Local anesthetic lidocaine-inducible gene, growth differentiation factor-15 suppresses the growth of cancer cell lines

Keiko Haraguchi-Suzuki*, Reika Kawabata-Iwakawa, Toru Suzuki, Takashi Suto, Tomonori Takazawa, Shigeru Saito

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Administration of local anesthetics, such as lidocaine, in the perioperative period improves outcomes of cancer patients. However, its precise mechanism is still unresolved. The growth of human cancer cell lines, including HeLa cells, are suppressed by lidocaine treatment. We identified that growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) was commonly upregulated in lidocaine-treated cancer cell lines. GDF-15 is a divergent member of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) superfamily and it is produced as an unprocessed pro-protein form and then cleaved to generate a mature form. In lidocaine-treated HeLa cells, increased production of GDF-15 in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) was observed and unprocessed pro-protein form of GDF-15 was secreted extracellularly. Further, lidocaine induced apoptosis and apoptosis-inducible Tribbles homologue 3 (TRIB3) was also commonly upregulated in lidocaine-treated cancer cell lines. In addition, transcription factor C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP), which is a positive regulator of not only GDF-15 but TRIB3 was also induced by lidocaine. Lidocaine-induced growth suppression and apoptosis was suppressed by knockdown of GDF-15 or TRIB3 expression by small interference RNA (siRNA). These observations suggest that lidocaine suppresses the growth of cancer cells through increasing GDF-15 and TRIB3 expression, suggesting its potential application as cancer therapy.

Original languageEnglish
Article number14520
JournalScientific Reports
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022/12

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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