The systemic tumor response to RNase A treatment affects the expression of genes involved in maintaining cell malignancy

Recently, pancreatic RNase A was shown to inhibit tumor and metastasis growth that accompanied by global alteration of miRNA profiles in the blood and tumor tissue (Mironova et al., 2013). Here, we performed a whole transcriptome analysis of murine Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) after treatment of tumor-bearing mice with RNase A. We identified 966 differentially expressed transcripts in LLC tumors, of which 322 were upregulated and 644 were downregulated after RNase A treatment. Many of these genes are involved in signaling pathways that regulate energy metabolism, cell-growth promoting and transforming activity, modulation of the cancer microenvironment and extracellular matrix components, and cellular proliferation and differentiation. Following RNase A treatment, we detected an upregulation of carbohydrate metabolism, inositol phosphate cascade and oxidative phosphorylation, re-arrangement of cell adhesion, cell cycle control, apoptosis, and transcription. Whereas cancer-related signaling pathways (e.g., TGF-beta, JAK/STAT, and Wnt) were downregulated following RNase A treatment, as in the case of the PI3K/AKT pathway, which is involved in the progression of non-small lung cancer. RNase A therapy resulted in the downregulation of genes that inhibit the biogenesis of some miRNAs, particularly the let-7 miRNA family.

Taken together, our data suggest that the antitumor activity and decreased invasion potential of tumor cells caused by RNase A are associated with enhanced energy cascade functioning, rearrangement of cancer-related events regulating cell growth and dissemination, and attenuation of signaling pathways having tumor-promoting activity. Thus, RNase A can be proposed as a potential component of anticancer therapy with multiple modes of action.