Interleukin-30 Promotes Breast Cancer Growth and Progression.

The inflammatory tissue microenvironment that promotes the development of breast cancer is not fully understood. Here we report a role for elevated IL30 in supporting the breast cancer cell viability and invasive migration. IL30 was absent in normal mammary ducts, ductules, and acini of histologically normal breast and scanty in the few stromal infiltrating leukocytes. In contrast, IL30 was expressed frequently in breast cancer specimens where it was associated with triple-negative and HER2+ molecular subtypes. In stromal leukocytes found in primary tumors or tumor-draining lymph nodes, which included mainly CD14+ monocytes, CD68+ macrophages, and CD33+/CD11b+ myeloid cells, IL30 levels increased with disease stage and correlated with recurrence. A negative correlation was determined between IL30 expression by nodal stromal leukocytes and overall survival. In vitro studies showed that human recombinant IL30 upregulated expression of a pro-oncogenic program, including especially IL6 in both triple-negative and HER2+ breast cancer cells. In triple-negative breast cancer cells, IL30 boosted a broader program of proliferation, invasive migration, and an inflammatory milieu associated with KISS1-dependent metastasis. Silencing of STAT1/STAT3 signaling hindered the regulation of the primary growth and progression factors in breast cancer cells. IL30 administration in vivo fostered the growth of triple-negative breast cancer by promoting proliferation and vascular dissemination of cancer cells and the accumulation of intratumoral CD11b+/Gr1+ myeloid cell infiltrates. Overall, our results show how IL30 regulates breast cancer cell viability, migration, and gene expression to promote breast cancer growth and progression and its impact on patient outcome. Cancer Res; 76(21); 6218-29. ©2016 AACR.

The MUTYH base excision repair gene protects against inflammation-associated colorectal carcinogenesis.

MUTYH DNA glycosylase removes mismatched adenine opposite 7, 8-dihydro-8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG), which is the major mutagenic lesion induced by oxidative stress. Biallelic mutations in MUTYH are associated with MUTYH-Associated polyposis (MAP) and increased risk in colorectal cancer (CRC). We investigated cancer susceptibility associated with MUTYH inactivation in a mouse model of inflammation-dependent carcinogenesis induced by azoxymethane (AOM) and dextran sulphate (DSS). Mutyh-/- mice were more sensitive than wild-type (WT) animals to AOM/DSS toxicity and accumulated DNA 8-oxoG in their gastrointestinal tract. AOM/DSS-induced colonic adenomas were significantly more numerous in Mutyh-/- than in WT animals, and frequently showed a tubulo-villous feature along with high-grade dysplasia and larger size lesions. This condition resulted in a greater propensity to develop adenocarcinomas. The colon of untreated Mutyh-/- mice expressed higher basal levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines GM-CSF and IFNγ, and treatment with AOM/DSS induced an early decrease in circulating CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes and an increase in myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). Adenomas from Mutyh-/- mice had a greater infiltrate of Foxp3+ T regulatory cells, granulocytes, macrophages, MDSCs and strong expression of TGF-ß-latency-associated peptide and IL6. Our findings indicate that MUTYH loss is associated with an increase in CRC risk, which involves immunosuppression and altered inflammatory response. We propose that the AOM/DSS initiation/promotion protocol in Mutyh-/- mice provides a good model for MAP.

SNAI2/Slug gene is silenced in prostate cancer and regulates neuroendocrine differentiation, metastasis-suppressor and pluripotency gene expression.

Prostate Cancer (PCa)-related deaths are mostly due to metastasization of poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas often endowed with neuroendocrine differentiation (NED) areas.The SNAI2/Slug gene is a major regulator of cell migration and tumor metastasization. We here assessed its biological significance in NED, and metastatic potential of PCa.SNAI2 expression was down-regulated in most PCa epithelia, in association with gene promoter methylation, except for cell clusters forming: a. the expansion/invasion front of high-grade PCa, b. NED areas, or c. lymph node metastasis.Knockdown of SNAI2 in PC3 cells down-regulated the expression of neural-tissue-associated adhesion molecules, Neural-Cadherin, Neural-Cadherin-2, Neuronal-Cell-Adhesion-Molecule, and of the NED marker Neuron-Specific Enolase, whereas it abolished Chromogranin-A expression. The metastasis-suppressor genes, Nm23-H1 and KISS1, were up-regulated, while the pluripotency genes SOX2, NOTCH1, CD44v6, WWTR1/TAZ and YAP1 were dramatically down-regulated. Over-expression of SNAI2 in DU145 cells substantiated its ability to regulate metastasis-suppressor, NED and pluripotency genes. In PCa and lymph node metastasis, expression of SOX2 and NOTCH1 was highly related to that of SNAI2.In conclusion, I. SNAI2 silencing in PCa may turn-off the expression of NED markers and pluripotency genes, while turning-on that of specific metastasis-suppressors, II. SNAI2 expression in selected PCa cells, by regulating their self-renewal, NED and metastatic potential, endows them with highly malignant properties. SNAI2 may thus constitute a key target for modern approaches to PCa progression.

The antitumor potential of Interleukin-27 in prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is of increasing significance worldwide as a consequence of the population ageing. Fragile elderly patients may particularly benefit from noninvasive and well tolerable immunotherapeutic approaches. Preclinical studies have revealed that the immune-regulatory cytokine IL-27 may exert anti-tumor activities in a variety of tumor types without discernable toxicity. We, thus, investigated whether IL-27 may function as anti-tumor agent in human (h) PCa and analyzed the rationale for its clinical application. In vitro, IL-27 treatment significantly inhibited proliferation and reduced the angiogenic potential of hPCa cells by down-regulating the pro-angiogenesis-related genes fms-related tyrosine kinase (FLT)1, prostaglandin G/H synthase 1/cyclooxygenase-1 (PTGS1/COX-1) and fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR)3. In addition, IL-27 up-regulated the anti-angiogenesis-related genes such as CXCL10 and TIMP metallopeptidase inhibitor 3 (TIMP3). In vivo, IL-27 reduced proliferation and vascularization in association with ischemic necrosis of tumors developed after PC3 or DU145 cell injection in athymic nude mice. In patients' prostate tissues, IL-27R was expressed by normal epithelia and low grade PCa and lost by high tumor grade and stages. Nevertheless, IL-27R was expressed by CD11c(+), CD4(+) and CD8(+) leukocytes infiltrating the tumor and draining lymph nodes. These data lead to the conclusion that i) IL-27's anti-PCa potential may be fully exploited in patients with well-differentiated, localized IL-27R positive PCa, since in this case it may act on both cancerous epithelia and the tumor microenvironment; ii) PCa patients bearing high grade and stage tumor that lack IL-27R may benefit, however, from IL-27's immune-stimulatory properties.

Interleukin-30 expression in prostate cancer and its draining lymph nodes correlates with advanced grade and stage.

PURPOSE: The interleukin (IL)-27 cytokine subunit p28, also called IL-30, has been recognized as a novel immunoregulatory mediator endowed with its own functions. These are currently the subject of discussion in immunology, but completely unexplored in cancer biology. We set out to investigate the role of IL-30 in prostate carcinogenesis and its effects on human prostate cancer (hPCa) cells. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: IL-30 expression, as visualized by immunohistochemistry and real-time reverse transcriptase PCR on prostate and draining lymph nodes from 125 patients with prostate cancer, was correlated with clinicopathologic data. IL-30 regulation of hPCa cell viability and expression of selected gene clusters was tested by flow cytometry and PCR array. RESULTS: IL-30, absent in normal prostatic epithelia, was expressed by cancerous epithelia with Gleason ≥ 7% of 21.3% of prostate cancer stage I to III and 40.9% of prostate cancer stage IV. IL-30 expression by tumor infiltrating leukocytes (T-ILK) was higher in stage IV that in stage I to III prostate cancer (P = 0.0006) or in control tissue (P = 0.0011). IL-30 expression in prostate draining lymph nodes (LN)-ILK was higher in stage IV than in stage I to III prostate cancer (P = 0.0031) or in control nodes (P = 0.0023). The main IL-30 sources were identified as CD68(+) macrophages, CD33(+)/CD11b(+) myeloid cells, and CD14(+) monocytes. In vitro, IL-30 stimulated proliferation of hPCa cells and also downregulated CCL16/LEC, TNFSF14/LIGHT, chemokine-like factor (CKLF), and particularly CKLF-like MARVEL transmembrane domain containing 3 (CMTM3) and greatly upregulated ChemR23/CMKLR. CONCLUSIONS: We provide the first evidence that IL-30 is implicated in prostate cancer progression because (i) its expression by prostate cancer or T- and LN-ILK correlates with advanced disease grade and stage; and (ii) IL-30 exerts protumor activity in hPCa cells.