Lentiviral-mediated transgene expression can potentiate intestinal mesenchymal-epithelial signaling.

Mesenchymal-epithelial signaling is essential for the development of many organs and is often disrupted in disease. In this study, we demonstrate the use of lentiviral-mediated transgene delivery as an effective approach for ectopic transgene expression and an alternative to generation of transgenic animals. One benefit to this approach is that it can be used independently or in conjunction with established transgenic or knockout animals for studying modulation of mesenchymal-epithelial interactions. To display the power of this approach, we explored ectopic expression of a Wnt ligand in the mouse intestinal mesenchyme and demonstrate its functional influence on the adjacent epithelium. Our findings highlight the efficient use of lentiviral-mediated transgene expression for modulating mesenchymal-epithelial interactions in vivo.

Phenylmethimazole decreases Toll-like receptor 3 and noncanonical Wnt5a expression in pancreatic cancer and melanoma together with tumor cell growth and migration.

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether (a) Wnt5a expression in pancreatic cancer and malignant melanoma cells might be associated with constitutive levels of Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) and/or TLR3 signaling; (b) phenylmethimazole (C10), a novel TLR signaling inhibitor, could decrease constitutive Wnt5a and TLR3 levels together with cell growth and migration; and (c) the efficacy of C10 as a potential inhibitor of pancreatic cancer and malignant melanoma cell growth in vivo. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We used a variety of molecular biology techniques including but not limited to PCR, Western blotting, and ELISA to evaluate the presence of constitutively activated TLR3/Wnt5a expression and signaling. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide-based technology and scratch assays were used to evaluate inhibition of cell growth and migration, respectively. TLR3 regulation of cell growth was confirmed using small interfering RNA technology. Nude and severe combined immunodeficient mice were implanted with human pancreatic cancer and/or melanoma cells and the effects of C10 on tumor growth were evaluated. RESULTS: We show that constitutive TLR3 expression is associated with constitutive Wnt5a in human pancreatic cancer and malignant melanoma cell lines, that C10 can decrease constitutive TLR3/Wnt5a expression and signaling, suggesting that they are interrelated signal systems, and that C10 inhibits growth and migration in both of these cancer cell lines. We also report that C10 is effective at inhibiting human pancreatic cancer and malignant melanoma tumor growth in vivo in nude or severe combined immunodeficient mice and associate this with inhibition of signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 activation. CONCLUSIONS: C10 may have potential therapeutic applicability in pancreatic cancer and malignant melanoma.

Wnt signaling promotes hematoendothelial cell development from human embryonic stem cells.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) provide an important means to effectively study soluble and cell-bound mediators that regulate development of early blood and endothelial cells in a human model system. Here, several complementary methods are used to demonstrate canonical Wnt signaling is important for development of hESC-derived cells with both hematopoietic and endothelial potential. Analyses using both standard flow cy-tometry, as well the more detailed high-throughput image scanning flow cytometry, characterizes sequential development of distinct early developing CD34(bright)CD31(+)Flk1(+) cells and a later population of CD34(dim)CD45(+) cells. While the CD34(bright)CD31(+)Flk1(+) have a more complex morphology and can develop into both endothelial cells and hematopoietic cells, the CD34(dim)CD45(+) cells have a simpler morphology and give rise to only hematopoietic cells. Treatment with dickkopf1 to inhibit Wnt signaling results in a dramatic decrease in development of cells with hematoendothelial potential. In addition, activation of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway in hESCs by coculture with stromal cells that express Wnt1, but not use of noncanonical Wnt5-expressing stromal cells, results in an accelerated differentiation and higher percentage of CD34(bright)CD31(+)Flk1(+) cells at earlier stages of differentiation. These studies effectively demonstrate the importance of canonical Wnt signaling to mediate development of early hematoendothelial progenitors during human development.

The interaction of the Wnt and Notch pathways modulates natural killer versus T cell differentiation.

The Wnt and Notch signaling pathways have been independently shown to play a critical role in regulating hematopoietic cell fate decisions. We previously reported that induction of Notch signaling in human CD34(+)CD38(-) cord blood cells by culture with the Notch ligand Delta 1 resulted in more cells with T or natural killer (NK) lymphoid precursor phenotype. Here, we show that addition of Wnt3a to Delta 1 further increased the percentage of CD34(-)CD7(+) and CD34(-)CD7(+)cyCD3(+) cells with increased expression of CD3 epsilon and preT alpha. In contrast, culture with Wnt3a alone did not increase generation of CD34(-)CD7(+) precursors or expression of CD3 epsilon or preT alpha gene. Furthermore, Wnt3a increased the amount of activated Notch1, suggesting that Wnt modulates Notch signaling by affecting Notch protein levels. In contrast, addition of a Wnt signaling inhibitor to Delta 1 increased the percentage of CD56(+) NK cells. Overall, these results demonstrate that regulation of Notch signaling by the Wnt pathway plays a critical role in differentiation of precursors along the early T or NK differentiation pathways. Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is found at the end of this article.

Biphasic role for Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in cardiac specification in zebrafish and embryonic stem cells.

Understanding pathways controlling cardiac development may offer insights that are useful for stem cell-based cardiac repair. Developmental studies indicate that the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway negatively regulates cardiac differentiation, whereas studies with pluripotent embryonal carcinoma cells suggest that this pathway promotes cardiogenesis. This apparent contradiction led us to hypothesize that Wnt/beta-catenin signaling acts biphasically, either promoting or inhibiting cardiogenesis depending on timing. We used inducible promoters to activate or repress Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in zebrafish embryos at different times of development. We found that Wnt/beta-catenin signaling before gastrulation promotes cardiac differentiation, whereas signaling during gastrulation inhibits heart formation. Early treatment of differentiating mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells with Wnt-3A stimulates mesoderm induction, activates a feedback loop that subsequently represses the Wnt pathway, and increases cardiac differentiation. Conversely, late activation of beta-catenin signaling reduces cardiac differentiation in ES cells. Finally, constitutive overexpression of the beta-catenin-independent ligand Wnt-11 increases cardiogenesis in differentiating mouse ES cells. Thus, Wnt/beta-catenin signaling promotes cardiac differentiation at early developmental stages and inhibits it later. Control of this pathway may promote derivation of cardiomyocytes for basic research and cell therapy applications.

High basal levels of functional toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) and noncanonical Wnt5a are expressed in papillary thyroid cancer and are coordinately decreased by phenylmethimazole together with cell proliferation and migration.

High basal levels of TLR3 and Wnt5a RNA are present in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) cell lines consistent with their overexpression and colocalization in PTC cells in vivo. This is not the case in thyrocytes from normal tissue and in follicular carcinoma (FC) or anaplastic carcinoma (AC) cells or tissues. The basally expressed TLR3 are functional in PTC cells as evidenced by the ability of double-strand RNA (polyinosine-polycytidylic acid) to significantly increase the activity of transfected NF-kappaB and IFN-beta luciferase reporter genes and the levels of two end products of TLR3 signaling, IFN-beta and CXCL10. Phenylmethimazole (C10), a drug that decreases TLR3 expression and signaling in FRTL-5 thyrocytes, decreases TLR3 levels and signaling in PTC cells in a concentration-dependent manner. C10 also decreased Wnt5a RNA levels coordinate with decreases in TLR3. E-cadherin RNA levels, whose suppression may be associated with high Wnt5a, increased with C10 treatment. C10 simultaneously decreased PTC proliferation and cell migration but had no effect on the growth and migration of FC, AC, or FRTL-5 cells. C10 decreases high basal phosphorylation of Tyr705 and Ser727 on Stat3 in PTC cells and inhibits IL-6-induced Stat3 phosphorylation. IL-6-induced Stat3 phosphorylation is important both in up-regulating Wnt5a levels and in cell growth. In sum, high Wnt5a levels in PTC cells may be related to high TLR3 levels and signaling; and the ability of phenylmethimazole (C10) to decrease growth and migration of PTC cells may be related to its suppressive effect on TLR3 and Wnt5a signaling, particularly Stat3 activation.

Overexpression of Wnt-1 in thyrocytes enhances cellular growth but suppresses transcription of the thyroperoxidase gene via different signaling mechanisms.

Wnt binding to cell surface receptors can activate a 'canonical' pathway that increases cellular beta-catenin or a 'noncanonical' Ca(++) pathway which can increase protein kinase C (PKC) activity. Although components of both Wnt/beta-catenin-signaling pathways exist in thyrocytes, their biological role is largely unknown. In evaluating the biological role of Wnt signaling in differentiated FRTL-5 thyroid cells, we showed that TSH increased canonical Wnt-1 but, surprisingly, decreased the active form of beta-catenin. Transient overexpression of Wnt-1 or beta-catenin in FRTL-5 cells increased active beta-catenin (ABC), decreased thyroperoxidase (TPO) mRNA, and suppressed TPO-promoter activity. The target of beta-catenin suppressive action was a consensus T cell factor/lymphoid enhancing factor (TCF/LEF)-binding site 5'-A/T A/T CAAAG-3', -137 to -129 bp on the rat TPO promoter. beta-Catenin overexpression significantly increased complex formation between beta-catenin/TCF-1 and an oligonucleotide containing the TCF/LEF sequence, suggesting that the beta-catenin/TCF-1 complex acts as a transcriptional repressor of the TPO gene. Stable over-expression of Wnt-1 in FRTL-5 cells significantly increased the growth rate without increasing beta-catenin levels. Increased growth was blunted by a PKC inhibitor, staurosporin. Wnt-1 overexpression increased serine phosphorylation, without affecting tyrosine phosphorylation, of signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) protein. In addition, these final results suggest that TSH-induced increase in Wnt-1 levels in thyrocytes contributes to enhanced cellular growth via a PKC pathway that increases STAT3 serine phosphorylation and activation, whereas TSH-induced decrease in activation of beta-catenin simultaneously relieves transcriptional suppression of TPO. We hypothesize that Wnt signaling contributes to the ability of TSH to simultaneously increase cell growth and functional, thyroid-specific, gene expression.

Capecitabine therapy for refractory metastatic thyroid carcinoma: a case series.

OBJECTIVE: There are few effective therapies for metastatic medullary (MTC) or radioiodine-resistant follicular thyroid carcinomas (FTC). We report a single institution's experience with capecitabine, a thymidylate synthase (TS) inhibitor, in the treatment of MTC and FTC. DESIGN: We retrospectively analyzed five cases of metastatic thyroid carcinoma, three MTCs and two radioiodine-resistant FTCs, treated with capecitabine alone or in combination with other chemotherapeutics. Patients were selected for treatment based on low tumor TS immunohistochemical staining (< or =5%). Staining for thymidylate phosphorylase (TP) and dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) was also performed. Therapeutic response was assessed by imaging studies and serum tumor markers: calcitonin and carcinoembryonic antigen (MTC), and thyroglobulin (FTC). MAIN OUTCOME: Two of three patients with MTC had stable disease or disease regression on capecitabine. One of these patients had a 90% reduction in calcitonin and stabilization by imaging that lasted 4 years. Both patients with FTC initially had stable disease on capecitabine. One patient, who was treated with capecitabine in combination first with doxorubicin and then etoposide, had an initial decrease in tumor burden, followed by stable disease for 2.8 years. The second patient had stable disease, but capecitabine was discontinued after 11 months because of hand/foot syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: This series demonstrates promising results for the use of capecitabine in treatment of MTC and radioiodine-resistant FTC, for which there is a limited repertoire of therapeutic agents. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings and to establish the role of fluoropyramidine metabolism markers in predicting response.

Wnt and calcium signaling: beta-catenin-independent pathways.

Wnt signaling is a complex pathway in which beta-catenin is typically viewed as a central mediator. However, within the past 15 years, at least three Wnt-mediated pathways have been proposed that function independent of beta-catenin. One pathway involves activation of calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CamKII) and protein kinase C (PKC). Another includes recruitment of heterotrimeric GTP-binding proteins to activate phospholipase C (PLC) and phosphodiesterase (PDE). Lastly, a pathway similar to the planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway in Drosophila has been identified that activates the Jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK) and, perhaps, small GTP-binding proteins. Calcium has been implicated as an important second messenger in all of these pathways. This review will focus on the role of calcium in Wnt signaling and, as a consequence, provide a limited overview of beta-catenin-independent Wnt signaling.

WNT and beta-catenin signalling: diseases and therapies.

WNT signalling has been studied primarily in developing embryos, in which cells respond to WNTs in a context-dependent manner through changes in survival and proliferation, cell fate and movement. But WNTs also have important functions in adults, and aberrant signalling by WNT pathways is linked to a range of diseases, most notably cancer. What is the full range of diseases that involve WNT pathways? Can inhibition of WNT signalling form the basis of an effective therapy for some cancers? Could activation of WNT signalling provide new therapies for other clinical conditions? Finally, on the basis of recent experiments, might WNTs normally participate in self-renewal, proliferation or differentiation of stem cells? If so, altering WNT signalling might be beneficial to the use of stem cells for therapeutic means.