p8 (candidate of metasiasis 1) drives ER-stress/autophagy/apoptosis axis induced by the synthetic cannabinoid WIN in HCC cells.

Background: Today, evidence is emerging for the role of autophagy in the regulation of life and death of tumour cells and its relationship with ER-stress signaling. Our previous results demonstrated that hepatoma HepG2 cells are sensitive to apoptotic effects induced by WIN, a synthetic cannabinoid, which acts through a mechanism involving the reduction in the levels of some survival factors and the activation of pro-apoptotic ones. Since WIN effects were observed after 36−48 hours of treatment, we investigated the possible activation of ER-stress and autophagic process in the first hours of WIN treatment focusing our attention on p8, a factor whose expression is upregulated in response to …