The ATP receptor P2X7 (P2X7R or P2RX7) has a key role in inflammation and immunity, but its possible roles in cancer are not firmly established. In the present study, we investigated the effect of host genetic deletion of P2X7R in the mouse on the growth of B16 melanoma or CT26 colon carcinoma cells. Tumor size and metastatic dissemination were assessed by in vivo calliper and luciferase luminescence emission measurements along with postmortem examination. In P2X7R-deficient mice, tumor growth and metastatic spreading were accelerated strongly, compared with wild-type (wt) mice. Intratumoral IL-1β and VEGF release were drastically reduced, and inflammatory cell infiltration was abrogated nearly completely. Similarly, tumor growth was also greatly accelerated in wt chimeric mice implanted with P2X7R-deficient bone marrow cells, defining hematopoietic cells as a sufficient site of P2X7R action. Finally, dendritic cells from P2X7R-deficient mice were unresponsive to stimulation with tumor cells, and chemotaxis of P2X7R-less cells was impaired. Overall, our results showed that host P2X7R expression was critical to support an antitumor immune response, and to restrict tumor growth and metastatic diffusion. Cancer Res; 75(4); 635–44. ©2014 AACR.

We compared inhibitory nonadrenergic noncholinergic (i-NANC) neural relaxations, evoked by electrical field stimulation (EFS), at three levels (main [MA], proximal [PA], and distal [DA] airways) of isolated human airways and correlated these with nitric oxide synthase-immunoreactive (NOS-IR) nerves, using antiserum raised to rat cerebellar NOS. Maximal relaxations to papaverine (100 microM) were reduced in PA and DA (MA: 1,712 +/- 219 mg, n = 12; DA: 862 +/- 69 mg, n = 5, P < 0.05 versus MA); hence, subsequent relaxations were expressed as a percentage of the papaverine maximum. EFS elicited frequency-dependent relaxations that were largest in MA and reduced in PA and DA, especially at high stimulation frequencies (10 Hz EFS: MA: 51.6 +/- 3.7%, n = 12; PA: 30.5 +/- 6.0%, n = 6, P < 0.01 versus MA; DA: 17.8 +/- 3.6%, n = 5, P < 0.001 versus MA). The NOS inhibitor L-NG-nitroarginine methyl ester (L-NAME) (100 microM) and tetrodotoxin (3 microM) significantly inhibited i-NANC responses at all frequencies, leaving an L-NAME-resistant non-neural relaxation at frequencies > 5 Hz which was reduced in PA and DA. Cumulative concentration-response studies to sodium nitroprusside (1 nM to 0.1 mM) and the NO donor 3-morpholinosydnonimine (1 nM to 1 mM) were not significantly different in PA and DA, suggesting impaired relaxation is not caused by impaired guanylyl cyclase activity. Total nerve density, shown by protein gene product 9.5 staining, was not significantly different in PA and DA; however, NOS-IR nerve density was reduced in PA and DA (NOS-IR [intercepts/mm2]: MA: 705 +/- 98, n = 6; DA: 284 +/- 32, n = 6, P < 0.01 versus MA). These studies demonstrate that i NANC neural relaxations are reduced in DA, apparently due to a decrease in the density of nitrergic innervation.