Proton Pump Inhibitors Display Antitumor Effects in Barrett's Adenocarcinoma Cells

Recent evidence has reported that proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) can exert antineoplastic effects through the disruption of pH homeostasis by inhibiting vacuolar ATPase (H+-VATPase), a proton pump overexpressed in several tumor cells, but this aspect has not been deeply investigated in EAC yet. In the present study, the expression of H+-VATPase was assessed through the metaplasia-dysplasia-adenocarcinoma sequence in Barrett’s esophagus (BE) and the antineoplastic effects of PPIs and cellular mechanisms involved were evaluated in vitro. H+-VATPase expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry in paraffined-embedded samples or by immunofluorescence in cultured BE and EAC cell lines. Cells we…