Research Paper Volume 14, Issue 4 pp 1812—1821
Qi Ling decreases paclitaxel resistance in the human prostate cancer by reversing tumor-associated macrophages function
- 1 Surgical Department I (Urology Department), Longhua Hospital Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xuhui, Shanghai 200032, China
Received: December 2, 2021 Accepted: February 8, 2022 Published: February 22, 2022
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203904How to Cite
Copyright: © 2022 Cao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are critical immune cells infiltrated into tumor. In present study, we evaluated the effects of Qi Ling (QL), a traditional Chinese medicine on paclitaxel resistance in prostate cancer cells and explored the underlying mechanisms. We administrated QL to rats and collected the serum from QL-treated rats (QL-serum). We established the co-culture system of TAMs/paclitaxel resistant prostate cancer cells. We treated the TAMs with QL-serum and measured the viability of paclitaxel resistant prostate cancer cells after exposing to paclitaxel. We monitored the expression of M1 and M2 markers, the expression and activation of IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathways in TAMs after QL treatment. We treated TAMs with QL-serum together with interleukin (IL)-6, measured the expression of M1 and M2 markers, and the viability of paclitaxel resistant prostate cancer cells. In co-culture system, QL-serum-treated TAMs decreased the paclitaxel resistance in the human prostate cancer cells. QL-serum treatment significantly up-regulated the expression of M1 markers inducible nitric oxide synthase and tumor necrosis factor α while decreased the expression of M2 markers IL-10 and chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 22. QL-serum suppressed the activation of IL-6/ signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 signaling pathway. All these effects of QL-serum were abolished in the presence of IL-6. Qi Ling re-programmed TAMs and decreases paclitaxel resistance in prostate cancer cells.