Recent several epidemiological studies have associated cold temperatures and capsaicin consumption with an increased risk of several cancers (Du, Lv, Zha, Hong, & Luo, 2020; Michal Freedman et al., 2015; Voskarides, 2019). Our findings demonstrated that cold exposure and low-does capsaicin administration aggravates the ectopic expression of histone acetylation level and histone-modifying enzymes through the structure of chromatin, making rats-induced by DMH more susceptible to CRC. Moreover, cold and capsaicin exposure further increased TLR2 and TLR4 expression as well as increased histone H3 acetylation of TLR2 and TLR4 in the colonic mucosa of DMH-induced rats but not normal rats. These results suggest that higher HDAC expression in the colonic mucosa and ectopic expression of histone acetylation may be involved in chromatin remodeling, which might play a fundamental role in the pathogenesis of CRC.
More recently, evidence supports an emerging view that environmental factors such as dietary, and cold environment are among the top risk factors that predispose to CRC. Further, it has been reported that cold environmental temperature can be potential cancer-causing factors and people live in the cold environment have a high risk of cancer incidence and mortality (Sharma, Verma, Joshi, Panwar, & Mandal, 2015). Kokolus and colleagues found that when tumor-bearing mice are housed at thermoneutral temperature (30°C-31°C), they observed that reduce tumor formation, growth, and metastasis (Kokolusa et al., 2013). Capsaicin is the major pungent alkaloid of chili peppers (Naves et al., 2019). Conflicting reports exists on antitumoral or carcinogenic effects of capsaicin (Friedman et al., 2019). Some studies have shown that capsaicin at 50mg/kg reduced CRC risk in DMH-induced rats models by inhibiting the cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, proliferation, and apoptosis of cancer cell/tissue (Caetano et al., 2018). They also showed that high dose capsaincin decrease the proportion of tubular adenocarcinoma In DMH-induced CRC(Caetano et al., 2021). Additionally, Capsaicin has also shown have a protective role against the development of many types of human cancers (H. Li, Krstin, Wang, & Wink, 2018; Zheng et al., 2016). On the other hand, capsaicin has been reported to have tumor-promoting activities in skin, lung, and colon cancer in different chemically-induced carcinogenesis models (Geng et al., 2016; Z. Liu et al., 2015; Nalinia, Sabithaa, Viswanathanb, & V.P. Menona, 1998). An intro reported by Liu et al showed that low concentrations of capsaicin enhanced migratory and invasive capability of HCT116 cells by upregulating the expression of tumor-associated NADH oxidase (tNOX)(N. C. Liu et al., 2012). Similarly, we found that cold exposure and long-term administration of capsaicin at a low does promote tumor growth and CRC tumorigenesis in animal models. It may be possible that the anti-cancer activity of capsaicin depends on its concentration and further study is need to precisely delineate the effects of capsaincin in CRC.
Recent research has shown that regulation of specific HDAC isoforms and aberrant epigenetic alterations imposed by diet might not only mechanisms responsible for neoplastic cell transformation but also be implicated in the development of cancer (Esteller, 2007; Nebbioso, Tambaro, Dell'Aversana, & Altucci, 2018). Understanding the complex biology of lysine acetylation and its regulators is thus essential for CRC pathogenesis and treatment. The overexpression of Class I HDACs have been reported in many cancer types including colon carcinoma (Weichert et al., 2008). Furthermore, the expression was enhanced in strongly proliferating and poorly differentiated tumors, and upregulation of HDAC correlated with poor prognosis of CRC (Ashktorab et al., 2009; Y. Li & Seto, 2016). In addition, H3K9ac, H3K18ac, and H3K27ac were reported to be significantly up-regulated in colorectal adenomas and cancers as compared to their normal counterparts (Karczmarski et al., 2014). Moreover, several studies have suggested that alteration of histone acetylation patterns is also predictive of histological subtype, prognosis, and cancer recurrence (David B. Seligson et al., 2009; Tamagawa et al., 2013). For instance, the hypoacetylation of H3K9, H3K18, and H4K16 strongly relevant to the clinical outcome of prostate cancer (D. B. Seligson et al., 2005). While elevated global histone acetylated histone H3 (H3ac) in colon cancer tissues was reported to predict poor overall survival of patients (Hashimoto, Yamakawa, Kimura, Usuba, & Toyono, 2013). Our results showed that the expression of H3K9ac, H3K18ac, and H3K27ac in the colons of DMH-induced CRC rats was significantly increased, and cold exposure and capsaicin treatment further increased this phenomenon. As compared with the normal group, the acetylation of H4K16 was clearly down-regulated in DMH, cold exposure, and capsaicin treatment group. We postulated that up-regulated HDACs lead to abnormal patterns of histone acetylation, which is associated with the deregulation of gene transcription thereby contributing to the CRC progression.
There are many molecular pathways involved in CRC development and different levels of evidence support that chronic inflammation plays an essential role in cancer development and progression (Diakos, Charles, McMillan, & Clarke, 2014; Grivennikov, Greten, & Karin, 2010; Monteleone, Pallone, & Stolfi, 2012). Aberrant activation of TLRs has been shown to increase the risk of colorectal cancer is caused by disruption of chronic inflammation, immune response, and epithelial barrier homeostasis, which predisposes individuals to develop CRC (Cario, 2010; T. T. Li, Ogino, & Qian, 2014; Xiang et al., 2012). Thus, its aberrant activation can be implicated in the pathogenesis of intestinal diseases, such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), colitis-associated cancer (CAC), and colorectal cancer (CRC). The abnormal activation of toll-like receptors (TLRs) leads to an impairment of immune homeostasis, which contributes to colorectal cancer (CRC) development. It is reported that TLR2 and TLR4 are upregulated in CRC and correlated with a poor prognosis in patients with CRC (Nihon-Yanagi, Terai, Murano, Matsumoto, & Okazumi, 2012; Xu et al., 2011). Additionally, It has been shown that genetic variation in TLR2 and TLR4 gene interaction with dietary factors increased susceptibility to CRC and multiple single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these genetic profiles was associated with CRC prognosis (Kopp, Vogel, Tjonnel, & Andersen4, 2018; Slattery, Herrick, Bondurant, & Wolff, 2012). Furthermore, recent research investigating the role of TLRs in diseases indicating that DNA-methylation, histone modification epigenetic has emerged as a new mechanism involved in the regulation of TLRs (Hennessy & McKernan, 2016). Takahashi et al. (Takahashi, Sugi, Hosono, & Kaminogawa, 2009) suggested that epigenetic modification, including histone acetylation and DNA methylation act as a negative regulator of TLR4 gene transcription when associated with ZNF160, a repressive-associated transcription factor in human intestinal epithelial cells. TLR2 was reported to decrease methylation of the proximal human TLR2 promoter was resulting in an up-regulation of TLR2 (Haehnel, Schwarzfischer, Fenton, & Rehli, 2002). Here we observed that cold and capsaicin exposure further increased the expression of TLR2 and TLR4 in the colon mucosa and this could be related to the epigenetic mechnism. Histone modification might be one of the regulators of TLR2 and TLR4. Further studies are necessary to identify the potential genetic locus regulated by histone modification upon cold exposure and administration of capsaicin in DMH-induced CRC through chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and next-generation sequencing (ChIP-seq) assay.