SOX2, OCT3/4 and NANOG expression and cellular plasticity in rare human somatic cells requires CD73

Fraxin alleviates oral lichen planus by suppressing OCT3-mediated activation of FGF2/NF-κB pathway

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a carcinogenic chronic inflammatory oral disease, which lacks effective treatments. Fraxin is an active ingredient of the traditional Chinese medicine Qin Pi, which has an anti-inflammatory effect, but its effect on OLP is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the therapeutic effect of fraxin on OLP and the underlying mechanism. Human immortalized keratinocytes (HaCat) were incubated with fraxin (10, 20, or 40 µM) for 48 h and then treated with 10 µg/mL LPS for 24 h. Cell viability and apoptosis were detected. Next, the interaction between OCT3 and FGF2 was predicted by online database and verified by Co-IP analysis. Fraxin, Ad-OCT3, sh-OCT3, and sh-FGF2 were, respectively, applied to treat LPS-incubated HaCat cells, and cell viability, apoptosis, and secretion of inflammatory factors were detected with MTT, flow cytometry, and ELISA assays. Then, the involvement of OCT3 and FGF2 in the prevention of fraxin on HaCat cells from LPS-induced cell apoptosis and inflammation was investigated through multiple rescue experiments. In addition, OLP models were constructed in VDR-/- mice and NOD/SCID mice by injecting with human OLP pathological tissue homogenates to verify the therapeutic effect of fraxin on OLP. Fraxin treatment increased cell viability and reduced cell apoptosis and the secretion of IL-6 and TNF-α in a dose-dependent manner. OCT3 was significantly upregulated in oral mucosa tissues of OLP mice. OCT3 silencing inhibited LPS-induced cell apoptosis and secretion of inflammatory factors. Fraxin incubation reduced the expression of OCT3, and OCT3 interacted with FGF2 to upregulate FGF2 protein. FGF2 silencing reduced the expression of p-p65/NF-κB protein and improved LPS-induced cell apoptosis and secretion of inflammatory factors. OCT3 overexpression increased the expression of FGF2 and p-p65/NF-κB proteins, rh-FGF2 aggravated this effect, while FGF2-Neu-Ab reversed this effect. The results of in vivo experiments showed that fraxin alleviated cell apoptosis and inflammation in oral buccal mucosa tissues of OLP mice. Fraxin inhibited cell apoptosis and inflammation by suppressing OCT3-mediated activation of the FGF2/NF-κB pathway, alleviating the progression of OLP.

Current Adenosinergic Therapies: What Do Cancer Cells Stand to Gain and Lose?

A key objective in immuno-oncology is to reactivate the dormant immune system and increase tumour immunogenicity. Adenosine is an omnipresent purine that is formed in response to stress stimuli in order to restore physiological balance, mainly via anti-inflammatory, tissue-protective, and anti-nociceptive mechanisms. Adenosine overproduction occurs in all stages of tumorigenesis, from the initial inflammation/local tissue damage to the precancerous niche and the developed tumour, making the adenosinergic pathway an attractive but challenging therapeutic target. Many current efforts in immuno-oncology are focused on restoring immunosurveillance, largely by blocking adenosine-producing enzymes in the tumour microenvironment (TME) and adenosine receptors on immune cells either alone or combined with chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy. However, the effects of adenosinergic immunotherapy are not restricted to immune cells; other cells in the TME including cancer and stromal cells are also affected. Here we summarise recent advancements in the understanding of the tumour adenosinergic system and highlight the impact of current and prospective immunomodulatory therapies on other cell types within the TME, focusing on adenosine receptors in tumour cells. In addition, we evaluate the structure- and context-related limitations of targeting this pathway and highlight avenues that could possibly be exploited in future adenosinergic therapies.

Tumorigenesis and Progression As A Consequence of Hypoxic TME：A Prospective View upon Breast Cancer Therapeutic Targets

Intratumoral hypoxia has a significant impact on the development and progression of breast cancer (BC). Rather than exerting limited regional impact, hypoxia create an aggressive macroenvironment for BC. Hypoxia-inducible factors-1(HIF-1) is extensively induced under hypoxia condition of BC, activating the transcription of multiple oncogenes. Thereinto, CD73 is the one which could be secreted into the microenvironment and is in favor of the growth, metastasis, resistance to therapies, as well as the stemness maintenance of BC. In this review, we address the significance of hypoxia/HIF-1/CD73 axis for BC, and provide a novel perspective into BC therapeutic strategies.

Immunomethylomics: A Novel Cancer Risk Prediction Tool

There is emerging evidence that the immune biology associated with lung and other solid tumors, as well as patient immune genetic traits, contributes to individual survival. At this time, dramatic advances in immunologic approaches to the study and management of human cancers are taking place, including lung and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. However, major obstacles for therapies are the profound immune alterations in blood and in the tumor microenvironment that arise in tandem with the cancer. Although there is a significant current effort underway across the cancer research community to probe the tumor environment to uncover the dynamics of the immune response, little similar work is being done to understand the dynamics of immune alterations in peripheral blood, despite evidence showing the prognostic relevance of the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio for these cancers. A prominent feature of cancer-associated inflammation is the generation of myeloid-derived suppressor cells, which arise centrally in bone marrow myelopoiesis and peripherally in response to tumor factors. Two classes of myeloid-derived suppressor cells are recognized: granulocytic and monocytic. To date, such immune factors have not been integrated into molecular classification or prognostication. Here, we advocate for a more complete characterization of patient immune profiles, using DNA from archival peripheral blood after application of methylation profiling (immunomethylomics). At the heart of this technology are cell libraries of differentially methylated regions that provide the "fingerprints" of immune cell subtypes. Going forward, opportunities exist to explore aberrant immune profiles in the context of cancer-associated inflammation, potentially adding significantly to prognostic and mechanistic information for solid tumors.

Normal Breast-Derived Epithelial Cells with Luminal and Intrinsic Subtype-Enriched Gene Expression Document Interindividual Differences in Their Differentiation Cascade

Cell-type origin is one of the factors that determine molecular features of tumors, but resources to validate this concept are scarce because of technical difficulties in propagating major cell types of adult organs. Previous attempts to generate such resources to study breast cancer have yielded predominantly basal-type cell lines. We have created a panel of immortalized cell lines from core breast biopsies of ancestry-mapped healthy women that form ductal structures similar to normal breast in 3D cultures and expressed markers of major cell types, including the luminal-differentiated cell-enriched ERα-FOXA1-GATA3 transcription factor network. We have also created cell lines from PROCR (CD201)⁺/EpCAM^- cells that are likely the "normal" counterpart of the claudin-low subtype of breast cancers. RNA-seq and PAM50-intrinsic subtype clustering identified these cell lines as the "normal" counterparts of luminal A, basal, and normal-like subtypes and validated via immunostaining with basal-enriched KRT14 and luminal-enriched KRT19. We further characterized these cell lines by flow cytometry for distribution patterns of stem/basal, luminal-progenitor, mature/differentiated, multipotent PROCR⁺ cells, and organogenesis-enriched epithelial/mesenchymal hybrid cells using CD44/CD24, CD49f/EpCAM, CD271/EpCAM, CD201/EpCAM, and ALDEFLUOR assays and E-cadherin/vimentin double staining. These cell lines showed interindividual heterogeneity in stemness/differentiation capabilities and baseline activity of signaling molecules such as NF-κB, AKT2, pERK, and BRD4. These resources can be used to test the emerging concept that genetic variations in regulatory regions contribute to widespread differences in gene expression in "normal" conditions among the general population and can delineate the impact of cell-type origin on tumor progression.Significance: In addition to providing a valuable resource for the breast cancer research community to investigate cell-type origin of different subtypes of breast cancer, this study highlights interindividual differences in normal breast, emphasizing the need to use "normal" cells from multiple sources as controls to decipher the effects of cancer-specific genomic aberrations. Cancer Res; 78(17); 5107-23. ©2018 AACR.

Re-Defining Stem Cell-Cardiomyocyte Interactions: Focusing on the Paracrine Effector Approach

Stem cell research for treating or curing ischemic heart disease has, till date, culminated in three basic approaches: the use of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology; reprogramming cardiac fibroblasts; and cardiovascular progenitor cell regeneration. As each approach has been shown to have its advantages and disadvantages, exploiting the advantages while minimizing the disadvantages has been a challenge. Using human germline pluripotent stem cells (hgPSCs) along with a modified version of a relatively novel cell-expansion culture methodology to induce quick, indefinite expansion of normally slow growing hgPSCs, it was possible to emphasize the advantages of all three approaches. We consistently found that unipotent germline stem cells, when removed from their niche and cultured in the correct medium, expressed endogenously, pluripotency genes, which induced them to become hgPSCs. These cells are then capable of producing cell types from all three germ layers. Upon differentiation into cardiac lineages, our data consistently showed that they not only expressed cardiac genes, but also expressed cardiac-promoting paracrine factors. Taking these data a step further, we found that hgPSC-derived cardiac cells could integrate into cardiac tissue in vivo. Note, while the work presented here was based on testes-derived hgPSCs, data from other laboratories have shown that ovaries contain very similar types of stem cells that can give rise to hgPSCs. As a result, hgPSCs should be considered a viable option for eventual use in patients, male or female, with ischemic heart disease

CD73 Regulates Stemness and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Ovarian Cancer-Initiating Cells

Cancer-initiating cells (CICs) have been implicated in tumor development and aggressiveness. In ovarian carcinoma (OC), CICs drive tumor formation, dissemination, and recurrence, as well as drug resistance, thus accounting for the high death-to-incidence ratio of this neoplasm. However, the molecular mechanisms that underlie such a pathogenic role of ovarian CICs (OCICs) remain elusive. Here, we have capitalized on primary cells either from OC or from its tissues of origin to obtain the transcriptomic profile associated with OCICs. Among the genes differentially expressed in OCICs, we focused on CD73, which encodes the membrane-associated 5′-ectonucleotidase. The genetic inactivation of CD73 in OC cells revealed that this molecule is causally involved in sphere formation and tumor initiation, thus emerging as a driver of OCIC function. Furthermore, functional inhibition of CD73 via either a chemical compound or a neutralizing antibody reduced sphere formation and tumorigenesis, highlighting the druggability of CD73 in the context of OCIC-directed therapies. The biological function of CD73 in OCICs required its enzymatic activity and involved adenosine signaling. Mechanistically, CD73 promotes the expression of stemness and epithelial-mesenchymal transition-associated genes, implying a regulation of OCIC function at the transcriptional level. CD73, therefore, is involved in OCIC biology and may represent a therapeutic target for innovative treatments aimed at OC eradication.

•

CD73 is enriched in ovarian cancer-initiating cells (OCICs)

•

CD73 orchestrates OCIC stemness and EMT

•

OC initiation and growth require CD73 activity

•

OCIC-associated CD73 is a therapeutic target useful for OC eradication