in hypoxic cells, recapitulating MT-EGFR expression and closely resembling synthetic lethality of PARP inhibition.

<p>PDF file - 869K, Effect of DNA-PKcs or ATM inhibition on p-T2609 in NSCLCs. h pretreatment with 10 muM NU7441 or 10 muM KU55933. Square boxes represent cropped images shown in Figure 6C</p>

<p>PDF file - 544K, Proximity ligation assay (PLA): Effect of DNA-Pkcs and ATM inhibition on EGFR-DNA-PKcs binding.NSCLCs or HBEC-3KT cells expressing wild type or gammaE746-E750 forms of EGFR following a 2 h pretreatment with vehicle, 10 muM NU7441 or 10 muM KU55933 were mock irradiated or exposed to 4 Gy IR and fixed at 60 minutes. Representative images of nuclei (blue) showing EGFR-DNA-PKcs complexes (intense red dots). Cropped images shown in Figure 4C</p>

<p>PDF file - 607K, Effect of EGFR mutation status on DNA-Pkcs phosphorylation. Immuno-fluorescence detection of DNA-PKcs phosphorylation in HBEC cells stably expressing wild type, L858R or gammaE746-E750 forms of EGFR at various time-points following 4 Gy IR. Top panel: Representative images with anti-p-T2609 and anti-p-S2056 DNA-PKcs antibodies showing nuclei (blue) and phosphorylated DNA-PKcs (green). Cropped images shown in Figure 6A.</p>