Background/aim: Olanzapine, an atypical antipsychotic, is now increasingly used as an off-label indication for the management of cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). However, how olanzapine affects cancer cells per se remains poorly understood.
Materials and methods: The effects of olanzapine treatment and survivin knockdown, alone or in combination with chemotherapeutic agents, on survivin expression and cell viability were investigated in human cancer cell lines.
Results: Olanzapine reduced survivin expression in lung and pancreatic cancer stem cell (CSC) lines and sensitized them to chemotherapeutic agents such as 5-fluorouracil, gemcitabine, and cisplatin in a survivin expression-dependent manner. Olanzapine also reduced survivin expression and chemosensitized serum-cultured, non-CSC ovarian cancer cells that expressed survivin.
Conclusion: Olanzapine may benefit cancer patients not only as an antiemetic for CINV, but also by enhancing the effects of chemotherapeutic agents through down-regulation of survivin, which has been implicated in multidrug chemoresistance.
Keywords: Drug repositioning; apoptosis; drug resistance; psychiatric disorders; repurposing.
Copyright© 2017, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.