Abstract
Pain is the most unbearable symptom accompanying primary bone cancers and bone metastases. Bone resorptive disorders are often associated with hypercalcemia contributing to the pathological process. Nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates (NBP) are efficiently used to treat bone-cancers and metastases. NBP, apart from their toxic effect on cancer cells, also provide analgesia via poorly understood mechanisms. We have previously shown, that NBP, by inhibiting the mevalonate pathway, induced the formation of the novel ATP-analogues such as ApppI which can potentially be involved in NBP analgesia. In this study, we used patch-clamp technique to explore the action of ApppI on native ATP-gated P2X receptors in rat sensory neurons and rat and human P2X3, P2X2 and P2X7 receptors expressed in HEK cells. We found, that while ApppI has weak agonist activity, it is a potent inhibitor of P2X3 receptors operating in the nanomolar range. The inhibitory action of ApppI was completely blocked in hypercalcemia-like conditions and was stronger on human than on rat P2X3 receptors. In contrast, P2X2 and P2X7 receptors were insensitive to ApppI, suggesting a high selectivity of ApppI for the P2X3 receptor subtype. NBP, metabolite IPP and endogenous AMP, did not exert any inhibitory action indicating that only intact ApppI has inhibitory activity. The Ca2+-dependent inhibition was stronger in trigeminal neurons preferentially expressing desensitizing P2X3 subunits than in nodose ganglia neurons, which also express non-desensitizing P2X2 subunits. Altogether, we characterized previously unknown purinergic mechanisms of NBP-induced metabolites and suggest ApppI as the endogenous pain inhibitor contributing to the cancer treatment with NBP.
- The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics