RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Tamoxifen reduces inflammatory infiltration of neutrophils in the airways
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.06.19.161919
DO 10.1101/2020.06.19.161919
A1 Agustín Mansilla
A1 Jaime Soto
A1 Claudio Henríquez
A1 Amber Philp
A1 Marcus A. Mall
A1 José Sarmiento
A1 Carlos A. Flores
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/06/20/2020.06.19.161919.abstract
AB Tamoxifen is a drug of choice for treatment of breast cancer but it has also been reported to bear anti-inflammatory activity. Previously, we have observed that tamoxifen treatment successfully reduced inflammation in horses affected by equine asthma syndrome. More notorious, tamoxifen was effective at reducing the infiltration of neutrophils in the inflamed airways by a mechanism that increases efferocytosis, allowing the resolution of inflammation. Due to the emerging increase in patients with chronic inflammatory lung diseases, there is an urgent need for therapies that help reduce airway inflammation. Thus we tested the effect of tamoxifen on airway neutrophil infiltration by using three different mouse models for acute and chronic inflammation of the lung. We found that the drug was able to produce a significant reduction in neutrophils in all scenarios. Ussing chamber experiments demonstrated that tamoxifen has no effect on fluid secretion and absorption, discarding a possible reduction in mucociliary clearance due to the known ion-channel blocking effects of tamoxifen. Since this drug has been largely used in human medicine, tamoxifen might be a “low hanging fruit” for a novel anti-inflammatory therapy for airway diseases characterized by neutrophilic inflammation.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.