Targeting GSTP1 as Therapeutic Strategy against Lung Adenocarcinoma Stemness and Resistance to Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors

Promoting reactive oxygen species accumulation to overcome tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance in cancer

BACKGROUND

In tumor treatment, protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have been extensively utilized. However, the efficacy of TKI is significantly compromised by drug resistance. Consequently, finding an effective solution to overcome TKI resistance becomes crucial. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a group of highly active molecules that play important roles in targeted cancer therapy including TKI targeted therapy. In this review, we concentrate on the ROS-associated mechanisms of TKI lethality in tumors and strategies for regulating ROS to reverse TKI resistance in cancer.

MAIN BODY

Elevated ROS levels often manifest during TKI therapy in cancers, potentially causing organelle damage and cell death, which are critical to the success of TKIs in eradicating cancer cells. However, it is noteworthy that cancer cells might initiate resistance pathways to shield themselves from ROS-induced damage, leading to TKI resistance. Addressing this challenge involves blocking these resistance pathways, for instance, the NRF2-KEAP1 axis and protective autophagy, to promote ROS accumulation in cells, thereby resensitizing drug-resistant cancer cells to TKIs. Additional effective approaches inducing ROS generation within drug-resistant cells and providing exogenous ROS stimulation.

CONCLUSION

ROS play pivotal roles in the eradication of tumor cells by TKI. Harnessing the accumulation of ROS to overcome TKI resistance is an effective and widely applicable approach.

Promotion of stem cell-like phenotype of lung adenocarcinoma by FAM83A via stabilization of ErbB2

Lung cancer stands as the leading cause of mortality among all types of tumors, with over 40% of cases being lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Family with sequence similarity 83 member A (FAM83A) emerges as a notable focus due to its frequent overexpression in LUAD. Despite this, the precise role of FAM83A remains elusive. This study addresses this gap by unveiling the crucial involvement of FAM83A in maintaining the cancer stem cell-like (CSC-like) phenotype of LUAD. Through a global proteomics analysis, the study identifies human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2 or ErbB2) as a crucial target of FAM83A. Mechanistically, FAM83A facilitated ErbB2 expression at the posttranslational modification level via the E3 ubiquitin ligase STUB1 (STIP1-homologous U-Box containing protein 1). More importantly, the interaction between FAM83A and ErbB2 at Arg241 promotes calcineurin (CALN)-mediated dephosphorylation of ErbB2, followed by inhibition of STUB1-mediated ubiquitin-proteasomal ErbB2 degradation. The maintenance of the CSC-like phenotype by FAM83A, achieved through the posttranslational regulation of ErbB2, offers valuable insights for identifying potential therapeutic targets for LUAD.

Unveiling mitochondrial and ribosomal gene deregulation and tumor microenvironment dynamics in acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignant clonal hematopoietic disease with a poor prognosis. Understanding the interaction between leukemic cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME) can help predict the prognosis of leukemia and guide its treatment. Re-analyzing the scRNA-seq data from the CSC and G20 cohorts, using a Python-based pipeline including machine-learning-based scVI-tools, recapitulated the distinct hierarchical structure within the samples of AML patients. Weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) was conducted to construct a weighted gene co-expression network and to identify gene modules primarily focusing on hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), multipotent progenitors (MPPs), and natural killer (NK) cells. The analysis revealed significant deregulation in gene modules associated with aerobic respiration and ribosomal/cytoplasmic translation. Cell-cell communications were elucidated by the CellChat package, revealing an imbalance of activating and inhibitory immune signaling pathways. Interception of genes upregulated in leukemic HSCs & MPPs as well as in NKG2A-high NK cells was used to construct prognostic models. Normal Cox and artificial neural network models based on 10 genes were developed. The study reveals the deregulation of mitochondrial and ribosomal genes in AML patients and suggests the co-occurrence of stimulatory and inhibitory factors in the AML TME.

Transcriptomics analysis reveals distinct mechanism of breast cancer stem cells regulation in mammospheres from MCF-7 and T47D cells

Luminal A breast cancer, constituting 70 % of breast cancer cases, presents a challenge due to the development of resistance and recurrence caused by breast cancer stem cells (BCSC). Luminal breast tumors are characterized by TP53 expression, a tumor suppressor gene involved in maintaining stem cell attributes in cancer. Although a previous study successfully developed mammospheres (MS) from MCF-7 (with wild-type TP53) and T47D (with mutant TP53) luminal breast cancer cells for BCSC enrichment, their transcriptomic profiles remain unclear. We aimed to elucidate the transcriptomic disparities between MS of MCF-7 and T47D cells using bioinformatics analyses of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), including the KEGG pathway, Gene Ontology (GO), drug-gene association, disease-gene association, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), DNA methylation analysis, correlation analysis of DEGs with immune cell infiltration, and association analysis of genes and small-molecule compounds via the Connectivity Map (CMap). Upregulated DEGs were enriched in metabolism-related KEGG pathways, whereas downregulated DEGs were enriched in the MAPK signaling pathway. Drug-gene association analysis revealed that both upregulated and downregulated DEGs were associated with fostamatinib. The KEGG pathway GSEA results indicated that the DEGs were enriched for oxidative phosphorylation, whereas the downregulated DEGs were negatively enriched for the p53 signaling pathway. Examination of DNA methylation revealed a noticeable disparity in the expression patterns of the PKM2, ERO1L, SLC6A6, EPAS1, APLP2, RPL10L, and NEDD4 genes when comparing cohorts with low- and high-risk breast cancer. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was identified between SLC6A6 expression and macrophage presence, as well as MSN, and AKR1B1 expression and neutrophil and dentritic cell infiltration. CMap analysis unveiled SA-83851 as a potential candidate to counteract the effects of DEGs, specifically in cells harbouring mutant TP53. Further research, including in vitro and in vivo validations, is warranted to develop drugs targeting BCSCs.

Lung cancer organoids: models for preclinical research and precision medicine

Lung cancer is a malignancy with high incidence and mortality rates globally, and it has a 5-year survival rate of only 10%-20%. The significant heterogeneity in clinical presentation, histological features, multi-omics findings, and drug sensitivity among different lung cancer patients necessitate the development of personalized treatment strategies. The current precision medicine for lung cancer, primarily based on pathological and genomic multi-omics testing, fails to meet the needs of patients with clinically refractory lung cancer. Lung cancer organoids (LCOs) are derived from tumor cells within tumor tissues and are generated through three-dimensional tissue culture, enabling them to faithfully recapitulate in vivo tumor characteristics and heterogeneity. The establishment of a series of LCOs biobanks offers promising platforms for efficient screening and identification of novel targets for anti-tumor drug discovery. Moreover, LCOs provide supplementary decision-making factors to enhance the current precision medicine for lung cancer, thereby addressing the limitations associated with pathology-guided approaches in managing refractory lung cancer. This article presents a comprehensive review on the construction methods and potential applications of LCOs in both preclinical and clinical research. It highlights the significance of LCOs in biomarker exploration, drug resistance investigation, target identification, clinical precision drug screening, as well as microfluidic technology-based high-throughput drug screening strategies. Additionally, it discusses the current limitations and future prospects of this field.

Metastasis-related long non-coding RNAs AL359220.1, SH3BP5-AS1 and ZF-AS1 are significant for prognostic assessment of lung adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

Metastasis of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) severely worsens prognosis. Genetic alteration in the tumor microenvironment (TME) is closely associated with metastasis and other malignant biological properties of LUAD. In this study, we establish a metastasis-related risk model to accurately predict LUAD prognosis.

METHODS

RNA-sequencing profiles and clinical data of LUAD patients including 503 tumor tissues and 54 adjacent normal tissues were collected in TCGA database. Additionally, the paired specimens from 156 LUAD patients were obtained in a single center. The metastatic relevance and clinical significance of metastasis-related long non-coding RNA (MRLNRs) was validated by series of in vitro experiments including western blotting, qPCR and transwell assays.

RESULTS

Six MRLNRs were significantly correlated to prognoses of LUAD patients, of which AL359220.1, SH3BP5-AS1 and ZF-AS1 were further used to establish a metastasis-related risk scoring model (MRRS) due to the close associations with overall survival of LUAD patients. According to the MRRS, patients with higher scores in the high-risk group obtained poorer prognoses and survival outcomes. ZFAS1 expressed highly in tumor tissues and showed the inverse results compared to SH3BP5-AS1 and AL359220.1. In addition, the high expression of ZFAS1 was prominently correlated to the more advanced T-stage and distant metastasis. The reduction of ZFAS1 induced by siRNAs dramatically diminished the migration and invasion abilities of LUAD cells.

CONCLUSIONS

In the present research, we elucidate the metastatic relevance and clinical significance of AL359220.1, SH3BP5-AS1 and ZF-AS1 in LUAD. Moreover, MRRS provide a promising assessing model for clinical decision making and prognosis of LUAD.