Compound genetically engineered mouse models of cancer reveal dual targeting of ALK1 and endoglin as a synergistic opportunity to impinge on angiogenic TGF-ß signaling.

Angiogenesis occurs early in tumor development, sustains primary tumor growth and provides a route for metastatic escape. The TGF-ß family receptors modulate angiogenesis via endothelial-cell specific pathways. Here we investigate the interaction of two such receptors, ALK1 and endoglin, in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNET). Independently, ALK1 and endoglin deficiencies exhibited genetically divergent phenotypes, while both highly correlate to an endothelial metagene in human and mouse PanNETs. A concurrent deficiency of both receptors synergistically decreased tumor burden to a greater extent than either individual knockdown. Furthermore, the knockout of Gdf2 (BMP9), the primary ligand for ALK1 and endoglin, exhibited a mixed phenotype from each of ALK1 and endoglin deficiencies; overall primary tumor burden decreased, but hepatic metastases increased. Tumors lacking BMP9 display a hyperbranching vasculature, and an increase in vascular mesenchymal-marker expression, which may be implicit in the increase in metastases. Taken together, our work cautions against singular blockade of BMP9 and instead demonstrates the utility of dual blockade of ALK1 and endoglin as a strategy for anti-angiogenic therapy in PanNET.

Endothelial ALK1 Is a Therapeutic Target to Block Metastatic Dissemination of Breast Cancer.

Exploration of new strategies for the prevention of breast cancer metastasis is justifiably at the center of clinical attention. In this study, we combined a computational biology approach with mechanism-based preclinical trials to identify inhibitors of activin-like receptor kinase (ALK) 1 as effective agents for blocking angiogenesis and metastasis in breast cancer. Pharmacologic targeting of ALK1 provided long-term therapeutic benefit in mouse models of mammary carcinoma, accompanied by strikingly reduced metastatic colonization as a monotherapy or part of combinations with chemotherapy. Gene-expression analysis of breast cancer specimens from a population-based nested case-control study encompassing 768 subjects defined endothelial expression of ALK1 as an independent and highly specific prognostic factor for metastatic manifestation, a finding that was corroborated in an independent clinical cohort. Overall, our results suggest that pharmacologic inhibition of endothelial ALK1 constitutes a tractable strategy for interfering with metastatic dissemination of breast cancer.

Sol-gel-derived materials for production of pin-printed reporter gene living-cell microarrays.

We report the fabrication of three-dimensional living-cell microarrays via pin-printing of soft sol-gel-derived silica materials containing bacterial cells. Bacterial cells entrapped in the silica-glycerol microarray spots can express reporter genes and produce strong fluorescence signals. The signals responded to the presence and concentration of inducers or repressors as expected, indicating that the entrapped cells remained metabolically active. Microscopic imaging of individual microarray spots at different culture times suggests that the entrapped cells can grow and divide, phenomena further confirmed by experiments in bulk sol-gel materials that demonstrated the increases of entrapped cell density and fluorescence during incubation in culture media. The cell microarrays can also be printed into 96-well glass bottom microtiter plates in a multiplexed manner, and the fluorescence signals generated were able to quantitatively and selectively respond to the concentration of inducers, thus demonstrating the potential for multitarget biosensing and high-throughput/high-content cell-based screening. The signal levels of bacterial cells in silica were significantly higher than those in alginate arrays, presumably due to viability of the entrapped cells in silica sol-gels. Microarray stability assays proved that the entrapped cells retained their physiological activity after storage for four weeks. Given that a large number of fluorescent and luminescent protein-based cell assays have been developed, the reporter gene living-cell microarrays demonstrated in this paper are expected to be applicable to a wide variety of research areas ranging from bioanalysis and chemical biology to drug discovery and probing of cell-material interactions.