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Mehus AA, Jones M, Trahan M, Kinnunen K, Berwald K, Lindner B, Al-Marsoummi S, Zhou XD, Garrett SH, Sens DA, Sens MA, Somji S. Pevonedistat Inhibits SOX2 Expression and Sphere Formation but Also Drives the Induction of Terminal Differentiation Markers and Apoptosis within Arsenite-Transformed Urothelial Cells. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:9149. [PMID: 37298099 PMCID: PMC10252886 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24119149] [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: 05/05/2023] [Revised: 05/18/2023] [Accepted: 05/19/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Urothelial cancer (UC) is a common malignancy and its development is associated with arsenic exposure. Around 25% of diagnosed UC cases are muscle invasive (MIUC) and are frequently associated with squamous differentiation. These patients commonly develop cisplatin (CIS) resistance and have poor prognosis. SOX2 expression is correlated to reduced overall and disease-free survival in UC. SOX2 drives malignant stemness and proliferation in UC cells and is associated with development of CIS resistance. Using quantitative proteomics, we identified that SOX2 was overexpressed in three arsenite (As3+)-transformed UROtsa cell lines. We hypothesized that inhibition of SOX2 would reduce stemness and increase sensitivity to CIS in the As3+-transformed cells. Pevonedistat (PVD) is a neddylation inhibitor and is a potent inhibitor of SOX2. We treated non-transformed parent and As3+-transformed cells with PVD, CIS, or in combination and monitored cell growth, sphere forming abilities, apoptosis, and gene/protein expression. PVD treatment alone caused morphological changes, reduced cell growth, attenuated sphere formation, induced apoptosis, and elevated the expression of terminal differentiation markers. However, the combined treatment of PVD with CIS significantly elevated the expression of terminal differentiation markers and eventually led to more cell death than either solo treatment. Aside from a reduced proliferation rate, these effects were not seen in the parent. Further research is needed to explore the potential use of PVD with CIS as a differentiation therapy or alternative treatment for MIUC tumors that may have become resistant to CIS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron A. Mehus
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202, USA; (M.J.); (M.T.); (K.K.); (K.B.); (B.L.); (S.A.-M.); (X.D.Z.); (S.H.G.); (D.A.S.); (M.A.S.); (S.S.)
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2
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Mehus AA, Bergum N, Knutson P, Shrestha S, Zhou XD, Garrett SH, Sens DA, Sens MA, Somji S. Activation of PPARγ and inhibition of cell proliferation reduces key proteins associated with the basal subtype of bladder cancer in As3+-transformed UROtsa cells. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0237976. [PMID: 32822399 PMCID: PMC7444546 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237976] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2020] [Accepted: 07/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Environmental exposure to arsenite (As3+) has a strong association with the development of human urothelial cancer (UC) and is the 5th most common cancer in men and the 12th most common cancer in women. Muscle invasive urothelial cancer (MIUC) are grouped into basal or luminal molecular subtypes based on their gene expression profile. The basal subtype is more aggressive and can be associated with squamous differentiation, characterized by high expression of keratins (KRT1, 5, 6, 14, and 16) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) within the tumors. The luminal subtype is less aggressive and is predominately characterized by elevated gene expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor- gamma (PPARγ) and forkhead box protein A1 (FOXA1). We have previously shown that As3+-transformed urothelial cells (As-T) exhibit a basal subtype of UC expressing genes associated with squamous differentiation. We hypothesized that the molecular subtype of the As-T cells could be altered by inducing the expression of PPARγ and/or inhibiting the proliferation of the cells. Non-transformed and As-T cells were treated with Troglitazone (TG, PPARG agonist, 10 μM), PD153035 (PD, an EGFR inhibitor, 1 μM) or a combination of TG and PD for 3 days. The results obtained demonstrate that treatment of the As-T cells with TG upregulated the expression of PPARγ and FOXA1 whereas treatment with PD decreased the expression of some of the basal keratins. However, a combined treatment of TG and PD resulted in a consistent decrease of several proteins associated with the basal subtype of bladder cancers (KRT1, KRT14, KRT16, P63, and TFAP2A). Our data suggests that activation of PPARγ while inhibiting cell proliferation facilitates the regulation of genes involved in maintaining the luminal subtype of UC. In vivo animal studies are needed to address the efficacy of using PPARγ agonists and/or proliferation inhibitors to reduce tumor grade/stage of MIUC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron A. Mehus
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States of America
| | - Nicholas Bergum
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States of America
| | - Peter Knutson
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States of America
| | - Swojani Shrestha
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States of America
| | - Xu Dong Zhou
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States of America
| | - Scott H. Garrett
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States of America
| | - Donald A. Sens
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States of America
| | - Mary Ann Sens
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States of America
| | - Seema Somji
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Hoggarth ZE, Osowski DB, Slusser-Nore A, Shrestha S, Pathak P, Solseng T, Garrett SH, Patel DH, Savage E, Sens DA, Somji S. Enrichment of genes associated with squamous differentiation in cancer initiating cells isolated from urothelial cells transformed by the environmental toxicant arsenite. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 2019; 374:41-52. [PMID: 31047981 DOI: 10.1016/j.taap.2019.04.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2019] [Revised: 03/28/2019] [Accepted: 04/26/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Arsenic is an environmental toxicant with long-term exposure associated with the development of urothelial carcinomas. Our lab has developed an in-vitro model of urothelial carcinoma by exposing the immortal, but non-tumorigenic bladder cell line, the UROtsa, to arsenite (As3+). These transformed cells form tumors in immune-compromised mice, which resemble urothelial carcinomas with components of the tumor exhibiting squamous differentiation. The goal of the present study was to determine the differences in global gene expression patterns between the As3+-transformed UROtsa cells and the urospheres (spheroids containing putative cancer initiating cells) isolated from these cell lines and to determine if the genes involved in the development of squamous differentiation were enriched in the urospheres. The results obtained in this study show an enrichment of genes such as KRT1, KRT5, KRT6A, KRT6B, KRT6C, KRT14 and KRT16 associated with squamous differentiation, a characteristic feature seen in aggressive basal subtypes of urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC) in the urospheres isolated from As3+-transformed UROtsa cells. In addition, there is increased expression of several of the small proline-rich proteins (SPRR) in the urospheres and overexpression of these genes occur in UCC's displaying squamous differentiation. In conclusion, the cancer initiating cells present in the urospheres are enriched with genes associated with squamous differentiation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zachary E Hoggarth
- Department of Pathology, University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 1301 N. Columbia Road, Stop 9037, Grand Forks, ND 58202, United States.
| | - Danyelle B Osowski
- Department of Pathology, University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 1301 N. Columbia Road, Stop 9037, Grand Forks, ND 58202, United States.
| | - Andrea Slusser-Nore
- Department of Pathology, University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 1301 N. Columbia Road, Stop 9037, Grand Forks, ND 58202, United States.
| | - Swojani Shrestha
- Department of Pathology, University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 1301 N. Columbia Road, Stop 9037, Grand Forks, ND 58202, United States.
| | - Prakash Pathak
- Department of Pathology, University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 1301 N. Columbia Road, Stop 9037, Grand Forks, ND 58202, United States.
| | - Theoren Solseng
- Department of Pathology, University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 1301 N. Columbia Road, Stop 9037, Grand Forks, ND 58202, United States.
| | - Scott H Garrett
- Department of Pathology, University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 1301 N. Columbia Road, Stop 9037, Grand Forks, ND 58202, United States.
| | - Divyen H Patel
- Genome Explorations, 1910 Nonconnah Avenue, Suite 120, Memphis, TN 38132, United States.
| | - Evan Savage
- Genome Explorations, 1910 Nonconnah Avenue, Suite 120, Memphis, TN 38132, United States.
| | - Donald A Sens
- Department of Pathology, University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 1301 N. Columbia Road, Stop 9037, Grand Forks, ND 58202, United States.
| | - Seema Somji
- Department of Pathology, University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 1301 N. Columbia Road, Stop 9037, Grand Forks, ND 58202, United States.
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Wu J, Zhang JR, Jiang XQ, Cao XG. Correlation between secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine protein expression and the prognosis of postoperative patients exhibiting esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Mol Med Rep 2017; 16:3401-3406. [PMID: 28713937 DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2017.6959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2016] [Accepted: 04/27/2017] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between the expression level of secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) and the prognosis of postoperative patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The expression level of SPARC was detected in the 89 ESCC tissue cases and 100 healthy esophageal mucosa cases, which served as the controls. Immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription‑polymerase chain reaction (RT‑PCR) were employed to evaluate the SPARC expression in cases with ESCC. RT‑PCR demonstrated that the positive rates of SPARC mRNA expression in ESCC were 71.91% (64/89). The positive rates of normal esophageal mucosa mRNA expression were 15.00% (15/100), which were significantly lower than that in the ESCC tissue samples. The difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). Immunohistochemical staining indicated that the positive expression rate of SPARC protein in the ESCC tissue samples was significantly higher than that in the esophageal mucosa tissue samples (65.17 vs. 8.00%; P<0.001). The expression of SPARC protein was negatively correlated with lymph node metastasis (P<0.05), which was not associated with the pathologic gross morphology, tumor differentiation degree or other clinical features. The survival of patients with ESCC was not associated with the expression level of SPARC protein (P>0.05), but was associated with the tumor location (P<0.05), differentiation (P<0.001) and staging (P<0.05). Thus, SPARC mRNA and protein were highly expressed in ESCC, and negatively correlated with lymph node metastasis, which was not associated with postoperative survival of ESCC patients. Thus, detection of SPARC mRNA and protein expression levels may facilitate early diagnosis and prognosis assessment of ESCC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian Wu
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Yancheng, Yancheng, Jiangsu 224005, P.R. China
| | - Jin-Rong Zhang
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, The People's Hospital of Dafeng, Yancheng, Jiangsu 224100, P.R. China
| | - Xue-Qiu Jiang
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, The People's Hospital of Dafeng, Yancheng, Jiangsu 224100, P.R. China
| | - Xu-Guang Cao
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Yancheng, Yancheng, Jiangsu 224005, P.R. China
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Zhang R, Wang L, Garrett SH, Sens DA, Dunlevy JR, Zhou XD, Somji S. Elevated connexin 43 expression in arsenite-and cadmium-transformed human bladder cancer cells, tumor transplants and selected high grade human bladder cancers. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2016; 68:479-491. [PMID: 27531258 DOI: 10.1016/j.etp.2016.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2016] [Revised: 07/16/2016] [Accepted: 08/10/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Connexin 43 has been shown to play a role in cell migration and invasion; however, its role in bladder cancer is not well defined. Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that the environmental pollutants arsenite and cadmium can cause malignant transformation of the immortalized urothelial cell line UROtsa. These transformed cells can form tumors in immune-compromised mice. The goal of the present study was to determine if connexin 43 is expressed in the normal human bladder, the arsenite and cadmiun-transformed UROtsa cells as well as human urothelial cancer. The results obtained showed that connexin 43 is not expressed in the epithelial cells of the human bladder but is expressed in immortalized cultures of human urothelial cells and the expression is variable in the arsenite and cadmium- transformed urothelial cell lines derived from these immortalized cells. Tumor heterotransplants generated from the transformed cells expressed connexin 43 and the expression was localized to areas of squamous differentiation. Immuno-histochemical analysis of human bladder cancers also showed that the expression of connexin 43 was localized to areas of the tumor that showed early features of squamous differentiation. Treatment of UROtsa cells with various concentrations of arsenite or cadmium did not significantly alter the expression level of connexin 43. In conclusion, our results show that the expression of connexin 43 is localized to the areas of the tumor that show squamous differentiation, which may be an indicator of poor prognosis. This suggests that connexin 43 has the potential to be developed as a biomarker for bladder cancer that may have the ability to invade and metastasize.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruowen Zhang
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota 501N. Columbia Road, Grand Forks, ND 58203, United States.
| | - Liping Wang
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota 501N. Columbia Road, Grand Forks, ND 58203, United States.
| | - Scott H Garrett
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota 501N. Columbia Road, Grand Forks, ND 58203, United States.
| | - Donald A Sens
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota 501N. Columbia Road, Grand Forks, ND 58203, United States.
| | - Jane R Dunlevy
- Department of Basic Sciences, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, 501N. Columbia Road, Grand Forks, ND 58203, United States.
| | - Xu Dong Zhou
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota 501N. Columbia Road, Grand Forks, ND 58203, United States.
| | - Seema Somji
- Department of Pathology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of North Dakota 501N. Columbia Road, Grand Forks, ND 58203, United States.
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