Combined inhibition of EGFR and c-ABL suppresses the growth of triple-negative breast cancer growth through inhibition of HOTAIR.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) does not express conventional therapeutic targets and is the only type of malignant breast cancer for which no designated FDA-approved targeted therapy is available. Although overexpression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is frequently found in TNBC, the therapeutic effect of EGFR inhibitors in TNBC has been underwhelming. Here we show that co-treatment with clinically validated inhibitors of c-ABL (imatinib) and EGFR (lapatinib) results in synergistic growth inhibition in TNBC cells. The dual treatment leads to synergistic repression of the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) HOTAIR (HOX Antisense Intergenic RNA). HOTAIR has been known to induce tumor growth and metastasis in breast cancer. Depleting HOTAIR alone phenocopies the dual treatment in growth suppression. We show that expression of HOTAIR is regulated by ß-catenin through a LEF1/TCF4-binding site. The dual treatment blocks nuclear expression of ß-catenin and prevents its recruitment to the HOTAIR promoter. Consistently, forced expression of ß-catenin rescued HOTAIR expression and cell viability in the presence of both drugs. Upregulation of HOTAIR is associated with TNBC in cell lines and a cohort of primary tumors. This study elucidates a previously unidentified mechanism in TNBC linking signaling with lncRNA regulation which may be exploited for therapeutic gain.

Systematic screening of glycosylation- and trafficking-associated gene knockouts in Saccharomyces cerevisiae identifies mutants with improved heterologous exocellulase activity and host secretion.

BACKGROUND: As a strong fermentator, Saccharomyces cerevisiae has the potential to be an excellent host for ethanol production by consolidated bioprocessing. For this purpose, it is necessary to transform cellulose genes into the yeast genome because it contains no cellulose genes. However, heterologous protein expression in S. cerevisiae often suffers from hyper-glycosylation and/or poor secretion. Thus, there is a need to genetically engineer the yeast to reduce its glycosylation strength and to increase its secretion ability. RESULTS: Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene-knockout strains were screened for improved extracellular activity of a recombinant exocellulase (PCX) from the cellulose digesting fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium. Knockout mutants of 47 glycosylation-related genes and 10 protein-trafficking-related genes were transformed with a PCX expression construct and screened for extracellular cellulase activity. Twelve of the screened mutants were found to have a more than 2-fold increase in extracellular PCX activity in comparison with the wild type. The extracellular PCX activities in the glycosylation-related mnn10 and pmt5 null mutants were, respectively, 6 and 4 times higher than that of the wild type; and the extracellular PCX activities in 9 protein-trafficking-related mutants, especially in the chc1, clc1 and vps21 null mutants, were at least 1.5 times higher than the parental strains. Site-directed mutagenesis studies further revealed that the degree of N-glycosylation also plays an important role in heterologous cellulase activity in S. cerevisiae. CONCLUSIONS: Systematic screening of knockout mutants of glycosylation- and protein trafficking-associated genes in S. cerevisiae revealed that: (1) blocking Golgi-to-endosome transport may force S. cerevisiae to export cellulases; and (2) both over- and under-glycosylation may alter the enzyme activity of cellulases. This systematic gene-knockout screening approach may serve as a convenient means for increasing the extracellular activities of recombinant proteins expressed in S. cerevisiae.

Phosphorylation at tyrosine 114 of Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) is required for adipogenesis in response to high fat diet.

Clonal proliferation is an obligatory component of adipogenesis. Although several cell cycle regulators are known to participate in the transition between pre-adipocyte proliferation and terminal adipocyte differentiation, how the core DNA synthesis machinery is coordinately regulated in adipogenesis remains elusive. PCNA (Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen) is an indispensable component for DNA synthesis during proliferation. Here we show that PCNA is subject to phosphorylation at the highly conserved tyrosine residue 114 (Y114). Replacing the Y114 residue with phenylalanine (Y114F), which is structurally similar to tyrosine but cannot be phosphorylated, does not affect normal animal development. However, when challenged with high fat diet, mice carrying homozygous Y114F alleles (PCNA(F/F)) are resistant to adipose tissue enlargement in comparison to wild-type (WT) mice. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) harboring WT or Y114F mutant PCNA proliferate at similar rates. However, when subjected to adipogenesis induction in culture, PCNA(F/F) MEFs are not able to re-enter the cell cycle and fail to form mature adipocytes, while WT MEFs undergo mitotic clonal expansion in response to the adipogenic stimulation, accompanied by enhanced Y114 phosphorylation of PCNA, and differentiate to mature adipocytes. Consistent with the function of Y114 phosphorylation in clonal proliferation in adipogenesis, fat tissues isolated from WT mice contain significantly more adipocytes than those isolated from PCNA(F/F) mice. This study identifies a critical role for PCNA in adipose tissue development, and for the first time identifies a role of the core DNA replication machinery at the interface between proliferation and differentiation.

Epidermal growth factor receptor protects proliferating cell nuclear antigen from cullin 4A protein-mediated proteolysis.

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is an essential component for DNA synthesis upon growth stimulation. It has been shown that phosphorylation of PCNA at Tyr-211 by the EGF receptor (EGFR) protects PCNA from polyubiquitylation and degradation, whereas blocking phosphorylation induces ubiquitylation-mediated degradation of the chromatin-bound, but not the -unbound, PCNA, and suppresses cell proliferation. However, the ubiquitin E3 ligase linking growth signaling to the proteolysis of PCNA and the underlying regulatory mechanism remain to be identified. Here we show that, in the absence of Tyr-211 phosphorylation, PCNA is subject to polyubiquitylation at Lys-164 by the CUL4A E3 ligase, resulting in the degradation of PCNA. Mutation of Lys-164 to arginine prevents PCNA ubiquitylation and rescues the degradation of the K164R/Y211F PCNA double mutant. Activation of EGFR inhibits the interaction of PCNA with CUL4A, whereas inhibition of EGFR leads to increased CUL4A-PCNA interaction and CUL4A-dependent ubiquitin-mediated degradation of PCNA. Substitution of endogenous PCNA with the Y211F mutant PCNA conveys enhanced sensitization to EGFR inhibition. Our findings identify CUL4A as the ubiquitin ligase linking the down-regulation of cell surface receptor tyrosine kinase to the nuclear DNA replication machinery in cancer cells.

Interaction of proliferation cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) with c-Abl in cell proliferation and response to DNA damages in breast cancer.

Cell proliferation in primary and metastatic tumors is a fundamental characteristic of advanced breast cancer. Further understanding of the mechanism underlying enhanced cell growth will be important in identifying novel prognostic markers and therapeutic targets. Here we demonstrated that tyrosine phosphorylation of the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is a critical event in growth regulation of breast cancer cells. We found that phosphorylation of PCNA at tyrosine 211 (Y211) enhanced its association with the non-receptor tyrosine kinase c-Abl. We further demonstrated that c-Abl facilitates chromatin association of PCNA and is required for nuclear foci formation of PCNA in cells stressed by DNA damage as well as in unperturbed cells. Targeting Y211 phosphorylation of PCNA with a cell-permeable peptide inhibited the phosphorylation and reduced the PCNA-Abl interaction. These results show that PCNA signal transduction has an important impact on the growth regulation of breast cancer cells.

Inhibition of c-ABL sensitizes breast cancer cells to the dual ErbB receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor lapatinib (GW572016).

BACKGROUND: The dual kinase inhibitor lapatinib (Tykerb) has been applied for advanced breast cancer. However, the effectiveness in the clinic has been elusive and the development of novel approaches to enhance the responsiveness is needed. In this study, we test whether the non-receptor tyrosine kinase c-Abl regulates the responsiveness of breast cancer cells to lapatinib and, if so, whether the combination treatment with lapatinib plus the c-ABL kinase inhibitor imatinib (STI571; Gleevec) can sensitize breast cancer cells to the treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The endogenous c-ABL kinase was silenced by RNA interference or inhibited by imatinib to test whether the co-treatment improves the responsiveness of the lapatinib-resistant breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-468 and T47D, by measuring cell growth and cell-cycle progression. CONCLUSION: The responsiveness to lapatinib can be improved by targeting the function of c-ABL, suggesting that combination treatment of lapatinib plus imatinib can lead to significant gains in therapeutic benefit.

Transcriptional regulation of human eosinophil RNase2 by the liver-enriched hepatocyte nuclear factor 4.

Human eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN, RNase2) and eosinophil cationic protein (ECP, RNase3) sequences possess as high as 92% identity in their promoter regions. The major difference within this region is a 34-nucleotide (34-nt) segment appeared only in the edn promoter. In addition, six discrete segments existed in the regulatory regions of both edn and ecp. Our previous study indicated that the 34-nt segment is responsive for higher transcription activity of edn in comparison with ecp, via binding to transcription activator Sp1. In this study, the roles of the six discrete segments in transcription regulation were investigated and the -350/-329 region (ednR2) was shown to be involved in the regulation of edn expression. When the ednR2 segment of edn was replaced with that of ecp, a significant decrease in edn promoter activity was detected. Supershift, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and DNA affinity precipitation assays further showed that a transcription factor HNF4 bound to the ednR2 region of edn promoter in vitro. Interestingly, HNF4 overexpression resulted in the reduction of edn promoter activity in HepG2 cells, due to involvement of both ednR2 and the 34-nt regions, and direct interaction between HNF4 and Sp1, which abolishes Sp1 binging to the 34-nt segment. Moreover, when the Sp1 was depleted in the cell, overexpressed HNF4 enhanced edn promoter activity. Our results provide novel mechanisms for HNF4 function as an activator to regulate edn promoter activity, which account for differential transcription regulation of human eosinophil RNases.