β1,4-Galactosyltransferase V regulates self-renewal of glioma-initiating cell

Glioma results from unregulated expansion of a self-renewing glioma-initiating cell population. The regulatory pathways which are essential for sustaining the self-renewal of glioma-initiating cells remain largely unknown. Cell surface N-linked oligosaccharides play functional roles in determining cell fate and are associated with glioma malignancy. Previously, we have reported that β1,4-galactosyltransferase V (β1,4GalT V) effectively galactosylates the GlcNAcβ1→6Man arm of the highly branched N-glycans and positively regulates glioma cell growth. Here, we show that decreasing the expression of β1,4GalT V by RNA interference in glioma cells attenuated the formation of polylactosamine and inhibited the ability of tumor formation in vivo. Down-regulation of β1,4GalT V depleted CD133-positive cells in glioma xenograft, and inhibited the self-renewal capacity and the tumorigenic potential of glioma-initiating cells. These data reveal a critical role of β1,4GalT V in the self-renewal and tumorigenicity of glioma-initiating cells, and indicate that manipulating β1,4GalT V expression may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of malignant glioma.     

Histone methyltransferase G9a and H3K9 dimethylation inhibit the self-renewal of glioma cancer stem cells

Epigenetic modification is crucial to keep the self-renewal and the “stemness” states of stem cells, not letting them to differentiate. The actual roles of Histone 3 Lysine 9 dimethylation (H3K9me2) and its methyltransferase G9a in this process are still unclear, especially in cancer stem cells. In our study, we found an interesting observation that most CD133-positive cells were H3K9me2 negative, both in glioma tissues and in cultured cells, although most cancer cells were detected to be H3K9me2 immunopositive. This implied that the G9a-dependent H3K9me2 was one of the crucial barriers of cancer stem cell self-renewal. To test the hypothesis, we examined the loss-of-function and gain-of-function of G9a. We found that bix01294, the selective inhibitor of G9a, can stimulate the sphere formation rate of glioma cancer stem cells, together with increasing Sox2 and CD133 expressions. The increase of CD133-active stem cells was confirmed by flow cytometry. On the other aspect, overexpression of G9a increased the H3K9me2 and decreased the sphere formation rate as well as the CD133 and Sox2 expressions. Since H3K9me2 modification is the major repressive switch, we predict that the repressive H3K9me2 modification may happen at the CD133 promoter regions. By chromatin precipitation assay, we confirmed that the CD133 and Sox2 promoter regions were modified by the H3K9me2. Therefore, we concluded that the G9a-dependent H3K9me2 repression on CD133 and Sox2 was one of the main switches of the self-renewal in glioma cancer stem cells.     

Control of glioma cell death and differentiation by PKM2–Oct4 interaction

Glioma stem cells are highly resistant to cell death and as such are supposed to contribute to tumor recurrence by eluding anticancer treatments. Here, we show that spheroids that contain rat neural stem cells (NSCs) or rat glioma stem cells (cancer stem cells, CSCs) express isoforms 1 and 2 of pyruvate kinase (PKM1 and PKM2); however, the expression of PKM2 is considerably higher in glioma spheroids. Silencing of PKM2 enhances both apoptosis and differentiation of rat and human glioma spheroids. We establish that PKM2 was implicated in glioma spheroid differentiation through its interaction with Oct4, a major regulator of self-renewal and differentiation in stem cells. The small molecule Dichloroacetate (DCA), a pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase inhibitor, increases the amount of PKM2/Oct4 complexes and thus inhibited Oct4-dependent gene expression. Taken together, our results highlight a new molecular pathway through which PKM2 can manage gliomagenesis via the control of glioma stemness by Oct4.     

The hypoxic microenvironment maintains glioblastoma stem cells and promotes reprogramming towards a cancer stem cell phenotype

Glioblastomas are highly lethal cancers that contain cellular hierarchies with self-renewing cancer stem cells that can propagate tumors in secondary transplant assays. The potential significance of cancer stem cells in cancer biology has been demonstrated by studies showing contributions to therapeutic resistance, angiogenesis, and tumor dispersal. We recently reported that physiologic oxygen levels differentially induce hypoxia inducible factor-2α (HIF2α) levels in cancer stem cells. HIF1α functioned in proliferation and survival of all cancer cells but also was activated in normal neural progenitors suggesting a potentially restricted therapeutic index while HIF2α was essential in only in cancer stem cells and was not expressed by normal neural progenitors demonstrating HIF2α is a cancer stem cell specific target. We now extend these studies to examine the role of hypoxia in regulating tumor cell plasticity. We find that hypoxia promotes the self-renewal capability of the stem and non-stem population as well as promoting a more stem-like phenotype in the non-stem population with increased neurosphere formation as well as upregulation of important stem cell factors, such as OCT4, NANOG, and c-MYC. The importance of HIF2α was further supported as forced expression of non-degradable HIF2α induced a cancer stem cell marker and augmented the tumorigenic potential of the non-stem population. This novel finding may indicate a specific role of HIF2α in promoting glioma tumorigenesis. The unexpected plasticity of the non-stem glioma population and the stem-like phenotype emphasizes the importance of developing therapeutic strategies targeting the microenvironmental influence on the tumor in addition to cancer stem cells.     

Cyclin-dependent Kinase-mediated Sox2 Phosphorylation Enhances the Ability of Sox2 to Establish the Pluripotent State

Sox2 is a key factor in maintaining self-renewal of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and adult stem cells as well as in reprogramming differentiated cells back into pluripotent or multipotent stem cells. Although previous studies have shown that Sox2 is phosphorylated in human ESCs, the biological significance of Sox2 phosphorylation in ESC maintenance and reprogramming has not been well understood. In this study we have identified new phosphorylation sites on Sox2 and have further demonstrated that Cdk2-mediated Sox2 phosphorylation at Ser-39 and Ser-253 is required for establishing the pluripotent state during reprogramming but is dispensable for ESC maintenance. Mass spectrometry analysis of purified Sox2 protein has identified new phosphorylation sites on two tyrosine and six serine/Threonine residues. Cdk2 physically interacts with Sox2 and phosphorylates Sox2 at Ser-39 and Ser-253 in vitro. Surprisingly, Sox2 phosphorylation at Ser-39 and Ser-253 is dispensable for ESC self-renewal and cell cycle progression. In addition, Sox2 phosphorylation enhances its ability to establish the pluripotent state during reprogramming by working with Oct4 and Klf4. Finally, Cdk2 can also modulate the ability of Oct4, Sox2, and Klf4 in reprogramming fibroblasts back into pluripotent stem cells. Therefore, this study has for the first time demonstrated that Sox2 phosphorylation by Cdk2 promotes the establishment but not the maintenance of the pluripotent state. It might also help explain why the inactivation of CDK inhibitors such as p53, p21, and Arf/Ink4 promotes the induction of pluripotent stem cells.     

Mextli Is a Novel Eukaryotic Translation Initiation Factor 4E-Binding Protein That Promotes Translation in Drosophila melanogaster

Translation is a fundamental step in gene expression, and translational control is exerted in many developmental processes. Most eukaryotic mRNAs are translated by a cap-dependent mechanism, which requires recognition of the 5′-cap structure of the mRNA by eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E). eIF4E activity is controlled by eIF4E-binding proteins (4E-BPs), which by competing with eIF4G for eIF4E binding act as translational repressors. Here, we report the discovery of Mextli (Mxt), a novel Drosophila melanogaster 4E-BP that in sharp contrast to other 4E-BPs, has a modular structure, binds RNA, eIF3, and several eIF4Es, and promotes translation. Mxt is expressed at high levels in ovarian germ line stem cells (GSCs) and early-stage cystocytes, as is eIF4E-1, and we demonstrate the two proteins interact in these cells. Phenotypic analysis of mxt mutants indicates a role for Mxt in germ line stem cell (GSC) maintenance and in early embryogenesis. Our results support the idea that Mxt, like eIF4G, coordinates the assembly of translation initiation complexes, rendering Mxt the first example of evolutionary convergence of eIF4G function.     

Tristetraprolin Recruits Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 4E2 To Repress Translation of AU-Rich Element-Containing mRNAs

Tristetraprolin (TTP) regulates the expression of AU-rich element-containing mRNAs through promoting the degradation and repressing the translation of target mRNA. While the mechanism for promoting target mRNA degradation has been extensively studied, the mechanism underlying translational repression is not well established. Here, we show that TTP recruits eukaryotic initiation factor 4E2 (eIF4E2) to repress target mRNA translation. TTP interacted with eIF4E2 but not with eIF4E. Overexpression of eIF4E2 enhanced TTP-mediated translational repression, and downregulation of endogenous eIF4E2 or overexpression of a truncation mutant of eIF4E2 impaired TTP-mediated translational repression. Overexpression of an eIF4E2 mutant that lost the cap-binding activity also impaired TTP''s activity, suggesting that the cap-binding activity of eIF4E2 is important in TTP-mediated translational repression. We further show that TTP promoted eIF4E2 binding to target mRNA. These results imply that TTP recruits eIF4E2 to compete with eIF4E to repress the translation of target mRNA. This notion is supported by the finding that downregulation of endogenous eIF4E2 increased the production of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) protein without affecting the mRNA levels in THP-1 cells. Collectively, these results uncover a novel mechanism by which TTP represses target mRNA translation.     

Neural RNA-binding protein Musashi1 inhibits translation initiation by competing with eIF4G for PABP

Musashi1 (Msi1) is an RNA-binding protein that is highly expressed in neural stem cells. We previously reported that Msi1 contributes to the maintenance of the immature state and self-renewal activity of neural stem cells through translational repression of m-Numb. However, its translation repression mechanism has remained unclear. Here, we identify poly(A) binding protein (PABP) as an Msi1-binding protein, and find Msi1 competes with eIF4G for PABP binding. This competition inhibits translation initiation of Msi1's target mRNA. Indeed, deletion of the PABP-interacting domain in Msi1 abolishes its function. We demonstrate that Msi1 inhibits the assembly of the 80S, but not the 48S, ribosome complex. Consistent with these conclusions, Msi1 colocalizes with PABP and is recruited into stress granules, which contain the stalled preinitiation complex. However, Msi1 with mutations in two RNA recognition motifs fails to accumulate into stress granules. These results provide insight into the mechanism by which sequence-specific translational repression occurs in stem cells through the control of translation initiation.     

PTEN status is related to cell proliferation and self-renewal independent of CD133 phenotype in the glioma-initiating cells

CD133 is extensively used as a surface marker to identify and isolate glioma-initiating cells (GICs) from malignant brain tumors; however, instances of CD133(-) cells exhibiting similar properties have also been reported. To clarify the availability of CD133 as the GIC marker, we first evaluated the ratio of CD133(+) cells and malignancy of glioma spheroids GIC1 and GIC2, respectively. GIC1, which showed a lower percentage of CD133(+) cells, exhibited a highly aggressive behavior in comparison with GIC2. The following experiments demonstrated that tumor suppressor PTEN was lost in GIC1, resulting in the activation of AKT pathway. Overexpression of recombinant PTEN in GIC1 suppressed its proliferation and self-renew without significant effect on CD133 expression level, indicating that the inconsistence between the ratio of CD133(+) cells and proliferation and self-renewal capacity of GIC1 and GIC2 was caused by PTEN deficiency. To further validate our conclusion, a series of GICs were analyzed and the percentages of CD133(+) cells could not reflect the degrees of cell proliferation and self-renewal characteristics in the PTEN deficient GICs, suggesting that the application of CD133 as the GIC maker was restricted by PTEN loss. Furthermore, down-regulation of PTEN in the PTEN-expressing GICs could break the positive correlation between the ratio of CD133(+) cells and proliferation and self-renewal capacity. Our results demonstrated that PTEN status is related to cell proliferation and self-renewal independent of CD133 phenotype in the glioma-initiating cells, resulting in the limitations of CD133 as a biomarker for PTEN deficient GICs.