Impacts of hyperthermic chemotherapeutic agent on cytotoxicity, chemoresistance-related proteins, and PD-L1 expression in human gastric cancer cells (Submission to IJH)

Our results showed that hyperthermia potentiates 5-Fu-mediated cytotoxicity in AGS cells. Furthermore, the combination of 5-Fu and hyperthermia inhibits both phosphorylated STAT3 and STAT3, while elevates phosphorylated Akt and ERK. In addition, 5-Fu/hyperthermia enhances ROS and suppresses superoxide dismutase 1. Chemoresistance-related proteins, such as multidrug resistance 1 and thymidylate synthase, are also suppressed by 5-Fu/hyperthermia. Interestingly, hyperthermia enhances 5-Fu-mediated induction of glycosylated PD-L1, but 5-Fu-mediated upregulation of surface PD-L1 expression is alleviated by hyperthermia.