Targeting the phosphatidylinosital 3-kinase, Akt, and mammalian target of rapamycin pathway in non-small cell lung cancer

Nuclear factor I/B promotes colorectal cancer cell proliferation, epithelial-mesenchymal transition and 5-fluorouracil resistance

Nuclear factor I/B (NFIB) is a widely studied transcription factor that participates in tumor progression; nevertheless, studies on NFIB in colorectal cancer (CRC) are limited. In our study, Western blot and RT‐PCR analyses showed that NFIB was overexpressed in CRC tissues and cell lines, which was consistent with our bioinformatic analysis results. Furthermore, NFIB expression was closely related to the TNM stage of CRC. NFIB promoted cell proliferation and migration and inhibited cell apoptosis in vitro. Meanwhile, we discovered that NFIB accelerated xenograft tumor growth in vivo. In addition, NFIB weakened the sensitivity of CRC cells to 5‐fluorouracil (5‐FU). NFIB induced epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) by upregulating snail expression, which was accompanied by decreased E‐cadherin and Zo‐1 expression and increasedd Vimentin expression. Because the Akt pathway plays an important role in CRC progression, we examined whether there was a correlation between NFIB and the Akt pathway in cell proliferation and migration. Our results showed that NFIB promoted cell proliferation and increased 5‐FU resistance by activating the Akt pathway. In summary, our findings suggested that NFIB induced EMT of CRC cells via upregulating snail expression and promoted cell proliferation and 5‐FU resistance by activating the Akt pathway.

HDAC10 promotes lung cancer proliferation via AKT phosphorylation

Histone deacetylase 10 (HDAC10) is a member of the class II HDACs, and its role in cancer is emerging. In this study, we found that HDAC10 is highly expressed in lung cancer tissues. It resides mainly in the cytoplasm of lung cancer cells but resides in the nucleus of adjacent normal cells. Further examinations revealed that HDAC10 resides in the cytoplasm in multiple lung cancer cell lines, including the A549, H358 and H460 cell lines, but mainly resides in the nucleus of normal lung epithelial 16HBE cells. A leucine-rich motif, R505L506L507C508V509A510L511, was identified as its nuclear localization signal (NLS), and a mutant (Mut-505-511) featuring mutations to A at each of its original R and L positions was found to be nuclear-localization defective. Functional analysis revealed that HDAC10 promoted lung cancer cell growth and that its knockdown induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Mechanistic studies showed that HDAC10 knockdown significantly decreased the phosphorylation of AKT at Ser473 and that AKT expression significantly rescued the cell cycle arrest and apoptosis elicited by HDAC10 knockdown. A co-immunoprecipitation assay suggested that HDAC10 interacts with AKT and that inhibition of HDAC10 activity decreases its interaction with and phosphorylation of AKT. Finally, we confirmed that HDAC10 promoted lung cancer proliferation in a mouse model. Our study demonstrated that HDAC10 localizes and functions in the cytoplasm of lung cancer cells, thereby underscoring its potential role in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.

Targeted agents in non-small cell lung cancer therapy: What is there on the horizon?

Lung cancer is a heterogeneous group of diseases. There has been much research in lung cancer over the past decade which has advanced our ability to treat these patients with a more personalized approach. The scope of this paper is to review the literature and give a broad understanding of the current molecular targets for which we currently have therapies as well as other targets for which we may soon have therapies. Additionally, we will cover some of the issues of resistance with these targeted therapies. The molecular targets we intend to discuss are epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), anaplastic large-cell lymphoma kinase (ALK), KRAS, C-MET/RON, PIK3CA. ROS-1, RET Fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR). Ephrins and their receptors, BRAF, and immunotherapies/vaccines. This manuscript only summarizes the work which has been done to date and in no way is meant to be comprehensive.