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da Silva AM, Yevdokimova V, Benoit YD. Sam68 is a druggable vulnerability point in cancer stem cells. Cancer Metastasis Rev 2024; 43:441-456. [PMID: 37792222 PMCID: PMC11016129 DOI: 10.1007/s10555-023-10145-8] [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: 07/22/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/05/2023]
Abstract
Sam68 (Src associated in mitosis of 68 kDa) is an RNA-binding and multifunctional protein extensively characterized in numerous cellular functions, such as RNA processing, cell cycle regulation, kinase- and growth factor signaling. Recent investigations highlighted Sam68 as a primary target of a class of reverse-turn peptidomimetic drugs, initially developed as inhibitors of Wnt/β-catenin mediated transcription. Further investigations on such compounds revealed their capacity to selectively eliminate cancer stem cell (CSC) activity upon engaging Sam68. This work highlighted previously unappreciated roles for Sam68 in the maintenance of neoplastic self-renewal and tumor-initiating functions. Here, we discuss the implication of Sam68 in tumorigenesis, where central findings support its contribution to chromatin regulation processes essential to CSCs. We also review advances in CSC-targeting drug discovery aiming to modulate Sam68 cellular distribution and protein-protein interactions. Ultimately, Sam68 constitutes a vulnerability point of CSCs and an attractive therapeutic target to impede neoplastic stemness in human tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda Mendes da Silva
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Veronika Yevdokimova
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Yannick D Benoit
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada.
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada.
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Nooti S, Naylor M, Long T, Groll B, Manu. LucFlow: A method to measure Luciferase reporter expression in single cells. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0292317. [PMID: 37792708 PMCID: PMC10550117 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292317] [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: 06/28/2023] [Accepted: 09/18/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Reporter assays, in which the expression of an inert protein is driven by gene regulatory elements such as promoters and enhancers, are a workhorse for investigating gene regulation. Techniques for measuring reporter gene expression vary from single-cell or single-molecule approaches having low throughput to bulk Luciferase assays that have high throughput. We developed a Luciferase Reporter Assay using Flow-Cytometry (LucFlow), which measures reporter expression in single cells immunostained for Luciferase. We optimized and tested LucFlow with a murine cell line that can be differentiated into neutrophils, into which promoter-reporter and enhancer-promoter-reporter constructs have been integrated in a site-specific manner. The single-cell measurements are comparable to bulk ones but we found that dead cells have no detectable Luciferase protein, so that bulk assays underestimate reporter expression. LucFlow is able to achieve a higher accuracy than bulk methods by excluding dead cells during flow cytometry. Prior to fixation and staining, the samples are spiked with stained cells that can be discriminated during flow cytometry and control for tube-to-tube variation in experimental conditions. Computing fold change relative to control cells allows LucFlow to achieve a high level of precision. LucFlow, therefore, enables the accurate and precise measurement of reporter expression in a high throughput manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sunil Nooti
- Department of Biology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, United States of America
| | - Madison Naylor
- Department of Biology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, United States of America
| | - Trevor Long
- Department of Biology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, United States of America
| | - Brayden Groll
- Department of Biology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, United States of America
| | - Manu
- Department of Biology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, United States of America
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Ling J, Tang Z, Yang W, Li Y, Dong X. Pygo2 activates BRPF1 via Pygo2-H3K4me2/3 interaction to maintain malignant progression in colon cancer. Exp Cell Res 2023; 431:113696. [PMID: 37423512 DOI: 10.1016/j.yexcr.2023.113696] [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: 10/23/2022] [Revised: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 06/23/2023] [Indexed: 07/11/2023]
Abstract
Epigenetic alterations have essential roles during colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) progression. As the coactivator of Wnt/b-catenin signaling, Pygopus 2 (Pygo2) binds H3K4me2/3 and participate in chromatin remodeling in multiple cancers. However, It remains unclear whether the Pygo2-H3K4me2/3 association has significance in COAD. We aimed to elucidate the roles of Pygo2 in COAD. Functionally, Pygo2 inhibition attenuated cell proliferation, self-renewal capacities in vitro. Pygo2 overexpression enhanced in vivo tumor growth. Besides, Pygo2 overexpression could also enhance cell migration ability and in vivo distal metastasis. Mechanistically, Pygo2 correlates positively with BRPF1 expressions, one epigenetic reader of histone acetylation. The luciferase reporter assay and Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-qPCR assay were used to find that Pygo2 coordinated with H3K4me2/3 modifications to activate BRPF1 transcriptions via binding to the promoter. Both Pygo2 and BRPF1 expressed highly in tumors and Pygo2 relied on BRPF1 to accelerate COAD progression, including cell proliferation rate, migration abilities, stemness features and in vivo tumor growth. Targeting BPRF1 (GSK5959) is effective to suppress in vitro growth of Pygo2high cell lines, and has mild effect on Pygo2low cells. The subcutaneous tumor model further demonstrated that GSK5959 could effectively suppress the in vivo growth of Pygo2high COAD, but not the Pygo2low subtype. Collectively, our study represented Pygo2/BRPF1 as an epigenetic vulnerability for COAD treatment with predictive significance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jie Ling
- Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, Jiangsu, China; Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225000, Jiangsu, China
| | - Zhijie Tang
- Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225000, Jiangsu, China
| | - Wei Yang
- Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225000, Jiangsu, China
| | - Ye Li
- Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, Jiangsu, China.
| | - Xiaoqiang Dong
- Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, Jiangsu, China.
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Htun MW, Shibata Y, Soe K, Koji T. Nuclear Expression of Pygo2 Correlates with Poorly Differentiated State Involving c-Myc, PCNA and Bcl9 in Myanmar Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Acta Histochem Cytochem 2021; 54:195-206. [PMID: 35023882 PMCID: PMC8727843 DOI: 10.1267/ahc.21-00090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2021] [Accepted: 12/03/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
In Myanmar, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is commonly seen in young adult and associated with poor prognosis, while the molecular mechanisms that characterize HCC in Myanmar are unknown. As co-activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling and c-Myc (Myc) are reported to associate with malignancy of HCC, we immunohistochemically investigated the expression of Pygo2 and Bcl9, the co-activators of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling, Myc and PCNA in 60 cases of Myanmar HCC. Pygo2 expression was confirmed by in situ hybridization. The signal intensity was measured by image analyzer and then statistically analyzed. As a result, the expression of Pygo2 was significantly higher in HCC compared to normal liver tissue and the nuclear signal was the most intense in poorly differentiated HCC. Cytoplasmic Bcl9 was expressed in the normal liver tissue but decreased in HCC with the progression of histopathological grade. Myc was significantly higher in poorly differentiated HCC, whereas PCNA labeling index increased with the progression of histopathological grade. Nuclear Pygo2 showed strong correlation with nuclear Myc (P < 0.01) and PCNA (P < 0.001), and inversely correlated with cytoplasmic Bcl9 (P < 0.01). Our results suggested Wnt/β-catenin and Myc signaling is commonly activated in Myanmar HCC and that the correlative upregulation of nuclear Pygo2 and Myc characterizes the malignant features of HCC in Myanmar.
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Affiliation(s)
- Myo Win Htun
- Department of Histology and Cell Biology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
| | - Yasuaki Shibata
- Department of Histology and Cell Biology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
| | | | - Takehiko Koji
- Office for Research Initiative and Development, Nagasaki University
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Vafaizadeh V, Buechel D, Rubinstein N, Kalathur RKR, Bazzani L, Saxena M, Valenta T, Hausmann G, Cantù C, Basler K, Christofori G. The interactions of Bcl9/Bcl9L with β-catenin and Pygopus promote breast cancer growth, invasion, and metastasis. Oncogene 2021; 40:6195-6209. [PMID: 34545187 PMCID: PMC8553620 DOI: 10.1038/s41388-021-02016-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2021] [Revised: 08/26/2021] [Accepted: 09/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling is an established regulator of cellular state and its critical contributions to tumor initiation, malignant tumor progression and metastasis formation have been demonstrated in various cancer types. Here, we investigated how the binding of β-catenin to the transcriptional coactivators B-cell CLL/lymphoma 9 (Bcl9) and Bcl9-Like (Bcl9L) affected mammary gland carcinogenesis in the MMTV-PyMT transgenic mouse model of metastatic breast cancer. Conditional knockout of both Bcl9 and Bcl9L resulted into tumor cell death. In contrast, disrupting the interaction of Bcl9/Bcl9L with β-catenin, either by deletion of their HD2 domains or by a point mutation in the N-terminal domain of β-catenin (D164A), diminished primary tumor growth and tumor cell proliferation and reduced tumor cell invasion and lung metastasis. In comparison, the disruption of HD1 domain-mediated binding of Bcl9/Bcl9L to Pygopus had only moderate effects. Interestingly, interfering with the β-catenin-Bcl9/Bcl9L-Pygo chain of adapters only partially impaired the transcriptional response of mammary tumor cells to Wnt3a and TGFβ treatments. Together, the results indicate that Bcl9/Bcl9L modulate but are not critically required for canonical Wnt signaling in its contribution to breast cancer growth and malignant progression, a notion consistent with the “just-right” hypothesis of Wnt-driven tumor progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vida Vafaizadeh
- Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
| | - David Buechel
- Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Natalia Rubinstein
- Instituto de Biociencias, Biotecnología y Biología Traslacional, Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Ravi K R Kalathur
- Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.,Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, VIC, Australia
| | - Lorenzo Bazzani
- Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.,Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, Siena, Italy
| | - Meera Saxena
- Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Tomas Valenta
- Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - George Hausmann
- Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Claudio Cantù
- Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.,Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Division of Molecular Medicine and Virology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Konrad Basler
- Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
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Sher G, Salman NA, Khan AQ, Prabhu KS, Raza A, Kulinski M, Dermime S, Haris M, Junejo K, Uddin S. Epigenetic and breast cancer therapy: Promising diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Semin Cancer Biol 2020; 83:152-165. [PMID: 32858230 DOI: 10.1016/j.semcancer.2020.08.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2020] [Revised: 08/17/2020] [Accepted: 08/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
The global burden of breast cancer (BC) is increasing significantly. This trend is caused by several factors such as late diagnosis, limited treatment options for certain BC subtypes, drug resistance which all lead to poor clinical outcomes. Recent research has reported the role of epigenetic alterations in the mechanism of BC pathogenesis and its hallmarks include drug resistance and stemness features. The understanding of these modifications and their significance in the management of BC carcinogenesis is challenging and requires further attention. Nevertheless, it promises to provide novel insight needed for utilizing these alterations as potential diagnostic, prognostic markers, predict treatment efficacy, as well as therapeutic agents. This highlights the importance of continuing research development to further advance the existing knowledge on epigenetics and BC carcinogenesis to overcome the current challenges. Hence, this review aims to shed light and discuss the current state of epigenetics research in the diagnosis and management of BC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gulab Sher
- Translational Research Institute, Academic Health System, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, P.O. Box 3050, Qatar
| | - Nadia Aziz Salman
- Kingston University London, School of Life Science, Pharmacy and Chemistry, SEC Faculty, Kingston, upon Thames, London, KT1 2EE, UK
| | - Abdul Q Khan
- Translational Research Institute, Academic Health System, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, P.O. Box 3050, Qatar
| | - Kirti S Prabhu
- Translational Research Institute, Academic Health System, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, P.O. Box 3050, Qatar
| | - Afsheen Raza
- National Center for Cancer Care and Research, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, P.O. Box 3050, Qatar
| | - Michal Kulinski
- Translational Research Institute, Academic Health System, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, P.O. Box 3050, Qatar
| | - Said Dermime
- National Center for Cancer Care and Research, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, P.O. Box 3050, Qatar
| | - Mohammad Haris
- Functional and Molecular Imaging Laboratory, Sidra Medicine, P.O. Box 26999, Qatar; Laboratory Animal Research Center, Qatar University, Doha, P.O. Box 2713, Qatar
| | - Kulsoom Junejo
- General Surgery Department, Hamad General Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, P.O. Box 3050, Qatar
| | - Shahab Uddin
- Translational Research Institute, Academic Health System, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, P.O. Box 3050, Qatar; Dermatology Institute, Academic Health System, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, P.O. Box 3050, Qatar.
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