Inhibition of macrophage migration inhibitory factor or its receptor (CD74) attenuates growth and invasion of DU-145 prostate cancer cells

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), a proinflammatory cytokine, is overexpressed in prostate cancer, but the mechanism by which MIF exerts effects on tumor cells remains undetermined. MIF interacts with its identified membrane receptor, CD74, in association with CD44, resulting in ERK 1/2 activation. Therefore, we hypothesized that increased expression or surface localization of CD74 and MIF overexpression by prostate cancer cells regulated tumor cell viability. Prostate cancer cell lines (LNCaP and DU-145) had increased MIF gene expression and protein levels compared with normal human prostate or benign prostate epithelial cells (p < 0.01). Although MIF, CD74, and CD44 variant 9 expression were increased in both androgen-dependent (LNCaP) and androgen-independent (DU-145) prostate cancer cells, cell surface of CD74 was only detected in androgen-independent (DU-145) prostate cancer cells. Therefore, treatments aimed at blocking CD74 and/or MIF (e.g., inhibition of MIF or CD74 expression by RNA interference or treatment with anti-MIF- or anti-CD74- neutralizing Abs or MIF-specific inhibitor, ISO-1) were only effective in androgen-independent prostate cancer cells (DU-145), resulting in decreased cell proliferation, MIF protein secretion, and invasion. In DU-145 xenografts, ISO-1 significantly decreased tumor volume and tumor angiogenesis. Our results showed greater cell surface CD74 in DU-145 prostate cancer cells that bind to MIF and, thus, mediate MIF-activated signal transduction. DU-145 prostate cancer cell growth and invasion required MIF activated signal transduction pathways that were not necessary for growth or viability of androgen-dependent prostate cells. Thus, blocking MIF either at the ligand (MIF) or receptor (CD74) may provide new, targeted specific therapies for androgen-independent prostate cancer.     

Genetic polymorphisms and cancer susceptibility of breast cancer in Korean women

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women in Western countries, and its prevalence is also increasing in Asia. The major risk factor for breast cancer can be traced to reproductive events that influence the lifetime levels of hormones. However, a large percentage of breast cancer cases cannot, be explained by these risk factors. The identification of susceptibility factors that predispose individuals to breast cancer (for instance, if they are exposed to particular environmental agents) could possibly give further insight into the etiology of this malignancy and provide targets for the future development of therapeutics. The most interesting candidate genes include those that mediate a range of functions. These include carcinogen metabolism, DNA repair, steroid hormone metabolism, signal transduction, and cell cycle control. we conducted a hospital-based case-control study on South Korea to evaluate the potential modifying role of the genetic pollymprphisms of selected low penetrance gens that are involved carcinogen metabolisms (i.e., CYP1A1, CYP2E1, GSTM1/T1/P1, NAT1/2, etc.), estrogen synthesis and metabolism (i.e., CYP19, CYP17, CYP1B1, COMT, ER-alpha, etc.), DNA repair (i.e., XRCC1/3, ERCC2/4, ATM, AGT, etc.), and signal transduction as well as others (i.e., TGF- beta, IGF-1, TNF- beta, IL-1B, IL-1RN, etc.). We also took into account the potential interaction between these and the known risk factors of breast cancer. The results of selected genes will be presented in this mini-review.     

Molecular Validation of PACE4 as a Target in Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer remains the single most prevalent cancer in men. Standard therapies are still limited and include androgen ablation that initially causes tumor regression. However, tumor cells eventually relapse and develop into a hormone-refractory prostate cancer. One of the current challenges in this disease is to define new therapeutic targets, which have been virtually unchanged in the past 30 years. Recent studies have suggested that the family of enzymes known as the proprotein convertases (PCs) is involved in various types of cancers and their progression. The present study examined PC expression in prostate cancer and validates one PC, namely PACE4, as a target. The evidence includes the observed high expression of PACE4 in all different clinical stages of human prostate tumor tissues. Gene silencing studies targeting PACE4 in the DU145 prostate cancer cell line produced cells (cell line 4-2) with slower proliferation rates, reduced clonogenic activity, and inability to grow as xenografts in nude mice. Gene expression and proteomic profiling of the 4-2 cell line reveals an increased expression of known cancer-related genes (e.g., GJA1, CD44, IGFBP6) that are downregulated in prostate cancer. Similarly, cancer genes whose expression is decreased in the 4-2 cell line were upregulated in prostate cancer (e.g., MUC1, IL6). The direct role of PACE4 in prostate cancer is most likely through the upregulated processing of growth factors or through the aberrant processing of growth factors leading to sustained cancer progression, suggesting that PACE4 holds a central role in prostate cancer.     

Roles of the Raf/MEK/ERK pathway in cell growth, malignant transformation and drug resistance

Growth factors and mitogens use the Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK signaling cascade to transmit signals from their receptors to regulate gene expression and prevent apoptosis. Some components of these pathways are mutated or aberrantly expressed in human cancer (e.g., Ras, B-Raf). Mutations also occur at genes encoding upstream receptors (e.g., EGFR and Flt-3) and chimeric chromosomal translocations (e.g., BCR-ABL) which transmit their signals through these cascades. Even in the absence of obvious genetic mutations, this pathway has been reported to be activated in over 50% of acute myelogenous leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia and is also frequently activated in other cancer types (e.g., breast and prostate cancers). Importantly, this increased expression is associated with a poor prognosis. The Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK and Ras/PI3K/PTEN/Akt pathways interact with each other to regulate growth and in some cases tumorigenesis. For example, in some cells, PTEN mutation may contribute to suppression of the Raf/MEK/ERK cascade due to the ability of activated Akt to phosphorylate and inactivate different Rafs. Although both of these pathways are commonly thought to have anti-apoptotic and drug resistance effects on cells, they display different cell lineage specific effects. For example, Raf/MEK/ERK is usually associated with proliferation and drug resistance of hematopoietic cells, while activation of the Raf/MEK/ERK cascade is suppressed in some prostate cancer cell lines which have mutations at PTEN and express high levels of activated Akt. Furthermore the Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK and Ras/PI3K/PTEN/Akt pathways also interact with the p53 pathway. Some of these interactions can result in controlling the activity and subcellular localization of Bim, Bak, Bax, Puma and Noxa. Raf/MEK/ERK may promote cell cycle arrest in prostate cells and this may be regulated by p53 as restoration of wild-type p53 in p53 deficient prostate cancer cells results in their enhanced sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs and increased expression of Raf/MEK/ERK pathway. Thus in advanced prostate cancer, it may be advantageous to induce Raf/MEK/ERK expression to promote cell cycle arrest, while in hematopoietic cancers it may be beneficial to inhibit Raf/MEK/ERK induced proliferation and drug resistance. Thus the Raf/MEK/ERK pathway has different effects on growth, prevention of apoptosis, cell cycle arrest and induction of drug resistance in cells of various lineages which may be due to the presence of functional p53 and PTEN and the expression of lineage specific factors.     

PC-１基因表达增强C4-2B前列腺癌细胞生存

建立稳定表达外源PC-１基因的人前列腺癌骨转移C4-2B细胞模型,初步探讨PC- １基因表达对前列腺癌发展的影响.通过脂质体介导的方法,将融合PC-１基因的真核表达载体pcDNA3.1PC-１稳定转染C4-2B细胞,Western 印迹和RT-PCR技术,分别从蛋白水平和RNA水平确定外源PC-１基因表达. MTT和软琼脂集落形成能力等一系列方法,研究PC-１基因的功能,RT-PCR和实时定量PCR检测前列腺癌发生发展相关基因表达的变化. 结果表明,PC-１基因的高表达能够诱导雄激素受体（AR）调控基因和一系列重要的信号通路成员基因PSA、PSMA、NKX31、Jagged1、EphA3、SGEF和 NOTCH3等表达发生变化. 实验结果初步证明,PC-１基因表达在晚期前列腺癌中,以及在雄激素非依赖的转变中可以发挥作用,PC-１基因表达可调控一些重要信号通路.对PC-１基因功能深入研究将有可能为发现新的前列腺癌的诊断治疗分子靶标提供线索.     

Differential requirements for ras and the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein in the androgen dependence of prostatic adenocarcinoma cells.

Prostate cells are dependent on androgen for proliferation, but during tumor progression prostate cancer cells achieve independence from the androgen requirement. We report that androgen withdrawal fails to inhibit cell cycle progression or influence the expression of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)/cyclins in androgen-independent prostate cancer cells, indicating that these cells signal for cell cycle progression in the absence of androgen. However, phosphorylation of the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein (RB) is still required for G1-S progression in androgen-independent cells, since the expression of constitutively active RB (PSM-RB) or p16ink4a caused cell cycle arrest and mimicked the effects of androgen withdrawal on downstream targets in androgen-dependent LNCaP cells. Since Ras is known to mediate mitogenic signaling to RB, we hypothesized that active V12Ras would induce androgen-independent cell cycle progression in LNCaP cells. Although V12Ras was able to stimulate ERK phosphorylation and induce cyclin D1 expression in the absence of androgen, it was not sufficient to promote androgen-independent cell cycle progression. Similarly, ectopic expression of CDK4/cyclin D1, which stimulated RB phosphorylation in the presence of androgen, was incapable of inactivating RB or driving cell cycle progression in the absence of androgen. We show that androgen regulates both CDK4/cyclin D1 and CDK2 complexes to inactivate RB and initiate cell cycle progression. Together, these data show that androgen independence is achieved via deregulation of the androgen to RB signal, and that this signal can only be partially initiated by the Ras pathway in androgen-dependent cells.     

窖蛋白-1与乳腺癌

 窖蛋白(caveolin)是分子量为21～24 kD的整合膜蛋白,是胞膜窖(caveolae)的标志性结构分子.目前已克隆并鉴定出窖蛋白基因家族的3个成员：窖蛋白-1,窖蛋白-2和窖蛋白-3.其中窖蛋白-1参与细胞内的许多生命活动,如胆固醇的运输,细胞膜的组装,细胞信号传导,细胞周期调控,细胞转化和肿瘤形成.窖蛋白-1还可以与转录因子相互作用,调节相关基因的表达,抑制肿瘤发生.另外,在乳腺癌、前列腺癌、胃癌、肝癌等多种恶性肿瘤中均发现窖蛋白-1的异常;近年来发现,窖蛋白-1与乳腺上皮细胞转化和乳腺癌发生密切相关.本文概括介绍了窖蛋白-1的结构特点、窖蛋白-1介导的信号通路及与乳腺癌发生的关系方面的研究进展.     

长丝萝中的两个抗肿瘤活性成分的分离鉴定及对抑癌基因变化的验证

以长丝萝Dolichousnea longissima中分离得到的体外细胞毒活性较强的两个苯骈呋喃类化合物为实验材料,采用Affymetrix全表达谱基因芯片、GO分类、Pathway分析和实时荧光定量PCR技术对2种化合物处理前后的肝癌细胞株HepG2的差异表达基因进行分析和验证。结果表明,(Z)-2-乙酰基-5,5-二[2-(7-乙酰基-4,6-二羟基-3,5-二甲基苯骈呋喃基)]-4-羟基-2,4-戊二烯-1-醛筛选出明显变化的基因728个,其中上调基因有246个,下调基因有482个。PATHWAY分析与肿瘤相关的信号通路有细胞周期信号通路、内吞作用信号通路、癌细胞中信号通路、前列腺癌信号通路、p53信号通路、结肠直肠癌信号通路。GO分类显示差异基因共参与266个BP分类、68个CC分类和43个MF分类。4-[3-(7-乙酰基-4,6-二羟基-3,5-二甲基-2-氧代-2,3-二氢苯骈呋喃基)]-4-[2-(7-乙酰基-4,6-二羟基-3,5-二甲基苯骈呋喃基)]-3-氧代丁酸乙酯筛选出明显变化的基因112个,其中上调基因有8个,下调基因有104个。PATHWAY分析与肿瘤相关的信号通路有细胞周期信号通路、内吞作用信号通路。GO分类显示差异基因共参与109个BP分类、48个CC分类和15个MF分类。因此,以上两个苯骈呋喃类化合物均主要通过影响细胞周期信号通路和内吞作用信号通路使抑癌基因发生变化。     

Lack of an Additive Effect between the Deletions of Klf5 and Nkx3-1 in Mouse Prostatic Tumorigenesis

Prostate cancer is one of the most common malignancies.The development and progression of prostate cancer are driven by a series of genetic and epigenetic events including gene amplification that activates oncogenes and chromosomal deletion that inactivates tumor suppressor genes.Whereas gene amplification occurs in human prostate cancer,gene deletion is more common,and a large number of chromosomal regions have been identified to have frequent deletion in prostate cancer,suggesting that tumor suppressor inactivation is more common than oncogene activation in prostatic carcinogenesis (Knuutila et al.,1998,1999;Dong,2001).Among the most frequently deleted chromosomal regions in prostate cancer,target genes such as NKX3-1 from 8p21,PTENfrom 10q23 andATBF1 from 16q22 have been identified by different approaches (He et al.,1997;Li et al.,1997;Sun et al.,2005),and deletion of these genes in mouse prostates has been demonstrated to induce and/or promote prostatic carcinogenesis.For example,knockout of Nkx3-1 in mice induces hyperplasia and dysplasia (Bhatia-Gaur et al.,1999;Abdulkadir et al.,2002) and promotes prostatic tumorigenesis (Abate-Shen et al.,2003),while knockout of Pten alone causes prostatic neoplasia (Wang et al.,2003).Therefore,gene deletion plays a causal role in prostatic carcinogenesis (Dong,2001).     

Hsa-miR-125b在人胃癌耐药细胞株中的表达及其靶基因的功能分析

研究表明, Hsa-miR-125b在人胃癌耐氟尿嘧啶细胞株BGC823/Fu中表达下降。为进一步探讨hsa-miR-125b在获得性耐药中所起的作用, 文章应用miRbase、靶基因预测软件、Gene Ontology数据库及KEGG数据库对hsa-miR-125b的序列特征、进化保守性、靶基因及功能以及靶基因所参与的信号通路等进行了深入的生物信息学分析。结果显示：has-miR-125b在多个物种之间具有高度序列保守性; 通过软件预测获得hsa-miR- 125b 靶基因79个, 其分子功能包括转录调节、蛋白质结合和肽酶类活性等(P<0.001), 其所参与的生物学过程主要有细胞周期、细胞增殖、细胞凋亡的正性或负性调控以及细胞因子刺激反应性、药物反应性、DNA损伤反应性等(P<0.001), 调控包括MAPK、Wnt、p53等多条信号转导通路(P<0.01)。上述结果表明hsa-miR-125b可能参与调控多个生物学过程和信号转导通路, 而其中细胞增殖、细胞凋亡、细胞周期等生物学过程以及MAPK、Wnt、p53等信号通路已被证实与肿瘤耐药的发生有关。因此, hsa-miR-125b可能通过调控上述环节中的靶基因来影响肿瘤细胞对药物的敏感性, 从而为hsa-miR-125b在肿瘤耐药中的作用机制提供新的研究线索。     

Interleukin-6 and prostate cancer progression

Prostate cancer, while initially dependent on androgens for proliferation, progresses to an androgen-independent state. Evidence has been accumulating that interleukin-6 (IL-6) may contribute to prostate cancer progression. Serum levels of IL-6 correlate with prostate tumor burden and patient morbidity. The prostate tissue itself appears to be a source of IL-6 and its receptor. Furthermore, experimental data suggest that IL-6 is an autocrine and paracrine growth factor for androgen-independent prostate cancer cell lines. For example, inhibition of IL-6, with anti-IL-6 antibody, sensitizes androgen-independent prostate cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents in vitro. Finally, IL-6 activates a variety of signal transduction cascades, some which stimulate androgen receptor activity, in prostate cancer cells. These data suggest that targeting IL-6 may have multiple benefits in prostate cancer patients.     

植物多酚的防癌抗癌作用

植物多酚是植物中广泛存在的一大类多酚化合物的总称,包括多酚（如单宁）、黄酮、酚酸等。体外实验研究表明植物多酚对多种人癌细胞具有增殖抑制作用,抑制动物体内肿瘤生长。其作用机理与抗氧化、调控细胞周期、诱导肿瘤细胞凋亡和分化、影响血管生成和肿瘤细胞信号传导等有关。对植物多酚的防癌抗癌作用,值得进一步深入研究。