Antidepressant Sertraline Synergistically Enhances Paclitaxel Efficacy by Inducing Autophagy in Colorectal Cancer Cells

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. It is important to discover new therapeutic regimens for treating CRC. Depression is known to be an important complication of cancer diseases. Repurposing antidepressants into anticancer drugs and exploring the combinational efficacy of antidepressants and chemotherapy are potentially good options for developing CRC treatment regimens. In this study, sertraline, an antidepressant drug, and paclitaxel, an anticancer drug, were chosen to study their antitumor effects in the treatment of colorectal cancer, alone or in combination, and to explore their underlying mechanisms. The data showed that sertraline exerted a dose-dependent cytotoxic effect on MC38 and CT26 colorectal cancer cell lines with IC