A Novel Peptide to Treat Oral Mucositis Blocks Endothelial and Epithelial Cells Apoptosis
Authors | Stephen Sonis, Xiaoyan Wu, Peili Chen, Mark W. Lingen, Ann Berger, F. Gary Toback |
Published | July 01, 2012 |
Journal | International Journal of Radiation Oncology |
Abstract:
Purpose: No effective agents currently exist to treat oral mucositis (OM) in patients receiving chemoradiation for the treatment of head-ande-neck cancer. We identified a novel 21-amino acid peptide derived from antrum mucosal protein-18 that is cytoprotective, mitogenic, and motogenic in tissue culture and animal models of gastrointestinal epithelial cell injury. We examined whether administration of antrum mucosal protein peptide (AMP-p) could protect against and/or speed recovery from OM.
Methods and Materials: OM was induced in established hamster models by a single dose of radiation, fractionated radiation, or fractionated radiation together with cisplatin to stimulate conventional treatments of head-and-neck cancer.
Results: Daily subcutaneous administration of AMP-p reduced the occurrence of ulceration and accelerated mucosal recovery in all three models. A delay in the onset of erythema after irradiation was observed, suggesting that a protective effect exists even before injury to mucosal epithelial cells occurs. To test this hypothesis, the effects of AMP-p on tumor necrosis factor-α-induced apoptosis were studied in an endothelial cell line (human dermal microvascular endothelial cells) as well as an epithelial cell line (human adult low-calcium, high-temperature keratinocytes; HaCaT) used to model the oral mucosa. AMP-p treatment, either before or after cell monolayers were exposed to tumor necrosis factor-α, protected against development of apoptosis in both cell types when assessed by annexin V and propidium iodide staining followed by flow cytometry or ligase-mediated polymerase chain reaction.
Conclusions: These observations suggest that the ability of AMP-p to attenuate radiation-induced OM could be attributable, at least in part, to its antiapoptotic activity.