Whole genome expression profiling reveals a significant role for the cell junction and apoptosis pathways in breast cancer stem cells

Lentivirus-mediated shRNA targeting Nanog inhibits cell proliferation and attenuates cancer stem cell activities in breast cancer

Emerging evidences suggest that cancer stem cells (CSCs) are responsible for tumor growth, metastasis and treatment resistance. Nanog is one of the transcription factors that are essential for stem cellular physiology process. Previous studies reported that Nanog was detected in breast cancer and other solid tumors and indicated that it has oncogenic characteristics. However, expression feature of Nanog in breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) enriched population and its biological function in BCSCs is poorly understood. In this study, CD44 + CD24- fraction sorting with Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter and mammosphere culture were used for enriching BCSCs. We report here that Nanog was highly expressed in CSCs-enriched population from the breast cancer cells, as well as stemness-associated genes. In addition, we employed the lentivirus-mediated shRNA targeting Nanog to investigate function of Nanog in BCSCs. We found that targeted inhibition of Nanog could suppress proliferation and colony formation in breast cancer cells. Further studies showed that targeted inhibition of Nanog resulted in a decrease of BCSCs activities, including mammosphere formation, CD44 + CD24- proportion and expressions of stemness-associated genes. These data therefore suggest that Nanog possesses important function in BCSCs and targeted inhibition of Nanog may provide a novel means of targeting and eliminating BCSCs.

Differential gene expression of the key signalling pathway in para-carcinoma, carcinoma and relapse human pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer (PC) has a high rate of mortality and a poorly understood mechanism of progression. Investigation of the molecular mechanism of PC and exploration of the specific markers for early diagnosis and specific targets of therapy are key points to prevent and treat PC effectively and to improve their prognosis. In our study, expression profiles experiment of para-carcinoma, carcinoma and relapse human PC was performed using Agilent human whole genomic oligonucleotide microarrays with 45 000 probes. Differentially expressed genes related with PC were screened and analysed further by Gene Ontology term analysis and Kyoto encyclopaedia of genes and genomes pathway analysis. Our results showed that there were 3853 differentially expressed genes associated with pancreatic carcinogenesis and relapse. In addition, our study found that PC was related to the Jak-STAT signalling pathway, PPAR signalling pathway and Calcium signalling pathway, indicating their potential roles in pancreatic carcinogenesis and progress.

Targeting breast cancer-initiating/stem cells with melanoma differentiation-associated gene-7/interleukin-24

Melanoma differentiation-associated gene-7/interleukin-24 (mda-7/IL-24) displays a broad range of antitumor properties including cancer-specific induction of apoptosis, inhibition of tumor angiogenesis and modulation of antitumor immune responses. In our study, we elucidated the role of MDA-7/IL-24 in inhibiting growth of breast cancer-initiating/stem cells. Ad.mda-7 infection decreased proliferation of breast cancer-initiating/stem cells without affecting normal breast stem cells. Ad.mda-7 induced apoptosis and endoplasmic reticulum stress in breast cancer-initiating/stem cells similar to unsorted breast cancer cells and inhibited the self-renewal property of breast cancer-initiating/stem cells by suppressing Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Prevention of inhibition of Wnt signaling by LiCl increased cell survival upon Ad.mda-7 treatment, suggesting that Wnt signaling inhibition might play a key role in MDA-7/IL-24-mediated death of breast cancer-initiating/stem cells. In a nude mouse subcutaneous xenograft model, Ad.mda-7 injection profoundly inhibited growth of tumors generated from breast cancer-initiating/stem cells and also exerted a potent "bystander" activity inhibiting growth of distant uninjected tumors. Further studies revealed that tumor growth inhibition by Ad.mda-7 was associated with a decrease in proliferation and angiogenesis, two intrinsic features of MDA-7/IL-24, and a reduction in vivo in the percentage of breast cancer-initiating/stem cells. Our findings demonstrate that MDA-7/IL-24 is not only nontoxic to normal cells and normal stem cells but also can kill both unsorted cancer cells and enriched populations of cancer-initiating/stem cells, providing further documentation that MDA-7/IL-24 might be a safe and effective way to eradicate cancers and also potentially establish disease-free survival.

Microarray-based analysis of microRNA expression in breast cancer stem cells

Background

This study aimed to determine the miRNA profile in breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) and to explore the functions of characteristic BCSC miRNAs.

Methods

We isolated ESA⁺CD44⁺CD24^-/low BCSCs from MCF-7 cells using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). A human breast cancer xenograft assay was performed to validate the stem cell properties of the isolated cells, and microarray analysis was performed to screen for BCSC-related miRNAs. These BCSC-related miRNAs were selected for bioinformatic analysis and target prediction using online software programs.

Results

The ESA⁺CD44⁺CD24^-/low cells had up to 100- to 1000-fold greater tumor-initiating capability than the MCF-7 cells. Tumors initiated from the ESA⁺CD44⁺CD24^-/low cells were included of luminal epithelial and myoepithelial cells, indicating stem cell properties. We also obtained miRNA profiles of ESA⁺CD44⁺CD24^-/low BCSCs. Most of the possible targets of potential tumorigenesis-related miRNAs were oncogenes, anti-oncogenes or regulatory genes.

Conclusions

We identified a subset of miRNAs that were differentially expressed in BCSCs, providing a starting point to explore the functions of these miRNAs. Evaluating characteristic BCSC miRNAs represents a new method for studying breast cancer-initiating cells and developing therapeutic strategies aimed at eradicating the tumorigenic subpopulation of cells in breast cancer.

New promising drug targets in cancer- and metastasis-initiating cells

The unique properties of cancer- and metastasis-initiating cells endowed with a high self-renewal and aberrant differentiation potential (including their elevated expression levels of anti-apoptotic factors, multidrug transporters, and DNA repair and detoxifying enzymes) might be associated with their resistance to current clinical cancer therapies and disease recurrence. The eradication of cancer- and metastasis-initiating cells by molecular targeting of distinct deregulated signaling elements that might contribute to their sustained growth, survival, and treatment resistance, therefore, is of immense therapeutic interest. These novel targeted approaches should improve the efficacy of current therapeutic treatments against highly aggressive, metastatic, recurrent, and lethal cancers.