In Response: We thank Prof. Shusen Zheng and colleagues for their interest in our work and for their questions about our results and conclusions in our publication [1]
The authors in the Letter stated: “The article showed that gemcitabine induced NF-κB and ERK activation in gemcitabine-resistant PDAC cells can be reversed by Anakinra,,… However, there are still some key points should be discussed with more details.” Our study found that Anakinra, when given with or without gemcitabine, can reduce tumor growth by inhibiting IL1α-induced NF-κB activity. For example, Figure 5D of reference 1 illustrates our point. This result suggests that Anakinra might be a novel therapeutic agent pending on further studies, but our published data did not address the phenotype of gemcitabine-resistance that can be reversed by inhibition of NF-κB.
There are numerous publications from various labs that demonstrate NF-κB activation by gemcitabine. For examples, NF-κB activation is shown in Figures 1 and 5A in publication by Toriuchi et al. [2], Figure 7A in publication by Zhang et al. [3], and Figure 4C in publication by Qian et al. [4]. It is known that cell lines with same name used by different labs over years may have altered phenotypes. Thus, we cannot conclude the PDAC cells used in our publication are gemcitabine resistant.
We thank the authors’ comments on our work and we agree with the authors that further evidence is required to elucidate the mechanism of gemcitabine resistant. We hope that our comments will help to clarify the issues.
Footnotes
The disclosure of Conflicts of Interests
No Conflicts of Interests were disclosed.
Contributor Information
Paul J. Chiao, Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Unit108, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Jianhua Ling, Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Unit108, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Jie Fu, Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Unit108, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Lu Yu, Grduate Student, Department of Clinical Laboratory, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Naning 530021Guangxi, China.
Yichen Sun, Graduate Student, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center Key Laboratory of Oncology, South China Collaborative Innovative Center for Cancer Medicine,, Guangzhou, 510060, China.
References
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