Effects of Notch-1 down-regulation on malignant behaviors of breast cancer stem cells

Signaling pathways governing the maintenance of breast cancer stem cells and their therapeutic implications

Breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) represent a distinct subpopulation of cells with the ability to self-renewal and differentiate into phenotypically diverse tumor cells. The involvement of CSC in treatment resistance and cancer recurrence has been well established. Numerous studies have provided compelling evidence that the self-renewal ability of cancer stem cells is tightly regulated by specific signaling pathways, which exert critical roles to maintain an undifferentiated phenotype and prevent the differentiation of CSCs. Signaling pathways such as Wnt/β-catenin, NF-κB, Notch, Hedgehog, TGF-β, and Hippo have been implicated in the promotion of self-renewal of many normal and cancer stem cells. Given the pivotal role of BCSCs in driving breast cancer aggressiveness, targeting self-renewal signaling pathways holds promise as a viable therapeutic strategy for combating this disease. In this review, we will discuss the main signaling pathways involved in the maintenance of the self-renewal ability of BCSC, while also highlighting current strategies employed to disrupt the signaling molecules associated with stemness.

Sensitization of MCF7 Cells with High Notch1 Activity by Cisplatin and Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors Applied Together

Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDIs) are promising anti-cancer agents that inhibit proliferation of many types of cancer cells including breast carcinoma (BC) cells. In the present study, we investigated the influence of the Notch1 activity level on the pharmacological interaction between cisplatin (CDDP) and two HDIs, valproic acid (VPA) and suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA, vorinostat), in luminal-like BC cells. The type of drug-drug interaction between CDDP and HDIs was determined by isobolographic analysis. MCF7 cells were genetically modified to express differential levels of Notch1 activity. The cytotoxic effect of SAHA or VPA was higher on cells with decreased Notch1 activity and lower for cells with increased Notch1 activity than native BC cells. The isobolographic analysis demonstrated that combinations of CDDP with SAHA or VPA at a fixed ratio of 1:1 exerted additive or additive with tendency toward synergism interactions. Therefore, treatment of CDDP with HDIs could be used to optimize a combined therapy based on CDDP against Notch1-altered luminal BC. In conclusion, the combined therapy of HDIs and CDDP may be a promising therapeutic tool in the treatment of luminal-type BC with altered Notch1 activity.

Additive Pharmacological Interaction between Cisplatin (CDDP) and Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors (HDIs) in MDA-MB-231 Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) Cells with Altered Notch1 Activity-An Isobolographic Analysis

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the Notch1 activity level on the pharmacological interaction between cisplatin (CDDP) and two histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDIs)-valproic acid (VPA) and vorinostat (SAHA) in the triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. Stable breast cancer (BC) cell lines with increased and decreased activity of Notch1 were generated using a transfection method. The type of interaction between CDDP and the HDIs was determined by isobolographic analysis of cell proliferation in MDA-MB-231 cells with differential levels of Notch1 activity in vitro. The combination of CDDP/SAHA and CDDP/VPA in the MDA-MB-231 triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells with increased activity of Notch1, as well as CDDP/VPA in the MDA-MB-231 cells with decreased activity of Notch1, yielded an additive interaction, whereas additivity with a tendency towards antagonism was observed for the combination of CDDP/SAHA in MDA-MB-231 cells with the decreased activity of Notch1. Our studies demonstrated that SAHA and VPA might be considered as potential therapeutic agents in combination therapy with CDDP against TNBC with altered Notch1 activity.

MFAP5 promotes basal-like breast cancer progression by activating the EMT program

Purpose

Human basal-like breast cancer (BLBC) is an aggressive malignancy with poor prognosis. Since most current treatments are ineffective, there is an urgent need to identify therapeutic targets for BLBC. Microfibrillar-associated protein 5 (MFAP5) plays an important role in the integration of elastic microfibers and the regulation of endothelial cell behaviors. We previously demonstrated that MFAP5 was significantly overexpressed in BLBC tissues and associated with poor metastasis-free survival of patients with BLBC. However, the detailed role of MFAP5 in BLBC is unclear. Thereby, the current study aimed to investigate the underlying function of MFAP5 in BLBC.

Method

Functional analyses were conducted for the role of MFAP5 in BLBC in vitro and in vivo.

Results

Overexpression of MFAP5 resulted in a significant increase in the proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers in BLBC in vitro and in vivo. In addition, other metastasis animal models by tail intravenous injection of BT20 cells further confirmed that MFAP5 overexpression promoted BLBC proliferation and BT20 cells metastasis. We found that the TGF-β or Notch inhibitor significantly reversed the tumorigenicity and metastasis of MFAP5-induced BLBC cells.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that MFAP5 may promote EMT in BLBC metastasis via the TGF-β/Notch pathway.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s13578-019-0284-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

miR-92a-3p Exerts Various Effects in Glioma and Glioma Stem-Like Cells Specifically Targeting CDH1/β-Catenin and Notch-1/Akt Signaling Pathways

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are implicated in the regulation of tumor progression and stemness of cancer stem-like cells. Recently, miR-92a-3p was reported to be up-regulated in human glioma samples. Nevertheless, the precise role of miR-92a-3p in glioma cells and glioma stem-like cells (GSCs) has not been fully elucidated. It is necessary to clarify the function of miR-92a-3p in glioma and GSCs to develop novel therapeutic approaches for glioma patients. In the present study, we applied methyl-thiazolyl-tetrazolium (MTT) assay and Transwell assay to measure the proliferation rate and metastatic potential of glioma cells. Meanwhile, the self-renewal ability of GSCs was detected by tumor sphere formation assay. The results revealed that down-regulation of miR-92a-3p suppressed the glioma cell malignancy in vitro. Moreover, knockdown of miR-92a-3p led to a reduction of tumorgenesis in vivo. Interestingly, we also observed that up-regulation of miR-92a-3p could inhibit the stemness of GSCs. Subsequent mechanistic investigation indicated that cadherin 1 (CDH1)/β-catenin signaling and Notch-1/Akt signaling were the downstream pathways of miR-92a-3p in glioma cells and GSCs, respectively. These results suggest that miR-92a-3p plays different roles in glioma cells and GSCs through regulating different signaling pathways.

The influence of miR-34a expression on stemness and cytotoxic susceptibility of breast cancer stem cells

In this study, we investigate the effect of miR-34a expression and biological characteristics of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs). The mammospheres were formed from murine breast cancer cell line 4T1 and regarded as murine BCSCs. Identification of stemness molecules and cloning experiments validate the biological characteristics of BCSCs we have established. We showed that miR-34a, as a tumor suppressor, could separately reduce the stemness of BCSCs and activate the cytotoxic susceptibility of BCSCs to natural killer (NK) cells in vitro via down regulating the expression of Notch1 signaling molecules. Moreover, miR-34a could completely restrain established mice breast tumor xenografts in vivo in the NOD/SCID mice that have functional NK cells at a normal level, whereas it was less effective in NOD/SCID/ CD122/IL-2Rβ mice that do not have functional NK cells. We conclude that miR-34a is a crucial, dual tumor suppressor and BCSCs-targeting immunotherapeutic agent and has shown efficacy in the treatment of murine breast cancer. The results also suggest that impaired NK cells could contribute to the resistance to therapies.

Targeting tumor invasion: the roles of MDA-9/Syntenin

INTRODUCTION

Melanoma differentiation-associated gene - 9 (MDA-9)/Syntenin has become an increasingly popular focus for investigation in numerous cancertypes. Originally implicated in melanoma metastasis, it has diverse cellular roles and is consistently identified as a regulator of tumor invasion and angiogenesis. As a potential target for inhibiting some of the most lethal aspects of cancer progression, further insight into the function of MDA-9/Syntenin is mandatory.

AREAS COVERED

Recent literature and seminal articles were reviewed to summarize the latest collective understanding of MDA-9/Syntenin's role in normal and cancerous settings. Insights into its participation in developmental processes are included, as is the functional significance of the N- and C-terminals and PDZ domains of MDA-9/Syntenin. Current reports highlight the clinical significance of MDA-9/Syntenin expression level in a variety of cancers, often correlating directly with reduced patient survival. Also presented are assessments of roles of MDA-9/Syntenin in cancer progression as well as its functions as an intracellular adapter molecule.

EXPERT OPINION

Multiple studies demonstrate the importance of MDA-9/Syntenin in tumor invasion and progression. Through the use of novel drug design approaches, this protein may provide a worthwhile therapeutic target. As many conventional therapies do not address, or even enhance, tumor invasion, an anti-invasive approach would be a worthwhile addition in cancer therapy.