Abstract
Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a highly malignant type of lung cancer with no effective second-line chemotherapy drugs. Arsenic trioxide (As2O3) was reported to exert antiangiogenesis activities against lung cancer and induce poor development of vessel structures, similar to the effect observed following the blockade of Notch signaling. However, there are no direct evidences on the inhibitory effects of As2O3 on tumor growth and angiogenesis via blockade of Notch signaling in SCLC. Here, we found that As2O3 significantly inhibited the tumor growth and angiogenesis in SCLC and reduced the microvessel density. As2O3 disturbed the morphological development of tumor vessels and downregulated the protein levels of delta-like canonical Notch ligand 4 (Dll4), Notch1, and Hes1 in vivo. DAPT, a Notch signaling inhibitor, exerted similar effects in SCLC. We found that both As2O3 treatment and Notch1 expression knockdown resulted in the interruption of tube formation by human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) on Matrigel. As2O3 had no effects on Dll4 level in HUVECs but significantly inhibited the expression of Notch1 and its downstream gene Hes1 regardless of Dll4 overexpression or Notch1 knockdown. These findings suggest that the antitumor activity of As2O3 in SCLC was mediated via its antiangiogenic effect through the blockade of Notch signaling, probably owing to Notch1 targeting.