scholarly journals An immature subset of neuroblastoma cells synthesizes retinoic acid and depends on this metabolite

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim van Groningen ◽  
Camilla U. Niklasson ◽  
Alvin Chan ◽  
Nurdan Akogul ◽  
Ellen M. Westerhout ◽  
...  

Neuroblastoma is a pediatric tumor of the adrenergic sympathetic lineage. Most high risk neuroblastoma go in complete clinical remission by chemotherapy, which is subsequently complemented by retinoic acid (RA) maintenance therapy. However, by unresolved mechanisms most tumors ultimately relapse as therapy-resistant disease. Neuroblastoma cell lines were recently found to include, besides lineage committed adrenergic (ADRN) tumor cells, also immature mesenchymal (MES) tumor cells. Here, we report that MES-type cells synthesize RA and require this metabolite for proliferation and motility. MES cells are even resistant to RA in vitro. MES cells appear to resemble Schwann Cell Precursors (SCP), which are motile precursors of the adrenergic lineage. MES and SCP cells express shared RA-synthesis and RA-target genes. Endogenous RA synthesis and RA resistance thus stem from normal programs of lineage precursors that are maintained in an immature tumor cell fraction. These cells are fully malignant in orthotopic patient-derived xenograft models and may mediate development of drug-resistant relapses.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra D’Oto ◽  
Jie Fang ◽  
Hongjian Jin ◽  
Beisi Xu ◽  
Shivendra Singh ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe H3K27me2/me3 histone demethylase KDM6B is over-expressed in neuroblastoma and essential to neuroblastoma cell survival. While the KDM6B inhibitor, GSK-J4, has shown activity in in vitro and in vivo preclinical models, the mechanism of action remains poorly defined. We demonstrate that genetic and pharmacologic inhibition of KDM6B downregulate the pRB-E2F transcriptome and MYCN expression. Chemical genetics analyses show that a high E2F transcriptome is positively correlated with sensitivity of cancer cells to the KDM6 inhibitor GSK-J4. Mechanistically, inhibition of KDM6B activity reduces the chromatin accessibility of E2F target genes and MYCN. GSK-J4 alters distribution of H3K27me3 and broadly represses the enhancer mark H3K4me1, which may consequently disrupt the long-range chromatin interaction of E2F target genes. KDM6B inhibition phenocopies the transcriptome induced by the specific CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib. Overexpression of CDK4/6 or Rb1 knockout not only confers neuroblastoma cell resistance to palbociclib but also to GSK-J4. A gene signature targeted by KDM6B inhibition is associated with poor survival of patients with neuroblastoma regardless of the MYCN status. These data indicate that KDM6B activity promotes an oncogenic CDK4/6-pRB-E2F pathway in neuroblastoma cells via H3K27me3-dependent enhancer-promoter interactions, providing a rationale to target KDM6B for high-risk neuroblastoma.


1991 ◽  
Vol 2 (12) ◽  
pp. 1021-1033 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Rossino ◽  
P Defilippi ◽  
L Silengo ◽  
G Tarone

Retinoic acid (RA) is known to induce differentiation of neuroblastoma cells in vitro. Here we show that treatment of two human neuroblastoma cell lines, SY5Y and IMR32, with RA resulted in a fivefold increase of the integrin alpha 1/beta 1 expression. The effect was selective because expression of the alpha 3/beta 1 integrin, also present in these cells, was not increased. The up-regulation of the alpha 1/beta 1 differentiated SY5Y cells correlated with increased neurite response to laminin. In fact, RA-treated SY5Y cells elongated neurites on laminin-coated substratum more efficiently compared with untreated cells or cells treated with nerve growth factor, insulin, or phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate. These three agents induced partial morphological differentiation but did not increase alpha 1 integrin expression. Neurite extension in RA-treated cells was more efficient on laminin than on fibronectin or collagen type I and was inhibited with beta 1 integrin antibodies on all three substrates. Affinity chromatography experiments showed that alpha 1/beta 1 is the major laminin receptor in both untreated and RA-treated SY5Y cells. These data show that RA, a naturally occurring morphogen implicated in embryonic development, can selectively regulate the expression of integrin complexes in neuronal cells and suggest an important role of the alpha 1/beta 1 laminin receptor in the morphological differentiation of nerve cells.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 4845
Author(s):  
Carlos Jiménez ◽  
Roberta Antonelli ◽  
Marc Masanas ◽  
Aroa Soriano ◽  
Laura Devis-Jauregui ◽  
...  

Neuroblastoma is a pediatric tumor of the peripheral nervous system that accounts for up to ~15% of all cancer-related deaths in children. Recently, it has become evident that epigenetic deregulation is a relevant event in pediatric tumors such as high-risk neuroblastomas, and a determinant for processes, such as cell differentiation blockade and sustained proliferation, which promote tumor progression and resistance to current therapies. Thus, a better understanding of epigenetic factors implicated in the aggressive behavior of neuroblastoma cells is crucial for the development of better treatments. In this study, we characterized the role of ZRF1, an epigenetic activator recruited to genes involved in the maintenance of the identity of neural progenitors. We combined analysis of patient sample expression datasets with loss- and gain-of-function studies on neuroblastoma cell lines. Functional analyses revealed that ZRF1 is functionally dispensable for those cellular functions related to cell differentiation, proliferation, migration, and invasion, and does not affect the cellular response to chemotherapeutic agents. However, we found that high levels of ZRF1 mRNA expression are associated to shorter overall survival of neuroblastoma patients, even when those patients with the most common molecular alterations used as prognostic factors are removed from the analyses, thereby suggesting that ZRF1 expression could be used as an independent prognostic factor in neuroblastoma.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
İrem Bozbey ◽  
Suat Sari ◽  
Emine Şalva ◽  
Didem Kart ◽  
Arzu Karakurt

Background: Azole antifungals are among the first-line drugs clinically used for the treatment of systemic candidiasis, a deadly type of fungal infection that threatens mostly immunecompromised and hospitalized patients. Some azole derivatives were also reported to have antiproliferative effects on cancer cells. Objective: In this study, 1-(4-trifluoromethylphenyl)-2-(1H-imidazol-1-yl)ethanone (3), its oxime (4), and a series of its novel oxime ester derivatives (5a-v) were synthesized and tested for their in vitro antimicrobial activities against certain ATCC standard strains of Candida sp. fungi and bacteria. The compounds were also tested for their cytotoxic effects against mouse fibroblast and human neuroblastoma cell lines. Molecular modeling studies were performed to provide insights into their possible mechanisms for antifungal and antibacterial actions. Methods: The compounds were synthesized by the reaction of various oximes with acyl chlorides. Antimicrobial activity of the compounds was determined according to the broth microdilution method. For the determination of cytotoxic effect, we used MTS assay. Molecular docking and QM/MM studies were performed to predict the binding mechanisms of the active compounds in the catalytic site of C. albicans CYP51 (CACYP51) and S. aureus flavohemoglobin (SAFH), the latter of which was created via homology modeling. Results: 5d, 5l, and 5t showed moderate antifungal activity against C. albicans, while 3, 5c, and 5r showed significant antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Most of the compounds showed approximately 40-50% inhibition against the human neuroblastoma cells at 100 µM. In this line, 3 was the most potent with an IC50 value of 82.18 μM followed by 5a, 5o, and 5t. 3 and 5a were highly selective to the neuroblastoma cells. Molecular modelling results supported the hypothesis that our compounds were inhibitors of CAYP51 and SAFH. Conclusion: This study supports that oxime ester derivatives may be used for the development of new antimicrobial and cytotoxic agents.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2904
Author(s):  
Margot Gautier ◽  
Cécile Thirant ◽  
Olivier Delattre ◽  
Isabelle Janoueix-Lerosey

Neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer of the peripheral sympathetic nervous system, is characterized by an important clinical heterogeneity, and high-risk tumors are associated with a poor overall survival. Neuroblastoma cells may present with diverse morphological and biochemical properties in vitro, and seminal observations suggested that interconversion between two phenotypes called N-type and S-type may occur. In 2017, two main studies provided novel insights into these subtypes through the characterization of the transcriptomic and epigenetic landscapes of a panel of neuroblastoma cell lines. In this review, we focus on the available data that define neuroblastoma cell identity and propose to use the term noradrenergic (NOR) and mesenchymal (MES) to refer to these identities. We also address the question of transdifferentiation between both states and suggest that the plasticity between the NOR identity and the MES identity defines a noradrenergic-to-mesenchymal transition, reminiscent of but different from the well-established epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.


1988 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1677-1683 ◽  
Author(s):  
C J Thiele ◽  
P S Cohen ◽  
M A Israel

We detected expression of the c-myb proto-oncogene, which was initially thought to be expressed in a tissue-specific manner in cells of hematopoietic lineage, in human tissues of neuronal origin. Since the level of c-myb expression declined during fetal development, we studied the regulation of its expression in human neuroblastoma cell lines induced to differentiate by retinoic acid. The expression of c-myb declined during the maturation of neuroblastoma cells, and this change was mediated by a decrease in c-myb transcription.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aida Revilla-García ◽  
Cristina Fernández ◽  
María Moreno-del Álamo ◽  
Vivian de los Ríos ◽  
Ina M. Vorberg ◽  
...  

AbstractRepA is a bacterial protein that builds intracellular amyloid oligomers acting as inhibitory complexes of plasmid DNA replication. When carrying a mutation enhancing its amyloidogenesis (A31V), the N-terminal domain (WH1) generates cytosolic amyloid particles that are inheritable within a bacterial lineage. Such amyloids trigger in bacteria a lethal cascade reminiscent to mitochondria impairment in human cells affected by neurodegeneration. To fulfil all the features of a prion-like protein, horizontal (intercellular) transmissibility remains to be demonstrated for RepA-WH1. Since this is experimentally intractable in bacteria, here we transiently expressed in a murine neuroblastoma cell line the soluble, barely cytotoxic RepA-WH1(WT) and assayed its response to co-incubation with in vitro assembled RepA-WH1(A31V) amyloid fibres. In parallel, cells releasing RepA-WH1(A31V) aggregates were co-cultured with human neuroblastoma cells expressing RepA-WH1(WT). Both the assembled fibres and the extracellular RepA-WH1(A31V) aggregates induce, in the cytosol of recipient cells, the formation of cytotoxic amyloid particles. Mass spectrometry analyses of the proteomes of both types of injured cells point to alterations in mitochondria, protein quality triage, signalling and intracellular traffic.Summary blurbThe horizontal, cell-to-cell spread of a bacterial prion-like protein is shown for the first time in mammalian cells. Amyloid cross-aggregation of distinct variants, and their associated toxicities, follow the same trend found in bacteria, underlining the universality of prion biology.


Blood ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 87 (5) ◽  
pp. 1977-1984 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Kizaki ◽  
MI Dawson ◽  
R Heyman ◽  
E Elster ◽  
R Morosetti ◽  
...  

The biologic effects of retinoids such as all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) and 9-cis-retinoic acid on proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic cells are mediated by binding and activating two distinct families of transcription factors: the retinoic acid receptors (RARs) and the retinoid X receptors (RXRs). The RARs require heterodimerization with RXRs; in addition, RXRs can form homodimers, which can bind to DNA response elements that are either distinct or the same as those bound by the RAR/RXR heterodimers. Therefore, the two retinoid pathways provide sequences that are specific for effective DNA binding and activation of target genes. We have developed several series of novel synthetic retinoids that selectively interact with RXR/RXR homodimers and RAR/RXR heterodimers. We show here that SR11236 and SR11246, which are RXR-selective analogs, had little ability to inhibit clonal growth and induce differentiation of leukemic cells (HL- 60 cells and fresh acute myeloid leukemia cells). However, SR11249, SR11256, and LGD1069, which activated both RXR/RXR homodimers and RAR/RXR heterodimers, could inhibit clonal growth and induce differentiation of HL-60 cells as well as leukemic cells from patients, including those with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). This is similar to results observed with RAR/RXR-specific ligands. Interestingly, the combination of ATRA and either SR11249, SR11256, or LGD1069 showed synergistic effects in inducing differentiation of HL-60 cells. A retinoid (SR11238) with strong anti-AP-1 activity that did not activate the RARs and RXRs for gene transcription from the response element TREpal was inactive in our assay systems, suggesting that the antiproliferative effects of retinoids on leukemic cells is not mediated by inhibiting the AP-1 pathway. We conclude that the RAR/RXR pathway is more important than RXR/RXR pathway for differentiation and proliferation of acute myeloid leukemic cells, and certain retinoids or combination of retinoids with both RAR and RXR specificities may synergistically enhance the differentiation activity of ATRA, which may be relevant in several clinical situations.


1984 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 1309-1315 ◽  
Author(s):  
L M Parysek ◽  
C F Asnes ◽  
J B Olmsted

A polyclonal antiserum to a microtubule-associated protein (MAP) from mouse neuroblastoma cells (MAP 4) was used to examine the distribution of this protein in mouse tissues. Immunoblots of neuroblastoma cell microtubule protein preparations demonstrated that the antiserum reacted with a triplet of proteins at 215,000-240,000 mol wt. Antibodies affinity purified from any of the bands showed cross-reaction with the other bands, indicating these polypeptides were all immunologically related. Antibodies specific to MAP 4 decorated microtubules in cultured murine cells fixed with glutaraldehyde, and diffuse staining was seen following treatment of cells with nocodazole. The antiserum reacted with MAP 4 in extracts of brain, heart, liver, and lung from adult mouse; the triplet in brain was more closely spaced than in the other tissues or neuroblastoma cells. In kidney, spleen, and stomach, only a single band (band 4) was labeled; this band was immunologically related to the triplet and was also present in all tissues positive for the triplet. Skeletal muscle, sperm, and peripheral blood contained no reactive polypeptides. After taxol-induced polymerization, the MAP 4 triplet was preferentially associated with the microtubule pellet whereas band 4 remained in the supernatant. These data indicate that there is tissue specificity in the distribution of MAP 4, and that some tissues contain a polypeptide related to MAP 4 (band 4) that does not bind to microtubules in vitro.


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