Are COX-2 Inhibitors Active on Intracellular Oxidative Processes? A Study on In Vitro and Cellular Models

Abstract

In the last years, there has been an increasing interest of using cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors to treat the inflammatory pain and chronic inflammatory diseases such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The beneficial effects were to avoid the secondary adverse effects such as bleeding and gastric irritation, generally observed with aspirin and conventional NSAIDs. COX-1 is constitutively expressed in most tissues and involved in the regulation of normal homeostatic functions, while COX-2 is not detected in most tissues but induced by inflammatory stimuli. These outcomes motivated the commercial development of selective COX-2 inhibitors. Recent data suggested that the COX-2 enzyme can be expressed within atherosclerotic lesions and could play a crucial role in various types of cancers, by the way of its activity on the ROS production, gene transcription and prostaglandin (PGE2) production. Consequently, the COX-2 enzyme has become a real target for the study of various classes of compounds and specially the possible additional properties of COX-2 inhibitors. We and other groups have already investigated the pro or antioxidant profile of conventional NSAIDs and some COX-2 inhibitors. With the recent withdrawal of two compounds of the coxib’s family (rofecoxib and celecoxib), for adverse cardiovascular events, concerns regarding the safety of all COX-2 inhibitors have been raised. To answer to these concerns, different approaches were developed by studying on in vitro models, the potential inhibiting-or-stimulating activities on oxidative phenomena of new drugs with already recognized therapeutic effects. Preliminary data obtained with COX-2 inhibitors showed a moderate inhibiting effect on the intracellular oxidant processes and others a stimulating activity. New hypotheses for the treatment of inflammation are now suggested for compounds like nimesulide and its analogous, which are selective towards COX-2 with little activity on COX-1. Here, we reported the in vitro effects of some Cox-2 inhibitors, in comparison with traditional drugs (ibuprofen, diclofenac and aceclofenac) by using two cellular models: a human lung type II alveolar cell line (A549) and a human promonocyte cell line (THP-1). The direct interactions between the drugs and ROS were also investigated in cell-free systems