Cardiac glycosides exert anticancer effects by inducing immunogenic cell death

L Menger, E Vacchelli, S Adjemian, I Martins… - Science translational …, 2012 - science.org
L Menger, E Vacchelli, S Adjemian, I Martins, Y Ma, S Shen, T Yamazaki, AQ Sukkurwala…
Science translational medicine, 2012science.org
Some successful chemotherapeutics, notably anthracyclines and oxaliplatin, induce a type
of cell stress and death that is immunogenic, hence converting the patient's dying cancer
cells into a vaccine that stimulates antitumor immune responses. By means of a
fluorescence microscopy platform that allows for the automated detection of the biochemical
hallmarks of such a peculiar cell death modality, we identified cardiac glycosides (CGs) as
exceptionally efficient inducers of immunogenic cell death, an effect that was associated with …
Some successful chemotherapeutics, notably anthracyclines and oxaliplatin, induce a type of cell stress and death that is immunogenic, hence converting the patient’s dying cancer cells into a vaccine that stimulates antitumor immune responses. By means of a fluorescence microscopy platform that allows for the automated detection of the biochemical hallmarks of such a peculiar cell death modality, we identified cardiac glycosides (CGs) as exceptionally efficient inducers of immunogenic cell death, an effect that was associated with the inhibition of the plasma membrane Na+- and K+-dependent adenosine triphosphatase (Na+/K+-ATPase). CGs exacerbated the antineoplastic effects of DNA-damaging agents in immunocompetent but not immunodeficient mice. Moreover, cancer cells succumbing to a combination of chemotherapy plus CGs could vaccinate syngeneic mice against a subsequent challenge with living cells of the same type. Finally, retrospective clinical analyses revealed that the administration of the CG digoxin during chemotherapy had a positive impact on overall survival in cohorts of breast, colorectal, head and neck, and hepatocellular carcinoma patients, especially when they were treated with agents other than anthracyclines and oxaliplatin.
AAAS