Contextual effect of repression of bone morphogenetic protein activity in prostate cancer

Mimicking Tumor Cell Heterogeneity of Colorectal Cancer in a Patient-derived Organoid-Fibroblast Model

BACKGROUND & AIMS

Patient-derived organoid cancer models are generated from epithelial tumor cells and reflect tumor characteristics. However, they lack the complexity of the tumor microenvironment, which is a key driver of tumorigenesis and therapy response. Here, we developed a colorectal cancer organoid model that incorporates matched epithelial cells and stromal fibroblasts.

METHODS

Primary fibroblasts and tumor cells were isolated from colorectal cancer specimens. Fibroblasts were characterized for their proteome, secretome, and gene expression signatures. Fibroblast/organoid co-cultures were analyzed by immunohistochemistry and compared with their tissue of origin, as well as on gene expression levels compared with standard organoid models. Bioinformatics deconvolution was used to calculate cellular proportions of cell subsets in organoids based on single-cell RNA sequencing data.

RESULTS

Normal primary fibroblasts, isolated from tumor adjacent tissue, and cancer associated fibroblasts retained their molecular characteristics in vitro, including higher motility of cancer associated compared with normal fibroblasts. Importantly, both cancer-associated fibroblasts and normal fibroblasts supported cancer cell proliferation in 3D co-cultures, without the addition of classical niche factors. Organoids grown together with fibroblasts displayed a larger cellular heterogeneity of tumor cells compared with mono-cultures and closely resembled the in vivo tumor morphology. Additionally, we observed a mutual crosstalk between tumor cells and fibroblasts in the co-cultures. This was manifested by considerably deregulated pathways such as cell-cell communication and extracellular matrix remodeling in the organoids. Thrombospondin-1 was identified as a critical factor for fibroblast invasiveness.

CONCLUSION

We developed a physiological tumor/stroma model, which will be vital as a personalized tumor model to study disease mechanisms and therapy response in colorectal cancer.

Signaling pathways in cancer-associated fibroblasts and targeted therapy for cancer

To flourish, cancers greatly depend on their surrounding tumor microenvironment (TME), and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in TME are critical for cancer occurrence and progression because of their versatile roles in extracellular matrix remodeling, maintenance of stemness, blood vessel formation, modulation of tumor metabolism, immune response, and promotion of cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and therapeutic resistance. CAFs are highly heterogeneous stromal cells and their crosstalk with cancer cells is mediated by a complex and intricate signaling network consisting of transforming growth factor-beta, phosphoinositide 3-kinase/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin, mitogen-activated protein kinase, Wnt, Janus kinase/signal transducers and activators of transcription, epidermal growth factor receptor, Hippo, and nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells, etc., signaling pathways. These signals in CAFs exhibit their own special characteristics during the cancer progression and have the potential to be targeted for anticancer therapy. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of these signaling cascades in interactions between cancer cells and CAFs is necessary to fully realize the pivotal roles of CAFs in cancers. Herein, in this review, we will summarize the enormous amounts of findings on the signals mediating crosstalk of CAFs with cancer cells and its related targets or trials. Further, we hypothesize three potential targeting strategies, including, namely, epithelial-mesenchymal common targets, sequential target perturbation, and crosstalk-directed signaling targets, paving the way for CAF-directed or host cell-directed antitumor therapy.

Exosomes Released by Gastric Cancer Cells Induce Transition of Pericytes Into Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts

Background

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are functionally and structurally essential for tumor progression. There are 3 main origins of CAFs: mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), epithelial-to-mesenchymal (EMT) transition cells, and tissue-resident cells. Pericytes retain characteristics of progenitor cells and can differentiate into other cells under normal physiological conditions and into myofibroblasts under pathological conditions. Exosomes play an important role in intercellular communication by transferring membrane components and nucleic acids between different cells. In this study, we evaluated whether cancer cell-derived exosomes are involved in regulating the transition of pericytes to CAFs.

Material/Methods

Exosomes from GES-1 and SGC7901 cells were isolated by serial centrifugation and purified from the supernatant by the 30% sucrose/D₂O cushion method. A transmission electron microscope was used to observe exosome morphologies, and nanoparticle tracking analysis was used to analyze size distribution of exosomes. Western blot analysis, immunofluorescent staining, and qPCR were employed to detect CAFs marker expression and signaling pathways involved in CAFs transition.

Results

Gastric cancer cell-derived exosomes enhanced pericytes proliferation and migration and induced the expression of CAFs marker in pericytes. We then demonstrated that the PI3K/AKT and MEK/ERK pathways were activated by tumor-derived exosomes, and BMP pathway inhibition reverses cancer exosomes-induced CAFs transition.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that gastric cancer cells induce the transition of pericytes to CAFs by exosomes-mediated BMP transfer and PI3K/AKT and MEK/ERK pathway activation, and suggest that pericytes may be an important source of CAFs.

Strategies to avoid treatment-induced lineage crisis in advanced prostate cancer

The increasing potency of therapies that target the androgen receptor (AR) signalling axis has correlated with a rise in the proportion of patients with prostate cancer harbouring an adaptive phenotype, termed treatment-induced lineage crisis. This phenotype is characterized by features that include soft-tissue metastasis and/or resistance to standard anticancer therapies. Potent anticancer treatments might force cancer cells to evolve and develop alternative cell lineages that are resistant to primary therapies, a mechanism similar to the generation of multidrug- resistant microorganisms after continued antibiotic use. Herein, we assess the hypothesis that treatment-adapted phenotypes harbour reduced AR expression and/or activity, and acquire compensatory strategies for cell survival. We highlight the striking similarities between castration-resistant prostate cancer and triple-negative breast cancer, another poorly differentiated endocrine malignancy. Alternative treatment paradigms are needed to avoid therapy-induced resistance. Herein, we present a new clinical trial strategy designed to evaluate the potential of rapid drug cycling as an approach to delay the onset of resistance and treatment-induced lineage crisis in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Identification of Androgen Receptor Splice Variants in the Pten Deficient Murine Prostate Cancer Model

Androgen receptor (AR) variants are associated with resistance to anti androgen therapy both in human prostate cancer cell lines and clinical samples. These observations support the hypothesis that AR isoform accumulation is a consequence of selective therapeutic pressure on the full length AR. The Pten deficient prostate cancer model proceeds with well-defined kinetics including progression to castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). While surgical castration and enzalutamide treatments yield an initial therapeutic response, Pten^-/-epithelia continue to proliferate yielding locally invasive primary tumor pathology. That most epithelium remains AR positive, but ligand independent, suggests the presence of oncogenic AR variants. To address this hypothesis, we have used a panel of recently described Pten^-/- tumor cell lines derived from both from hormone intact (E4, E8) and castrated Pten mutants (cE1, cE2) followed by RACE PCR to identify and characterize three novel truncated, amino terminus containing AR variants (mAR-Va, b, c). Variants appear not only conserved throughout progression but are correlated with nearly complete loss of full length AR (AR-FL) at castrate androgen levels. The overexpression of variants leads to enhanced transcriptional activity of AR while knock down studies show reduced transcriptional output. Collectively, the identification of truncated AR variants in the conditional PTEN deletion model supports a role for maintaining the CRPC phenotype and provides further therapeutic applications of this preclinical model.

MicroRNA binding site polymorphisms as biomarkers in cancer management and research

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of eukaryotic gene expression. They have been implicated in a broad range of biological processes, and miRNA-related genetic alterations probably underlie several human diseases. Single nucleotide polymorphisms of transcripts may modulate the posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression by miRNAs and explain interindividual variability in cancer risk and in chemotherapy response. On the basis of recent association studies published in the literature, the present review mainly summarizes the potential role of miRNAs as molecular biomarkers for disease susceptibility, diagnosis, prognosis, and drug-response prediction in tumors. Many clues suggest a role for polymorphisms within the 3' untranslated regions of KRAS rs61764370, SET8 rs16917496, and MDM4 rs4245739 as SNPs in miRNA binding sites highly promising in the biology of human cancer. However, more studies are needed to better characterize the composite spectrum of genetic determinants for future use of markers in risk prediction and clinical management of diseases, heading toward personalized medicine.