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Bromberger S, Zadorozhna Y, Ressler JM, Holzner S, Nawrocki A, Zila N, Springer A, Røssel Larsen M, Schossleitner K. Off-targets of BRAF inhibitors disrupt endothelial signaling and vascular barrier function. Life Sci Alliance 2024; 7:e202402671. [PMID: 38839106 PMCID: PMC11153892 DOI: 10.26508/lsa.202402671] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2024] [Revised: 05/17/2024] [Accepted: 05/20/2024] [Indexed: 06/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Targeted therapies against mutant BRAF are effectively used in combination with MEK inhibitors (MEKi) to treat advanced melanoma. However, treatment success is affected by resistance and adverse events (AEs). Approved BRAF inhibitors (BRAFi) show high levels of target promiscuity, which can contribute to these effects. The blood vessel lining is in direct contact with high plasma concentrations of BRAFi, but effects of the inhibitors in this cell type are unknown. Hence, we aimed to characterize responses to approved BRAFi for melanoma in the vascular endothelium. We showed that clinically approved BRAFi induced a paradoxical activation of endothelial MAPK signaling. Moreover, phosphoproteomics revealed distinct sets of off-targets per inhibitor. Endothelial barrier function and junction integrity were impaired upon treatment with vemurafenib and the next-generation dimerization inhibitor PLX8394, but not with dabrafenib or encorafenib. Together, these findings provide insights into the surprisingly distinct side effects of BRAFi on endothelial signaling and functionality. Better understanding of off-target effects could help to identify molecular mechanisms behind AEs and guide the continued development of therapies for BRAF-mutant melanoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Bromberger
- https://ror.org/05n3x4p02 Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Yuliia Zadorozhna
- https://ror.org/05n3x4p02 Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Julia Maria Ressler
- https://ror.org/05n3x4p02 Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Silvio Holzner
- https://ror.org/05n3x4p02 Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Arkadiusz Nawrocki
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Nina Zila
- https://ror.org/05n3x4p02 Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- University of Applied Sciences FH Campus Wien, Division of Biomedical Science, Vienna, Austria
| | - Alexander Springer
- https://ror.org/05n3x4p02 Department of Pediatric Surgery, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Martin Røssel Larsen
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Klaudia Schossleitner
- https://ror.org/05n3x4p02 Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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2
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Meric-Bernstam F, Lloyd MW, Koc S, Evrard YA, McShane LM, Lewis MT, Evans KW, Li D, Rubinstein L, Welm A, Dean DA, Srivastava A, Grover JW, Ha MJ, Chen H, Huang X, Varadarajan K, Wang J, Roth JA, Welm B, Govinden R, Ding L, Kaochar S, Mitsiades N, Carvajal-Carmona L, Herylyn M, Davies MA, Shapiro GI, Fields R, Trevino JG, Harrell JC, Doroshow JH, Chuang JH, Moscow JA. Assessment of Patient-Derived Xenograft Growth and Antitumor Activity: The NCI PDXNet Consensus Recommendations. Mol Cancer Ther 2024; 23:924-938. [PMID: 38641411 PMCID: PMC11217730 DOI: 10.1158/1535-7163.mct-23-0471] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2023] [Revised: 12/08/2023] [Accepted: 03/29/2024] [Indexed: 04/21/2024]
Abstract
Although patient-derived xenografts (PDX) are commonly used for preclinical modeling in cancer research, a standard approach to in vivo tumor growth analysis and assessment of antitumor activity is lacking, complicating the comparison of different studies and determination of whether a PDX experiment has produced evidence needed to consider a new therapy promising. We present consensus recommendations for assessment of PDX growth and antitumor activity, providing public access to a suite of tools for in vivo growth analyses. We expect that harmonizing PDX study design and analysis and assessing a suite of analytical tools will enhance information exchange and facilitate identification of promising novel therapies and biomarkers for guiding cancer therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Funda Meric-Bernstam
- Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
| | | | - Soner Koc
- Seven Bridges Genomics, Charlestown, Massachusetts.
| | - Yvonne A. Evrard
- Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, Maryland.
| | - Lisa M. McShane
- Biometric Research Program, DCTD, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
| | - Michael T. Lewis
- Departments of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Radiology, Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center, Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
| | - Kurt W. Evans
- Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
| | - Dali Li
- Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
| | - Lawrence Rubinstein
- Biometric Research Program, DCTD, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
| | - Alana Welm
- Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.
| | | | - Anuj Srivastava
- The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut.
| | | | - Min J. Ha
- Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
| | - Huiqin Chen
- Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
| | - Xuelin Huang
- Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
| | - Kaushik Varadarajan
- Department of Surgical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
| | - Jing Wang
- Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
| | - Jack A. Roth
- Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
| | - Bryan Welm
- Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.
| | - Ramaswamy Govinden
- Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.
| | - Li Ding
- Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.
| | - Salma Kaochar
- Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
| | - Nicholas Mitsiades
- Department of Molecular Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
| | - Luis Carvajal-Carmona
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, University of California, Davis, California.
| | | | - Michael A. Davies
- Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
| | - Geoffrey I. Shapiro
- Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.
| | - Ryan Fields
- Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.
| | - Jose G. Trevino
- Department of Surgery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.
| | - Joshua C. Harrell
- Department of Pathology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.
| | | | - James H. Doroshow
- Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
| | - Jeffrey H. Chuang
- The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut.
| | - Jeffrey A. Moscow
- Investigational Drug Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
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3
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Yang S, Li Z, Yi J, Pan M, Cao W, Ma J, Zhang P. Nebivolol, an antihypertensive agent, has new application in inhibiting melanoma. Anticancer Drugs 2024; 35:512-524. [PMID: 38602174 PMCID: PMC11078289 DOI: 10.1097/cad.0000000000001597] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2023] [Revised: 01/04/2024] [Indexed: 04/12/2024]
Abstract
Repurposing existing drugs for cancer therapy has become an important strategy because of its advantages, such as cost reduction, effect and safety. The present study was designed to investigate the antimelanoma effect and possible mechanisms of action of nebivolol, which is an approved and widely prescribed antihypertensive agent. In this study, we explored the effect of nebivolol on cell proliferation and cell activity in melanoma in vitro and the potential antimelanoma mechanism of nebivolol through a series of experiments, including the analysis of the effects with regard to cell apoptosis and metastasis. Furthermore, we evaluated the antimelanoma effect on xenograft tumor models and inspected the antimelanoma mechanism of nebivolol in vivo using immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence staining assays. As results in this work, in vitro , nebivolol possessed a strong activity for suppression proliferation and cell cycle arrest on melanoma. Moreover, nebivolol significantly induced cell apoptosis in melanoma through a mitochondrial-mediated endogenous apoptosis pathway. Additionally, nebivolol inhibited melanoma cell metastasis. More importantly, nebivolol exhibited significantly effective melanoma xenograft models in vivo , which related to the mechanism of apoptosis induction, proliferation inhibition, metastasis blocking and angiogenesis arrest. Overall, the data of the present study recommend that nebivolol holds great potential in application as a novel agent for the treatment of melanoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuping Yang
- Department of Pharmacy, Shenzhen Luohu People’s Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong
| | - Zhi Li
- Department of Pharmacy, Shenzhen Luohu People’s Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong
| | - Jiamei Yi
- Department of Pharmacy, Shenzhen Luohu People’s Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong
| | - Mingyue Pan
- Department of Pharmacy, Shenzhen Luohu People’s Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong
| | - Weiling Cao
- Department of Pharmacy, Shenzhen Luohu People’s Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong
| | - Jing Ma
- Department of Pharmacy, South China Hospital, Medical School, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Peng Zhang
- Department of Pharmacy, Shenzhen Luohu People’s Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong
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4
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Ryu KB, Seo JA, Lee K, Choi J, Yoo G, Ha JH, Ahn MR. Drug-Resistance Biomarkers in Patient-Derived Colorectal Cancer Organoid and Fibroblast Co-Culture System. Curr Issues Mol Biol 2024; 46:5794-5811. [PMID: 38921017 PMCID: PMC11202770 DOI: 10.3390/cimb46060346] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2024] [Revised: 06/04/2024] [Accepted: 06/06/2024] [Indexed: 06/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Colorectal cancer, the third most commonly occurring tumor worldwide, poses challenges owing to its high mortality rate and persistent drug resistance in metastatic cases. We investigated the tumor microenvironment, emphasizing the role of cancer-associated fibroblasts in the progression and chemoresistance of colorectal cancer. We used an indirect co-culture system comprising colorectal cancer organoids and cancer-associated fibroblasts to simulate the tumor microenvironment. Immunofluorescence staining validated the characteristics of both organoids and fibroblasts, showing high expression of epithelial cell markers (EPCAM), colon cancer markers (CK20), proliferation markers (KI67), and fibroblast markers (VIM, SMA). Transcriptome profiling was conducted after treatment with anticancer drugs, such as 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin, to identify chemoresistance-related genes. Changes in gene expression in the co-cultured colorectal cancer organoids following anticancer drug treatment, compared to monocultured organoids, particularly in pathways related to interferon-alpha/beta signaling and major histocompatibility complex class II protein complex assembly, were identified. These two gene groups potentially mediate drug resistance associated with JAK/STAT signaling. The interaction between colorectal cancer organoids and fibroblasts crucially modulates the expression of genes related to drug resistance. These findings suggest that the interaction between colorectal cancer organoids and fibroblasts significantly influences gene expression related to drug resistance, highlighting potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for overcoming chemoresistance. Enhanced understanding of the interactions between cancer cells and their microenvironment can lead to advancements in personalized medical research..
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Ji-hye Ha
- Clinical Research Division, National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Cheongju 28159, Chungcheongbuk-do, Republic of Korea; (K.-B.R.)
| | - Mee Ryung Ahn
- Clinical Research Division, National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Cheongju 28159, Chungcheongbuk-do, Republic of Korea; (K.-B.R.)
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5
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Mengoni M, Braun AD, Hinnerichs MS, Aghayev A, Tüting T, Surov A. Comprehensive analysis of body composition features in melanoma patients treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors. J Dtsch Dermatol Ges 2024; 22:783-791. [PMID: 38857075 DOI: 10.1111/ddg.15402] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2023] [Accepted: 02/18/2024] [Indexed: 06/11/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) has greatly improved the management of metastatic melanoma. Recent studies have uncovered a relationship between the body mass index (BMI) and outcome of patients with metastatic melanoma. However, conflicting results have challenged the relevance of this finding. In the current work, we aim to dissect body composition features of melanoma patients treated with TKI to evaluate their value as biomarkers. PATIENTS AND METHODS We analyze body composition features via CT scans in a retrospective cohort of 57 patients with non-resectable stage III/IV melanoma receiving first-line treatment with TKI in our department, focusing on the impact of body composition on treatment efficacy and occurrence of adverse events. RESULTS In uni- and multivariate analyses, we identify an association between the visceral adipose tissue gauge index (VATGI) and survival. We furthermore profile additional body composition features including sarcopenia, which was also associated with a shorter overall survival. Finally, we detected an enrichment of cases with fatigue in patients with low VATGI. CONCLUSIONS Our study represents the first exploratory study evaluating the suitability of body composition measurements as biomarkers for melanoma patients treated with TKI. Our data suggest a putative use of VATGI as a biomarker predicting patient outcome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miriam Mengoni
- Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | | | - Mattes Simon Hinnerichs
- Department for Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Anar Aghayev
- Department for Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Thomas Tüting
- Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Alexey Surov
- Department of Radiology, Neuroradiology and Nuclear Medicine, Johannes Wesling University Hospital, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
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6
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Mengoni M, Braun AD, Hinnerichs MS, Aghayev A, Tüting T, Surov A. Umfassende Analyse des Einflusses der Body Composition auf die Wirksamkeit und das Nebenwirkungsprofil einer Systemtherapie mit Tyrosinkinaseinhibitoren bei Melanompatienten. J Dtsch Dermatol Ges 2024; 22:783-793. [PMID: 38857079 DOI: 10.1111/ddg.15402_g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2023] [Accepted: 02/18/2024] [Indexed: 06/11/2024]
Abstract
ZusammenfassungHintergrundDie Einführung von Tyrosinkinaseinhibitoren (TKI) hat die Behandlung von Patienten mit metastasiertem Melanom erheblich verbessert. Aktuelle Studien haben einen Zusammenhang zwischen dem Body‐Mass‐Index (BMI) und dem klinischen Verlauf von Patienten mit metastasiertem Melanom gezeigt. Weitere Studien mit kontroversen Ergebnissen haben jedoch die Interpretation dieser Ergebnisse erschwert. In der aktuellen Arbeit haben wir Parameter der Körperzusammensetzung (Body Composition) von Melanompatienten, die mit TKI behandelt wurden, analysiert, um deren Stellenwert als Biomarker zu evaluieren.Patienten und MethodikIn einer retrospektiven Kohorte bestehend aus 57 Patienten wurden Parameter der Body Composition anhand von CT‐Scans untersucht und deren Einfluss auf das Therapieansprechen und das Auftreten unerwünschter Ereignisse analysiert. Die Studienkohorte umfasste alle Patienten mit metastasiertem, nicht resektablem Melanom im Stadium III/IV, die in unserer Abteilung eine Erstlinientherapie mit TKI erhalten hatten.ErgebnisseMittels uni‐ und multivariater Analysen stellten wir einen Zusammenhang zwischen dem Gauge‐Index des viszeralen Fettgewebes (VATGI) und dem Überleben fest. Darüber hinaus untersuchten wir weitere Parameter der Body Composition, darunter die Sarkopenie, die ebenfalls mit einem kürzeren Gesamtüberleben assoziiert war. Weiterhin konnten wir nachweisen, dass Patienten mit niedrigem VATGI anteilsweise häufiger eine Fatigue aufwiesen.SchlussfolgerungenUnsere Studie ist die erste explorative Studie, die Parameter der Body Composition als Biomarker für Melanompatienten, die mit TKI behandelt werden, untersucht. Unsere Daten deuten darauf hin, dass der VATGI als Biomarker zur Vorhersage des Therapieerfolges verwendet werden könnte.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miriam Mengoni
- Universitätshautklinik, Universitätsklinikum Magdeburg A. ö. R., Magdeburg
| | | | - Mattes Simon Hinnerichs
- Universitätsklinik für Radiologie und Nuklearmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Magdeburg A. ö. R., Magdeburg
| | - Anar Aghayev
- Universitätsklinik für Radiologie und Nuklearmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Magdeburg A. ö. R., Magdeburg
| | - Thomas Tüting
- Universitätshautklinik, Universitätsklinikum Magdeburg A. ö. R., Magdeburg
| | - Alexey Surov
- Universitätsinstitut für Radiologie, Neuroradiologie und Nuklearmedizin, Johannes Wesling Klinikum Minden, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
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7
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Xiang T, Shi C, Guo Y, Zhang J, Min W, Sun J, Liu J, Yan X, Liu Y, Yao L, Mao Y, Yang X, Shi J, Yan B, Qu G, Jiang G. Effect-directed analysis of androgenic compounds from sewage sludges in China. WATER RESEARCH 2024; 256:121652. [PMID: 38657313 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.121652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2024] [Revised: 04/16/2024] [Accepted: 04/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
The safety of municipal sewage sludge has raised great concerns because of the accumulation of large-scale endocrine disrupting chemicals in the sludge during wastewater treatment. The presence of contaminants in sludge can cause secondary pollution owing to inappropriate disposal mechanisms, posing potential risks to the environment and human health. Effect-directed analysis (EDA), involving an androgen receptor (AR) reporter gene bioassay, fractionation, and suspect and nontarget chemical analysis, were applied to identify causal AR agonists in sludge; 20 of the 30 sludge extracts exhibited significant androgenic activity. Among these, the extracts from Yinchuan, Kunming, and Shijiazhuang, which held the most polluted AR agonistic activities were prepared for extensive EDA, with the dihydrotestosterone (DHT)-equivalency of 2.5 - 4.5 ng DHT/g of sludge. Seven androgens, namely boldione, androstenedione, testosterone, megestrol, progesterone, and testosterone isocaproate, were identified in these strongest sludges together, along with testosterone cypionate, first reported in sludge media. These identified androgens together accounted for 55 %, 87 %, and 52 % of the effects on the sludge from Yinchuan, Shijiazhuang, and Kunming, respectively. This study elucidates the causative androgenic compounds in sewage sludge and provides a valuable reference for monitoring and managing androgens in wastewater treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tongtong Xiang
- College of Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110004, China; State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
| | - Chunzhen Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China.
| | - Yunhe Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; College of Environmental and Resource Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Jie Zhang
- School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China; Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay Area, Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Weicui Min
- School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China; Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay Area, Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Jiazheng Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
| | - Jifu Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; School of Environment, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou 310000, China
| | - Xiliang Yan
- School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China; Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay Area, Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Yanna Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
| | - Linlin Yao
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
| | - Yuxiang Mao
- School of Resources & Environment, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, China
| | - Xiaoxi Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
| | - Jianbo Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
| | - Bing Yan
- School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China; Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay Area, Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Guangbo Qu
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; School of Environment, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou 310000, China
| | - Guibin Jiang
- College of Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110004, China; State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; College of Environmental and Resource Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; School of Environment, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou 310000, China
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8
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Zhao J, Wang Q, Tan AF, Loh CJL, Toh HC. Sex differences in cancer and immunotherapy outcomes: the role of androgen receptor. Front Immunol 2024; 15:1416941. [PMID: 38863718 PMCID: PMC11165033 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1416941] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2024] [Accepted: 05/16/2024] [Indexed: 06/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Across the wide range of clinical conditions, there exists a sex imbalance where biological females are more prone to autoimmune diseases and males to some cancers. These discrepancies are the combinatory consequence of lifestyle and environmental factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, and oncogenic viruses, as well as other intrinsic biological traits including sex chromosomes and sex hormones. While the emergence of immuno-oncology (I/O) has revolutionised cancer care, the efficacy across multiple cancers may be limited because of a complex, dynamic interplay between the tumour and its microenvironment (TME). Indeed, sex and gender can also influence the varying effectiveness of I/O. Androgen receptor (AR) plays an important role in tumorigenesis and in shaping the TME. Here, we lay out the epidemiological context of sex disparity in cancer and then review the current literature on how AR signalling contributes to such observation via altered tumour development and immunology. We offer insights into AR-mediated immunosuppressive mechanisms, with the hope of translating preclinical and clinical evidence in gender oncology into improved outcomes in personalised, I/O-based cancer care.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junzhe Zhao
- Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore
- Division of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Centre Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Qian Wang
- Division of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Centre Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Department of Medical Oncology Cancer Hospital of China Medical University/Liaoning Cancer Hospital & Institute, Shenyang, Liaoning, China
| | | | - Celestine Jia Ling Loh
- Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore
- Sengkang General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Han Chong Toh
- Division of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Centre Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
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9
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Li F, Xing X, Jin Q, Wang XM, Dai P, Han M, Shi H, Zhang Z, Shao X, Peng Y, Zhu Y, Xu J, Li D, Chen Y, Wu W, Wang Q, Yu C, Chen L, Bai F, Gao D. Sex differences orchestrated by androgens at single-cell resolution. Nature 2024; 629:193-200. [PMID: 38600383 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07291-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 04/12/2024]
Abstract
Sex differences in mammalian complex traits are prevalent and are intimately associated with androgens1-7. However, a molecular and cellular profile of sex differences and their modulation by androgens is still lacking. Here we constructed a high-dimensional single-cell transcriptomic atlas comprising over 2.3 million cells from 17 tissues in Mus musculus and explored the effects of sex and androgens on the molecular programs and cellular populations. In particular, we found that sex-biased immune gene expression and immune cell populations, such as group 2 innate lymphoid cells, were modulated by androgens. Integration with the UK Biobank dataset revealed potential cellular targets and risk gene enrichment in antigen presentation for sex-biased diseases. This study lays the groundwork for understanding the sex differences orchestrated by androgens and provides important evidence for targeting the androgen pathway as a broad therapeutic strategy for sex-biased diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fei Li
- Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell Systems, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Xudong Xing
- Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center (BIOPIC), Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics (ICG), School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Qiqi Jin
- Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell Systems, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiang-Ming Wang
- Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center (BIOPIC), Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics (ICG), School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Pengfei Dai
- Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell Systems, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ming Han
- Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell Systems, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Huili Shi
- Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell Systems, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ze Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Systems Health Science of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xianlong Shao
- Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell Systems, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yunyi Peng
- Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell Systems, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yiqin Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell Systems, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Jiayi Xu
- Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Dan Li
- Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Yu Chen
- Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Wei Wu
- Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology (MOE/NHC/CAMS), Shanghai Institute of Infectious Disease and Biosecurity, Shanghai Frontiers Science Center of Pathogenic Microbes and Infection, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Qiao Wang
- Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology (MOE/NHC/CAMS), Shanghai Institute of Infectious Disease and Biosecurity, Shanghai Frontiers Science Center of Pathogenic Microbes and Infection, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Chen Yu
- Institute of Cancer Research, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen, China.
| | - Luonan Chen
- Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell Systems, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.
- Key Laboratory of Systems Health Science of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
| | - Fan Bai
- Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center (BIOPIC), Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics (ICG), School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
| | - Dong Gao
- Key Laboratory of Multi-Cell Systems, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Andrology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
- Institute of Cancer Research, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen, China.
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10
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Williams LA, Barragan S, Lu Z, Weigel BJ, Spector LG. Sex differences in osteosarcoma survival across the age spectrum: A National Cancer Database analysis (2004-2016). Cancer Epidemiol 2024:102565. [PMID: 38575425 DOI: 10.1016/j.canep.2024.102565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2023] [Revised: 02/27/2024] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 04/06/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Osteosarcoma displays a bimodal peak in incidence in adolescence and later adulthood. Males are more frequently diagnosed with osteosarcoma in both periods. Males have worse survival than females, which is generally poor at 30-70% 5-years post diagnosis, depending on age, but treatment received is often unaccounted for in survival analyses. METHODS Therefore, we estimated sex differences in survival for children and adults stratifying by treatment received and other disease characteristics using the National Cancer Database (2004-2016, n=9017). We estimated sex differences in long-term survival using Kaplan Meier survival curves and Log-Rank p-values. We also estimated hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) as the measure of association between sex and death using Cox regression. RESULTS In all age groups, cases were predominantly male (52-58%). In Kaplan-Meier analyses, males had worse overall survival than females for 0-19, 20-39, and ≥60-year-olds (Log-Rank p<0.05). Females had higher 5- and 10-year survival percentages in all age groups. In adjusted Cox models, males had a higher risk of death among 0-19-year-olds (HRoverall: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.06-1.44; HRnon-metastatic disease: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.63, HRlower limb tumors: 1.31, 95% CI: 1.09-1.59). Among 20-39-year-olds, males had an increased risk of death when receiving surgery only (HR: 4.67, 95% CI: 1.44, 15.09). Among those ≥60-year-olds, males had a suggestive increased risk of death overall (HR: 1.17, 95% CI: 0.99-1.39) and a higher risk of death based on some tumor locations, (HRupper limb: 2.52, 95% CI: 1.24, 5.11; HRmidline: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.82). CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that the worse survival among young males compared to females with osteosarcoma persisted after accounting for many major disease characteristics, including treatment received. Collectively, our work points toward other unexplored mechanisms beyond treatment, potentially biologic or otherwise, which may be driving the observed sex differences in long-term survival.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsay A Williams
- Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
| | - Sofia Barragan
- Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Zhanni Lu
- Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Brenda J Weigel
- Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Logan G Spector
- Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
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11
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Swanton C, Bernard E, Abbosh C, André F, Auwerx J, Balmain A, Bar-Sagi D, Bernards R, Bullman S, DeGregori J, Elliott C, Erez A, Evan G, Febbraio MA, Hidalgo A, Jamal-Hanjani M, Joyce JA, Kaiser M, Lamia K, Locasale JW, Loi S, Malanchi I, Merad M, Musgrave K, Patel KJ, Quezada S, Wargo JA, Weeraratna A, White E, Winkler F, Wood JN, Vousden KH, Hanahan D. Embracing cancer complexity: Hallmarks of systemic disease. Cell 2024; 187:1589-1616. [PMID: 38552609 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.02.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2023] [Revised: 01/25/2024] [Accepted: 02/08/2024] [Indexed: 04/02/2024]
Abstract
The last 50 years have witnessed extraordinary developments in understanding mechanisms of carcinogenesis, synthesized as the hallmarks of cancer. Despite this logical framework, our understanding of the molecular basis of systemic manifestations and the underlying causes of cancer-related death remains incomplete. Looking forward, elucidating how tumors interact with distant organs and how multifaceted environmental and physiological parameters impinge on tumors and their hosts will be crucial for advances in preventing and more effectively treating human cancers. In this perspective, we discuss complexities of cancer as a systemic disease, including tumor initiation and promotion, tumor micro- and immune macro-environments, aging, metabolism and obesity, cancer cachexia, circadian rhythms, nervous system interactions, tumor-related thrombosis, and the microbiome. Model systems incorporating human genetic variation will be essential to decipher the mechanistic basis of these phenomena and unravel gene-environment interactions, providing a modern synthesis of molecular oncology that is primed to prevent cancers and improve patient quality of life and cancer outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles Swanton
- The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK; Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, University College London Cancer Institute, London, UK.
| | - Elsa Bernard
- The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK; INSERM U981, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France
| | | | - Fabrice André
- INSERM U981, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France; Department of Medical Oncology, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France; Paris Saclay University, Kremlin-Bicetre, France
| | - Johan Auwerx
- Laboratory of Integrative Systems Physiology, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Allan Balmain
- UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | | | - René Bernards
- Division of Molecular Carcinogenesis, Oncode Institute, the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Susan Bullman
- Human Biology Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - James DeGregori
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA
| | | | - Ayelet Erez
- Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Gerard Evan
- The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK; Kings College London, London, UK
| | - Mark A Febbraio
- Drug Discovery Biology, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Andrés Hidalgo
- Department of Immunobiology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06519, USA; Area of Cardiovascular Regeneration, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Mariam Jamal-Hanjani
- Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, University College London Cancer Institute, London, UK
| | - Johanna A Joyce
- Department of Oncology, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Katja Lamia
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Jason W Locasale
- Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Sherene Loi
- Division of Cancer Research, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; The Sir Department of Medical Oncology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | | | - Miriam Merad
- Department of immunology and immunotherapy, Precision Immunology Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Kathryn Musgrave
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK; Department of Haematology, The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Ketan J Patel
- MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
| | - Sergio Quezada
- Cancer Immunology Unit, Research Department of Haematology, University College London Cancer Institute, London, UK
| | - Jennifer A Wargo
- Department of Surgical Oncology, Department of Genomic Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Ashani Weeraratna
- Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Eileen White
- Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA; Ludwig Princeton Branch, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Frank Winkler
- Neurology Clinic and National Center for Tumor Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Clinical Cooperation Unit Neuro-oncology, German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - John N Wood
- Molecular Nociception Group, WIBR, University College London, London, UK
| | | | - Douglas Hanahan
- Lausanne Branch, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne, Switzerland; Swiss institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland; Agora Translational Cancer Research Center, Lausanne, Switzerland.
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12
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Kammula AV, Schäffer AA, Rajagopal PS, Kurzrock R, Ruppin E. Outcome differences by sex in oncology clinical trials. Nat Commun 2024; 15:2608. [PMID: 38521835 PMCID: PMC10960820 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46945-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2023] [Accepted: 03/15/2024] [Indexed: 03/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Identifying sex differences in outcomes and toxicity between males and females in oncology clinical trials is important and has also been mandated by National Institutes of Health policies. Here we analyze the Trialtrove database, finding that, strikingly, only 472/89,221 oncology clinical trials (0.5%) had curated post-treatment sex comparisons. Among 288 trials with comparisons of survival, outcome, or response, 16% report males having statistically significant better survival outcome or response, while 42% reported significantly better survival outcome or response for females. The strongest differences are in trials of EGFR inhibitors in lung cancer and rituximab in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (both favoring females). Among 44 trials with side effect comparisons, more trials report significantly lesser side effects in males (N = 22) than in females (N = 13). Thus, while statistical comparisons between sexes in oncology trials are rarely reported, important differences in outcome and toxicity exist. These considerable outcome and toxicity differences highlight the need for reporting sex differences more thoroughly going forward.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashwin V Kammula
- Cancer Data Science Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Alejandro A Schäffer
- Cancer Data Science Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA.
| | - Padma Sheila Rajagopal
- Cancer Data Science Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
- Women's Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Razelle Kurzrock
- WIN Consortium and Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53226 and University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE, 68198, USA
| | - Eytan Ruppin
- Cancer Data Science Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA.
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13
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Taglialatela I, Indini A, Santanelli G, Di Liberti G, Di Guardo L, De Braud F, Del Vecchio M. Melanoma and sex hormones: Pathogenesis, progressive disease and response to treatments. TUMORI JOURNAL 2024:3008916241231687. [PMID: 38372040 DOI: 10.1177/03008916241231687] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/20/2024]
Abstract
Cutaneous melanoma represents the fifth tumor in terms of incidence in young adults, with a major involvement of males than females. Despite the significant changes in available effective treatments for cutaneous melanoma, there is still a proportion of patients that do not benefit long-term disease control with immune checkpoint inhibitors and/or BRAF/MEK inhibitors, and eventually develop progressive disease. In addition to the emerging biomarkers under investigation to understand resistance to treatments, recent studies resumed the role of sex hormones (estrogens, progesterone and androgens) in melanoma patients. In the last decades, the impact of sex hormones has been considered controversial in melanoma patients, but actual growing preclinical and clinical evidence underline the potential influence on melanoma cells' growth, tumor microenvironment, the immune system and consequently on the course of disease.This review will provide available insights on the role of sex hormones in melanoma pathogenesis, disease progression and response/resistance to systemic treatments. We will also offer an overview on the recent studies on the theme, describing the hormonal contribution to disease response and the interaction with targeted therapies and immune-checkpoint inhibitors in cutaneous melanoma patients, illustrating an insight into future research in this field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ida Taglialatela
- Melanoma Medical Oncology Unit, Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Alice Indini
- Melanoma Medical Oncology Unit, Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Giulia Santanelli
- Melanoma Medical Oncology Unit, Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Giorgia Di Liberti
- Melanoma Medical Oncology Unit, Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Lorenza Di Guardo
- Melanoma Medical Oncology Unit, Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Filippo De Braud
- Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano, Milan, Italy
- Università degli studi di Milano, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Michele Del Vecchio
- Melanoma Medical Oncology Unit, Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano, Milan, Italy
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14
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Natarelli N, Aleman SJ, Mark IM, Tran JT, Kwak S, Botto E, Aflatooni S, Diaz MJ, Lipner SR. A Review of Current and Pipeline Drugs for Treatment of Melanoma. Pharmaceuticals (Basel) 2024; 17:214. [PMID: 38399429 PMCID: PMC10892880 DOI: 10.3390/ph17020214] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2024] [Revised: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Malignant melanoma is the most aggressive form of skin cancer. Standard treatment options include surgery, radiation therapy, systemic chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy. Combining these modalities often yields better responses. Surgery is suitable for localized cases, sometimes involving lymph node dissection and biopsy, to assess the spread of the disease. Radiation therapy may be sometimes used as a standalone treatment or following surgical excision. Systemic chemotherapy, while having low response rates, is utilized as part of combination treatments or when other methods fail. The development of resistance to systemic chemotherapies and associated side effects have prompted further research and clinical trials for novel approaches. In the case of advanced-stage melanoma, a comprehensive approach may be necessary, incorporating targeted therapies and immunotherapies that demonstrate significant antitumor activity. Targeted therapies, including inhibitors targeting BRAF, MEK, c-KIT, and NRAS, are designed to block the specific molecules responsible for tumor growth. These therapies show promise, particularly in patients with corresponding mutations. Combination therapy, including BRAF and MEK inhibitors, has been evidenced to improve progression-free survival; however, concerns about resistance and cutaneous toxicities highlight the need for close monitoring. Immunotherapies, leveraging tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and CAR T cells, enhance immune responses. Lifileucel, an FDA-approved tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy, has demonstrated improved response rates in advanced-stage melanoma. Ongoing trials continue to explore the efficacy of CAR T-cell therapy for advanced melanoma. Checkpoint inhibitors targeting CTLA-4 and PD-1 have enhanced outcomes. Emerging IL-2 therapies boost dendritic cells, enhancing anticancer immunity. Oncolytic virus therapy, approved for advanced melanoma, augments treatment efficacy in combination approaches. While immunotherapy has significantly advanced melanoma treatment, its success varies, prompting research into new drugs and factors influencing outcomes. This review provides insights into current melanoma treatments and recent therapeutic advances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Natarelli
- Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33602, USA
| | - Sarah J. Aleman
- School of Medicine, Louisiana State University, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
| | - Isabella M. Mark
- College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
| | - Jasmine T. Tran
- School of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA
| | - Sean Kwak
- College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
| | - Elizabeth Botto
- Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33602, USA
| | - Shaliz Aflatooni
- Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33602, USA
| | - Michael J. Diaz
- College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
| | - Shari R. Lipner
- Department of Dermatology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City, NY 10021, USA
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15
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Liu Q, Adhikari E, Lester DK, Fang B, Johnson JO, Tian Y, Mockabee-Macias AT, Izumi V, Guzman KM, White MG, Koomen JM, Wargo JA, Messina JL, Qi J, Lau EK. Androgen drives melanoma invasiveness and metastatic spread by inducing tumorigenic fucosylation. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1148. [PMID: 38326303 PMCID: PMC10850104 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45324-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 02/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Melanoma incidence and mortality rates are historically higher for men than women. Although emerging studies have highlighted tumorigenic roles for the male sex hormone androgen and its receptor (AR) in melanoma, cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying these sex-associated discrepancies are poorly defined. Here, we delineate a previously undisclosed mechanism by which androgen-activated AR transcriptionally upregulates fucosyltransferase 4 (FUT4) expression, which drives melanoma invasiveness by interfering with adherens junctions (AJs). Global phosphoproteomic and fucoproteomic profiling, coupled with in vitro and in vivo functional validation, further reveal that AR-induced FUT4 fucosylates L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM), which is required for FUT4-increased metastatic capacity. Tumor microarray and gene expression analyses demonstrate that AR-FUT4-L1CAM-AJs signaling correlates with pathological staging in melanoma patients. By delineating key androgen-triggered signaling that enhances metastatic aggressiveness, our findings help explain sex-associated clinical outcome disparities and highlight AR/FUT4 and its effectors as potential prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in melanoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Liu
- Department of Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
- Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
- Molecular Medicine Program, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Emma Adhikari
- Department of Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
- Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
- Molecular Medicine Program, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Daniel K Lester
- Department of Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
- Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
- Molecular Medicine Program, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Bin Fang
- Proteomics and Metabolomics Core, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Joseph O Johnson
- Analytic Microscopy Core, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Yijun Tian
- Department of Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Andrea T Mockabee-Macias
- Department of Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
- Molecular Medicine Program, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Victoria Izumi
- Proteomics and Metabolomics Core, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Kelly M Guzman
- Analytic Microscopy Core, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Michael G White
- Department of Surgical Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - John M Koomen
- Proteomics and Metabolomics Core, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
- Department of Molecular Oncology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Jennifer A Wargo
- Department of Surgical Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Genomic Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Jane L Messina
- Department of Pathology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Jianfei Qi
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Eric K Lau
- Department of Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA.
- Molecular Medicine Program, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA.
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16
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Proffer SL, Reinhart JP, Campbell EH, Crum OM, Gibson LE, Brewer JD, Demer AM. Increasing Incidence and Decreasing Mortality of Melanoma in Elderly Adults: An Epidemiologic Study in Olmsted County, Minnesota. Dermatol Surg 2024; 50:125-130. [PMID: 37792642 DOI: 10.1097/dss.0000000000003972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/06/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Primary cutaneous melanoma incidence is increasing in elderly individuals. This population-based cohort examines incidence and mortality rates among adults aged 61 years and older with cutaneous melanoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using the Rochester Epidemiology Project, patients aged 61 years of age or older with a first lifetime diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma between January 1, 1970 and December 31, 2020 were identified. RESULTS The age- and sex-adjusted incidence rate increased from 16.4 (95% CI, 8.2-24.6) per 100,000 person-years in 1970 to 1979 to 201.5 (95% CI, 185.1-217.8) per 100,000 person-years in 2011 to 2020 (12.3-fold increase). There was a 16.0x increase in males and an 8.5× increase in females. Melanoma incidence has stabilized in males (1.2-fold increase, p = .11) and continues to significantly increase in females (2.7-fold increase, p < .001). Older age at diagnosis was significantly associated with an increased risk of death (HR 1.23 per 5-year increase in age at diagnosis, 95% CI, 1.02-1.47). CONCLUSION Melanoma incidence continues to increase since 1970. The incidence has risen in elderly females, but has stabilized in males. Mortality has decreased throughout this period.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sydney L Proffer
- Department of Dermatology, Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, Rochester, Minnesota
| | - Jacob P Reinhart
- Department of Dermatology, Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, Rochester, Minnesota
| | - Elliott H Campbell
- Department of Dermatology, Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, Rochester, Minnesota
| | - Olivia M Crum
- Department of Dermatology, Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, Rochester, Minnesota
| | - Lawrence E Gibson
- Department of Dermatology, Division of Dermatopathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
| | - Jerry D Brewer
- Department of Dermatology, Division of Dermatologic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
| | - Addison M Demer
- Department of Dermatology, Division of Dermatologic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
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17
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An L, Kim D, Donahue LR, Mejooli MA, Eom CY, Nishimura N, White AC. Sexual dimorphism in melanocyte stem cell behavior reveals combinational therapeutic strategies for cutaneous repigmentation. Nat Commun 2024; 15:796. [PMID: 38280858 PMCID: PMC10821900 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45034-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 01/12/2024] [Indexed: 01/29/2024] Open
Abstract
Vitiligo is an autoimmune skin disease caused by cutaneous melanocyte loss. Although phototherapy and T cell suppression therapy have been widely used to induce epidermal re-pigmentation, full pigmentation recovery is rarely achieved due to our poor understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing this process. Here, we identify unique melanocyte stem cell (McSC) epidermal migration rates between male and female mice, which is due to sexually dimorphic cutaneous inflammatory responses generated by ultra-violet B exposure. Using genetically engineered mouse models, and unbiased bulk and single-cell mRNA sequencing approaches, we determine that manipulating the inflammatory response through cyclooxygenase and its downstream prostaglandin product regulates McSC proliferation and epidermal migration in response to UVB exposure. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a combinational therapy that manipulates both macrophages and T cells (or innate and adaptive immunity) significantly promotes epidermal melanocyte re-population. With these findings, we propose a novel therapeutic strategy for repigmentation in patients with depigmentation conditions such as vitiligo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luye An
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA
| | - Dahihm Kim
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA
| | - Leanne R Donahue
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA
| | | | - Chi-Yong Eom
- Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA
| | - Nozomi Nishimura
- Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA
| | - Andrew C White
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA.
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18
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Kazandjian S, Rousselle E, Dankner M, Cescon DW, Spreafico A, Ma K, Kavan P, Batist G, Rose AAN. The Clinical, Genomic, and Transcriptomic Landscape of BRAF Mutant Cancers. Cancers (Basel) 2024; 16:445. [PMID: 38275886 PMCID: PMC10814895 DOI: 10.3390/cancers16020445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2023] [Revised: 01/08/2024] [Accepted: 01/13/2024] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND BRAF mutations are classified into four molecularly distinct groups, and Class 1 (V600) mutant tumors are treated with targeted therapies. Effective treatment has not been established for Class 2/3 or BRAF Fusions. We investigated whether BRAF mutation class differed according to clinical, genomic, and transcriptomic variables in cancer patients. METHODS Using the AACR GENIE (v.12) cancer database, the distribution of BRAF mutation class in adult cancer patients was analyzed according to sex, age, primary race, and tumor type. Genomic alteration data and transcriptomic analysis was performed using The Cancer Genome Atlas. RESULTS BRAF mutations were identified in 9515 (6.2%) samples among 153,834, with melanoma (31%), CRC (20.7%), and NSCLC (13.9%) being the most frequent cancer types. Class 1 harbored co-mutations outside of the MAPK pathway (TERT, RFN43) vs. Class 2/3 mutations (RAS, NF1). Across all tumor types, Class 2/3 were enriched for alterations in genes involved in UV response and WNT/β-catenin. Pathway analysis revealed enrichment of WNT/β-catenin and Hedgehog signaling in non-V600 mutated CRC. Males had a higher proportion of Class 3 mutations vs. females (17.4% vs. 12.3% q = 0.003). Non-V600 mutations were generally more common in older patients (aged 60+) vs. younger (38% vs. 15% p < 0.0001), except in CRC (15% vs. 30% q = 0.0001). Black race was associated with non-V600 BRAF alterations (OR: 1.58; p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Class 2/3 BRAFs are more present in Black male patients with co-mutations outside of the MAPK pathway, likely requiring additional oncogenic input for tumorigenesis. Improving access to NGS and trial enrollment will help the development of targeted therapies for non-V600 BRAF mutations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suzanne Kazandjian
- Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A 3T2, Canada; (S.K.); (K.M.); (P.K.); (G.B.)
- Segal Cancer Centre, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada
| | - Emmanuelle Rousselle
- Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada; (E.R.); (M.D.)
- Division of Experimental Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
| | - Matthew Dankner
- Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada; (E.R.); (M.D.)
- Division of Experimental Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3G 2M1, Canada
- Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1A3, Canada
| | - David W. Cescon
- Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Princess Margaret Cancer Center, Toronto, ON M5G 2M9, Canada; (D.W.C.); (A.S.)
| | - Anna Spreafico
- Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Princess Margaret Cancer Center, Toronto, ON M5G 2M9, Canada; (D.W.C.); (A.S.)
| | - Kim Ma
- Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A 3T2, Canada; (S.K.); (K.M.); (P.K.); (G.B.)
- Segal Cancer Centre, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada
| | - Petr Kavan
- Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A 3T2, Canada; (S.K.); (K.M.); (P.K.); (G.B.)
- Segal Cancer Centre, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada
| | - Gerald Batist
- Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A 3T2, Canada; (S.K.); (K.M.); (P.K.); (G.B.)
- Segal Cancer Centre, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada
| | - April A. N. Rose
- Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A 3T2, Canada; (S.K.); (K.M.); (P.K.); (G.B.)
- Segal Cancer Centre, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada
- Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada; (E.R.); (M.D.)
- Division of Experimental Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3G 2M1, Canada
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19
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Franza A, Gusmaroli E, Fabbroni C, Vigorito R, Pasquali S, Casali PG, Sanfilippo RG. Long-term disease stability with bicalutamide in a man with aggressive angiomyxoma: case report and state of art. Front Oncol 2024; 13:1260668. [PMID: 38298446 PMCID: PMC10829570 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1260668] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Accepted: 12/26/2023] [Indexed: 02/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Aggressive angiomyxoma (AA) is a rare mesenchymal neoplasm, which is commonly diagnosed in females and located in the perineal and pelvic region. Tissue specimens of AA patients often show positivity for estrogen (ER) and progesterone receptors (PgR), while some cases of androgen receptor (AR) positivity have been reported in males. When feasible, surgical excision represent the most effective treatment of AA; however, when experiencing advanced or recurrent disease, local disease control could be achieved with systemic hormonal treatment. To date, evidence regarding AA management in male patients is scarce, and only a few cases have been reported in literature. Hereby, we describe the case of a 59-year-old-man suffering from perineal AA with positivity for androgen receptors (AR) showing a long-lasting disease stability during the treatment with an AR-blocking drug (bicalutamide). A literature review regarding the state of art of AA management with a particular look to male patients is also provided.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Franza
- Department of Medical Oncology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Eleonora Gusmaroli
- Department of Medical Oncology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Chiara Fabbroni
- Department of Medical Oncology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Raffaella Vigorito
- Department of Radiology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Sandro Pasquali
- Molecular Pharmacology Unit, Department of Applied Research and Technological Development, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
- Sarcoma Service, Department of Surgery, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Paolo Giovanni Casali
- Department of Medical Oncology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
- Department of Oncology and Hematology-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
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20
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Granata I, Barboro P. Identification of Molecular Markers Associated with Prostate Cancer Subtypes: An Integrative Bioinformatics Approach. Biomolecules 2024; 14:87. [PMID: 38254687 PMCID: PMC10813078 DOI: 10.3390/biom14010087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2023] [Revised: 12/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Prostate cancer (PCa) is characterised by androgen dependency. Unfortunately, under anti-androgen treatment pressure, castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) emerges, characterised by heterogeneous cell populations that, over time, lead to the development of different androgen-dependent or -independent phenotypes. Despite important advances in therapeutic strategies, CRPC remains incurable. Context-specific essential genes represent valuable candidates for targeted anti-cancer therapies. Through the investigation of gene and protein annotations and the integration of published transcriptomic data, we identified two consensus lists to stratify PCa patients' risk and discriminate CRPC phenotypes based on androgen receptor activity. ROC and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were used for gene set validation in independent datasets. We further evaluated these genes for their association with cancer dependency. The deregulated expression of the PCa-related genes was associated with overall and disease-specific survival, metastasis and/or high recurrence risk, while the CRPC-related genes clearly discriminated between adeno and neuroendocrine phenotypes. Some of the genes showed context-specific essentiality. We further identified candidate drugs through a computational repositioning approach for targeting these genes and treating lethal variants of PCa. This work provides a proof-of-concept for the use of an integrative approach to identify candidate biomarkers involved in PCa progression and CRPC pathogenesis within the goal of precision medicine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ilaria Granata
- High Performance Computing and Networking Institute (ICAR), National Council of Research (CNR), Via Pietro Castellino 111, 80131 Naples, Italy
| | - Paola Barboro
- Proteomic and Mass Spectrometry Unit, IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Largo R. Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy;
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21
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Zhang T, Jia H, Song T, Lv L, Gulhan DC, Wang H, Guo W, Xi R, Guo H, Shen N. De novo identification of expressed cancer somatic mutations from single-cell RNA sequencing data. Genome Med 2023; 15:115. [PMID: 38111063 PMCID: PMC10726641 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-023-01269-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Identifying expressed somatic mutations from single-cell RNA sequencing data de novo is challenging but highly valuable. We propose RESA - Recurrently Expressed SNV Analysis, a computational framework to identify expressed somatic mutations from scRNA-seq data. RESA achieves an average precision of 0.77 on three in silico spike-in datasets. In extensive benchmarking against existing methods using 19 datasets, RESA consistently outperforms them. Furthermore, we applied RESA to analyze intratumor mutational heterogeneity in a melanoma drug resistance dataset. By enabling high precision detection of expressed somatic mutations, RESA substantially enhances the reliability of mutational analysis in scRNA-seq. RESA is available at https://github.com/ShenLab-Genomics/RESA .
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianyun Zhang
- Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital & Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 311121, China
| | - Hanying Jia
- Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital & Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 311121, China
- Kidney Disease Center, the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang, 311121, China
| | - Tairan Song
- Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital & Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 311121, China
| | - Lin Lv
- Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital & Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 311121, China
| | - Doga C Gulhan
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Haishuai Wang
- College of Computer Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 311121, Zhejiang, China
| | - Wei Guo
- Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh Institute, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Jiaxing, 314400, China
| | - Ruibin Xi
- School of Mathematical Sciences and Center for Statistical Science, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Hongshan Guo
- Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital & Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 311121, China
- Bone Marrow Transplantation Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310003, Zhejiang, China
| | - Ning Shen
- Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital & Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 311121, China.
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22
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Hwangbo H, Patterson SC, Dai A, Plana D, Palmer AC. Additivity predicts the efficacy of most approved combination therapies for advanced cancer. NATURE CANCER 2023; 4:1693-1704. [PMID: 37974028 DOI: 10.1038/s43018-023-00667-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2023] [Accepted: 10/11/2023] [Indexed: 11/19/2023]
Abstract
Most advanced cancers are treated with drug combinations. Rational design aims to identify synergistic combinations, but existing synergy metrics apply to preclinical, not clinical data. Here we propose a model of drug additivity for progression-free survival (PFS) to assess whether clinical efficacies of approved drug combinations are additive or synergistic. This model includes patient-to-patient variability in best single-drug response plus the weaker drug per patient. Among US Food and Drug Administration approvals of drug combinations for advanced cancers (1995-2020), 95% exhibited additive or less than additive effects on PFS times. Among positive or negative phase 3 trials published between 2014-2018, every combination that improved PFS was expected to succeed by additivity (100% sensitivity) and most failures were expected to fail (78% specificity). This study shows synergy is neither a necessary nor common property of clinically effective drug combinations. The predictable efficacy of approved combinations suggests that additivity can be a design principle for combination therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haeun Hwangbo
- Department of Pharmacology, Computational Medicine Program, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
- Curriculum in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Sarah C Patterson
- Department of Pharmacology, Computational Medicine Program, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Andy Dai
- North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Deborah Plana
- Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Medical School and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Adam C Palmer
- Department of Pharmacology, Computational Medicine Program, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
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23
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Rodriguez-Lara V, Soca-Chafre G, Avila-Costa MR, Whaley JJJV, Rodriguez-Cid JR, Ordoñez-Librado JL, Rodriguez-Maldonado E, Heredia-Jara NA. Role of sex and sex hormones in PD-L1 expression in NSCLC: clinical and therapeutic implications. Front Oncol 2023; 13:1210297. [PMID: 37941543 PMCID: PMC10628781 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1210297] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2023] [Accepted: 09/28/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Currently, immunotherapy based on PD-1/PD-L1 pathway blockade has improved survival of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. However, differential responses have been observed by sex, where men appear to respond better than women. Additionally, adverse effects of immunotherapy are mainly observed in women. Studies in some types of hormone-dependent cancer have revealed a role of sex hormones in anti-tumor response, tumor microenvironment and immune evasion. Estrogens mainly promote immune tolerance regulating T-cell function and modifying tumor microenvironment, while androgens attenuate anti-tumor immune responses. The precise mechanism by which sex and sex hormones may modulate immune response to tumor, modify PD-L1 expression in cancer cells and promote immune escape in NSCLC is still unclear, but current data show how sexual differences affect immune therapy response and prognosis. This review provides update information regarding anti-PD-1/PD-L immunotherapeutic efficacy in NSCLC by sex, analyzing potential roles for sex hormones on PD-L1 expression, and discussing a plausible of sex and sex hormones as predictive response factors to immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vianey Rodriguez-Lara
- Department of Cell and Tissue Biology, Faculty of Medicine, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Giovanny Soca-Chafre
- Oncological Diseases Research Unit (UIEO), Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Maria Rosa Avila-Costa
- Neuromorphology Laboratory, Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico
| | | | | | | | - Emma Rodriguez-Maldonado
- Traslational Medicine Laboratory, Research Unit UNAM-INC, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chávez, Mexico City, Mexico
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24
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Chaudagar K, Rameshbabu S, Mei S, Hirz T, Hu YM, Argulian A, Labadie B, Desai K, Grimaldo S, Kahramangil D, Nair R, DSouza S, Zhou D, Li M, Doughan F, Chen R, Shafran J, Loyd M, Xia Z, Sykes DB, Moran A, Patnaik A. Androgen blockade primes NLRP3 in macrophages to induce tumor phagocytosis. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.09.15.557996. [PMID: 37904975 PMCID: PMC10614738 DOI: 10.1101/2023.09.15.557996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2023]
Abstract
Immune-based therapies induce durable remissions in subsets of patients across multiple malignancies. However, there is limited efficacy of immunotherapy in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), manifested by an enrichment of immunosuppressive (M2) tumor- associated macrophages (TAM) in the tumor immune microenvironment (TME). Therefore, therapeutic strategies to overcome TAM-mediated immunosuppression are critically needed in mCRPC. Here we discovered that NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3), an innate immune sensing protein, is highly expressed in TAM from metastatic PC patients treated with standard-of-care androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Importantly, ex vivo studies revealed that androgen receptor (AR) blockade in TAM upregulates NLRP3 expression, but not inflammasome activity, and concurrent AR blockade/NLRP3 agonist (NLRP3a) treatment promotes cancer cell phagocytosis by immunosuppressive M2 TAM. In contrast, NLRP3a monotherapy was sufficient to enhance phagocytosis of cancer cells in anti-tumor (M1) TAM, which exhibit high de novo NLRP3 expression. Critically, combinatorial treatment with ADT/NLRP3a in a murine model of advanced PC resulted in significant tumor control, with tumor clearance in 55% of mice via TAM phagocytosis. Collectively, our results demonstrate NLRP3 as an AR-regulated "macrophage phagocytic checkpoint", inducibly expressed in TAM by ADT and activated by NLRP3a treatment, the combination resulting in TAM-mediated phagocytosis and tumor control.
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25
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Samarkina A, Youssef MK, Ostano P, Ghosh S, Ma M, Tassone B, Proust T, Chiorino G, Levesque MP, Goruppi S, Dotto GP. Androgen receptor is a determinant of melanoma targeted drug resistance. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6498. [PMID: 37838724 PMCID: PMC10576812 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42239-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2022] [Accepted: 10/02/2023] [Indexed: 10/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Melanoma provides a primary benchmark for targeted drug therapy. Most melanomas with BRAFV600 mutations regress in response to BRAF/MEK inhibitors (BRAFi/MEKi). However, nearly all relapse within the first two years, and there is a connection between BRAFi/MEKi-resistance and poor response to immune checkpoint therapy. We reported that androgen receptor (AR) activity is required for melanoma cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. We show here that AR expression is markedly increased in BRAFi-resistant melanoma cells, and in sensitive cells soon after BRAFi exposure. Increased AR expression is sufficient to render melanoma cells BRAFi-resistant, eliciting transcriptional changes of BRAFi-resistant subpopulations, including elevated EGFR and SERPINE1 expression, of likely clinical significance. Inhibition of AR expression or activity blunts changes in gene expression and suppresses proliferation and tumorigenesis of BRAFi-resistant melanoma cells, promoting clusters of CD8+ T cells infiltration and cancer cells killing. Our findings point to targeting AR as possible co-therapeutical approach in melanoma treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Paola Ostano
- Cancer Genomics Laboratory, Edo and Elvo Tempia Valenta Foundation, Biella, Italy
| | - Soumitra Ghosh
- ORL service and Personalized Cancer Prevention Program, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Min Ma
- Department of Immunobiology, University of Lausanne, Épalinges, Switzerland
| | - Beatrice Tassone
- Department of Immunobiology, University of Lausanne, Épalinges, Switzerland
| | - Tatiana Proust
- Department of Immunobiology, University of Lausanne, Épalinges, Switzerland
| | - Giovanna Chiorino
- Cancer Genomics Laboratory, Edo and Elvo Tempia Valenta Foundation, Biella, Italy
| | - Mitchell P Levesque
- Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Zürich, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Sandro Goruppi
- Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Gian Paolo Dotto
- Department of Immunobiology, University of Lausanne, Épalinges, Switzerland.
- ORL service and Personalized Cancer Prevention Program, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
- International Cancer Prevention Institute, Épalinges, Switzerland.
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26
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Mellman I, Chen DS, Powles T, Turley SJ. The cancer-immunity cycle: Indication, genotype, and immunotype. Immunity 2023; 56:2188-2205. [PMID: 37820582 DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2023.09.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 68.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2023] [Revised: 09/18/2023] [Accepted: 09/18/2023] [Indexed: 10/13/2023]
Abstract
The cancer-immunity cycle provides a framework to understand the series of events that generate anti-cancer immune responses. It emphasizes the iterative nature of the response where the killing of tumor cells by T cells initiates subsequent rounds of antigen presentation and T cell stimulation, maintaining active immunity and adapting it to tumor evolution. Any step of the cycle can become rate-limiting, rendering the immune system unable to control tumor growth. Here, we update the cancer-immunity cycle based on the remarkable progress of the past decade. Understanding the mechanism of checkpoint inhibition has evolved, as has our view of dendritic cells in sustaining anti-tumor immunity. We additionally account for the role of the tumor microenvironment in facilitating, not just suppressing, the anti-cancer response, and discuss the importance of considering a tumor's immunological phenotype, the "immunotype". While these new insights add some complexity to the cycle, they also provide new targets for research and therapeutic intervention.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Daniel S Chen
- Engenuity Life Sciences, Burlingame, CA, USA; Synthetic Design Lab, Burlingame, CA, USA
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27
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Burgermeister E. Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase and Nuclear Hormone Receptor Crosstalk in Cancer Immunotherapy. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:13661. [PMID: 37686465 PMCID: PMC10488039 DOI: 10.3390/ijms241713661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2023] [Revised: 08/29/2023] [Accepted: 08/30/2023] [Indexed: 09/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The three major MAP-kinase (MAPK) pathways, ERK1/2, p38 and JNK/SAPK, are upstream regulators of the nuclear "hormone" receptor superfamily (NHRSF), with a prime example given by the estrogen receptor in breast cancer. These ligand-activated transcription factors exert non-genomic and genomic functions, where they are either post-translationally modified by phosphorylation or directly interact with components of the MAPK pathways, events that govern their transcriptional activity towards target genes involved in cell differentiation, proliferation, metabolism and host immunity. This molecular crosstalk takes place not only in normal epithelial or tumor cells, but also in a plethora of immune cells from the adaptive and innate immune system in the tumor-stroma tissue microenvironment. Thus, the drugability of both the MAPK and the NHRSF pathways suggests potential for intervention therapies, especially for cancer immunotherapy. This review summarizes the existing literature covering the expression and function of NHRSF subclasses in human tumors, both solid and leukemias, and their effects in combination with current clinically approved therapeutics against immune checkpoint molecules (e.g., PD1).
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Affiliation(s)
- Elke Burgermeister
- Department of Medicine II, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Theodor-Kutzer-Ufer 1-3, D-68167 Mannheim, Germany
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28
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Lei PJ, Pereira ER, Andersson P, Amoozgar Z, Van Wijnbergen JW, O’Melia MJ, Zhou H, Chatterjee S, Ho WW, Posada JM, Kumar AS, Morita S, Menzel L, Chung C, Ergin I, Jones D, Huang P, Beyaz S, Padera TP. Cancer cell plasticity and MHC-II-mediated immune tolerance promote breast cancer metastasis to lymph nodes. J Exp Med 2023; 220:e20221847. [PMID: 37341991 PMCID: PMC10286805 DOI: 10.1084/jem.20221847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Revised: 04/10/2023] [Accepted: 05/25/2023] [Indexed: 06/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Tumor-draining lymph nodes (TDLNs) are important for tumor antigen-specific T cell generation and effective anticancer immune responses. However, TDLNs are often the primary site of metastasis, causing immune suppression and worse outcomes. Through cross-species single-cell RNA-Seq analysis, we identified features defining cancer cell heterogeneity, plasticity, and immune evasion during breast cancer progression and lymph node metastasis (LNM). A subset of cancer cells in the lymph nodes exhibited elevated MHC class II (MHC-II) gene expression in both mice and humans. MHC-II+ cancer cells lacked costimulatory molecule expression, leading to regulatory T cell (Treg) expansion and fewer CD4+ effector T cells in TDLNs. Genetic knockout of MHC-II reduced LNM and Treg expansion, while overexpression of the MHC-II transactivator, Ciita, worsened LNM and caused excessive Treg expansion. These findings demonstrate that cancer cell MHC-II expression promotes metastasis and immune evasion in TDLNs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pin-Ji Lei
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ethel R. Pereira
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Patrik Andersson
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Zohreh Amoozgar
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jan Willem Van Wijnbergen
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Meghan J. O’Melia
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Hengbo Zhou
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Sampurna Chatterjee
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - William W. Ho
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jessica M. Posada
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ashwin S. Kumar
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Satoru Morita
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Lutz Menzel
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Charlie Chung
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
| | - Ilgin Ergin
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
| | - Dennis Jones
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Peigen Huang
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Semir Beyaz
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
| | - Timothy P. Padera
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratories, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
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Yuan H, Qin X, Yang Q, Liu L, Fang Z, Fan Y, Xu D. Dyskerin and telomerase RNA component are sex-differentially associated with outcomes and Sunitinib response in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Biol Sex Differ 2023; 14:46. [PMID: 37434223 DOI: 10.1186/s13293-023-00526-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2023] [Accepted: 06/16/2023] [Indexed: 07/13/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) displays sex-biased incidence, outcomes, molecular alterations and treatment efficacy; however, clinical managements are largely identical in male and female patients. Moreover, many biomarkers have been identified as predictors for ccRCC outcomes and response to therapeutic drugs, such as multitargeted tyrosine-kinase receptor (TKR) inhibitors, but little is known about their sex-specificity. Dyskerin (DKC1), encoded by the DKC1 gene within Xq28, is a telomerase co-factor stabilizing telomerase RNA component (TERC) and overexpressed in various cancers. Here, we determined whether DKC1 and/or TERC affect ccRCC sex-differentially. METHODS DKC1 and TERC expression in primary ccRCC tumors was assessed using RNA sequencing and qPCR. DKC1 association with molecular alterations and overall or progression-free survival (OS or PFS) was analyzed in the TCGA cohort of ccRCC. The IMmotion 151 and 150 ccRCC cohorts were analyzed to evaluate impacts of DKC1 and TERC on Sunitinib response and PFS. RESULTS DKC1 and TERC expression was significantly upregulated in ccRCC tumors. High DKC1 expression predicts shorter PFS independently in female but not male patients. Tumors in the female DKC1-high group exhibited more frequent alterations in PIK3CA, MYC and TP53 genes. Analyses of the IMmotion 151 ccRCC cohort treated with the TKR inhibitor Sunitinib showed that female patients in the DKC1-high group was significantly associated with lower response rates (P = 0.021) accompanied by markedly shortened PFS (6.1 vs 14.2 months, P = 0.004). DKC1 and TERC expression correlated positively with each other, and higher TERC expression predicted poor Sunitinib response (P = 0.031) and shorter PFS (P = 0.004), too. However, DKC1 rather than TERC acted as an independent predictor (P < 0.001, HR = 2.0, 95% CI 1.480-2.704). In male patients, DKC1 expression was associated with neither Sunitinib response (P = 0.131) nor PFS (P = 0.184), while higher TERC levels did not predict response rates. Similar results were obtained from the analysis of the Sunitinib-treated IMmotion 150 ccRCC patients. CONCLUSIONS DKC1 serves as an independent female-specific predictor for survival and Sunitinib efficacy in ccRCC, which contribute to better understanding of the sex-biased ccRCC pathogenesis and improve personalized interventions of ccRCC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huiyang Yuan
- Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, China
| | - Xin Qin
- Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, China
| | - Qingya Yang
- Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, China
| | - Li Liu
- School of Nursing, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Zhiqing Fang
- Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, China.
| | - Yidong Fan
- Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, China.
| | - Dawei Xu
- Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, Bioclinicum and Center for Molecular Medicine, Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital Solna, 171 76, Stockholm, Sweden.
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30
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An L, Kim D, Donahue L, Mejooli MA, Chi-Yong E, Nishimura N, White AC. Sexual dimorphism in melanocyte stem cell behavior reveals combinational therapeutic strategies for cutaneous repigmentation. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.05.22.541644. [PMID: 37293072 PMCID: PMC10245926 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.22.541644] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Vitiligo is an autoimmune skin disease caused by cutaneous melanocyte loss. Although phototherapy and T cell suppression therapy have been widely used to induce epidermal repigmentation, full pigmentation recovery is rarely achieved due to our poor understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing this process. Here, we identify unique melanocyte stem cell (McSC) epidermal migration rates between male and female mice, which is due to sexually dimorphic cutaneous inflammatory responses generated by ultra-violet B exposure. Using genetically engineered mouse models, and unbiased bulk and single-cell mRNA sequencing approaches, we determine that manipulating the inflammatory response through cyclooxygenase and its downstream prostaglandin product regulates McSC proliferation and epidermal migration in response to UVB exposure. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a combinational therapy that manipulates both macrophages and T cells (or innate and adaptive immunity) significantly promotes epidermal melanocyte re-population. With these findings, we propose a novel therapeutic strategy for repigmentation in patients with depigmentation conditions such as vitiligo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luye An
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, 14850
| | - Dahihm Kim
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, 14850
| | - Leanne Donahue
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, 14850
| | | | - Eom Chi-Yong
- Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, 14850
| | - Nozomi Nishimura
- Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, 14850
| | - Andrew C White
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, 14850
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31
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Shi W, Wang Y, Zhao Y, Kim JJ, Li H, Meng C, Chen F, Zhang J, Mak DH, Van V, Leo J, Croix BS, Aparicio A, Zhao D. Immune checkpoint B7-H3 is a therapeutic vulnerability in prostate cancer harboring PTEN and TP53 deficiencies. Sci Transl Med 2023; 15:eadf6724. [PMID: 37163614 PMCID: PMC10574140 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adf6724] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2022] [Accepted: 04/17/2023] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Checkpoint immunotherapy has yielded meaningful responses across many cancers but has shown modest efficacy in advanced prostate cancer. B7 homolog 3 protein (B7-H3/CD276) is an immune checkpoint molecule and has emerged as a promising therapeutic target. However, much remains to be understood regarding B7-H3's role in cancer progression, predictive biomarkers for B7-H3-targeted therapy, and combinatorial strategies. Our multi-omics analyses identified B7-H3 as one of the most abundant immune checkpoints in prostate tumors containing PTEN and TP53 genetic inactivation. Here, we sought in vivo genetic evidence for, and mechanistic understanding of, the role of B7-H3 in PTEN/TP53-deficient prostate cancer. We found that loss of PTEN and TP53 induced B7-H3 expression by activating transcriptional factor Sp1. Prostate-specific deletion of Cd276 resulted in delayed tumor progression and reversed the suppression of tumor-infiltrating T cells and NK cells in Pten/Trp53 genetically engineered mouse models. Furthermore, we tested the efficacy of the B7-H3 inhibitor in preclinical models of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). We demonstrated that enriched regulatory T cells and elevated programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) in myeloid cells hinder the therapeutic efficacy of B7-H3 inhibition in prostate tumors. Last, we showed that B7-H3 inhibition combined with blockade of PD-L1 or cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) achieved durable antitumor effects and had curative potential in a PTEN/TP53-deficient CRPC model. Given that B7-H3-targeted therapies have been evaluated in early clinical trials, our studies provide insights into the potential of biomarker-driven combinatorial immunotherapy targeting B7-H3 in prostate cancer, among other malignancies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Shi
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Yin Wang
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Yuehui Zhao
- Department of Genetics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Justin Jimin Kim
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Department of Biology, Colby College, Waterville, ME 04901, USA
| | - Haoyan Li
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Chenling Meng
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Feiyu Chen
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Jie Zhang
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Duncan H. Mak
- Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Vivien Van
- Department of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Javier Leo
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Brad St. Croix
- Tumor Angiogenesis Unit, Mouse Cancer Genetics Program, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD 21702, USA
| | - Ana Aparicio
- Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Di Zhao
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX 77030, USA
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32
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Rahmat A, De Nie I, Wiepjes CM, Den Heijer M, Rustemeyer T, De Blok CJM, Dreijerink KMA. Skin cancer incidence in transgender individuals receiving gender-affirming hormone treatment: a nationwide cohort study in the Netherlands. Int J Dermatol 2023. [PMID: 37140088 DOI: 10.1111/ijd.16707] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2022] [Revised: 03/15/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2023] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Development of skin cancer, in particular melanoma, has been linked to sex hormones. We aimed to determine the incidence of skin cancer in transgender individuals receiving gender-affirming hormone treatment (GAHT). METHODS In this nationwide retrospective cohort study, clinical information of participants who visited our clinic between (the years) 1972 and 2018 and received GAHT was integrated with national pathology and cancer statistics data in order to assess skin cancer incidence. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated. RESULTS The cohort consisted of 2,436 trans women and 1,444 trans men. The median age at the start of GAHT was 31 years (IQR 24-42) in trans women and 24 years (IQR 20-32) in trans men. The median follow-up time for trans women was 8 years (IQR 3-18) with a total follow-up time of 29,152 years and 4 years (IQR 2-12) with a total follow-up time of 12,469 years for trans men. Eight trans women were diagnosed with melanoma (SIR 1.80 [95% CI 0.83-3.41] vs. all men; SIR 1.40 [0.65-2.65] vs. all women), and seven developed squamous cell carcinoma (SIR 0.78 [0.34-1.55] vs. all men; SIR 1.15 [0.50-2.27] vs. all women). Two trans men developed melanoma (SIR 1.05 [0.18-3.47] vs. all men; SIR 0.77 [0.14-2.70] vs. all women). CONCLUSIONS GAHT did not appear to affect skin cancer incidence in this large cohort of transgender individuals. As skin cancer incidence increases with age and the proportion of elderly subjects is currently limited in this cohort, it will be worthwhile to repeat this analysis in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amirun Rahmat
- Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, Amsterdam UMC, Location VU University Medical Center, De Boelelaan 1118, 1081 HZ, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Iris De Nie
- Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, Amsterdam UMC, Location VU University Medical Center, De Boelelaan 1118, 1081 HZ, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Chantal M Wiepjes
- Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, Amsterdam UMC, Location VU University Medical Center, De Boelelaan 1118, 1081 HZ, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Martin Den Heijer
- Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, Amsterdam UMC, Location VU University Medical Center, De Boelelaan 1118, 1081 HZ, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Thomas Rustemeyer
- Department of Dermatology, Amsterdam UMC, Location AMC, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Christel J M De Blok
- Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, Amsterdam UMC, Location VU University Medical Center, De Boelelaan 1118, 1081 HZ, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Koen M A Dreijerink
- Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, Amsterdam UMC, Location VU University Medical Center, De Boelelaan 1118, 1081 HZ, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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33
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Leo J, Dondossola E, Basham KJ, Wilson NR, Alhalabi O, Gao J, Kurnit KC, White MG, McQuade JL, Westin SN, Wellberg EA, Frigo DE. Stranger Things: New Roles and Opportunities for Androgen Receptor in Oncology Beyond Prostate Cancer. Endocrinology 2023; 164:bqad071. [PMID: 37154098 PMCID: PMC10413436 DOI: 10.1210/endocr/bqad071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2023] [Revised: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 05/05/2023] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
The androgen receptor (AR) is one of the oldest therapeutic targets in oncology and continues to dominate the treatment landscape for advanced prostate cancer, where nearly all treatment regimens include some form of AR modulation. In this regard, AR remains the central driver of prostate cancer cell biology. Emerging preclinical and clinical data implicate key roles for AR in additional cancer types, thereby expanding the importance of this drug target beyond prostate cancer. In this mini-review, new roles for AR in other cancer types are discussed as well as their potential for treatment with AR-targeted agents. Our understanding of these additional functions for AR in oncology expand this receptor's potential as a therapeutic target and will help guide the development of new treatment approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Javier Leo
- Department of Cancer Systems Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77054, USA
- The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Eleonora Dondossola
- Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and the David H. Koch Center for Applied Research of Genitourinary Cancers, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Kaitlin J Basham
- Department of Oncological Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
| | - Nathaniel R Wilson
- Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Omar Alhalabi
- Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and the David H. Koch Center for Applied Research of Genitourinary Cancers, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Jianjun Gao
- Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and the David H. Koch Center for Applied Research of Genitourinary Cancers, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Katherine C Kurnit
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Section of Gynecologic Oncology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Michael G White
- Department of Surgical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Jennifer L McQuade
- Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Shannon N Westin
- Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Elizabeth A Wellberg
- Department of Pathology, Harold Hamm Diabetes Center, and Stephenson Cancer Center, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA
| | - Daniel E Frigo
- Department of Cancer Systems Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77054, USA
- Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and the David H. Koch Center for Applied Research of Genitourinary Cancers, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA
- Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA
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34
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Pasvolsky O, Saliba RM, Masood A, Mohamedi AH, Tanner MR, Bashir Q, Srour S, Saini N, Ramdial J, Nieto Y, Lee HC, Patel KK, Kebriaei P, Thomas SK, Weber DM, Orlowski RZ, Shpall EJ, Champlin RE, Qazilbash MH. Impact of gender on outcomes of patients with multiple myeloma undergoing autologous Haematopoietic stem cell transplant. Br J Haematol 2023; 201:e37-e41. [PMID: 36916461 DOI: 10.1111/bjh.18753] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2022] [Revised: 03/02/2023] [Accepted: 03/02/2023] [Indexed: 03/15/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Oren Pasvolsky
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.,Institute of Hematology, Davidoff Cancer Center, Rabin Medical Center, Petah-Tikva, Israel.,Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Rima M Saliba
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Adeel Masood
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Ali H Mohamedi
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Mark R Tanner
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Qaiser Bashir
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Samer Srour
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Neeraj Saini
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Jeremy Ramdial
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Yago Nieto
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Hans C Lee
- Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Krina K Patel
- Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Partow Kebriaei
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Sheeba K Thomas
- Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Donna M Weber
- Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Robert Z Orlowski
- Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Elizabeth J Shpall
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Richard E Champlin
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Muzaffar H Qazilbash
- Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
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Pala L, De Pas T, Pagan E, Minucci S, Catania C, Digiacomo N, Cocorocchio E, Laszlo D, Di Muzio A, Barigazzi C, Stucchi E, De Grandi L, Stucchi S, Viale G, Gelber RD, Bagnardi V, Conforti F. Improved outcomes in women with BRAF-mutant melanoma treated with BRAF/MEK-targeted therapy across randomized clinical trials. A systematic review and meta-analysis. Semin Oncol 2023; 50:34-39. [PMID: 36967333 DOI: 10.1053/j.seminoncol.2023.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2022] [Revised: 03/12/2023] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Available evidence suggests that in patients with advanced BRAF V600-mutant melanoma treated with the combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors, gender could be associated with survival outcome. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of all randomized clinical trials (RCTs) testing the combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors, to assess the interaction between treatment effect and patients' gender. We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, and Scopus, for phase II and III RCTs up to January 30, 2022. We included all RCTs that enrolled patients with BRAF V600-mutant advanced cutaneous melanoma and assessed combinations of BRAF and MEK inhibitors versus BRAF inhibitor monotherapy. Our aim was to assess differences if any in treatment efficacy between men and women, measured in terms of the differences in progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) log-hazard ratios (log-HRs). We calculated the pooled PFS- and OS-HRs with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in men and women using a random-effects model and assessed the heterogeneity between the estimates using an interaction test. Five RCTs that enrolled a total of 2,113 patients were included in the analysis. In women, the combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors halved the risk of progression or death as compared with BRAF inhibitor monotherapy with a pooled PFS-HR of 0.50 (95%CI 0.41-0.61). In men, the benefit obtained with BRAF and MEK inhibitors was smaller with a pooled PFS-HR of 0.63 (95%CI 0.54-0.74), P-heterogeneity = .05. A similar trend was observed for OS where the pooled OS-HR was 0.62 (95%CI 0.48-0.80) in women and only 0.78, (95%CI 0.67-0.92) in men, P-heterogeneity = 0.11. These results support meaningful gender-based heterogeneity of response to combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors targeted therapy in patients with advanced BRAF-mutant melanoma, that should be considered in future research to improve treatment effectiveness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Pala
- Medical Oncology Unit, Humanitas Gavazzeni, Bergamo, Italy.
| | - Tommaso De Pas
- Medical Oncology Unit, Humanitas Gavazzeni, Bergamo, Italy
| | - Eleonora Pagan
- Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Saverio Minucci
- Department of Experimental Oncology, European Institute of Oncology IRCCS, Milan, Italy; Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Chiara Catania
- Medical Oncology Unit, Humanitas Gavazzeni, Bergamo, Italy
| | | | | | - Daniele Laszlo
- Medical Oncology Unit, Humanitas Gavazzeni, Bergamo, Italy
| | - Antonio Di Muzio
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Rozzano, Italy
| | - Chiara Barigazzi
- Medical Oncology Unit, Humanitas Gavazzeni, Bergamo, Italy; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Rozzano, Italy
| | - Erika Stucchi
- Medical Oncology Unit, Humanitas Gavazzeni, Bergamo, Italy; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Rozzano, Italy
| | - Laura De Grandi
- Medical Oncology Unit, Humanitas Gavazzeni, Bergamo, Italy; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Rozzano, Italy
| | - Sara Stucchi
- Medical Oncology Unit, Humanitas Gavazzeni, Bergamo, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Viale
- Department of Pathology, European Institute of Oncology & University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Richard D Gelber
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Frontier Science & Technology, Research Foundation, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Vincenzo Bagnardi
- Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Fabio Conforti
- Medical Oncology Unit, Humanitas Gavazzeni, Bergamo, Italy
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36
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Singh N, Khatib J, Chiu CY, Lin J, Patel TS, Liu-Smith F. Tumor Androgen Receptor Protein Level Is Positively Associated with a Better Overall Survival in Melanoma Patients. Genes (Basel) 2023; 14:genes14020345. [PMID: 36833272 PMCID: PMC9957358 DOI: 10.3390/genes14020345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2022] [Revised: 01/19/2023] [Accepted: 01/25/2023] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Androgen receptor (AR) is expressed in numerous tissues and serves important biologic functions in skin, prostate, immune, cardiovascular, and neural systems, alongside sexual development. Several studies have associated AR expression and patient survival in various cancers, yet there are limited studies examining the relationship between AR expression and cutaneous melanoma. This study used genomics and proteomics data from The Cancer Proteome Atlas (TCPA) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), with 470 cutaneous melanoma patient data points. Cox regression analyses evaluated the association between AR protein level with overall survival and revealed that a higher level of AR protein was positively associated with a better overall survival (OS) (p = 0.003). When stratified by sex, the AR association with OS was only significant for both sexes. The multivariate Cox models with justifications of sex, age of diagnosis, stage of disease, and Breslow depth of the tumor confirmed the AR-OS association in all patients. However, the significance of AR was lost when ulceration was included in the model. When stratified by sex, the multivariate Cox models indicated significant role of AR in OS of female patients but not in males. AR-associated genes were identified and enrichment analysis revealed shared and distinct gene network in male and female patients. Furthermore, AR was found significantly associated with OS in RAS mutant subtypes of melanoma but not in BRAF, NF1, or triple-wild type subtypes of melanoma. Our study may provide insight into the well-known female survival advantage in melanoma patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nupur Singh
- College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Jude Khatib
- Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Chi-Yang Chiu
- Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Jianjian Lin
- Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Tejesh Surender Patel
- Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Feng Liu-Smith
- Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
- Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
- Correspondence:
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Montal E, Lumaquin D, Ma Y, Suresh S, White RM. Modeling the effects of genetic- and diet-induced obesity on melanoma progression in zebrafish. Dis Model Mech 2023; 16:285858. [PMID: 36472402 PMCID: PMC9884122 DOI: 10.1242/dmm.049671] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2022] [Accepted: 11/27/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Obesity is a rising concern and associated with an increase in numerous cancers, often in a sex-specific manner. Preclinical models are needed to deconvolute the intersection between obesity, sex and melanoma. Here, we generated a zebrafish system that can be used as a platform for studying these factors. We studied how germline overexpression of Agrp along with a high-fat diet affects melanomas dependent on BRAFV600E and loss of p53. This revealed an increase in tumor incidence and area in male, but not female, obese fish, consistent with the clinical literature. We then determined whether this was further affected by additional somatic mutations in the clinically relevant genes rb1 or ptena/b. We found that the male obesogenic effect on melanoma was present with tumors generated with BRAF;p53;Rb1 but not BRAF;p53;Pten. These data indicate that both germline (Agrp) and somatic (BRAF, Rb1) mutations contribute to obesity-related effects in melanoma. Given the rapid genetic tools available in the zebrafish, this provides a high-throughput system to dissect the interactions of genetics, diet, sex and host factors in obesity-related cancers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily Montal
- Cancer Biology and Genetics Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Dianne Lumaquin
- Cancer Biology and Genetics Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA,Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Yilun Ma
- Cancer Biology and Genetics Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA,Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Shruthy Suresh
- Cancer Biology and Genetics Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Richard M. White
- Cancer Biology and Genetics Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA,Author for correspondence ()
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Smalley KSM. Too Much Fuel on the Fire? Linking Obesity, Metabolism, and Melanoma Outcomes. Clin Cancer Res 2023; 29:5-7. [PMID: 36315002 DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-22-3028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2022] [Revised: 10/23/2022] [Accepted: 10/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Patients with metastatic melanoma who are overweight or obese have improved outcomes when treated with immunotherapies or targeted therapies. A recent study provides the first evidence that the host metabolic state influences the tumor metabolic phenotype, with implications for tumor progression and therapeutic response. See related article by Hahn et al., p. 154.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keiran S M Smalley
- Department of Tumor Biology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida.,Department of Cutaneous Oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida
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Wang X, Cheng Q. Suppression of exosomal hsa_circ_0001005 eliminates the Vemurafenib resistance of melanoma. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 2023:10.1007/s00432-022-04434-y. [PMID: 36598578 DOI: 10.1007/s00432-022-04434-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2022] [Accepted: 10/18/2022] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES More and more evidences show that circular RNAs (circRNAs) can be used as miRNA sponge to regulate the drug resistance of malignancies, including melanoma. However, how exosomal circRNAs participate in the therapeutic resistance of melanoma remains ambiguous. METHODS Vemurafenib-resistant A375 cells were cultured and then the circRNA profile of exosomes from the parental A375 and A375-resistant cells were sequenced. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), exogenous nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) and Western Blot assays were leveraged to confirm the successful collection of exosomes from A375 and A375R cells. Another five published RNA-seq data and microRNA-seq data, and seven miRNA databases were collected to construct a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network. Comprehensive bioinformatic analysis was adopted to identify key molecules related to the drug resistance, including multiscale embedded gene co-expression network analysis (MEGENA). Then, qRT-PCR, cell viability and colony formation were used to estimate the function of hub circRNAs. The role of has_circ_0001005 in vivo was verified via xenograft assay. The Tumor online Prognostic analyses Platform (ToPP) was leveraged to develop the has_circ_0001005-related prognostic models for melanoma patients based on TCGA data. RESULTS Compared with parental cells, hsa_circ_0001005 expression was significantly increased in resistant cells and their exosomes. The elevated level of hsa_circ_0001005 was related to the poor clinical prognosis of melanoma patients. Hsa_circ_0001005 found in melanoma was mainly secreted by drug-resistant cells as exosomes. Exosomal hsa_circ_0001005 activated multiple canonical pathways related to drug resistance through sponging four miRNAs, thus suppressing the drug sensitivity of melanoma. Knocking down hsa_circ_0001005 in vitro, we found that the inhibition of hsa_circ_0001005 could hinder the clone formation of melanoma. Further in vivo animal experiments suggested that suppression of hsa_circ_0001005 can increase the sensitivity to Vemurafenib of melanoma cells. Finally, we also constructed the functional regulatory ceRNA network and prognostic risk models for hsa_circ_0001005, and further survival analysis reveals that the regulatory network and prognostic risk models obviously affected the prognosis of melanoma patients. CONCLUSIONS This study confirmed that the level of hsa_circ_0001005 in exosomes is the key factor affecting drug resistance of melanoma, which provides a new potential therapeutic target for melanoma patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xicheng Wang
- Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Shanghai East Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200120, China
| | - Qiong Cheng
- Department of Dermatology, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200120, China.
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Abstract
Historically, cancer research and therapy have focused on malignant cells and their tumor microenvironment. However, the vascular, lymphatic and nervous systems establish long-range communication between the tumor and the host. This communication is mediated by metabolites generated by the host or the gut microbiota, as well by systemic neuroendocrine, pro-inflammatory and immune circuitries-all of which dictate the trajectory of malignant disease through molecularly defined biological mechanisms. Moreover, aging, co-morbidities and co-medications have a major impact on the development, progression and therapeutic response of patients with cancer. In this Perspective, we advocate for a whole-body 'ecological' exploration of malignant disease. We surmise that accumulating knowledge on the intricate relationship between the host and the tumor will shape rational strategies for systemic, bodywide interventions that will eventually improve tumor control, as well as quality of life, in patients with cancer.
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41
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Ha S, Luo G, Xiang H. A Comprehensive Overview of Small-Molecule Androgen Receptor Degraders: Recent Progress and Future Perspectives. J Med Chem 2022; 65:16128-16154. [PMID: 36459083 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.2c01487] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
Prostate cancer (PC), the second most prevalent malignancy in men worldwide, has been proven to depend on the aberrant activation of androgen receptor (AR) signaling. Long-term androgen deprivation for the treatment of PC inevitably leads to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) in which AR remains a crucial oncogenic driver. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop new strategies to address this unmet medical need. Targeting AR for degradation has recently been in a vigorous development stage, and accumulating clinical studies have highlighted the benefits of AR degraders in CRPC patients. Herein, we provide a comprehensive summary of small-molecule AR degraders with diverse mechanisms of action including proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs), selective AR degraders (SARDs), hydrophobic tags (HyT), and other AR degraders with distinct mechanisms. Accordingly, their structure-activity relationships, biomedical applications, and therapeutic values are also dissected to provide insights into the future development of promising AR degradation-based therapeutics for CRPC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Si Ha
- State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines and Department of Medicinal Chemistry, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 211198, P. R. China
| | - Guoshun Luo
- State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines and Department of Medicinal Chemistry, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 211198, P. R. China
| | - Hua Xiang
- State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines and Department of Medicinal Chemistry, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 211198, P. R. China
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Hardaway AL, Goudarzi M, Berk M, Chung YM, Zhang R, Li J, Klein E, Sharifi N. 5-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic Acid Controls Androgen Reduction in Diverse Types of Human Epithelial Cells. Endocrinology 2022; 164:bqac191. [PMID: 36412122 PMCID: PMC9923800 DOI: 10.1210/endocr/bqac191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2022] [Revised: 11/14/2022] [Accepted: 11/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Androgens regulate broad physiologic and pathologic processes, including external genitalia development, prostate cancer progression, and anti-inflammatory effects in both cancer and asthma. In prostate cancer, several lines of evidence have implicated dietary and endogenous fatty acids in cell invasion, angiogenesis, and treatment resistance. However, the role of fatty acids in steroidogenesis and the mechanisms by which alterations in this pathway occur are not well understood. Here, we show that, of a panel of fatty acids tested, arachidonic acid and its specific metabolite 5-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (5-HETE) regulate androgen metabolism. Arachidonic acid is metabolized to 5-HETE and reduces androgens by inducing aldo-keto reductase (AKR) family members AKR1C2 and AKR1C3 expression in human prostate, breast, and lung epithelial cells. Finally, we provide evidence that these effects require the expression of the antioxidant response sensor, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). Our findings identify an interconnection between conventional fatty acid metabolism and steroid metabolism that has broad relevance to androgen physiology and inflammatory regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aimalie L Hardaway
- Genitourinary Malignancies Research Center, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
| | - Maryam Goudarzi
- Proteomics and Metabolomics Core, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
| | - Michael Berk
- Genitourinary Malignancies Research Center, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
| | - Yoon-Mi Chung
- Genitourinary Malignancies Research Center, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
| | - Renliang Zhang
- Proteomics and Metabolomics Core, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
| | - Jianneng Li
- Genitourinary Malignancies Research Center, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
| | - Eric Klein
- Department of Urology, Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
| | - Nima Sharifi
- Genitourinary Malignancies Research Center, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
- Department of Urology, Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
- Department of Hematology and Oncology, Taussig Cancer Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
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Ma J, Yao Y, Tian Y, Chen K, Liu B. Advances in sex disparities for cancer immunotherapy: unveiling the dilemma of Yin and Yang. Biol Sex Differ 2022; 13:58. [PMID: 36273184 PMCID: PMC9587634 DOI: 10.1186/s13293-022-00469-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2022] [Accepted: 10/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
A wide sex disparity has been demonstrated in cancer incidence, tumor aggressiveness, prognosis, and treatment response of different types of cancer. The sex specificity of cancer appears to be a relevant issue in managing the disease, and studies investigating the role of sex and gender are becoming extremely urgent. Immunotherapy plays a leading role in cancer treatment, offering a new perspective on advanced malignancies. Gender has not been considered in standard cancer treatment, suggesting increasing the recognition of sex differences in cancer research and clinical management. This paper provides an overview of sex and gender disparities in cancer immunotherapy efficacy, anti-cancer immune response, predictive biomarkers, and so on. We focus on the molecular differences between male and female patients across a broad range of cancer types to arouse the attention and practice of clinicians and researchers in a sex perspective of new cancer treatment strategies. Sex differences exist in the prevalence, tumor invasiveness, treatment responses, and clinical outcomes of pan-cancer, suggesting that, while not yet incorporated, sex will probably be considered in future practice guidelines. Inherent genetic differences, overlapping epigenetic alterations, and sex hormone influences underpin everything. Androgen receptors influence the sexual differences in TME by regulating epigenetic and transcriptional differentiation programs. It highlights a sex-based therapeutic target for cancer immunotherapy. Proper consideration of sex, age, sex hormones/menopause status, and socio-cultural gender differences in clinical investigation and gene association studies of cancer are needed to fill current gaps and implement precision medicine for patients with cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junfu Ma
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Key Laboratory of Molecular Cancer Epidemiology, Tianjin, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300060, China
| | - Yanxin Yao
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Key Laboratory of Molecular Cancer Epidemiology, Tianjin, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300060, China
| | - Ye Tian
- Department of Senior Ward, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Key Laboratory of Molecular Cancer Epidemiology of Tianjin, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin, People's Republic of China
| | - Kexin Chen
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Key Laboratory of Molecular Cancer Epidemiology, Tianjin, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300060, China
| | - Ben Liu
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Key Laboratory of Molecular Cancer Epidemiology, Tianjin, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300060, China.
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Human Melanoma Cells Differentially Express RNASEL/RNase-L and miR-146a-5p under Sex Hormonal Stimulation. Curr Issues Mol Biol 2022; 44:4790-4802. [PMID: 36286041 PMCID: PMC9601115 DOI: 10.3390/cimb44100326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Revised: 09/28/2022] [Accepted: 10/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Polymorphisms in the ribonuclease L (RNASEL) coding gene and hsa-miR-146a-5p (miR-146a) have been associated with melanoma in a sex-specific manner. We hypothesized that RNASEL and miR-146a expression could be influenced by sex hormones playing a role in the female advantages observed in melanoma incidence and survival. Thus, we explored the effects of testosterone and 17β-estradiol on RNASEL and miR-146a expression in LM-20 and A375 melanoma cell lines. Direct targeting of miR-146a to the 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR) of RNASEL was examined using a luciferase reporter system. Our results indicate that RNASEL is a direct target of miR-146a in both melanoma cell lines. Trough qPCR and western blot analyses, we explored the effect of miR-146a mimic transfection in the presence of each hormone either on RNASEL mRNA level or on protein expression of RNase-L, the enzyme codified by RNASEL gene. In the presence of testosterone or 17β-estradiol, miR-146a overexpression did not influence RNASEL transcript level in LM-20 cell line, but it slightly induced RNASEL mRNA level in A375 cells. Remarkably, miR-146a overexpression was able to repress the protein level of RNase-L in both LM-20 and A375 cells in the presence of each hormone, as well as to elicit high expression levels of the activated form of the extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK)1/2, hence confirming the pro-tumorigenic role of miR-146a overexpression in melanoma. Thereafter, we assessed if the administration of each hormone could affect the endogenous expression of RNASEL and miR-146a genes in LM-20 and A375 cell lines. Testosterone exerted no significant effect on RNASEL gene expression in both cell lines, while 17β-estradiol enhanced RNASEL transcript level at least in LM-20 melanoma cells. Conversely, miR-146a transcript augmented only in the presence of testosterone in either melanoma cell line. Importantly, each hormone acted quite the opposite regarding the RNase-L protein expression, i.e., testosterone significantly decreased RNase-L expression, whereas 17β-estradiol increased it. Overall, the data show that, in melanoma cells treated with 17β-estradiol, RNase-L expression increased likely by transcriptional induction of its gene. Testosterone, instead, decreased RNase-L expression in melanoma cell lines with a post-transcriptional mechanism in which miR-146a could play a role. In conclusion, the pro-tumor activity of androgen hormone in melanoma cells could be exacerbated by both miR-146a increase and RNase-L downregulation. These events may contribute to the worse outcome in male melanoma patients.
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Liu X, Xu X, Wu Z, Shan Q, Wang Z, Wu Z, Ding X, Huang W, Wang Z. Integrated single-cell RNA-seq analysis identifies immune heterogeneity associated with KRAS/TP53 mutation status and tumor-sideness in colorectal cancers. Front Immunol 2022; 13:961350. [PMID: 36172359 PMCID: PMC9510840 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.961350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BackgroundThe main objective of this study was to analyze the effects of KRAS/TP53 mutation status and tumor sideness on the immune microenvironment of colorectal cancer using integrated scRNA-seq data.MethodsA total of 78 scRNA-seq datasets, comprising 42 treatment-naive colorectal tumors, 13 tumor adjacent tissues and 23 normal mucosa tissues were included. Standardized Seurat procedures were applied to identify cellular components with canonical cell marks. The batch-effect was assessed and corrected using harmony algorithm. The scMetabolism algorithm was used for single-cell metabolic analysis. The results and clinical significance were further validated using immunofluorescent-staining and TCGA-COAD datasets. Immune-infiltration scores of bulk-RNA-seq data were estimated using ssGSEA. The presto-wilcoxauc algorithm was used to identify differentially enriched genes or pathways across different subgroups. Two-sided p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsWe refined the landscape of functional immune cell subtypes, especially T cells and myeloid cells, across normal mucosa, tumor adjacent and tumor tissue. The existence and function of two states of exhausted CD8+ T (Tex) subtypes in colorectal cancer, and FOLR2+ LYVE1+ macrophages indicating unfavorable prognosis in colorectal cancer were identified and validated. The diverse tumor mutation status reshaped the immune cell function and immune checkpoint ligands/receptors (ICLs/ICRs) expression pattern. Importantly, the KRAS/TP53 dual mutations significantly reduced the major energy metabolic functions in immune cells, and promoted the cell-to-cell communications towards immunosuppression in colorectal cancers. The results revealed LAG3, CD24-SIGLEC10 and HBEGF-CD9 pathways as potential therapeutic targets for dual mutant colorectal cancers.ConclusionsWe revealed that the immune microenvironment underwent a gradual remodeling with an enrichment of immunosuppressive myeloid cells from normal mucosa to tumor regions in colorectal cancers. Moreover, we revealed the metabolic heterogeneity of tumor-infiltrating immune cells and suggested that the KRAS/TP53 dual mutation may impair antitumor immunity by reducing T and myeloid cell energy metabolism and reshaping cellular interactions toward immunosuppression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoyu Liu
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Xu Xu
- Department of Pediatrics, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Zhuozhuo Wu
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Qungang Shan
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Ziyin Wang
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Zhiyuan Wu
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiaoyi Ding
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Wei Huang
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- *Correspondence: Zhongmin Wang, ; Wei Huang,
| | - Zhongmin Wang
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital Luwan Branch, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- *Correspondence: Zhongmin Wang, ; Wei Huang,
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Hussain T, Kallies A, Vasanthakumar A. Sex-bias in CD8 + T-cell stemness and exhaustion in cancer. Clin Transl Immunology 2022; 11:e1414. [PMID: 36051310 PMCID: PMC9418121 DOI: 10.1002/cti2.1414] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2022] [Revised: 08/11/2022] [Accepted: 08/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
This commentary article highlights two recently published studies, which for the first time revealed the immunological underpinnings of sex-bias in cancer incidence and mortality. These studies showed that the androgen receptor restrains anti-tumour immunity in males by repressing cytotoxic genes in CD8+ T cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tabinda Hussain
- Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute Heidelberg VIC Australia.,La Trobe University Bundoora VIC Australia
| | - Axel Kallies
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology University of Melbourne Melbourne VIC Australia.,Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity Melbourne VIC Australia
| | - Ajithkumar Vasanthakumar
- Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute Heidelberg VIC Australia.,La Trobe University Bundoora VIC Australia.,Department of Microbiology and Immunology University of Melbourne Melbourne VIC Australia
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47
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Willson J. AR blockers augment melanoma treatment. Nat Rev Cancer 2022; 22:494-495. [PMID: 35859031 DOI: 10.1038/s41568-022-00499-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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48
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Pala L, De Pas T, Catania C, Giaccone G, Mantovani A, Minucci S, Viale G, Gelber RD, Conforti F. Sex and cancer immunotherapy: Current understanding and challenges. Cancer Cell 2022; 40:695-700. [PMID: 35750053 DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2022.06.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Recent evidence highlights patients' sex relevance in antitumor immune response through a complex interaction-among hormones, genes, behaviors, and the microbiome-that affects both innate and adaptive immune functions, as well as immune evasion mechanisms. These complex interactions ultimately influence the efficacy and toxicity of immune checkpoint inhibitors in solid tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Pala
- Division of Melanoma, Sarcomas and Rare Tumors, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy
| | - Tommaso De Pas
- Division of Melanoma, Sarcomas and Rare Tumors, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy
| | - Chiara Catania
- Division of Thoracic Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | | | - Alberto Mantovani
- Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, IRCCS, Rozzano, Italy; Humanitas University, Pieve Emanuele, Italy; William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University, London, UK
| | - Saverio Minucci
- Department of Experimental Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Milan, Italy; Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Viale
- Department of Pathology, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy; University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Richard D Gelber
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Frontier Science Foundation, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Fabio Conforti
- Division of Melanoma, Sarcomas and Rare Tumors, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy.
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49
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Else H. 'Ignored and not appreciated': Women's research contributions often go unrecognized. Nature 2022:10.1038/d41586-022-01725-9. [PMID: 35732720 DOI: 10.1038/d41586-022-01725-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
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