Suppression of MAGE-A10 alters the metastatic phenotype of tongue squamous cell carcinoma cells

Immunization with a multi-antigen targeted DNA vaccine eliminates chemoresistant pancreatic cancer by disrupting tumor-stromal cell crosstalk

BACKGROUND

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterised by limited responses to chemoimmunotherapy attributed to highly desmoplastic tumor microenvironment. Disrupting the tumor-stromal cell crosstalk is considered as an improved PDAC treatment strategy, whereas little progress has been made due to poor understanding of its underlying mechanism. Here, we examined the cellular role of melanoma associated antigen A isoforms (MAGEA) in regulating tumor-stromal crosstalk mediated chemoresistance.

METHODS

We used clinical samples to explore the correlation between MAGEA expression and patient prognosis in multiple cancers. We utilized cancer cell lines, patient derived organoids and orthotopic PDAC model to examine the function of MAGEA in chemoresistance. We performed biochemical, proteome profiler array and transcriptional analysis to uncover a mechanism that governs tumor-stromal crosstalk. We developed a multi-MAGEA antigen targeted DNA vaccine and tested its effect on PDAC tumor growth.

RESULTS

We establish MAGEA as a regulator of the tumor-stromal crosstalk in PDAC. We provide strong clinical evidence indicating that high MAGEA expression, including MAGEA2, MAGEA3 and MAGEA10, correlates with worse chemotherapeutic response and poor prognosis in multiple cancers, while their expression is up-regulated in chemoresistant PDAC patient derived organoids and cancer cell lines. Mechanistically, MAGEA2 prohibits gemcitabine-induced JNK-c-Jun-p53 mediated cancer cell apoptosis, while gemcitabine stimulated pancreatic stellate cells secretes GDF15 to further enhance the gemcitabine resistance of MAGEA2 expressing cells by activating GFRAL-RET mediated Akt and ERK1/2 dependent survival pathway. Strikingly, immunization with a DNA vaccine that targeting multiple MAGEA antigens, including MAGEA2, MAGEA3 and MAGEA10, elicits robust immune responses against the growth of gemcitabine resistant tumors.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that targeting MAGEA-mediated paracrine regulation of chemoresistance by immunotherapy can be an improved pancreatic cancer treatment strategy.

Anticancer properties of the fatty acid synthase inhibitor TVB-3166 on oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines

OBJECTIVE

Fatty acid synthase (FASN) is overexpressed in several human cancers, including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). TVB-3166 is a recently described FASN inhibitor with antitumor effects and potential clinical relevance. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of TVB-3166 on OSCC cell lines.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The OSCC cell line SCC-9 modified to express ZsGreen (ZsG) (SCC-9 ZsG) and its in vivo selected metastatic derivative LN-1A were used to evaluate anticancer properties of TVB-3166. Cell viability was determined using MTT assays and proliferation determined by cell counting in a Neubauer chamber. Cell death and cell cycle progression were analyzed by Annexin V-PE/7-ADD-PerCP labeling and PI staining, respectively. Cell migration was assayed by scratch assays and cell adhesion using myogel. Production of FASN, p-AKT, CPT1-α, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers were examined by Western blotting.

RESULTS

TVB-3166 significantly reduced cell viability and proliferation, promoted cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, and increased adhesion to myogel in both OSCC cell lines. Finally, the drug reduced SCC-9 ZsG migration.

CONCLUSION

Our results demonstrated that TVB-3166 has anticancer effects on both SCC-9 ZsG and its metastatic version LN-1A, which are worthy of investigation in preclinical models for OSCC.

Isothermal Microcalorimetry of Tumor Cells: Enhanced Thermogenesis by Metastatic Cells

Tumor cells exhibit rewired metabolism. We carried out comparative analyses attempting to investigate whether metabolic reprograming could be measured by isothermal microcalorimetry. Intact metastatic cell lines of tongue cell carcinoma, human and murine melanoma, lung, and breast tumors consistently released more heat than non-metastatic cells or cells displaying lower metastatic potential. In tongue squamous carcinoma cells mitochondrial enriched extract reproduced the heat release pattern of intact cells. Cytochalasin D, an actin filament inhibitor, and suppression of metastasis marker Melanoma associated gene 10 (MAGEA10) decreased heat release. Uncoupling protein 2 was highly expressed in metastatic cells, but not in non-metastatic cells. Carnitine palmitoyl transferase-1 inhibitor, Etomoxir strongly inhibited heat release by metastatic cells, thus linking lipid metabolism to thermogenesis. We propose that heat release may be a quantifiable trait of the metastatic process.

pMHC Structural Comparisons as a Pivotal Element to Detect and Validate T-Cell Targets for Vaccine Development and Immunotherapy-A New Methodological Proposal

The search for epitopes that will effectively trigger an immune response remains the “El Dorado” for immunologists. The development of promising immunotherapeutic approaches requires the appropriate targets to elicit a proper immune response. Considering the high degree of HLA/TCR diversity, as well as the heterogeneity of viral and tumor proteins, this number will invariably be higher than ideal to test. It is known that the recognition of a peptide-MHC (pMHC) by the T-cell receptor is performed entirely in a structural fashion, where the atomic interactions of both structures, pMHC and TCR, dictate the fate of the process. However, epitopes with a similar composition of amino acids can produce dissimilar surfaces. Conversely, sequences with no conspicuous similarities can exhibit similar TCR interaction surfaces. In the last decade, our group developed a database and in silico structural methods to extract molecular fingerprints that trigger T-cell immune responses, mainly referring to physicochemical similarities, which could explain the immunogenic differences presented by different pMHC-I complexes. Here, we propose an immunoinformatic approach that considers a structural level of information, combined with an experimental technology that simulates the presentation of epitopes for a T cell, to improve vaccine production and immunotherapy efficacy.

MicroRNA-488 inhibits tongue squamous carcinoma cell invasion and EMT by directly targeting ATF3

BACKGROUND

It has been reported that the expression of activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) is closely associated with both microRNA (miRNA) processing and the progress of many cancers. Our study aimed to explore the interaction between ATF3 and miR-488 in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC).

METHODS

Quantitative real-time PCR was performed to detect the levels of ATF3 and miR-488 in TSCC tissues and cell lines. Cell invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) were assessed to determine the biological functions of miR-488 and ATF3 in TSCC cells. The mRNA and protein levels of ATF3 were measured using quantitative RT-PCR and western blotting. Luciferase assays were performed to validate ATF3 as an miR-488 target in TSCC cells.

RESULTS

We found that the level of miR-488 significantly decreased and the expression of ATF3 significantly increased in TSCC tissues and cell lines. A low level of miR-488 was closely associated with increased expression of ATF3 in TSCC tissues. Introducing miR-488 significantly inhibited the invasion and EMT of TSCC cells, and knockdown of miR-488 promoted both processes. The bioinformatics analysis predicted that ATF3 is a potential target gene of miR-488. The luciferase reporter assay showed that miR-488 could directly target ATF3. ATF3 silencing had similar effects to miR-488 overexpression on TSCC cells. Overexpression of ATF3 in TSCC cells partially reversed the inhibitory effects of the miR-488 mimic.

CONCLUSION

miR-488 inhibited cell invasion and EMT of TSCC cells by directly downregulating ATF3 expression.

Angiogenesis and evading immune destruction are the main related transcriptomic characteristics to the invasive process of oral tongue cancer

Metastasis of head and neck tumors is responsible for a high mortality rate. Understanding its biochemistry may allow insights into tumorigenesis. To that end we carried out RNA-Seq analyses of 5 SCC9 derived oral cancer cell lines displaying increased invasive potential. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were annotated based on p-values and false discovery rate (q-values). All 292 KEGG pathways related to the human genome were compared in order to pinpoint the absolute and relative contributions to the invasive process considering the 8 hallmarks of cancer plus 2 new defined categories, as well as we made with our transcriptomic data. In terms of absolute contribution, the highest correlations were associated to the categories of evading immune destruction and energy metabolism and for relative contributions, angiogenesis and evading immune destruction. DEGs were distributed into each one of all possible modes of regulation, regarding up, down and continuum expression, along the 3 stages of metastatic progression. For p-values twenty-six genes were consistently present along the tumoral progression and 4 for q-values. Among the DEGs, we found 2 novel potentially informative metastatic markers: PIGG and SLC8B1. Furthermore, interactome analysis showed that MYH14, ANGPTL4, PPARD and ENPP1 are amenable to pharmacological interventions.