Insights into the critical role of the PXR in preventing carcinogenesis and chemotherapeutic drug resistance

Multiple myeloma (MM) is largely incurable, and is characterized by devastating bone destruction caused by increased osteoclast (OCL) differentiation and bone resorption in more than 85% of MM patients. OCLs in MM not only promote bone resorption but also increase MM cell growth and drug resistance. Despite recent advances in anti-myeloma treatment, development of anti-MM drug resistance is a major limitation of MM therapy. Therefore, new treatment modalities are urgently needed to overcome drug resistance and decrease bone resorption. IGF1 is a crucial factor for tumor cell growth and survival of malignant cells, especially in MM. IGFI also contributes to development of drug resistance of MM cells to anti-MM agents, including proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory agents, but how OCLs contribute to drug resistance is still not clearly delineated. We found that IGF1 was highly expressed in OCLs attached to bone and bone marrow myeloid cells in vivo, and the expression levels of IGF1 in OCLs from MM bearing mice is higher than in normal OCLs. Intriguingly, OCLs produced more IGF1 (0.8 ng/ml/protein) than MM cells (not detected) and bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) (0.4 ng/ml/protein) in vitro. In addition, IGF1 protein expression in OCLs was upregulated (1.8 fold) by treatment with conditioned media (CM) from 5TGM1 murine MM cells, TNF-α or IL-6, major paracrine factors that are increased in the bone marrow microenvironment in MM. These results suggest that OCLs are a major source of local IGF1 in the MM bone marrow microenvironment. To further characterize the role of OCL-derived IGF1, we generated a novel mouse with targeted deletion of Igf1 in OCLs (IGF1-/--OCL), and assessed the role of OCL-derived IGF1 in drug resistance of MM cells and bone destruction. Treatment of 5TGM1 cells with bortezomib (BTZ) (3 nM, 48 hours) decreased the viability of 5TGM1 cells by 50%. Importantly, the cytotoxic effects of BTZ on MM cells were decreased (by 5%) when MM cells were cocultured with OCLs from wild type (WT) mice. In contrast, coculture of MM cells with IGF1-/--OCLs or WT-OCLs treated with IGF1 neutralizing antibody (IGF1-ab) did not block BTZ's effects on MM cell death. Consistent with these results, coculture of MM cells with IGF1-/--OCLs or WT-OCLs treated with IGF1-ab resulted in BTZ-induced caspase-dependent apoptosis in MM cells. We next examined the effects of OCLs on the signaling pathways responsible for MM cell survival. WT-OCL-CM promptly induced the phosphorylation of Akt and activation of p38, ERK and NF-κB in MM cells. However, these pathways were not activated by MM cells treated with IGF1-/--OCL-CM or IGF1-ab-treated WT-OCL-CM. Since adhesion of MM cells to BMSCs via interaction of VLA-4 and VCAM-1 plays a critical role in cell adhesion-mediated drug resistance (CAMDR) in MM, we tested if treatment of human BMSCs with human OCL-CM upregulated VCAM-1 expression. We found that OCL-CM upregulated VCAM-1 expression on BMSCs (x fold). In contrast, treatment of BMSCs with OCLs treated with IGF1-ab blocked VCAM-1 induction. These data suggest that OCL-derived IGF1 can contribute to MM cell drug resistance in the bone marrow microenvironment. We then examined the role of IGF1 inhibition on osteoclastogenesis and the bone resorption capacity of OCLs. RANK ligand induced the expression of cathepsin K and NFATc1 in CD11b+ bone marrow cells from WT mice, differentiation markers of OCLs, and the formation of TRAP-positive multinucleated OCLs. However, OCLs formed by RANK ligand treatment of CD11b+ bone marrow cells from IGF1-/- mice had markedly decreased cathepsin K and NFATc1 expression and OCL formation. Next, we tested the bone resorption capacity of OCLs formed by CD11b+ bone marrow cells from IGF1-/- mice vs. WT mice. Similar numbers of OCLs were cultured with RANK ligand on bone slices for 72 hours. The bone resorption activity of Igf1-/--OCLs was significantly decreased (70%) compared with WT-OCLs. These results suggest that OCL-derived IGF1 plays a critical role in MM drug resistance and bone destruction, and that inhibition of the effect of IGF1 in OCLs should decrease MM drug resistance and bone destruction. Disclosures Roodman: Amgen trial of Denosumab versus Zoledronate: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.

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The Critical Role of HDAC1-IRF4-Pim-2 Axis in Myeloma Cell Growth and Survival: Therapeutic Impacts of Targeting the HDAC1-IRF4-Pim-2 Axis

Blood ◽

10.1182/blood-2018-99-114086 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 132 (Supplement 1) ◽

pp. 1939-1939 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Takeshi Harada ◽

Asuka Oda ◽

Yohann Grondin ◽

Jumpei Teramachi ◽

Ariunzaya Bat-Erdene ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drug Resistance ◽

Cell Death ◽

Cell Growth ◽

Critical Role ◽

Class I ◽

Growth And Survival ◽

Class I Hdacs ◽

Rpmi 8226 ◽

Cell Growth And Survival

Abstract Multiple myeloma (MM) is a heterogeneous clonal plasma cell proliferative disorder with CRAB features. Although survival of MM patients has been greatly prolonged by recent implementation of various combinatory treatments with novel anti-MM agents, MM still remains incurable. MM cells preferentially grow and expand in the bone marrow to elicit the alteration of gene expression and thereby drug resistance. To improve the therapeutic efficacy, we urgently need to develop novel treatment strategies targeting the BM microenvironment-mediated drug resistance. The serine/threonine kinase Pim-2 is constitutively over-expressed and acts as a pro-survival mediator in MM cells. We have reported that cocultures with bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) or osteoclasts (OCs) further up-regulate Pim-2 expression in MM cells to confer drug resistance (Leukemia 2011, 2015). Therefore, Pim-2 appears to be an important therapeutic target to impair the BM microenvironment-mediated drug resistance in MM. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are generally accepted to be therapeutic targets for MM treatment. However, clinical application of currently available pan-HDAC inhibitors is limited with their adverse effects induced by a non-selective HDAC inhibition. To develop safe and effective HDAC inhibitor-based treatment, the therapeutic roles of HDAC isoform-specific inhibition should be elucidated. In this regard, we have recently reported therapeutic impacts on MM cells of inhibition of class-I HDACs, especially HDAC1 and HDAC3. HDAC3-selective inhibitor BG45 induces anti-MM activity in combination with DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) inhibitor azacytidine (Leukemia 2017). In the present study, we aimed to clarify the underlying mechanisms for impairment of MM cell growth and survival by HDAC1 inhibition. We first referenced the expression of class-I HDACs using a publicly available GSE6691 data set. Among class-I HDACs, HDAC1 and HDAC3 were highly expressed in MM cells. We then knockdowned HDAC1 gene using lentiviral shRNA system in MM cell lines. The HDAC1 gene silencing induced MM cell death with caspase-3 activation, indicating the critical role of HDAC1 in MM cell growth and survival. To determine target molecules of HDAC1, we carried out RNA-sequencing with and without the HDAC1 gene silencing in RPMI 8226 cells. Among genes whose expression significantly changed by the HDAC1 knockdown (adjusted P values < 0.05, log fold change > 0.5), we focused on IRF4 together with PIM2, because MM cell has been demonstrated to addict to aberrant IRF4-c-Myc regulatory network (Nature 2008). Downregulation of IRF4 and Pim-2 by the HDAC1 knockdown was further confirmed by quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) and immunoblotting in RPMI 8226 and MM.1S cells. Treatment with the class I HDAC-selective inhibitor MS-275 (entinostat) also induced MM cell death along with reduction of IRF4 and Pim-2 expression. Since previous study has shown that IRF4 binds to PIM2 promoter in MM cells (Nature 2008), we examined whether IRF4 regulates PIM2 expression. We found that IRF4 binds to the PIM2 promoter region by analyzing ChIP-Seq data in KMS-12 cells (GSE22901). We further confirmed the binding of IRF4 on PIM2 promoter by ChIP-Q-PCR. Indeed, the IRF4 knockdown downregulated Pim-2 expression in RPMI 8226 cells. These results suggest that HDAC1 inhibition downregulates IRF4 expression, thereby transcriptionally reducing PIM2 expression in MM cells. Pim-2 expression can also be augmented by multiple signaling pathways, including HIF-1a, JAK-STAT and NF-kB-mediated ones in MM cells through the interaction with BM microenvironment. Interestingly, the Pim inhibitor SMI-16a and MS-275 cooperatively induced apoptotic cell death in MM cell lines and CD138-positive primary MM cells even in the presence of BMSCs. Taken together, our results demonstrate the critical role of the HDAC1-IRF4-Pim-2 axis in MM cell growth and survival, and provoke the novel treatment strategy targeting the HDAC1-IRF4-Pim-2 axis in MM cells. Disclosures Anderson: Takeda Millennium: Consultancy; Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Oncopep: Equity Ownership; C4 Therapeutics: Equity Ownership; Celgene: Consultancy; Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy.

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Inhibiting adenine synthesis attenuates glioblastoma cell stemness and temozolomide resistance

10.1101/2021.06.21.449341 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Simranjit X. Singh ◽

Rui Yang ◽

Kristen Roso ◽

Landon J. Hansen ◽

Changzheng Du ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drug Resistance ◽

Mitochondrial Function ◽

Brain Cancer ◽

De Novo ◽

Critical Role ◽

Glioblastoma Cell ◽

Respiratory Capacity ◽

Complementary Approach

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a lethal brain cancer exhibiting high levels of drug resistance, a feature partially imparted by tumor cell stemness. Recent work shows that homozygous MTAP deletion, a genetic alteration occurring in about half of all GBMs, promotes stemness in GBM cells. Exploiting MTAP loss-conferred deficiency in adenine salvage, we demonstrate that transient adenine blockade via treatment with L-Alanosine (ALA), an inhibitor of de novo adenine synthesis, attenuates stemness of MTAP-deficient GBM cells. This ALA-induced reduction in stemness is accompanied by compromised mitochondrial function, highlighted by diminished spare respiratory capacity. Direct pharmacological inhibition of mitochondrial respiration recapitulates the effect of ALA on GBM cell stemness, suggesting ALA targets stemness partially via affecting mitochondrial function. Finally, in agreement with diminished stemness and compromised mitochondrial function, we show that ALA sensitizes GBM cells to temozolomide (TMZ) in vitro and in an orthotopic GBM model. Collectively, these results identify critical roles of adenine supply in maintaining mitochondrial function and stemness of GBM cells, highlight a critical role of mitochondrial function in sustaining GBM stemness, and implicate adenine synthesis inhibition as a complementary approach for treating MTAP-deleted GBMs.

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Role of the SOS Response in Stationary-Phase Hypermutation: A Model for Mutation in Oncogenesis and Chemotherapeutic Drug-Resistance

10.21236/ada390995 ◽

2000 ◽

Author(s):

Gregory McKenzie

Keyword(s):

Drug Resistance ◽

Stationary Phase ◽

Sos Response ◽

Chemotherapeutic Drug

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The critical role of AMPK in driving Akt activation under stress, tumorigenesis and drug resistance

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-018-07188-9 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Fei Han ◽

Chien-Feng Li ◽

Zhen Cai ◽

Xian Zhang ◽

Guoxiang Jin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drug Resistance ◽

Critical Role ◽

Akt Activation

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Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in Conversation with Tumor Cells in Endometrial Cancers: A Partner in Crime

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms22179121 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (17) ◽

pp. 9121

Author(s):

De Pradip ◽

Aske Jennifer ◽

Dey Nandini

Keyword(s):

Drug Resistance ◽

Tumor Microenvironment ◽

Tumor Growth ◽

Tumor Cell ◽

Tumor Cells ◽

Cross Talk ◽

Critical Role ◽

Immune Surveillance ◽

Endometrial Cancers

A tumor cell carrying characteristic genomic alteration(s) exists within its host’s microenvironment. The tumor microenvironment (TME) renders holistic support to the tumor via cross-talk between tumor cells and three components of TME, immune components, vascular components, and fibroblast components. The tempero-spatial interaction of tumor cells with its microenvironment is the deterministic factor for tumor growth, progression, resistance to therapy, and its outcome in clinics. TME (1) facilitates proliferation, and the ensuing metastasis-associated phenotypes, (2) perturbs immune surveillance and supports tumor cells in their effort to evade immune recognition, and (3) actively participates in developing drug-induced resistance in cancer cells. Cancer-Associated Fibroblast (CAF) is a unique component of TME. CAF is the host mesenchyme immediately surrounding the tumor cells in solid tumors. It facilitates tumor growth and progression and participates in developing drug resistance in tumor cells by playing a critical role in all the ways mentioned above. The clinical outcome of a disease is thus critically contributed to by the CAF component of TME. Although CAFs have been identified historically, the functional relevance of CAF-tumor cell cross-talk and their influence on angiogenic and immune-components of TME are yet to be characterized in solid tumors, especially in endometrial cancers. Currently, the standard of care for the treatment of endometrial cancers is primarily guided by therapies directed towards the disease’s tumor compartment and immune compartments. Unfortunately, in the current state of therapies, a complete response (CR) to the therapy is still limited despite a more commonly achieved partial response (PR) and stable disease (SD) in patients. Acknowledging the limitations of the current sets of therapies based on only the tumor and immune compartments of the disease, we sought to put forward this review based on the importance of the cross-talk between CAF of the tumor microenvironment and tumor cells. The premise of the review is to recognize the critical role of CAF in disease progression. This manuscript presents a systemic review of the role of CAF in endometrial cancers. We critically interrogated the active involvement of CAF in the tumor compartment of endometrial cancers. Here we present the functional characteristics of CAF in the context of endometrial cancers. We review (1) the characteristics of CAF, (2) their evolution from being anti-tumor to pro-tumor, (3) their involvement in regulating growth and several metastasis-associated phenotypes of tumor cells, (4) their participation in perturbing immune defense and evading immune surveillance, and (5) their role in mediating drug resistance via tumor-CAF cross-talk with particular reference to endometrial cancers. We interrogate the functional characteristics of CAF in the light of its dialogue with tumor cells and other components of TME towards developing a CAF-based strategy for precision therapy to supplement tumor-based therapy. The purpose of the review is to present a new vision and initiate a thought process which recognizes the importance of CAF in a tumor, thereby resulting in a novel approach to the design and management of the disease in endometrial cancers.

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