Essential Role for Activation of the Polycomb Group (PcG) Protein Chromatin Silencing Pathway in Metastatic Prostate Cancer

The Polycomb-group (PcG) gene BMI1 is required for the proliferation and self-renewal of normal and leukemic stem cells. Overexpression of the BMI1 oncogene causes neoplastic transformation of lymphocytes and plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of myeloid leukemia. Another PcG protein, Ezh2, was implicated in metastatic prostate and breast cancers, suggesting that PcG pathway activation is relevant for epithelial malignancies. Whether an oncogenic role of the BMI1 and PcG pathway activation may be extended beyond leukemia and may affect progression of solid tumors as well remains unknown. Here we demonstrate that activation of the BMI1 oncogene-associated PcG pathway plays an essential role in metastatic prostate cancer, thus mechanistically linking the pathogenesis of leukemia, self-renewal of stem cells, and prostate cancer metastasis. To characterize the functional status of the PcG pathway in metastatic prostate cancer, we utilized advanced cell- and whole animal-imaging technologies, gene and protein expression profiling, stable siRNA gene targeting, and tissue microarray (TMA) analysis in relevant experimental and clinical settings. We demonstrate that in multiple experimental models of metastatic prostate cancer both the BMI1 and Ezh2 genes are amplified and gene amplification is associated with increased expression of corresponding mRNAs and proteins. For the first time, we provide images of human prostate carcinoma metastasis precursor cells isolated from the circulation which overexpress both the BMI1 and Ezh2 oncoproteins. Consistent with the PcG pathway activation hypothesis, increased BMI1 and Ezh2 expression in metastatic cancer cells is associated with elevated levels of H2AubiK119 and H3metK27 histones. Quantitative immunofluorescence colocalization analysis and expression profiling experiments documented increased the BMI1 and Ezh2 expression in clinical prostate carcinoma samples and demonstrated that high levels of BMI1 and Ezh2 expression are associated with markedly increased likelihood of therapy failure and disease relapse after radical prostatectomy. Gene-silencing analysis reveals that activation of the PcG pathway is mechanistically linked with highly malignant behavior of human prostate carcinoma cells and is essential for in vivo growth and metastasis of human prostate cancer. We conclude that the results of experimental and clinical analyses indicate important biological role of PcG pathway activation in metastatic prostate cancer. Our work suggests that the PcG pathway activation is a common oncogenic event in pathogenesis of metastatic solid tumors and provides justification for development of small molecule inhibitors of the PcG chromatin silencing pathway as a novel therapeutic modality for treatment of metastatic prostate cancer.     

A Novel Application of Furazolidone: Anti-Leukemic Activity in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common malignant myeloid disorder of progenitor cells in myeloid hematopoiesis and exemplifies a genetically heterogeneous disease. The patients with AML also show a heterogeneous response to therapy. Although all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) has been successfully introduced to treat acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), it is rather ineffective in non-APL AML. In our present study, 1200 off-patent marketed drugs and natural compounds that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were screened for anti-leukemia activity using the retrovirus transduction/transformation assay (RTTA). Furazolidone (FZD) was shown to inhibit bone marrow transformation mediated by several leukemia fusion proteins, including AML1-ETO. Furazolidone has been used in the treatment of certain bacterial and protozoan infections in human and animals for more than sixty years. We investigated the anti-leukemic activity of FZD in a series of AML cells. FZD displayed potent antiproliferative properties at submicromolar concentrations and induced apoptosis in AML cell lines. Importantly, FZD treatment of certain AML cells induced myeloid cell differentiation by morphology and flow cytometry for CD11b expression. Furthermore, FZD treatment resulted in increased stability of tumor suppressor p53 protein in AML cells. Our in vitro results suggest furazolidone as a novel therapeutic strategy in AML patients.     

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha regulates the expression of inducible costimulator receptor ligand on CD34(+) progenitor cells during differentiation into antigen presenting cells

The inducible costimulator receptor (ICOS) is a third member of the CD28 receptor family that regulates T cell activation and function. ICOS binds to a newly identified ligand on antigen presenting cells different from the CD152 ligands CD80 and CD86. We used soluble ICOSIg and a newly developed murine anti-human ICOS ligand (ICOSL) monoclonal antibody to further characterize the ICOSL during ontogeny of antigen presenting cells. In a previous study, we found that ICOSL is expressed on monocytes, dendritic cells, and B cells. To define when ICOSL is first expressed on myeloid antigen presenting cells, we examined ICOSL expression on CD34(+) cells in bone marrow. We found that CD34(bright) cells regardless of their myeloid commitment were ICOSL(-), whereas ICOSL was first expressed when CD34 expression diminished and the myeloid marker CD33 appeared. However, acute myeloid leukemia cells were ICOSL-negative, whereas among B-cell malignancies only some cases of the most mature tumors such as prolymphocytic leukemia and hairy cell leukemia were positive. Next, we investigated purified CD34(+) hematopoietic progenitor cells that did not constitutively express ICOSL but were induced to express ICOSL within 12 h after granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor/tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) stimulation. Interestingly, ICOSL was induced prior to CD80/CD86 induction on CD34(+) cells so that ICOSL was expressed in the absence of CD80/CD86. This suggests that ICOSL is an early differentiation marker along the monocytic/dendritic maturation pathway. Induction of ICOSL was dependent on TNF-alpha and was regulated via NF-kappa B as revealed by use of inhibitors specific for I kappa B alpha phosphorylation such as BAY 11-7082 and BAY 11-7085. The antigen presenting capacity of TNF-alpha stimulated CD34(+) cells was strongly inhibited by ICOSIg fusion proteins or by NF-kappa B inhibition. Thus, TNF-alpha-induced ICOSL expression seemed to be functionally important for the costimulatory capacity of CD34(+) hematopoietic progenitor cells.     

Inhibition of GATE-16 attenuates ATRA-induced neutrophil differentiation of APL cells and interferes with autophagosome formation

Autophagy is an intracellular bulk degradation process involved in cell survival upon stress induction, but also with a newly identified function in myeloid differentiation. The autophagy-related (ATG)8 protein family, including the GABARAP and LC3 subfamilies, is crucial for autophagosome biogenesis. In order to evaluate the significance of the GABARAPs in the pathogenesis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), we compared their expression in primary AML patient samples, CD34⁺ progenitor cells and in granulocytes from healthy donors. GABARAPL1 and GABARAPL2/GATE-16, but not GABARAP, were significantly downregulated in particular AML subtypes compared to normal granulocytes. Moreover, the expression of GABARAPL1 and GATE-16 was significantly induced during ATRA-induced neutrophil differentiation of acute promyelocytic leukemia cells (APL). Lastly, knocking down GABARAPL2/GATE-16 in APL cells attenuatedneutrophil differentiation and decreased autophagic flux. In conclusion, low GABARAPL2/GATE-16 expression is associated with an immature myeloid leukemic phenotype and these proteins are necessary for neutrophil differentiation of APL cells.     

Implication of protein kinase C in the regulation of DNA mismatch repair protein expression and function

The DNA mismatch repair (MMR) proteins are essential for the maintenance of genomic stability of human cells. Compared with hereditary or even sporadic carcinomas, MMR gene mutations are very uncommon in leukemia. However, genetic instability, attested by either loss of heterozygosity or microsatellite instability, has been extensively documented in chronic or acute malignant myeloid disorders. This observation suggests that in leukemia some internal or external signals may interfere with MMR protein expression and/or function. We investigated the effects of protein kinase C (PKC) stimulation by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) on MMR protein expression and activity in human myeloid leukemia cell lines. First, we show here that unstimulated U937 cells displayed low level of PKC activity as well as MMR protein expression and activity compared with a panel of myeloid cell lines. Second, treatment of U937 cells with TPA significantly increased (3-5-fold) hMSH2 expression and, to a lesser extent, hMSH6 and hPMS2 expression, correlated to a restoration of MMR function. In addition, diacylglycerol, a physiological PKC agonist, induced a significant increase in hMSH2 expression, whereas chelerythrine or calphostin C, two PKC inhibitors, significantly decreased TPA-induced hMSH2 expression. Reciprocally, treatment of HEL and KG1a cells that exhibited a high level of PKC expression, with chelerythrine significantly decreased hMSH2 and hMSH6 expression. Moreover, the alteration of MMR protein expression paralleled the difference in microsatellite instability and cell sensitivity to 6-thioguanine. Our results suggest that PKC could play a role in regulating MMR protein expression and function in some myeloid leukemia cells.     

Contribution of an aged microenvironment to aging-associated myeloproliferative disease

The molecular and cellular mechanisms of the age-associated increase in the incidence of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remain poorly understood. Multiple studies support that the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment has an important influence on leukemia progression. Given that the BM niche itself undergoes extensive functional changes during lifetime, we hypothesized that one mechanism for the age-associated increase in leukemia incidence might be that an aged niche promotes leukemia progression. The most frequent genetic alteration in AML is the t(8;21) translocation, resulting in the expression of the AML1-ETO fusion protein. Expression of the fusion protein in hematopoietic cells results in mice in a myeloproliferative disorder. Testing the role of the age of the niche on leukemia progression, we performed both transplantation and in vitro co-culture experiments. Aged animals transplanted with AML1-ETO positive HSCs presented with a significant increase in the frequency of AML-ETO positive early progenitor cells in BM as well as an increased immature myeloid cell load in blood compared to young recipients. These findings suggest that an aged BM microenvironment allows a relative better expansion of pre-leukemic stem and immature myeloid cells and thus imply that the aged microenvironment plays a role in the elevated incidence of age-associated leukemia.