Antitumorigenic and antiangiogenic efficacy of apatinib in liver cancer evaluated by multimodality molecular imaging

• Published in: Experimental & molecular medicine 2019, 51(0), , pp.1-11
• Main Authors: Liang, Qian, Kong, Lingxin, Du, Yang, Zhu, Xu, Tian, Jie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 13/51; 14/5; 42/34; 59/5; 631/67/1059/602; 631/67/2321; 64/60; Angiogenesis Inhibitors - adverse effects; Angiogenesis Inhibitors - pharmacology; Angiography; Animals; Antineoplastic Agents - adverse effects; Antineoplastic Agents - pharmacology; Antitumor activity; Bioluminescence; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular - diagnostic imaging; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular - drug therapy; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular - pathology; Cell Line, Tumor; Clinical trials; Computed tomography; Diarrhea; Disease Models, Animal; Drug development; Enzyme inhibitors; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Humans; Kidneys; Liver cancer; Liver Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Liver Neoplasms - drug therapy; Liver Neoplasms - pathology; Male; Medical Biochemistry; Medical imaging; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Nude; Molecular Imaging; Molecular Medicine; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Multimorbidity; Pharmacovigilance; Protein Kinase Inhibitors - adverse effects; Protein Kinase Inhibitors - pharmacology; Protein-tyrosine kinase; Pyridines - adverse effects; Pyridines - pharmacology; Sorafenib - adverse effects; Sorafenib - pharmacology; Stem Cells; Toxicity; Xenografts; 생화학
• ISSN: 1226-3613; 2092-6413
• DOI: 10.1038/s12276-019-0274-7

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Sorafenib is the standard first-line treatment for advanced HCC, but its efficacy is limited. Apatinib is a small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor that has shown promising antitumor effects in gastric and non-small cell lung cancers in clinical trials, but there have been only a few studies reporting its anti-HCC effects in vitro and in HCC xenograft models. Hence, our present study systemically investigated and compared the antitumorigenic and antiangiogenic efficacy of apatinib and sorafenib in HCC in vitro and in vivo using multimodality molecular imaging, including bioluminescence imaging (BLI), bioluminescence tomography (BLT), fluorescence molecular imaging (FMI), and computed tomography angiography (CTA). Moreover, the safety and side effects of the two drugs were systemically evaluated. We found that apatinib showed a comparable therapeutic efficacy to sorafenib for the inhibition of HCC. The drug safety evaluation revealed that both of these drugs caused hypertension and mild liver and kidney damage. Sorafenib caused diarrhea, rash, and weight loss in mice, but these effects were not observed in mice treated with apatinib. In conclusion, apatinib has similar antitumorigenic and antiangiogenic efficacy as sorafenib in HCC with less toxicity. These findings may provide preclinical evidence supporting the potential application of apatinib for the treatment of HCC patients. Atherosclerosis: halting plaque in its tracks Researchers have combined different sophisticated imaging techniques to assess the safety and efficacy of liver cancer therapy in animal models. Many hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients respond to sorafenib, but this drug is expensive and may cause severe side-effects. Qian Liang at China’s Institute of Automation, Beijing, and colleagues have employed cutting-edge imaging technologies to study an alternative drug, apatinib, which has shown promise for stomach and lung cancer and has an excellent safety profile. Using bioluminescence imaging, the researchers could directly visualize apatanib-mediated inhibition of tumor growth in live mice much earlier than would be possible with other methods. The researchers subsequently used additional imaging techniques to demonstrate that apatanib inhibits tumor blood vessel growth. These findings reveal a promising alternative treatment for HCC, as well as a powerful strategy for drug testi