Open Access

ARTICLE

Gastric cancer secreted miR-214-3p inhibits the anti-angiogenesis effect of apatinib by suppressing ferroptosis in vascular endothelial cells

WEIXUE WANG^#, TONGTONG WANG^#, YAN ZHANG, TING DENG, HAIYANG ZHANG^*, YI BA^*

Department of GI Medical Oncology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin’s Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Digestive Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin, 300060, China

* Corresponding Authors: HAIYANG ZHANG. Email: ; YI BA. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Recent Advances in Cancer Pharmacology)

Oncology Research 2024, 32(3), 489-502. https://doi.org/10.32604/or.2023.046676

Received 10 October 2023; Accepted 24 November 2023; Issue published 06 February 2024

Abstract

Different from necrosis, apoptosis, autophagy and other forms of cell death, ferroptosis is a mechanism that catalyzes lipid peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids under the action of iron divalent or lipoxygenase, leading to cell death. Apatinib is currently used in the third-line standard treatment of advanced gastric cancer, targeting the anti-angiogenesis pathway. However, Apatinib-mediated ferroptosis in vascular endothelial cells has not been reported yet. Tumor-secreted exosomes can be taken up into target cells to regulate tumor development, but the mechanism related to vascular endothelial cell ferroptosis has not yet been discovered. Here, we show that exosomes secreted by gastric cancer cells carry miR-214-3p into vascular endothelial cells and directly target zinc finger protein A20 to negatively regulate ACSL4, a key enzyme of lipid peroxidation during ferroptosis, thereby inhibiting ferroptosis in vascular endothelial cells and reducing the efficiency of Apatinib. In conclusion, inhibition of miR-214-3p can increase the sensitivity of vascular endothelial cells to Apatinib, thereby promoting the antiangiogenic effect of Apatinib, suggesting a potential combination therapy for advanced gastric cancer.

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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