scholarly journals Tumorigenic Cell Reprogramming and Cancer Plasticity: Interplay between Signaling, Microenvironment, and Epigenetics

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vittoria Poli ◽  
Luca Fagnocchi ◽  
Alessio Zippo
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Tumor Heterogeneity ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Cell Reprogramming ◽  
Tumor Initiation ◽  
Cell Of Origin ◽  
Cell Plasticity ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Dynamic Mechanisms ◽  
Tumor Maintenance

Accumulating evidences indicate that many tumors rely on subpopulations of cancer stem cells (CSCs) with the ability to propagate malignant clones indefinitely and to produce an overt cancer. Of importance, CSCs seem to be more resistant to the conventional cytotoxic treatments, driving tumor growth and contributing to relapse. CSCs can originate from normal committed cells which undergo tumor-reprogramming processes and reacquire a stem cell-like phenotype. Increasing evidences also show how tumor homeostasis and progression strongly rely on the capacity of nontumorigenic cancer cells to dedifferentiate to CSCs. Both tumor microenvironment and epigenetic reprogramming drive such dynamic mechanisms, favoring cancer cell plasticity and tumor heterogeneity. Here, we report new developments which led to an advancement in the CSC field, elucidating the concepts of cancer cell of origin and CSC plasticity in solid tumor initiation and maintenance. We further discuss the main signaling pathways which, under the influence of extrinsic environmental factors, play a critical role in the formation and maintenance of CSCs. Moreover, we propose a review of the main epigenetic mechanisms whose deregulation can favor the onset of CSC features both in tumor initiation and tumor maintenance. Finally, we provide an update of the main strategies that could be applied to target CSCs and cancer cell plasticity.

scholarly journals Impact of the Tumor Microenvironment on Tumor Heterogeneity and Consequences for Cancer Cell Plasticity and Stemness

Cancers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3716
Author(s):  
Ralf Hass ◽  
Juliane von der Ohe ◽  
Hendrik Ungefroren
Keyword(s):  
Tumor Microenvironment ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Tumor Heterogeneity ◽  
Cancer Therapies ◽  
Epigenetic Alterations ◽  
Cell Plasticity ◽  
Cellular Phenotypes ◽  
Therapy Success ◽  
Physical And Chemical

Tumor heterogeneity is considered the major cause of treatment failure in current cancer therapies. This feature of solid tumors is not only the result of clonal outgrowth of cells with genetic mutations, but also of epigenetic alterations induced by physical and chemical signals from the tumor microenvironment (TME). Besides fibroblasts, endothelial and immune cells, mesenchymal stroma/stem-like cells (MSCs) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) intimately crosstalk with cancer cells and can exhibit both anti- and pro-tumorigenic effects. MSCs can alter cancer cellular phenotypes to increase cancer cell plasticity, eventually resulting in the generation of cancer stem cells (CSCs). The shift between different phenotypic states (phenotype switching) of CSCs is controlled via both genetic programs, such as epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferentiation or retrodifferentiation, and epigenetic alterations triggered by signals from the TME, like hypoxia, spatial heterogeneity or stromal cell-derived chemokines. Finally, we highlight the role of spontaneous cancer cell fusion with various types of stromal cells. i.e., MSCs in shaping CSC plasticity. A better understanding of cell plasticity and phenotype shifting in CSCs is a prerequisite for exploiting this phenomenon to reduce tumor heterogeneity, thereby improving the chance for therapy success.

scholarly journals Application of Single-Cell Multi-Omics in Dissecting Cancer Cell Plasticity and Tumor Heterogeneity

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deshen Pan ◽  
Deshui Jia
Keyword(s):  
Single Cell ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Tumor Heterogeneity ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Tumor Development ◽  
Cell Plasticity ◽  
Translational Cancer Research ◽  
Cellular Components

Tumor heterogeneity, a hallmark of cancer, impairs the efficacy of cancer therapy and drives tumor progression. Exploring inter- and intra-tumoral heterogeneity not only provides insights into tumor development and progression, but also guides the design of personalized therapies. Previously, high-throughput sequencing techniques have been used to investigate the heterogeneity of tumor ecosystems. However, they could not provide a high-resolution landscape of cellular components in tumor ecosystem. Recently, advance in single-cell technologies has provided an unprecedented resolution to uncover the intra-tumoral heterogeneity by profiling the transcriptomes, genomes, proteomes and epigenomes of the cellular components and also their spatial distribution, which greatly accelerated the process of basic and translational cancer research. Importantly, it has been demonstrated that some cancer cells are able to transit between different states in order to adapt to the changing tumor microenvironment, which led to increased cellular plasticity and tumor heterogeneity. Understanding the molecular mechanisms driving cancer cell plasticity is critical for developing precision therapies. In this review, we summarize the recent progress in dissecting the cancer cell plasticity and tumor heterogeneity by use of single-cell multi-omics techniques.

scholarly journals An Intricate Connection between Alternative Splicing and Phenotypic Plasticity in Development and Cancer

Cells ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Biamonti ◽  
Lucia Infantino ◽  
Daniela Gaglio ◽  
Angela Amato
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Splicing ◽  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Tumor Heterogeneity ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Cellular Plasticity ◽  
Cell Plasticity ◽  
Cellular Mechanisms

During tumor progression, hypoxia, nutrient deprivation or changes in the extracellular environment (i.e., induced by anti-cancer drugs) elicit adaptive responses in cancer cells. Cellular plasticity increases the chance that tumor cells may survive in a challenging microenvironment, acquire new mechanisms of resistance to conventional drugs, and spread to distant sites. Re-activation of stem pathways appears as a significant cause of cellular plasticity because it promotes the acquisition of stem-like properties through a profound phenotypic reprogramming of cancer cells. In addition, it is a major contributor to tumor heterogeneity, depending on the coexistence of phenotypically distinct subpopulations in the same tumor bulk. Several cellular mechanisms may drive this fundamental change, in particular, high-throughput sequencing technologies revealed a key role for alternative splicing (AS). Effectively, AS is one of the most important pre-mRNA processes that increases the diversity of transcriptome and proteome in a tissue- and development-dependent manner. Moreover, defective AS has been associated with several human diseases. However, its role in cancer cell plasticity and tumor heterogeneity remains unclear. Therefore, unravelling the intricate relationship between AS and the maintenance of a stem-like phenotype may explain molecular mechanisms underlying cancer cell plasticity and improve cancer diagnosis and treatment.

scholarly journals Long non-coding RNA ARHGAP5-AS1 inhibits migration of breast cancer cell via stabilizing SMAD7 protein

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen-Long Wang ◽  
Jing-Chi Li ◽  
Ci-Xiang Zhou ◽  
Cheng-Ning Ma ◽  
Di-Fei Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Cell Migration ◽  
Cell Lines ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Breast Cancer Cell ◽  
Rho Gtpase ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Luciferase Reporter ◽  
Breast Cancer Cell Lines ◽  
Smad7 Protein

Abstract Purpose Tumor metastasis is the main cause of death from breast cancer patients and cell migration plays a critical role in cancer metastasis. Recent studies have shown long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an essential role in the initiation and progression of cancer. In the present study, the role of an LncRNA, Rho GTPase Activating Protein 5- Antisense 1 (ARHGAP5-AS1) in breast cancer was investigated. Methods RNA sequencing was performed to find out dysregulated LncRNAs in MDA-MB-231-LM2 cells. Transwell migration assays and F-actin staining were utilized to estimate cell migration ability. RNA pulldown assays and RNA immunoprecipitation were used to prove the interaction between ARHGAP5-AS1 and SMAD7. Western blot and immunofluorescence imaging were used to examine the protein levels. Dual luciferase reporter assays were performed to evaluate the activation of TGF-β signaling. Results We analyzed the RNA-seq data of MDA-MB-231 and its highly metastatic derivative MDA-MB-231-LM2 cell lines (referred to as LM2) and identified a novel lncRNA (NR_027263) named as ARHGAP5-AS1, which expression was significantly downregulated in LM2 cells. Further functional investigation showed ARHGAP5-AS1 could inhibit cell migration via suppression of stress fibers in breast cancer cell lines. Afterwards, SMAD7 was further identified to interact with ARHGAP5-AS1 by its PY motif and thus its ubiquitination and degradation was blocked due to reduced interaction with E3 ligase SMURF1 and SMURF2. Moreover, ARHGAP5-AS1 could inhibit TGF-β signaling pathway due to its inhibitory role on SMAD7. Conclusion ARHGAP5-AS1 inhibits breast cancer cell migration via stabilization of SMAD7 protein and could serve as a novel biomarker and a potential target for breast cancer in the future.

scholarly journals Self-Assembling Polypeptide Hydrogels as a Platform to Recapitulate the Tumor Microenvironment

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 3286
Author(s):  
Dariusz Lachowski ◽  
Carlos Matellan ◽  
Ernesto Cortes ◽  
Alberto Saiani ◽  
Aline F. Miller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cell Culture ◽  
Tumor Microenvironment ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Hypoxia Inducible Factor ◽  
Pancreatic Cancer Cell Line ◽  
Cancer Cell Line ◽  
Culture Systems ◽  
A Cell

The tumor microenvironment plays a critical role in modulating cancer cell migration, metabolism, and malignancy, thus, highlighting the need to develop in vitro culture systems that can recapitulate its abnormal properties. While a variety of stiffness-tunable biomaterials, reviewed here, have been developed to mimic the rigidity of the tumor extracellular matrix, culture systems that can recapitulate the broader extracellular context of the tumor microenvironment (including pH and temperature) remain comparably unexplored, partially due to the difficulty in independently tuning these parameters. Here, we investigate a self-assembled polypeptide network hydrogel as a cell culture platform and demonstrate that the culture parameters, including the substrate stiffness, extracellular pH and temperature, can be independently controlled. We then use this biomaterial as a cell culture substrate to assess the effect of stiffness, pH and temperature on Suit2 cells, a pancreatic cancer cell line, and demonstrate that these microenvironmental factors can regulate two critical transcription factors in cancer: yes-associated protein 1 (YAP) and hypoxia inducible factor (HIF-1A).

scholarly journals Epigenomic landscape of human colorectal cancer unveils an aberrant core of pan-cancer enhancers orchestrated by YAP/TAZ

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Della Chiara ◽  
Federica Gervasoni ◽  
Michaela Fakiola ◽  
Chiara Godano ◽  
Claudia D’Oria ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Colorectal Cancer ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Epigenetic Alterations ◽  
Human Colorectal Cancer ◽  
Active Chromatin ◽  
Extensive Cell Death ◽  
Extensive Cell ◽  
Pan Cancer ◽  
Tumor Maintenance

AbstractCancer is characterized by pervasive epigenetic alterations with enhancer dysfunction orchestrating the aberrant cancer transcriptional programs and transcriptional dependencies. Here, we epigenetically characterize human colorectal cancer (CRC) using de novo chromatin state discovery on a library of different patient-derived organoids. By exploring this resource, we unveil a tumor-specific deregulated enhancerome that is cancer cell-intrinsic and independent of interpatient heterogeneity. We show that the transcriptional coactivators YAP/TAZ act as key regulators of the conserved CRC gained enhancers. The same YAP/TAZ-bound enhancers display active chromatin profiles across diverse human tumors, highlighting a pan-cancer epigenetic rewiring which at single-cell level distinguishes malignant from normal cell populations. YAP/TAZ inhibition in established tumor organoids causes extensive cell death unveiling their essential role in tumor maintenance. This work indicates a common layer of YAP/TAZ-fueled enhancer reprogramming that is key for the cancer cell state and can be exploited for the development of improved therapeutic avenues.

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