Vimentin,colon cancer progression and resistance to butyrate and other HDACis

Dietary fibre protects against colorectal cancer (CRC) most likely through the activity of its fermentation product, butyrate. Butyrate functions as a histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) that hyperactivates Wnt signalling and induces apoptosis of CRC cells. However, individuals who consume a high‐fibre diet may still develop CRC; therefore, butyrate resistance may develop over time. Furthermore, CRC cells that are resistant to butyrate are cross‐resistant to clinically relevant therapeutic HDACis, suggesting that the development of butyrate resistance in vivo can result in HDACi‐resistant CRCs. Butyrate/HDACi‐resistant CRC cells differ from their butyrate/HDACi‐sensitive counterparts in the expression of many genes, including the gene encoding vimentin (VIM) that is usually expressed in normal mesenchymal cells and is involved in cancer metastasis. Interestingly, vimentin is overexpressed in butyrate/HDACi‐resistant CRC cells although Wnt signalling is suppressed in such cells and that VIM is a Wnt activity‐targeted gene. The expression of vimentin in colonic neoplastic cells could be correlated with the stage of neoplastic progression. For example, comparative analyses of LT97 microadenoma cells and SW620 colon carcinoma cells revealed that although vimentin is not detectable in LT97 cells, it is highly expressed in SW620 cells. Based upon these observations, we propose that the differential expression of vimentin contributes to the phenotypic differences between butyrate‐resistant and butyrate‐sensitive CRC cells, as well as to the differences between early‐stage and metastatic colorectal neoplastic cells. We discuss the hypothesis that vimentin is a key factor integrating epithelial to mesenchymal transition, colonic neoplastic progression and resistance to HDACis.     

组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂作为放射增敏剂抗肿瘤作用机制研究进展

放射治疗是很多类型的恶性实体肿瘤的标准治疗方法之一,但是放射治疗除了存在一些严重的副作用以外很多恶性肿瘤细胞还具有抵抗放射线的功能,这就导致放射线治疗的局限性以及疗效的减弱。组蛋白超乙酰化作用可以使紧缩的核小体变得松弛,调控细胞凋亡及分化相关基因(Bim and Bmf)的表达,诱导细胞凋亡及分化,增强恶性肿瘤细胞对于放射线的敏感性。组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂可以诱导组蛋白超乙酰化,用于恶性肿瘤的治疗,同时组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂作为放射增敏剂有明显的抗肿瘤作用,并减少放射线治疗的剂量级照射时间,明显减轻放射线引起的副作用。组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂很有可能成为肿瘤分子治疗的新靶点。检索近年来的SCI文章,国内外的学者主要是在蛋白质层面阐述组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂作为放射增敏剂抗肿瘤作用机制,本文首次提出组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂增强放射线促进恶性肿瘤细胞凋亡的特定基因(Bim and Bmf)并结合最新的组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂分类进行综述。     

Analysis of the genomic response of human prostate cancer cells to histone deacetylase inhibitors

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have emerged as important targets for cancer treatment. HDAC-inhibitors (HDACis) are well tolerated in patients and have been approved for the treatment of patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). To improve the clinical benefit of HDACis in solid tumors, combination strategies with HDACis could be employed. In this study, we applied Analysis of Functional Annotation (AFA) to provide a comprehensive list of genes and pathways affected upon HDACi-treatment in prostate cancer cells. This approach provides an unbiased and objective approach to high throughput data mining. By performing AFA on gene expression data from prostate cancer cell lines DU-145 (an HDACi-sensitive cell line) and PC3 (a relatively HDACi-resistant cell line) treated with HDACis valproic acid or vorinostat, we identified biological processes that are affected by HDACis and are therefore potential treatment targets for combination therapy. Our analysis revealed that HDAC-inhibition resulted among others in upregulation of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes and deregulation of the mitotic spindle checkpoint by downregulation of genes involved in mitosis. These findings were confirmed by AFA on publicly available data sets from HDACi-treated prostate cancer cells. In total, we analyzed 375 microarrays with HDACi treated and non-treated (control) prostate cancer cells. All results from this extensive analysis are provided as an online research source (available at the journal’s website and at http://luigimarchionni.org/HDACIs.html). By publishing this data, we aim to enhance our understanding of the cellular changes after HDAC-inhibition, and to identify novel potential combination strategies with HDACis for the treatment of prostate cancer patients.     

The Notch ligand Delta-like 1 integrates inputs from TGFbeta/Activin and Wnt pathways

Unlike the well-characterized nuclear function of the Notch intracellular domain, it has been difficult to identify a nuclear role for the ligands of Notch. Here we provide evidence for the nuclear function of the Notch ligand Delta-like 1 in colon cancer (CC) cells exposed to butyrate. We demonstrate that the intracellular domain of Delta-like 1 (Dll1icd) augments the activity of Wnt signaling-dependent reporters and that of the promoter of the connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) gene. Data suggest that Dll1icd upregulates CTGF promoter activity through both direct and indirect mechanisms. The direct mechanism is supported by co-immunoprecipitation of endogenous Smad2/3 proteins and Dll1 and by chromatin immunoprecipitation analyses that revealed the occupancy of Dll1icd on CTGF promoter sequences containing a Smad binding element. The indirect upregulation of CTGF expression by Dll1 is likely due to the ability of Dll1icd to increase Wnt signaling, a pathway that targets CTGF. CTGF expression is induced in butyrate-treated CC cells and results from clonal growth assays support a role for CTGF in the cell growth-suppressive role of butyrate. In conclusion, integration of the Notch, Wnt, and TGFbeta/Activin signaling pathways is in part mediated by the interactions of Dll1 with Smad2/3 and Tcf4.