Inhibiting ROS-TFEB-Dependent Autophagy Enhances Salidroside-Induced Apoptosis in Human Chondrosarcoma Cells.

Background/aims: Autophagy modulation has been considered a potential therapeutic strategy for human chondrosarcoma, and a previous study indicated that salidroside exhibits significant anti-carcinogenic activity. However, the ability of salidroside to induce autophagy and its role in human chondrosarcoma cell death remains unclear.

Methods: We exposed SW1353 cells to different concentrations of salidroside (0.5, 1 and 2 mM) for 24 h. RT-PCR, Western-blotting, Immunocytofluorescence, and Luciferase Reporter Assays were used to evaluate whether salidroside activated the TFEB-dependent autophagy.

Results: We show that salidroside induced significant apoptosis in the human chondrosarcoma cell line SW1353. In addition, we demonstrate that salidroside-induced an autophagic response in SW1353 cells, as evidenced by the upregulation of LC3-II and downregulation of P62. Moreover, pharmacological or genetic blocking of autophagy enhanced salidroside -induced apoptosis, indicating the cytoprotective role of autophagy in salidroside-treated SW1353 cells. Salidroside also induced TFEB (Ser142) dephosphorylation, subsequently to activated TFEB nuclear translocation and increase of TFEB reporter activity, which contributed to lysosomal biogenesis and the expression of autophagy-related genes. Importantly, we found that salidroside triggered the generation of ROS in SW1353 cells. Furthermore, NAC, a ROS scavenger, abrogated the effects of salidroside on TFEB-dependent autophagy.

Conclusions: These data demonstrate that salidroside increased TFEB-dependent autophagy by activating ROS signaling pathways in human chondrosarcoma cells. These data also suggest that blocking ROS-TFEB-dependent autophagy to enhance the activity of salidroside warrants further attention in treatment of human chondrosarcoma cells.