Therapeutic effects of antibiotic drug tigecycline against cervical squamous cell carcinoma by inhibiting Wnt/β-catenin signaling

Aberrant activation of the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway is common in human cervical cancers and has great potential therapeutic value. We show that tigecycline, a FDA-approved antibiotic drug, targets cervical squamous cell carcinoma through inhibiting Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway. Tigecycline is effective in inducing apoptosis, inhibiting proliferation and anchorage-independent colony formation of Hela cells. The inhibitory effects of tigecycline are further enhanced upon combination with paclitaxel, a most commonly used chemotherapeutic drug for cervical cancer. In a cervical xenograft model, tigecydine inhibits tumor growth as a single agent and its combination with paclitaxel significantly inhibits more tumor growth throughout the duration of treatment. We further show that tigecycline decreases level of both cytoplasmic and nuclear beta-catenin and suppressed Wnt/beta-catenin-mediated transcription through increasing levels of Axin 1 in Hela cells. In addition, stabilization or overexpression of beta-catenin using pharmacological and genetic approaches abolished the effects of tigecycline in inhibiting proliferation and inducing apoptosis of Hela cells. Our study suggests that tigecycline is a useful addition to the treatment armamentarium for cervical cancer and targeting Wnt/beta-catenin represents a potential therapeutic strategy in cervical cancer. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.