Protein and Signaling Pathway Responses to rhIL-6 Intervention Before Lobaplatin Treatment in Osteosarcoma Cells

Lobaplatin is a third-generation platinum-based antineoplastic agent and is widely used for osteosarcoma treatment before and after tumor removal. However, treatment failure often results from lobaplatin drug resistance. In our study, we found that SaOS-2 and SOSP-9607 osteosarcoma cells became less sensitive to lobaplatin after treatment with exogenous interleukin (IL)-6. Quantitative proteomic analysis was performed to elucidate the underlying mechanism in SaOS-2 osteosarcoma cells. Cells were divided into a control group (CG), a lobaplatin treatment group (LG), a recombinant human IL-6 (rhIL-6), and a lobaplatin treatment group (rhILG). We performed three biological replicates in each group to compare the differential protein expression between groups using a tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling technology based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). A total of 1,313 proteins with significant differential expression was identified and quantified. The general characteristics of the significantly enriched proteins were identified by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses, and protein–protein interaction (PPI) analysis was conducted using IntAct and STRING. In total, 31 proteins were further verified by parallel reaction monitoring (PRM), among which ras GTPase-activating protein-binding protein 1 (G3BP1), fragile X mental retardation syndrome-related protein 1 (hFXR1p), and far upstream element-binding protein 1 (FUBP1) were significantly differentially expressed. Immunohistochemistry results showed that these three proteins are highly expressed in specimens from platinum-resistant osteosarcoma patients, while the proteins are negatively or weakly expressed in specimens from platinum-sensitive osteosarcoma patients. The immunofluorescence staining results were in accord with the immunohistochemistry staining results. siRNA knockdown of FUBP1 showed a strikingly decreased IC50 value for lobaplatin in FUBP1-silenced cells, which verified the role of FUBP1 in the drug susceptibility of osteosarcoma and the potential therapeutic value for increasing the sensitivity to lobaplatin. This is the first proteomic study on a rhIL-6 intervention before lobaplatin treatment in osteosarcoma cells.