The present studies examined the toxic interaction between the non-coxib celecoxib derivative OSU-03012 and phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibitors, and also determined the roles of endoplasmic reticulum stress response regulators in cell survival. PDE5 inhibitors interacted in a greater than additive fashion with OSU-03012 to kill parental glioma and stem-like glioma cells. Knockdown of the endoplasmic reticulum stress response proteins IRE1 or XBP1 enhanced the lethality of OSU-03012, and of [OSU-03012 + PDE5 inhibitor] treatment. Pan-caspase and caspase-9 inhibition did not alter OSU-03012 lethality but did abolish enhanced killing in the absence of IRE1 or XBP1. Expression of the mitochondrial protective protein BCL-XL or the caspase-8 inhibitor c-FLIP-s, or knockdown of death receptor CD95 or the death receptor caspase-8 linker protein FADD, suppressed killing by [OSU-03012 + PDE5 inhibitor] treatment. CD95 activation was blocked by the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor L-NAME. Knockdown of the autophagy regulatory proteins Beclin1 or ATG5 protected the cells from OSU-03012 and from [OSU-03012 + PDE5 inhibitor] toxicity. Knockdown of IRE1 enhanced OSU-03012/[OSU-03012 + PDE5 inhibitor]-induced JNK activation, and inhibition of JNK suppressed the elevated killing caused by IRE1 knockdown. Knockdown of CD95 blunted JNK activation. Collectively, our data demonstrate that PDE5 inhibitors recruit death receptor signaling to enhance OSU-03012 toxicity in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cells.
©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.