Anticancer activity of beta adrenoblockers in lung cancer cell lines

Abstract

Beta adrenoblockers (also named beta blockers) are a class of drugs used for the treatment of arrythmias, chronic heart failure, primary arterial hypertension, elevated intraocular pressure, migraine, glaucoma. In 2008 a group of physicians from Bordeaux Children’s Hospital in France described propranolol effect on hemangioma growth, and since then it was used as a first-line agent for treating systemic infantile hemangioma [1]. The first evidence about beta adrenergic receptor signalling pathway involvement in lung cancer appeared in 1989 [2]. Moreover, beta adrenoblocker usage is associated with the increased survival outcomes in patients with non-small cellular lung cancer [3,4]. According to recent studies, beta blockers also posses anticancer activity in pancreatic, breast, colorectal, prostate and ovarian cancer [5-8]. The aim of our research was to evaluate the anticancer activity of seven beta adrenoblockers (β₁ selective: atenolol, metoprolol, esmolol, betaxolol, and non-selective compounds: propranolol, timolol, pindolol) in lung cancer cell lines. [...].