Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
COX-2 and related proteins found in canine bone cancer and healing
By Millanta, F et al.·Published in Journal of comparative pathology·2012·University of Pisa, Italy·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Immunohistochemical expression of COX-2, mPGES and EP2 receptor in normal and reactive canine bone and in canine osteosarcoma.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at bone samples from dogs with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, to see how certain proteins related to inflammation were expressed. In normal bone, none of the samples showed signs of these proteins, but about half of the reactive bone samples had low levels. In contrast, a staggering 93% of the osteosarcoma samples showed high levels of the COX-2 protein, which is linked to cancer growth. This suggests that using COX-2 inhibitors could help dogs with osteosarcoma respond better to chemotherapy, potentially reducing side effects from other treatments.
People also search for: dog osteosarcoma treatment · COX-2 inhibitors for dogs · canine bone cancer symptoms
Abstract
Accumulating evidence suggests that cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 is involved in the pathogenesis of human and canine osteosarcoma. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of COX-2 in normal, reactive and neoplastic canine bone and the events downstream to COX-2 that lead to prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) production. COX-2, microsomal PGE(2) synthase-1 (mPGES-1) and the PGE(2) receptor (EP2) were assessed by immunohistochemistry in 12 samples of normal bone, 14 cases of fracture callus and 27 appendicular osteosarcomas. No immunoreactivity to COX-2, mPGES-1 or EP2 receptor was observed in normal bone. Fifty percent of reactive bone samples expressed COX-2 and 57% expressed mPGES-1 and EP2 receptor, although with weak labelling intensity. Ninety-three percent of osteosarcomas expressed COX-2, while mPGES-1 was expressed by 85% and EP2 receptor by 89% of the tumours. The data confirm that COX-2 is expressed at high level in osteosarcoma and support the use of COX-2 inhibitors to improve the response to chemotherapy. The possibility of blocking the EP2 or the selective inhibition of mPGES-1, rather than COX-2 activity, might decrease the incidence of adverse effects that occur due to the inhibition of prostanoids other than PGE(2).
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22633646/