Cellular immortality in brain tumours: an integration of the cancer stem cell paradigm

Genome-wide microarray expression and genomic alterations by array-CGH analysis in neuroblastoma stem-like cells

Neuroblastoma has a very diverse clinical behaviour: from spontaneous regression to a very aggressive malignant progression and resistance to chemotherapy. This heterogeneous clinical behaviour might be due to the existence of Cancer Stem Cells (CSC), a subpopulation within the tumor with stem-like cell properties: a significant proliferation capacity, a unique self-renewal capacity, and therefore, a higher ability to form new tumors. We enriched the CSC-like cell population content of two commercial neuroblastoma cell lines by the use of conditioned cell culture media for neurospheres, and compared genomic gains and losses and genome expression by array-CGH and microarray analysis, respectively (in CSC-like versus standard tumor cells culture). Despite the array-CGH did not show significant differences between standard and CSC-like in both analyzed cell lines, the microarray expression analysis highlighted some of the most relevant biological processes and molecular functions that might be responsible for the CSC-like phenotype. Some signalling pathways detected seem to be involved in self-renewal of normal tissues (Wnt, Notch, Hh and TGF-β) and contribute to CSC phenotype. We focused on the aberrant activation of TGF-β and Hh signalling pathways, confirming the inhibition of repressors of TGF-β pathway, as SMAD6 and SMAD7 by RT-qPCR. The analysis of the Sonic Hedgehog pathway showed overexpression of PTCH1, GLI1 and SMO. We found overexpression of CD133 and CD15 in SIMA neurospheres, confirming that this cell line was particularly enriched in stem-like cells. This work shows a cross-talk among different pathways in neuroblastoma and its importance in CSC-like cells.

Growth, clonability, and radiation resistance of esophageal carcinoma-derived stem-like cells

OBJECTIVE

To separate/enrich tumor stem-like cells from the human esophageal carcinoma cell line OE-19 by using serum-free suspension culture and to identify their biological characteristics and radiation resistance.

METHODS

OE-19 cells were cultivated using adherent and suspension culture methods. The tumor stem-like phenotype of CD44 expression was detected using flow cytometry. We examined growth characteristics, cloning capacity in soft agar, and radiation resistance of 2 groups of cells.

RESULTS

Suspended cells in serum-free medium formed spheres that were enriched for CD44 expression. CD44 was expressed in 62.5% of suspended cells, but only in 11.7% of adherent cells. The suspended cells had greater capacity for proliferation and colony formation in soft agar than the adherent cells. When the suspended and adherent cells were irradiated at 5 Gy, 10 Gy, or 15 Gy, the proportion of CD44+ suspended cells strongly and weakly positive for CD44 was 77.8%, 66.5%, 57.5%; and 21.7%, 31.6%, 41.4%, respectively. In contrast, the proportion of CD44+ adherent cells strongly positive for CD44 was 18.9%, 14.%, and 9.95%, respectively. When the irradiation dose was increased to 30 Gy, the survival of the suspended and adherent cells was significantly reduced, and viable CD44+ cells were not detected.

CONCLUSION

Suspended cell spheres generated from OE-19 esophageal carcinoma cells in serum-free stem medium are enriched in tumor stem-like cells. CD44 may be a marker for these cells.

G-quadruplexes as potential therapeutic targets for embryonal tumors

Embryonal tumors include a heterogeneous group of highly malignant neoplasms that primarily affect infants and children and are characterized by a high rate of mortality and treatment-related morbidity, hence improved therapies are clearly needed. G-quadruplexes are special secondary structures adopted in guanine (G)-rich DNA sequences that are often present in biologically important regions, e.g. at the end of telomeres and in the regulatory regions of oncogenes such as MYC. Owing to the significant roles that both telomeres and MYC play in cancer cell biology, G-quadruplexes have been viewed as emerging therapeutic targets in oncology and as tools for novel anticancer drug design. Several compounds that target these structures have shown promising anticancer activity in tumor xenograft models and some of them have entered Phase II clinical trials. In this review we examine approaches to DNA targeted cancer therapy, summarize the recent developments of G-quadruplex ligands as anticancer drugs and speculate on the future direction of such structures as a potential novel therapeutic strategy for embryonal tumors of the nervous system.

The adaptive significance of adult neurogenesis: an integrative approach

Adult neurogenesis in mammals is predominantly restricted to two brain regions, the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus and the olfactory bulb (OB), suggesting that these two brain regions uniquely share functions that mediate its adaptive significance. Benefits of adult neurogenesis across these two regions appear to converge on increased neuronal and structural plasticity that subserves coding of novel, complex, and fine-grained information, usually with contextual components that include spatial positioning. By contrast, costs of adult neurogenesis appear to center on potential for dysregulation resulting in higher risk of brain cancer or psychological dysfunctions, but such costs have yet to be quantified directly. The three main hypotheses for the proximate functions and adaptive significance of adult neurogenesis, pattern separation, memory consolidation, and olfactory spatial, are not mutually exclusive and can be reconciled into a simple general model amenable to targeted experimental and comparative tests. Comparative analysis of brain region sizes across two major social-ecological groups of primates, gregarious (mainly diurnal haplorhines, visually-oriented, and in large social groups) and solitary (mainly noctural, territorial, and highly reliant on olfaction, as in most rodents) suggest that solitary species, but not gregarious species, show positive associations of population densities and home range sizes with sizes of both the hippocampus and OB, implicating their functions in social-territorial systems mediated by olfactory cues. Integrated analyses of the adaptive significance of adult neurogenesis will benefit from experimental studies motivated and structured by ecologically and socially relevant selective contexts.

Cancer Stem Cells: A Minor Cancer Subpopulation that Redefines Global Cancer Features

In recent years cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been hypothesized to comprise only a minor subpopulation in solid tumors that drives tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis; the so-called “cancer stem cell hypothesis.” While a seemingly trivial statement about numbers, much is put at stake. If true, the conclusions of many studies of cancer cell populations could be challenged, as the bulk assay methods upon which they depend have, by, and large, taken for granted the notion that a “typical” cell of the population possesses the attributes of a cell capable of perpetuating the cancer, i.e., a CSC. In support of the CSC hypothesis, populations enriched for so-called “tumor-initiating” cells have demonstrated a corresponding increase in tumorigenicity as measured by dilution assay, although estimates have varied widely as to what the fractional contribution of tumor-initiating cells is in any given population. Some have taken this variability to suggest the CSC fraction may be nearly 100% after all, countering the CSC hypothesis, and that there are simply assay-dependent error rates in our ability to “reconfirm” CSC status at the cell level. To explore this controversy more quantitatively, we developed a simple cellular automaton model of CSC-driven tumor growth dynamics. Assuming CSC and non-stem cancer cells (CC) subpopulations coexist to some degree, we evaluated the impact of an environmentally dependent CSC symmetric division probability and a CC proliferation capacity on tumor progression and morphology. Our model predicts, as expected, that the frequency of CSC divisions that are symmetric highly influences the frequency of CSCs in the population, but goes on to predict the two frequencies can be widely divergent, and that spatial constraints will tend to increase the CSC fraction over time. Further, tumor progression times show a marked dependence on both the frequency of CSC divisions that are symmetric and on the proliferation capacities of CC. Together, these findings can explain, within the CSC hypothesis, the widely varying measures of stem cell fractions observed. In particular, although the CSC fraction is influenced by the (environmentally modifiable) CSC symmetric division probability, with the former converging to unity as the latter nears 100%, the CSC fraction becomes quite small even for symmetric division probabilities modestly lower than 100%. In the latter case, the tumor exhibits a clustered morphology and the CSC fraction steadily increases with time; more so on both counts when the death rate of CCs is higher. Such variations in CSC fraction and morphology are not only consistent with the CSC hypothesis, but lend support to it as one expected byproduct of the dynamical interactions that are predicted to take place among a relatively small CSC population, its CC counterpart, and the host compartment over time.

dp53 Restrains ectopic neural stem cell formation in the Drosophila brain in a non-apoptotic mechanism involving Archipelago and cyclin E

Accumulating evidence suggests that tumor-initiating stem cells or cancer stem cells (CSCs) possibly originating from normal stem cells may be the root cause of certain malignancies. How stem cell homeostasis is impaired in tumor tissues is not well understood, although certain tumor suppressors have been implicated. In this study, we use the Drosophila neural stem cells (NSCs) called neuroblasts as a model to study this process. Loss-of-function of Numb, a key cell fate determinant with well-conserved mammalian counterparts, leads to the formation of ectopic neuroblasts and a tumor phenotype in the larval brain. Overexpression of the Drosophila tumor suppressor p53 (dp53) was able to suppress ectopic neuroblast formation caused by numb loss-of-function. This occurred in a non-apoptotic manner and was independent of Dacapo, the fly counterpart of the well-characterized mammalian p53 target p21 involved in cellular senescence. The observation that dp53 affected Edu incorporation into neuroblasts led us to test the hypothesis that dp53 acts through regulation of factors involved in cell cycle progression. Our results show that the inhibitory effect of dp53 on ectopic neuroblast formation was mediated largely through its regulation of Cyclin E (Cyc E). Overexpression of Cyc E was able to abrogate dp53's ability to rescue numb loss-of-function phenotypes. Increasing Cyc E levels by attenuating Archipelago (Ago), a recently identified transcriptional target of dp53 and a negative regulator of Cyc E, had similar effects. Conversely, reducing Cyc E activity by overexpressing Ago blocked ectopic neuroblast formation in numb mutant. Our results reveal an intimate connection between cell cycle progression and NSC self-renewal vs. differentiation control, and indicate that p53-mediated regulation of ectopic NSC self-renewal through the Ago/Cyc E axis becomes particularly important when NSC homeostasis is perturbed as in numb loss-of-function condition. This has important clinical implications.