Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: Indomethacin exerts both cyclooxygenase inhibition-dependent and independent mechanisms to enhance chemo-immunotherapy in mice
doi: 10.64898/2026.01.07.698231
Figure Lengend Snippet: Indo enhances chemo-immunotherapy through both COX-dependent and COX-independent mechanisms. (A) Western blot analysis showing COX-2 expression in the indicated mouse tumor cell lines. β-actin was used as a loading control. (B) PGE₂ concentrations in tumor cell culture supernatants. Tumor cells were seeded in 6-well plates (0.5 × 10⁶ cells per well), and supernatants were collected at confluence. PGE₂ levels were quantified by LC-MS. Data are shown as mean ± SEM of triplicate samples. (C) Quantification of PGE₂ in tumor tissues. BALB/c mice were implanted s.c. with CT26 or A20 tumor cells. Tumor tissues were resected at the sizes of 100-200 mm 2 and processed for PGE₂ quantification by LC-MS. Results were normalized to tumor tissue weight and shown as mean ± SEM of triplicate samples. (D) CTX+Indo augments the efficacy of aPD1 treatment in the A20 tumor model. The schema depicts the timeline of the experimental procedures. Mice with established A20 tumors (80-100mm 2 ) were randomly assigned to groups to receive the indicated treatments. Tumor growth curves are shown, with the number of mice per group indicated. Data shown are pooled from two independent experiments. Mouse survival is summarized in the Kaplan-Meier plot (E). (F) CT26.COXKO cells do not produce measurable PGE₂. Supernatants from CT26.COXKO cell culture were collected for PGE₂ quantification by LC-MS. Cell cultures from untreated or Indo-treated wild-type CT26 cells were included as controls. Results are shown as mean ± SEM of triplicate samples. (G) PGE₂ is not detectable in CT26.COXKO tumor tissues regardless of treatment. BALB/c mice with established wild-type CT26 or CT26.COXKO tumors (60-90mm 2 ) were randomly assigned to three groups to receive no treatment, CTX alone, or CTX+Indo. 7 days after CTX, tumors were harvested and processed for PGE₂ quantification by LC-MS. Results were normalized to tumor tissue weight and shown as mean ± SEM of triplicate samples. (H) Waterfall plots summarizing the responses of CT26.COXKO tumor response to the indicated treatments. As depicted in the schema, mice with established CT26.COXKO tumors (60-90mm 2 ) were randomly assigned to groups to receive the indicated treatments. Tumor size changes from treatment initiation to endpoint were normalized to the initial tumor sizes for each mouse and used to generate the waterfall plots. (I) Indo reduces the level of RAS-GTP in CT26 cells. CT26 cells were treated with DMSO or Indo (10uM) for 16 hours before being harvested for RAS pull-down assays. Similar assays were conducted for CT26.COXKO cells (J) and A20 cells (K). Representative Western blots for RAS-GTP and total RAS are shown. Normalized RAS-GTP values were calculated as the ratio of RAS-GTP to total RAS in Indo-treated samples divided by the corresponding ratio in DMSO-treated samples. Data are summarized as mean ± SEM from at least three biological replicates per condition. Statistics: (B, F, G, I, J, K), one-way ANOVA; (C), student t- test; (E) Log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001; ****, p < 0.0001; ns, not significant.
Article Snippet: A20, 4T1, MC38, and CT26 mouse tumor cell lines were purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC).
Techniques: Western Blot, Expressing, Control, Cell Culture, Liquid Chromatography with Mass Spectroscopy