CSIOVDB: a microarray gene expression database of epithelial ovarian cancer subtype

Proteomic profiling of ovarian clear cell carcinomas identifies prognostic biomarkers for chemotherapy

Clear cell ovarian carcinoma (CCOC) is a relatively rare subtype of ovarian cancer (OC) with high degree of resistance to standard chemotherapy. Little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms, and it remains a challenge to predict its prognosis after chemotherapy. Here, we first analyzed the proteome of 35 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) CCOC tissue specimens from a cohort of 32 patients with CCOC (H1 cohort) and characterized 8697 proteins using data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry (DIA-MS). We then performed proteomic analysis of 28 fresh frozen (FF) CCOC tissue specimens from an independent cohort of 24 patients with CCOC (H2 cohort), leading to the identification of 9409 proteins with DIA-MS. After bioinformatics analysis, we narrowed our focus to 15 proteins significantly correlated with the recurrence free survival (RFS) in both cohorts. These proteins are mainly involved in DNA damage response, extracellular matrix (ECM), and mitochondrial metabolism. Parallel reaction monitoring (PRM)-MS was adopted to validate the prognostic potential of the 15 proteins in the H1 cohort and an independent confirmation cohort (H3 cohort). Interferon-inducible transmembrane protein 1 (IFITM1) was observed as a robust prognostic marker for CCOC in both PRM data and immunohistochemistry (IHC) data. Taken together, this study presents a CCOC proteomic data resource and a single promising protein, IFITM1, which could potentially predict the recurrence and survival of CCOC.

Moesin affects the plasma membrane expression and the immune checkpoint function of CD47 in human ovarian clear cell carcinoma

Among major histological subtypes of epithelial ovarian cancer, a higher incidence of ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC) is observed in East Asian populations, particularly in Japan. Despite recent progress in the immune checkpoint inhibitors for a wide variety of cancer cell types, patients with OCCC exhibit considerably low response rates to these drugs. Hence, urgent efforts are needed to develop a novel immunotherapeutic approach for OCCC. CD47, a transmembrane protein, is overexpressed in almost all cancer cells and disrupts macrophage phagocytic activity in cancer cells. Ezrin-Radixin-Moesin (ERM) family member of proteins serve as scaffold proteins by crosslinking certain transmembrane proteins with the actin cytoskeleton, contributing to their plasma membrane localization. Here, we examined the role of ERM family in the plasma membrane localization and functionality of CD47 in OCCC cell lines derived from Japanese women. Confocal laser scanning microscopy analysis showed colocalization of CD47 with all three ERM in the plasma membrane of OCCC cells. RNA interference-mediated gene silencing of moesin, but not others, decreased the plasma membrane expression and immune checkpoint function of CD47, as determined by flow cytometry and in vitro phagocytosis assay using human macrophage-like cells, respectively. Interestingly, clinical database analysis indicated that moesin expression in OCCC was higher than that in other histological subtypes of ovarian cancers, and the expression of CD47 and moesin increased with the cancer stage. In conclusion, moesin is overexpressed in OCCC and may be the predominant scaffold protein responsible for CD47 plasma membrane localization and function in OCCC.

LLGL2 Inhibits Ovarian Cancer Metastasis by Regulating Cytoskeleton Remodeling via ACTN1

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological malignant tumor. Although debulking surgery, chemotherapy, and PARP inhibitors have greatly improved survival, the prognosis for patients with advanced EOC without HRD is still poor. LLGL2, as a cell polarity factor, is involved in maintaining cell polarity and asymmetric cell division. In the study of zebrafish development, LLGL2 regulated the proliferation and migration of epidermal cells and the formation of cortical F-actin. However, the role of LLGL2 in ovarian cancer has not been described. Our study found, through bioinformatics analysis, that low expression of LLGL2 was significantly associated with a more advanced stage and a higher grade of EOC and a poorer survival of patients. Functional experiments that involved LLGL2 overexpression and knockdown showed that LLGL2 inhibited the migration and invasion abilities of ovarian cancer cells in vitro, without affecting their proliferation. LLGL2-overexpressing mice had fewer metastatic implant foci than the controls in vivo. Mechanistically, immunoprecipitation combined with mass spectrometry analysis suggested that LLGL2 regulated cytoskeletal remodeling by interacting with ACTN1. LLGL2 altered the intracellular localization and function of ACTN1 without changing its protein and mRNA levels. Collectively, we uncovered that LLGL2 impaired actin filament aggregation into bundles by interacting with ACTN1, which led to cytoskeleton remodeling and inhibition of the invasion and metastasis of ovarian cancer cells.

Targeting BRPF3 moderately reverses olaparib resistance in high grade serous ovarian carcinoma

PARP inhibitors (PARPi) kill cancer cells by stalling DNA replication and preventing DNA repair, resulting in a critical accumulation of DNA damage. Resistance to PARPi is a growing clinical problem in the treatment of high grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC). Acetylation of histone H3 lysine 14 (H3K14ac) and associated histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and epigenetic readers have known functions in DNA repair and replication. Our objectives are to examine their expression and activities in the context of PARPi-resistant HGSOC, and to determine if targeting H3K14ac or associated proteins has therapeutic potential. Using mass spectrometry profiling of histone modifications, we observed increased H3K14ac enrichment in PARPi-resistant HGSOC cells relative to isogenic PARPi-sensitive lines. By reverse-transcriptase quantitative PCR and RNA-seq, we also observed altered expression of numerous HATs in PARPi-resistant HGSOC cells and a PARPi-resistant PDX model. Knockdown of HATs only modestly altered PARPi response, although knockdown and inhibition of PCAF significantly increased resistance. Pharmacologic inhibition of HBO1 depleted H3K14ac but did not affect PARPi response. However, knockdown and inhibition of BRPF3, a bromodomain and PHD-finger containing protein that is known to interact in a complex with HBO1, did reduce PARPi resistance. This study demonstrates that depletion of H3K14ac does not affect PARPi response in HGSOC. Our data suggest that the bromodomain function of HAT proteins, such as PCAF, or accessory proteins, such as BRPF3, may play a more direct role compared to direct HATs function in PARPi response.

A small-molecule inhibitor of TopBP1 exerts anti-MYC activity and synergy with PARP inhibitors

We have previously identified TopBP1 (topoisomerase IIβ-binding protein 1) as a promising target for cancer therapy, given its role in the convergence of Rb, PI(3)K/Akt, and p53 pathways. Based on this, we conducted a large-scale molecular docking screening to identify a small-molecule inhibitor that specifically targets the BRCT7/8 domains of TopBP1, which we have named 5D4. Our studies show that 5D4 inhibits TopBP1 interactions with E2F1, mutant p53, and Cancerous Inhibitor of Protein Phosphatase 2A. This leads to the activation of E2F1-mediated apoptosis and the inhibition of mutant p53 gain of function. In addition, 5D4 disrupts the interaction of TopBP1 with MIZ1, which in turn allows MIZ1 to bind to its target gene promoters and repress MYC activity. Moreover, 5D4 inhibits the association of the TopBP1-PLK1 complex and prevents the formation of Rad51 foci. When combined with inhibitors of PARP1/2 or PARP14, 5D4 synergizes to effectively block cancer cell proliferation. Our animal studies have demonstrated the antitumor activity of 5D4 in breast and ovarian cancer xenograft models. Moreover, the effectiveness of 5D4 is further enhanced when combined with a PARP1/2 inhibitor talazoparib. Taken together, our findings strongly support the potential use of TopBP1-BRCT7/8 inhibitors as a targeted cancer therapy.

DNA2 Nuclease Inhibition Confers Synthetic Lethality in Cancers with Mutant p53 and Synergizes with PARP Inhibitors

The tumor suppressor p53 promotes tumor-suppressive activities including cell-cycle inhibition, apoptosis, senescence, autophagy, and DNA repair. However, somatic mutations in the TP53 gene are one of the most common alterations in human cancers. We previously showed that mutant p53 (mutp53) can bind TopBP1, an ATR activator, to attenuate its ATR-activating function. A partially defective ATR function caused by mutp53 makes cancer cells more vulnerable to inhibitors of other TopBP1-independent ATR activators, such as DNA2. DNA2 plays a role in homologous recombination (HR) repair by resecting DNA ends in double-strand breaks and preparing them for invasion of homologous duplex. Here we identify a new DNA2 inhibitor, namely d16, and show that d16 exhibits anticancer activities and overcomes chemotherapy resistance in mutp53-bearing cancers. Similar to DNA2 depletion, d16 treatment results in cell-cycle arrest mainly at S-phase. Moreover, reexpression of mutp53 in a p53-null cancer cell line makes cells more vulnerable to d16-mediated inhibition of ATR activity. As d16 also inhibits HR, a combination of d16 and PARP inhibitors displays synergistic induction of cell death. DNA2 is often overexpressed in cancer, particularly in cancer cells harboring mutp53. Overexpression of DNA2 is associated with poor outcome in ovarian cancer. Overall, our results provide a rationale to target DNA2 as a new synthetic lethality approach in mutp53-bearing cancers, and further extend the benefit of PARP inhibitors beyond BRCA-mutated cancers.

SIGNIFICANCE

This study identifies a new DNA2 inhibitor as a synthetic lethal targeted therapy for mutp53-harboring cancers, and provides a new therapeutic strategy by combining DNA2 inhibitors with PARP inhibitors for these cancers.

Interferon-ε is a tumour suppressor and restricts ovarian cancer

High-grade serous ovarian cancers have low survival rates because of their late presentation with extensive peritoneal metastases and frequent chemoresistance1, and require new treatments guided by novel insights into pathogenesis. Here we describe the intrinsic tumour-suppressive activities of interferon-ε (IFNε). IFNε is constitutively expressed in epithelial cells of the fallopian tube, the cell of origin of high-grade serous ovarian cancers, and is then lost during development of these tumours. We characterize its anti-tumour activity in several preclinical models: ovarian cancer patient-derived xenografts, orthotopic and disseminated syngeneic models, and tumour cell lines with or without mutations in Trp53 and Brca genes. We use manipulation of the IFNε receptor IFNAR1 in different cell compartments, differential exposure status to IFNε and global measures of IFN signalling to show that the mechanism of the anti-tumour activity of IFNε involves direct action on tumour cells and, crucially, activation of anti-tumour immunity. IFNε activated anti-tumour T and natural killer cells and prevented the accumulation and activation of myeloid-derived suppressor cells and regulatory T cells. Thus, we demonstrate that IFNε is an intrinsic tumour suppressor in the female reproductive tract whose activities in models of established and advanced ovarian cancer, distinct from other type I IFNs, are compelling indications of potential new therapeutic approaches for ovarian cancer.

The splicing factor SNRPB promotes ovarian cancer progression through regulating aberrant exon skipping of POLA1 and BRCA2

Splicing factors play a crucial role in the initiation and development of various human cancers. SNRPB, a core spliceosome component, regulates pre-mRNA alternative splicing. However, its function and underlying mechanism in ovarian cancer remain unclear. This study identified SNRPB as a critical driver of ovarian cancer through TCGA and CPTAC database analysis. SNRPB was highly upregulated in fresh frozen ovarian cancer tissues compared with normal fallopian tubes. Immunohistochemistry revealed that SNRPB expression was increased in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded ovarian cancer sections and was positively correlated with a poor prognosis for ovarian cancer. Functionally, SNRPB knockdown suppressed ovarian cancer cell proliferation and invasion, and overexpression exerted opposite effects. SNRPB expression increased after cisplatin treatment, and silencing SNRPB sensitized ovarian cancer cells to cisplatin. KEGG pathway analysis revealed that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were mainly enriched in DNA replication and homologous recombination, and almost all DEGs related to DNA replication and homologous recombination were downregulated after SNRPB knockdown according to RNA-seq. Exon 3 skipping of the DEGs DNA polymerase alpha 1 (POLA1) and BRCA2 was induced by SNRPB silencing. Exon 3 skipping of POLA1 yielded premature termination codons and led to nonsense-mediated RNA decay (NMD); exon 3 skipping of BRCA2 led to loss of the PALB2 binding domain, which is necessary for homologous recombination, and increased ovarian cancer cell cisplatin sensitivity. POLA1 or BRCA2 knockdown partially impaired the increased malignancy of SNRPB-overexpressing ovarian cancer cells. Moreover, miR-654-5p was found to reduce SNRPB mRNA expression by directly binding to the SNRPB 3'-UTR. Overall, SNRPB was identified as an important oncogenic driver that promotes ovarian cancer progression by repressing exon 3 skipping of POLA1 and BRCA2. Thus, SNRPB is a potential treatment target and prognostic marker for ovarian cancer.

Epigenetic status of FBXW7 gene and its role in Ovarian cancer pathogenesis

BACKGROUND

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis revealed that the FBXW7 gene and the long non-coding RNA (LINC01588) are potential candidates in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) pathogenesis. However, their exact role in EOC is not yet known. Thus, the present study sheds light on the impact of the mutations/ methylation status of the FBXW7 gene.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We used public databases to assess the correlation between mutations/ methylation status and the FBXW7 expression. Furthermore, we performed Pearson's correlation analysis between the FBXW7 gene and LINC01588. We performed gene panel exome sequencing and Methylation-specific PCR (MSP) in HOSE 6-3, MCAS, OVSAHO, and eight EOC patients' samples to validate the bioinformatics results.

RESULTS

The FBXW7 gene was less expressed in EOC, particularly in stages III and IV, compared to healthy tissues. Furthermore, bioinformatics analysis, gene panel exome sequencing, and MSP revealed that the FBXW7 gene is neither mutated nor methylated in EOC cell lines and tissues, suggesting alternative mechanisms for FBXW7 gene regulation. Interestingly, Pearson's correlation analysis showed an inverse, significant correlation between the FBXW7 gene and LINC01588  expression, suggesting a potential regulatory role of LINC01588.

CONCLUSION

Neither mutations nor methylation is the causative mechanism for the FBXW7 downregulation in EOC, suggesting alternative means involving the lncRNA LINC01588.

Poor-prognosis molecular subtypes in adenocarcinomas of pancreato-biliary and gynecological origin: A systematic review

Pancreato-biliary and gynecological adenocarcinomas need better tools to predict clinical outcome. Potential prognostic mesenchymal(-like) transcriptome-based subtypes have been identified in these cancers. In this systematic review, we include studies into molecular subtyping and summarize biological and clinical features of the subtypes within and across sites of origin, searching for suggestions to improve classification and prognostication. PubMed and Embase were searched for original research articles describing potential mesenchymal(-like) mRNA-based subtypes in pancreato-biliary or gynecological adenocarcinomas. Studies limited to supervised clustering were excluded. Fourty-four studies, discussing cholangiocarcinomas, gallbladder, ampullary, pancreatic, ovarian, and endometrial adenocarcinomas were included. There was overlap in molecular and clinical features in mesenchymal(-like) subtypes across all adenocarcinomas. Approaches including microdissection were more likely to identify prognosis-associating subtypes. To conclude, molecular subtypes in pancreato-biliary and gynecological adenocarcinomas share biological and clinical characteristics. Furthermore, separation of stromal and epithelial signals should be applied in future studies into biliary and gynecological adenocarcinomas.

MiR-455-5p suppresses PDZK1IP1 to promote the motility of oral squamous cell carcinoma and accelerate clinical cancer invasion by regulating partial epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition

BACKGROUND

Lymph node and distant metastasis contribute to poor outcomes in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The mechanisms regulating cancer migration and invasion play a key role in OSCC.

METHODS

We determined migration and invasion ability of OSCC by wound-healing assay, two-chamber transwell invasion assay and cell mobility tracking and evaluated tumor metastasis in vivo. Western blot (WB), qRT-PCR, RNA-seq, dual-luciferase reporter assays and nuclear/cytoplasmic fractionation were performed to investigate the potential mechanism. Immunohistochimical (IHC) staining determined vimentin and PDZK1IP1 expression in OSCC tissues.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

In this study, we determined that miR-455-5p was associated with lymph node metastasis and clinical invasion, leading to poor outcomes in patients with OSCC. MiR-455-5p promoted oral cancer cell migration and invasion and induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). We also identified a new biomarker, PDZK1IP1 (MAP17), that was targeted by miR-455-5p. PDZK1IP1 knockdown led to migration, metastasis, EMT, and increased transforming growth factor-β signaling in OSCC. In addition, miR-455-5p overexpression and PDZK1IP1 inhibition promoted collective OSCC cell migration. According to data from the Cancer Genome Atlas database and the NCKU-OrCA-40TN data set, miR-455-5p and PDZK1IP1 are positively and negatively correlated, respectively, with partial EMT score. High miR-455-5p expression was associated with high vimentin levels and low MAP17 H-scores. The patients with low MAP17 expression had higher rates of disease recurrence than did patients with high MAP17 expression, especially for patients with clinical invasion risk factors and low MAP17 expression. These results suggest that miR-455-5p suppresses PDZK1IP1 expression and mediates OSCC progression. MiR-455-5p and PDZK1IP1 may therefore serve as key biomarkers and be involved in regulating partial EMT in OSCC cells. PDZK1IP1 expression may also serve as an independent factor that impacts outcomes in patients with clinical risk factors for recurrence.

Visfatin induces ovarian cancer resistance to anoikis by regulating mitochondrial activity

PURPOSE

Ovarian cancer is characterized by recurrent peritoneal and distant metastasis. To survive in a non-adherent state, floating ovarian cancer spheroids develop mechanisms to resist anoikis. Moreover, ascitic fluid from ovarian cancer patients contains high levels of visfatin with anti-apoptotic properties. However, the mechanism by which visfatin induces anoikis resistance in ovarian cancer spheroids remains unknown. Here, we aimed to assess wheather visfatin which possess anti-apoptotic properties can induce resistance of anoikis in ovarian cancer spheroids.

METHODS

Visfatin synthesis were examined using a commercial human visfatin ELISA Kit. Spheroid were exposed to visfatin and cell viability and caspase 3/7 activity were measured using CellTiter-Glo 3D cell viability assay and Caspase-Glo® 3/7 Assay System. mRNA and protein expression were analyzed by Real-time PCR and Western Blot analysis, respectively. Analysis of mitochondrial activity was estimated by JC-1 staining.

RESULTS

First, our results suggested higher expression and secretion of visfatin by epithelial than by granulosa ovarian cells, and in non-cancer tissues versus cancer tissues. Interestingly, visfatin increased the proliferation/apoptosis ratio in ovarian cancer spheroids. Specifically, both the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways of anoikis were regulated by visfatin. Moreover, the effect of the visfatin inhibitor (FK866) was opposite to that of visfatin. Furthermore, both NAMPT and FK866 affected mitochondrial activity in ovarian cancer cells.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, visfatin acts as an anti-apoptotic factor by regulating mitochondrial activity, leading to anoikis resistance in ovarian cancer spheroids. The finding suggest visfatin as a potential novel therapeutic target for the treatment of ovarian carcinoma with peritoneal dissemination.

Microfibril Associated Protein 5 (MFAP5) Is Related to Survival of Ovarian Cancer Patients but Not Useful as a Prognostic Biomarker

Ovarian cancer (OC) is usually diagnosed late due to its nonspecific symptoms and lack of reliable tools for early diagnostics and screening. OC studies concentrate on the search for new biomarkers and therapeutic targets. This study aimed to validate the MFAP5 gene, and its encoded protein, as a potential prognostic biomarker. In our previous study, we found that patients with high-grade serous OC who had higher MFAP5 mRNA levels had shorter survival, as compared with those with lower levels. Here, we used the Kaplan-Meier Plotter and CSIOVDB online tools to analyze possible associations of MFAP5 expression with survival and other clinico-pathological features. In these analyses, higher MFAP5 mRNA expression was observed in the more advanced FIGO stages and high-grade tumors, and was significantly associated with shorter overall and progression-free survival. Next, we analyzed the expression of the MFAP5 protein by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 108 OC samples and tissue arrays. Stronger MFAP5 expression was associated with stronger desmoplastic reaction and serous vs. non-serous histology. We found no significant correlation between IHC results and survival, although there was a trend toward shorter survival in patients with the highest IHC scores. We searched for co-expressed genes/proteins using cBioPortal and analyzed potential MFAP5 interaction networks with the STRING tool. MFAP5 was shown to interact with many extracellular matrix proteins, and was connected to the Notch signaling pathway. Therefore, although not suitable as a prognostic biomarker for evaluation with a simple diagnostic tool like IHC, MFAP5 is worth further studies as a possible therapeutic target.

Ciliated Cells in Ovarian Cancer Decrease with Increasing Tumor Grade and Disease Progression

Ciliated cell markers expressed in epithelial ovarian cancers (EOC) are associated with improved survival. We examined the distribution of cells expressing ciliated cell markers in various EOC histologies and stages. Immunohistochemistry and/or multiplex immunofluorescence were used to determine the expression of FOXJ1 and/or CAPS (ciliated cell markers) in tissue microarrays including 4 normal fallopian tubes, 6 normal endometria, 16 cystadenomas, 25 borderline tumors, 21 low-grade carcinomas, and 118 high-grade carcinomas (HGSOC) (46 serous, 29 endometrioid, 30 clear cell, 13 mucinous). CAPS+ cells were observed in normal fallopian tubes and endometria and in ~85% of serous benign and borderline tumors and low-grade carcinomas but only in <40% of HGSOC. mRNA data from an independent cohort showed higher FOXJ1 and CAPS expression in serous borderline tumors and low-grade carcinomas compared to HGSOC. In HGSOC, ciliated cell-positive markers were observed in 52% primary tumors compared to 26% of patient-matched synchronous metastases, and 24% metachronous metastases (p = 0.009). mRNA data from an independent HGSOC cohort showed lower levels of CAPS in metastases than in primary tumors (p = 0.03). Overall, the study revealed that ciliated cells were less common in mucinous EOC, the percentage of ciliated cell marker-positive cases decreased with increasing grade, and the percentage of ciliated cells decreased in HGSOC metastases compared to patient-matched primary tumors.

Ovarian cancer cell fate regulation by the dynamics between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids

Fatty acids are an important source of energy and a key component of phospholipids in membranes and organelles. Saturated fatty acids (SFAs) are converted into unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) by stearoyl Co-A desaturase (SCD), an enzyme active in cancer. Here, we studied how the dynamics between SFAs and UFAs regulated by SCD impacts ovarian cancer cell survival and tumor progression. SCD depletion or inhibition caused lower levels of UFAs vs. SFAs and altered fatty acyl chain plasticity, as demonstrated by lipidomics and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy. Further, increased levels of SFAs resulting from SCD knockdown triggered endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response with brisk activation of IRE1α/XBP1 and PERK/eIF2α/ATF4 axes. Disorganized ER membrane was visualized by electron microscopy and SRS imaging in ovarian cancer cells in which SCD was knocked down. The induction of long-term mild ER stress or short-time severe ER stress by the increased levels of SFAs and loss of UFAs led to cell death. However, ER stress and apoptosis could be readily rescued by supplementation with UFAs and reequilibration of SFA/UFA levels. The effects of SCD knockdown or inhibition observed in vitro translated into suppression of intraperitoneal tumor growth in ovarian cancer xenograft models. Furthermore, a combined intervention using an SCD inhibitor and an SFA-enriched diet initiated ER stress in tumors growing in vivo and potently blocked their dissemination. In all, our data support SCD as a key regulator of the cancer cell fate under metabolic stress and point to treatment strategies targeting the lipid balance.

A critical review of datasets and computational suites for improving cancer theranostics and biomarker discovery

Cancer has been constantly evolving and so is the research pertaining to cancer diagnosis and therapeutic regimens. Early detection and specific therapeutics are the key features of modern cancer therapy. These requirements can only be fulfilled with the integration of diverse high-throughput technologies. Integration of advanced omics methodology involving genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics provide a clear understanding of multi-faceted cancer. In the past few years, tremendous high-throughput data have been generated from cancer genomics and epigenomic analyses, which on further methodological analyses can yield better biological insights. The major epigenetic alterations reported in cancer are DNA methylation levels, histone post-translational modifications, and epi-miRNA regulating the oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. While the genomic analyses like gene expression profiling, cancer gene prediction, and genome annotation divulge the genetic alterations in oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes. Also, systems biology approach using biological networks is being extensively used to identify novel cancer biomarkers. Therefore, integration of these multi-dimensional approaches will help to identify potential diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers. Here, we reviewed the critical databases and tools dedicated to various epigenomic and genomic alterations in cancer. The review further focuses on the multi-omics resources available for further validating the identified cancer biomarkers. We also highlighted the tools for cancer biomarker discovery using a systems biology approach utilizing genomic and epigenomic data. Biomarkers predicted using such integrative approaches are shown to be more clinically relevant.

Performance Analysis of Ovarian Cancer Detection and Classification for Microarray Gene Data

The most common gynecologic cancer, behind cervical and uterine, is ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is a severe concern for women. Abnormal cells form and spread throughout the body. Ovarian cancer microarray data can diagnose and prognosis. Typically, ovarian cancer microarray data contains tens of thousands of genes. In order to reduce computational complexity, selecting the most critical genes or attributes in the entire dataset is necessary. Because microarray datasets have limited samples and many characteristics, classifier detection lags. So, dimensionality reduction measures are essential to protect disease classification genes. In this research, initially the ANOVA method is used for gene selection and then two clustering-based and three transform-based feature extraction methods, namely, Fuzzy C Means, Softmax Discriminant Algorithm (SDA), Hilbert Transform, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), respectively, are used to select relevant genes further. Six classifiers further classify the features as normal and abnormal. The NLR classifier gives the highest accuracy for SDA features at 92%, and KNN gives the lowest accuracy of 55% for SDA, Hilbert, and DCT features. With correlation distance feature selection, the NLR classifier attains the lowest accuracy of 53%, and the highest accuracy of 88% is obtained by the GMM classifier.

The Cell Surface Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycan Syndecan-3 Promotes Ovarian Cancer Pathogenesis

Syndecans are transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycans that integrate signaling at the cell surface. By interacting with cytokines, signaling receptors, proteases, and extracellular matrix proteins, syndecans regulate cell proliferation, metastasis, angiogenesis, and inflammation. We analyzed public gene expression datasets to evaluate the dysregulation and potential prognostic impact of Syndecan-3 in ovarian cancer. Moreover, we performed functional in vitro analysis in syndecan-3-siRNA-treated SKOV3 and CAOV3 ovarian cancer cells. In silico analysis of public gene array datasets revealed that syndecan-3 mRNA expression was significantly increased 5.8-fold in ovarian cancer tissues (n = 744) and 3.4-fold in metastases (n = 44) compared with control tissue (n = 46), as independently confirmed in an RNAseq dataset on ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma tissue (n = 374, controls: n = 133, 3.5-fold increase tumor vs. normal). Syndecan-3 siRNA knockdown impaired 3D spheroid growth and colony formation as stemness-related readouts in SKOV3 and CAOV3 cells. In SKOV3, but not in CAOV3 cells, syndecan-3 depletion reduced cell viability both under basal conditions and under chemotherapy with cisplatin, or cisplatin and paclitaxel. While analysis of the SIOVDB database did not reveal differences in Syndecan-3 expression between patients, sensitive, resistant or refractory to chemotherapy, KM Plotter analysis of 1435 ovarian cancer patients revealed that high syndecan-3 expression was associated with reduced survival in patients treated with taxol and platin. At the molecular level, a reduction in Stat3 activation and changes in the expression of Wnt and notch signaling constituents were observed. Our study suggests that up-regulation of syndecan-3 promotes the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer by modulating stemness-associated pathways.

A Keratin 7 and E-Cadherin Signature Is Highly Predictive of Tubo-Ovarian High-Grade Serous Carcinoma Prognosis

During tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) progression, tumoral cells undergo phenotypic changes in their epithelial marker profiles, which are essential for dissemination processes. Here, we set out to determine whether standard epithelial markers can predict HGSC patient prognosis. Levels of E-CADH, KRT7, KRT18, KRT19 were quantified in 18 HGSC cell lines by Western blot and in a Discovery cohort tissue microarray (TMA) (n = 101 patients) using immunofluorescence. E-CADH and KRT7 levels were subsequently analyzed in the TMA of the Canadian Ovarian Experimental Unified Resource cohort (COEUR, n = 1158 patients) and in public datasets. Epithelial marker expression was highly variable in HGSC cell lines and tissues. In the Discovery cohort, high levels of KRT7 and KRT19 were associated with an unfavorable prognosis, whereas high E-CADH expression indicated a better outcome. Expression of KRT7 and E-CADH gave a robust combination to predict overall survival (OS, p = 0.004) and progression free survival (PFS, p = 5.5 × 10⁻⁴) by Kaplan–Meier analysis. In the COEUR cohort, the E-CADH-KRT7 signature was a strong independent prognostic biomarker (OS, HR = 1.6, p = 2.9 × 10⁻⁴; PFS, HR = 1.3, p = 0.008) and predicted a poor patient response to chemotherapy (p = 1.3 × 10⁻⁴). Our results identify a combination of two epithelial markers as highly significant indicators of HGSC patient prognosis and treatment response.

Quantitative imaging of RAD51 expression as a marker of platinum resistance in ovarian cancer

Early relapse after platinum chemotherapy in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) portends poor survival. A-priori identification of platinum resistance is therefore crucial to improve on standard first-line carboplatin-paclitaxel treatment. The DNA repair pathway homologous recombination (HR) repairs platinum-induced damage, and the HR recombinase RAD51 is overexpressed in cancer. We therefore designed a REMARK-compliant study of pre-treatment RAD51 expression in EOC, using fluorescent quantitative immunohistochemistry (qIHC) to overcome challenges in quantitation of protein expression in situ. In a discovery cohort (n = 284), RAD51-High tumours had shorter progression-free and overall survival compared to RAD51-Low cases in univariate and multivariate analyses. The association of RAD51 with relapse/survival was validated in a carboplatin monotherapy SCOTROC4 clinical trial cohort (n = 264) and was predominantly noted in HR-proficient cancers (Myriad HRDscore < 42). Interestingly, overexpression of RAD51 modified expression of immune-regulatory pathways in vitro, while RAD51-High tumours showed exclusion of cytotoxic T cells in situ. Our findings highlight RAD51 expression as a determinant of platinum resistance and suggest possible roles for therapy to overcome immune exclusion in RAD51-High EOC. The qIHC approach is generalizable to other proteins with a continuum instead of discrete/bimodal expression.

Free CA125 promotes ovarian cancer cell migration and tumor metastasis by binding Mesothelin to reduce DKK1 expression and activate the SGK3/FOXO3 pathway

Objective: CA125/MUC16 is an O-glycosylated protein that is expressed on the surfaces of ovarian epithelial cells. This molecule is a widely used tumor-associated marker for diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Recently, CA125 was shown to be involved in ovarian cancer metastasis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanism of CA125 during ovarian cancer metastasis.

Methods: We analyzed the Oncomine and CSIOVDB databases to determine the expression levels of DKK1 in ovarian cancer. DKK1 expression levels were upregulated or downregulated and applied with CA125 to Transwell and Western blot assays to ascertain the underlying mechanism by which CA125 stimulates cell migration via the SGK3/FOXO3 pathway. Anti-mesothelin antibodies (anti-MSLN) were used to block CA125 stimulation. Then the expression levels of DKK1were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to eliminate the blocking effect of anti-MSLN to CA125 stimulation. Xenograft mouse models were used to detect the effects of CA125 and anti-MSLN on ovarian cancer metastasis in vivo.

Results: DKK1 levels were downregulated in ovarian tumor tissues according to the analyses of two databases and significantly correlated with FIGO stage, grade and disease-free survival in ovarian cancer patients. DKK1 levels were downregulated by CA125 stimulation in vitro. Overexpression of DKK1 reversed the ability of exogenous CA125 to mediate cell migration by activating the SGK3/FOXO3 signaling pathway. Anti-MSLN abrogated the DKK1 reduction and increased the apoptosis of ovarian cancer cells. The use of anti-MSLN in xenograft mouse models significantly reduced tumor growth and metastasis accelerated by CA125.

Conclusions: These experiments revealed that the SGK3/FOXO3 pathway was activated, wherein decreased expression of DKK1 was caused by CA125, which fuels ovarian cancer cell migration. Mesothelin is a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of ovarian cancer metastasis.

Patients with low nicotinamide N-methyltransferase expression benefit significantly from bevacizumab treatment in ovarian cancer

BACKGROUND

The role of nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) in ovarian cancer is still elusive. Our aim is to explore the expression of NNMT in ovarian cancer and to assess its association with patient prognosis and treatment response.

METHODS

We first analyzed the differential expression of NNMT among fallopian tube epithelium, primary ovarian cancers, metastatic ovarian cancers, and recurrent ovarian cancers using Gene Expression Ominus (GEO) database (GSE10971, GSE30587, GSE44104 and TCGA datasets). Then, we assessed the association of NNMT expression with clinical and molecular parameters using CSIOVDB database and GSE28739 dataset. Next, we evaluate the association of NNMT expression with the prognosis of ovarian cancer patients in both GSE9891 dataset and TCGA dataset. Finally, GSE140082 dataset was used to explore the association of NNMT expression with bevacizumab response.

RESULTS

NNMT expression was significantly elevated in lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI)-positive ovarian cancers compared with that in LVSI-negative ovarian cancers (TCGA dataset, P < 0.05), Moreover, increased expression of NNMT was associated with increased tumor stage, grade, and mesenchymal molecular subtype (CSIOVDB database). Survival analysis indicated that increased expression of NNMT was associated with a reduced OS in both GSE9891 dataset (HR: 2.28, 95%CI: 1.51-3.43, Log-rank P < 0.001) and TCGA dataset (HR: 1.55, 95%CI: 1.02-2.36, Log-rank P = 0.039). Multivariate analysis further confirmed the negative impact of NNMT expression on OS in ovarian cancer patients in those two datasets. Furthermore, the NNMT-related nomogram showed that NNMT shared a larger contribution to OS, compared with debulking status. More interestingly, bevacizumab conferred significant improvements in OS for patients with low NNMT expression (HR: 0.56, 95%CI: 0.31-0.99, Log-rank P = 0.049). In contrast, patients with high NNMT expression didn't benefit from bevacizumab treatment significantly (HR: 0.85, 95%CI: 0.48-1.49, Log-rank P = 0.561). NNMT expression was positively correlated with the expression of genes, LDHA and PGAM1, involved in Warburg effect.

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, NNMT expression is associated with the aggressive behavior of ovarian cancer, correlates with a poor prognosis, and is predictive of sensitivity to bevacizumab treatment.

Reduced Gonadotrophin Receptor Expression Is Associated with a More Aggressive Ovarian Cancer Phenotype

Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinising hormone (LH) play important roles in regulating cell growth and proliferation in the ovary. However, few studies have explored the expression of FSH and LH receptors (FSHR and LHCGR) in ovarian cancer, and their functional roles in cancer progression remain inconclusive. This study investigated the potential impact of both mRNA (FSHR, LHCGR) and protein (FSHR, LHCGR) expression on ovarian cancer progression using publicly available online databases, qRT-PCR (high grade serous ovarian cancers, HGSOC, n = 29 and benign ovarian tumors, n = 17) and immunohistochemistry (HGSOC, n = 144). In addition, we investigated the effect of FSHR and LHCGR siRNA knockdown on the pro-metastatic behavior of serous ovarian cancer cells in vitro. High FSHR or high LHCGR expression in patients with all subtypes of high-grade ovarian cancer was significantly associated with longer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). High FSHR protein expression was associated with increased PFS (p = 0.050) and OS (p = 0.025). HGSOC patients with both high FSHR and high LHCGR protein levels had the best survival outcome, whilst both low FSHR and low LHCGR expression was associated with poorest survival (p = 0.019). Knockdown of FSHR significantly increased the invasion of serous ovarian cancer cells (OVCAR3 and COV362) in vitro. LHCGR knockdown also promoted invasion of COV362 cells. This study highlights that lower FSHR and LHCGR expression is associated with a more aggressive epithelial ovarian cancer phenotype and promotes pro-metastatic behaviour.

A Comprehensive Molecular and Clinical Analysis of the piRNA Pathway Genes in Ovarian Cancer

Simple Summary

Although ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the most lethal gynecological cancers, its development and progression remain poorly understood. The piRNA pathway is important for transposon defense and genome stability. piRNA maturation and function involve a number of genes known as the piRNA pathway genes. These genes have recently been implicated in cancer development and progression but information about their role in OC is limited. Our work aimed to provide a better understanding of the roles of piRNA pathway genes in OC. Through analyzing changes in the abundance of 10 piRNA pathway genes, we discovered gene expression differences in benign vs. cancer, chemosensitive vs. chemoresistant and post hormone treatment in OC samples and cells. Furthermore, we observed the differential effects of these genes on patient survival and OC cell invasion. Overall, this work supports a role of the piRNA pathway genes in OC progression and encourages further study of their clinical relevance.

Abstract

Ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the most lethal gynecological malignancies, yet molecular mechanisms underlying its origin and progression remain poorly understood. With increasing reports of piRNA pathway deregulation in various cancers, we aimed to better understand its role in OC through a comprehensive analysis of key genes: PIWIL1-4, DDX4, HENMT1, MAEL, PLD6, TDRD1,9 and mutants of PIWIL1 (P1∆17) and PIWIL2 (PL2L60). High-throughput qRT-PCR (n = 45) and CSIOVDB (n = 3431) showed differential gene expression when comparing benign ovarian tumors, low grade OC and high grade serous OC (HGSOC). Significant correlation of disparate piRNA pathway gene expression levels with better progression free, post-progression free and overall survival suggests a complex role of this pathway in OC. We discovered PIWIL3 expression in chemosensitive but not chemoresistant primary HGSOC cells, providing a potential target against chemoresistant disease. As a first, we revealed that follicle stimulating hormone increased PIWIL2 expression in OV-90 cells. PIWIL1, P1∆17, PIWIL2, PL2L60 and MAEL overexpression in vitro and in vivo decreased motility and invasion of OVCAR-3 and OV-90 cells. Interestingly, P1∆17 and PL2L60, induced increased motility and invasion compared to PIWIL1 and PIWIL2. Our results in HGSOC highlight the intricate role piRNA pathway genes play in the development of malignant neoplasms.

Low junctional adhesion molecule-A expression is associated with an epithelial to mesenchymal transition and poorer outcomes in high-grade serous carcinoma of uterine adnexa

High-grade serous carcinoma of uterine adnexa (HGSC) is the most frequent histotype of epithelial ovarian cancer and has a poor 5-year survival rate due to late-stage diagnosis and the poor efficacy of standard treatments. Novel biomarkers of cancer outcome are needed to identify new targetable pathways and improve personalized treatments. Cell-surface screening of 26 HGSC cell lines by high-throughput flow cytometry identified junctional adhesion molecule 1 (JAM-A, also known as F11R) as a potential biomarker. Using a multi-labeled immunofluorescent staining coupled with digital image analysis, protein levels of JAM-A were quantified in tissue microarrays from three HGSC patient cohorts: a discovery cohort (n = 101), the Canadian Ovarian Experimental Unified Resource cohort (COEUR, n = 1158), and the Canadian Cancer Trials Group OV16 cohort (n = 267). Low JAM-A level was associated with poorer outcome in the three cohorts by Kaplan-Meier (p = 0.023, p < 0.001, and p = 0.036, respectively) and was an independent marker of shorter survival in the COEUR cohort (HR = 0.517 (0.381-703), p < 0.001). When analyses were restricted to patients treated by taxane-platinum-based chemotherapy, low JAM-A protein expression was associated with poorer responses in the COEUR (p < 0.001) and OV16 cohorts (p = 0.006) by Kaplan-Meier. Decreased JAM-A gene expression was an indicator of poor outcome in gene expression datasets including The Cancer Genome Atlas (n = 606, p = 0.002) and Kaplan-Meier plotter (n = 1816, p = 0.024). Finally, we observed that tumors with decreased JAM-A expression exhibited an enhanced epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) signature. Our results demonstrate that JAM-A expression is a robust prognostic biomarker of HGSC and may be used to discriminate tumors responsive to therapies targeting EMT.

Development and Validation of the Gene Expression Predictor of High-grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma Molecular SubTYPE (PrOTYPE)

PURPOSE

Gene expression-based molecular subtypes of high-grade serous tubo-ovarian cancer (HGSOC), demonstrated across multiple studies, may provide improved stratification for molecularly targeted trials. However, evaluation of clinical utility has been hindered by nonstandardized methods, which are not applicable in a clinical setting. We sought to generate a clinical grade minimal gene set assay for classification of individual tumor specimens into HGSOC subtypes and confirm previously reported subtype-associated features.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Adopting two independent approaches, we derived and internally validated algorithms for subtype prediction using published gene expression data from 1,650 tumors. We applied resulting models to NanoString data on 3,829 HGSOCs from the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis consortium. We further developed, confirmed, and validated a reduced, minimal gene set predictor, with methods suitable for a single-patient setting.

RESULTS

Gene expression data were used to derive the predictor of high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma molecular subtype (PrOTYPE) assay. We established a de facto standard as a consensus of two parallel approaches. PrOTYPE subtypes are significantly associated with age, stage, residual disease, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, and outcome. The locked-down clinical grade PrOTYPE test includes a model with 55 genes that predicted gene expression subtype with >95% accuracy that was maintained in all analytic and biological validations.

CONCLUSIONS

We validated the PrOTYPE assay following the Institute of Medicine guidelines for the development of omics-based tests. This fully defined and locked-down clinical grade assay will enable trial design with molecular subtype stratification and allow for objective assessment of the predictive value of HGSOC molecular subtypes in precision medicine applications.See related commentary by McMullen et al., p. 5271.

Evaluation of the Role of ITGBL1 in Ovarian Cancer

In our previous microarray study we identified two subgroups of high-grade serous ovarian cancers with distinct gene expression and survival. Among differentially expressed genes was an Integrin beta-like 1 (ITGBL1), coding for a poorly characterized protein comprised of ten EGF-like repeats. Here, we have analyzed the influence of ITGBL1 on the phenotype of ovarian cancer (OC) cells. We analyzed expression of four putative ITGBL1 mRNA isoforms in five OC cell lines. OAW42 and SKOV3, having the lowest level of any ITGBL1 mRNA, were chosen to produce ITGBL1-overexpressing variants. In these cells, abundant ITGBL1 mRNA expression could be detected by RT-PCR. Immunodetection was successful only in the culture media, suggesting that ITGBL1 is efficiently secreted. We found that ITGBL1 overexpression affected cellular adhesion, migration and invasiveness, while it had no effect on proliferation rate and the cell cycle. ITGBL1-overexpressing cells were significantly more resistant to cisplatin and paclitaxel, major drugs used in OC treatment. Global gene expression analysis revealed that signaling pathways affected by ITGBL1 overexpression were mostly those related to extracellular matrix organization and function, integrin signaling, focal adhesion, cellular communication and motility; these results were consistent with the findings of our functional studies. Overall, our results indicate that higher expression of ITGBL1 in OC is associated with features that may worsen clinical course of the disease.

EZH2-Mediated Downregulation of the Tumor Suppressor DAB2IP Maintains Ovarian Cancer Stem Cells

The majority of women diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer eventually develop recurrence, which rapidly evolves into chemoresistant disease. Persistence of ovarian cancer stem cells (OCSC) at the end of therapy may be responsible for emergence of resistant tumors. In this study, we demonstrate that in OCSC, the tumor suppressor disabled homolog 2-interacting protein (DAB2IP) is silenced by EZH2-mediated H3K27 trimethylation of the DAB2IP promoter. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deletion of DAB2IP in epithelial ovarian cancer cell lines upregulated expression of stemness-related genes and induced conversion of non-CSC to CSC, while enforced expression of DAB2IP suppressed CSC properties. Transcriptomic analysis showed that overexpression of DAB2IP in ovarian cancer significantly altered stemness-associated genes and bioinformatic analysis revealed WNT signaling as a dominant pathway mediating the CSC inhibitory effect of DAB2IP. Specifically, DAB2IP inhibited WNT signaling via downregulation of WNT5B, an important stemness inducer. Reverse phase protein array further demonstrated activation of noncanonical WNT signaling via C-JUN as a downstream target of WNT5B, which was blocked by inhibiting RAC1, a prominent regulator of C-JUN activation. Coadministration of EZH2 inhibitor GSK126 and RAC1 inhibitor NSC23766 suppressed OCSC survival in vitro and inhibited tumor growth and increased platinum sensitivity in vivo. Overall, these data establish that DAB2IP suppresses the cancer stem cell phenotype via inhibition of WNT5B-induced activation of C-JUN and can be epigenetically silenced by EZH2 in OCSC. Targeting the EZH2/DAB2IP/C-JUN axis therefore presents a promising strategy to prevent ovarian cancer recurrence and has potential for clinical translation. SIGNIFICANCE: These findings show that combining an epigenetic therapy with a noncanonical WNT signaling pathway inhibitor has the potential to eradicate ovarian cancer stem cells and to prevent ovarian cancer recurrence.

The m6A reader YTHDF1 promotes ovarian cancer progression via augmenting EIF3C translation

N⁶-Methyladenosine (m⁶A) is the most abundant RNA modification in mammal mRNAs and increasing evidence suggests the key roles of m⁶A in human tumorigenesis. However, whether m⁶A, especially its ‘reader’ YTHDF1, targets a gene involving in protein translation and thus affects overall protein production in cancer cells is largely unexplored. Here, using multi-omics analysis for ovarian cancer, we identified a novel mechanism involving EIF3C, a subunit of the protein translation initiation factor EIF3, as the direct target of the YTHDF1. YTHDF1 augments the translation of EIF3C in an m⁶A-dependent manner by binding to m⁶A-modified EIF3C mRNA and concomitantly promotes the overall translational output, thereby facilitating tumorigenesis and metastasis of ovarian cancer. YTHDF1 is frequently amplified in ovarian cancer and up-regulation of YTHDF1 is associated with the adverse prognosis of ovarian cancer patients. Furthermore, the protein but not the RNA abundance of EIF3C is increased in ovarian cancer and positively correlates with the protein expression of YTHDF1 in ovarian cancer patients, suggesting modification of EIF3C mRNA is more relevant to its role in cancer. Collectively, we identify the novel YTHDF1-EIF3C axis critical for ovarian cancer progression which can serve as a target to develop therapeutics for cancer treatment.

Filopodia play an important role in the trans-mesothelial migration of ovarian cancer cells

Ovarian cancer cells shed from primary tumors can spread easily to the peritoneum via the peritoneal fluid. To allow further metastasis, the cancer cells must interact with the mesothelial cell layer, which covers the entire surface of the peritoneal organs. Although the clinical importance of this interaction between cancer and mesothelial cells has been increasingly recognized, the molecular mechanisms utilized by cancer cells to adhere to and migrate through the mesothelial cell layer are poorly understood. To investigate the molecular mechanisms of cancer cell trans-mesothelial migration, we set up an in vitro trans-mesothelial migration assay using primary peritoneal mesothelial cells. Using this method, we found that downregulation of filopodial protein fascin-1 or myosin X expression in ES-2 cells significantly inhibited the rate of trans-mesothelial migration of cancer cells, whereas upregulation of fascin-1 in SK-OV-3 cells enhanced this rate. Furthermore, downregulation of N-cadherin or integrin β1 inhibited the rate of cancer cell trans-mesothelial migration. Conversely, downregulation of cortactin or TKS5 or treatment with the MMP inhibitor GM6001 or the N-WASP inhibitor wiskostatin did not have any effect on cancer cell trans-mesothelial migration. These results suggest that filopodia, but not lamellipodia or invadopodia, play an important role in the trans-mesothelial migration of ovarian cancer cells.

GATA3 as a master regulator for interactions of tumor-associated macrophages with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma

High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) is the most lethal gynecologic cancer. Emerging evidence suggests that tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play an immunosuppressive role in the tumor microenvironment and promote tumor growth, angiogenesis, and metastasis in ovarian cancer. Therefore, targeting TAMs in patients with ovarian cancer is an appealing strategy; however, all trials to date have failed. To improve the efficacy of this approach, we sought to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of the role of TAMs in ovarian cancer. We found that the developmental transcription factor GATA3 was highly expressed in HGSOC cell lines but not in the fallopian tube, which is the main origin of HGSOC. GATA3 expression was associated with poor prognosis in HGSOC patients (P < .05) and was found to promote proliferation and migration in HGSOC cell lines. GATA3 was released abundantly from TAM cells via exosomes and contributed to tumor growth in the tumor microenvironment. Moreover, GATA3 acted as a regulator for macrophage polarization and interactions between TAMs and HGSOC to support proliferation, motility, and cisplatin chemoresistance in mutant TP53 HGSOC cell lines. Furthermore, GATA3 played a critical role in the interactions between TAMs and mutant TP53 HGSOC to promote angiogenesis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition with epigenetic regulation. Targeting GATA3 using GATA3siRNA in TAMs impeded GATA3-driven proliferation, migration, cisplatin chemoresistance, and angiogenesis in mutant TP53 HGSOC cell lines. Our findings indicate that GATA3 plays a novel role in immunoediting of HGSOC and demonstrate that GATA3 may serve as a prognostic marker for HGSOC and a promising target in the treatment of HGSOC.

Integrated use of bioinformatic resources reveals that co-targeting of histone deacetylases, IKBK and SRC inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition in cancer

With the advent of high-throughput technologies leading to big data generation, increasing number of gene signatures are being published to predict various features of diseases such as prognosis and patient survival. However, to use these signatures for identifying therapeutic targets, use of additional bioinformatic tools is indispensible part of research. Here, we have generated a pipeline comprised of nearly 15 bioinformatic tools and enrichment statistical methods to propose and validate a drug combination strategy from already approved drugs and present our approach using published pan-cancer epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) signatures as a case study. We observed that histone deacetylases were critical targets to tune expression of multiple epithelial versus mesenchymal genes. Moreover, SRC and IKBK were the principal intracellular kinases regulating multiple signaling pathways. To confirm the anti-EMT efficacy of the proposed target combination in silico, we validated expression of targets in mesenchymal versus epithelial subtypes of ovarian cancer. Additionally, we inhibited the pinpointed proteins in vitro using an invasive lung cancer cell line. We found that whereas low-dose mono-therapy failed to limit cell dispersion from collagen spheroids in a microfluidic device as a metric of EMT, the combination fully inhibited dissociation and invasion of cancer cells toward cocultured endothelial cells. Given the approval status and safety profiles of the suggested drugs, the proposed combination set can be considered in clinical trials.

Fibronectin and Periostin as Prognostic Markers in Ovarian Cancer

Previously, based on a DNA microarray experiment, we identified a 96-gene prognostic signature associated with the shorter survival of ovarian cancer patients. We hypothesized that some differentially expressed protein-coding genes from this signature could potentially serve as prognostic markers. The present study was aimed to validate two proteins, namely fibronectin (FN1) and periostin (POSTN), in the independent set of ovarian cancer samples. Both proteins are mainly known as extracellular matrix proteins with many important functions in physiology. However, there are also indications that they are implicated in cancer, including ovarian cancer. The expression of these proteins was immunohistochemically analyzed in 108 surgical samples of advanced ovarian cancer (majority: high-grade serous) and additionally on tissue arrays representing different stages of the progression of ovarian and fallopian tube epithelial tumors, from normal epithelia, through benign tumors, to adenocarcinomas of different stages. The correlation with clinical, pathological, and molecular features was evaluated. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox-proportional hazards models were used to estimate the correlation of the expression levels these proteins with survival. We observed that the higher expression of fibronectin in the tumor stroma was highly associated with shorter overall survival (OS) (Kaplan-Meier analysis, log-rank test p = 0.003). Periostin was also associated with shorter OS (p = 0.04). When we analyzed the combined score, calculated by adding together individual scores for stromal fibronectin and periostin expression, Cox regression demonstrated that this joint FN1&POSTN score was an independent prognostic factor for OS (HR = 2.16; 95% CI: 1.02-4.60; p = 0.044). The expression of fibronectin and periostin was also associated with the source of ovarian tumor sample: metastases showed higher expression of these proteins than primary tumor samples (χ² test, p = 0.024 and p = 0.032). Elevated expression of fibronectin and periostin was also more common in fallopian cancers than in ovarian cancers. Our results support some previous observations that fibronectin and periostin have a prognostic significance in ovarian cancer. In addition, we propose the joint FN1&POSTN score as an independent prognostic factor for OS. Based on our results, it may also be speculated that these proteins are related to tumor progression and/or may indicate fallopian-epithelial origin of the tumor.

Analysis of gene expression signatures identifies prognostic and functionally distinct ovarian clear cell carcinoma subtypes

Background

Ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC) is a histological subtype of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) with distinct pathological, biological, and molecular features. OCCCs are more resistant to conventional treatment regimen of EOC and have the worst stage-adjusted prognosis amongst EOC subtypes. As the OCCC incidence rate in Asian populations has significantly increased in recent decades, it is critical to elucidate its molecular features that could lead to OCCC-tailored therapeutic strategies.

Methods

Gene expression profiles of 222 OCCC were analyzed by hierarchical clustering and statistical analyses.

Findings

We identified two OCCC gene expression subtypes: EpiCC—epithelial-like, which is associated with early-stage disease, with a relatively higher rate of gene mutations in the SWI/SNF complex; and MesCC—mesenchymal-like, associated with late-stage and higher enrichment of immune-related pathway activity. Genetic, copy number and transcriptomic analyses showed that both EpiCC and MesCC carried OCCC-associated aberrations. The EpiCC/MesCC classification was reproducible in validation cohorts and OCCC cell lines. MesCC tumors had a poorer progression-free survival (PFS) than EpiCC tumors (HR: 3·0, p = 0·0006). Functional assays in cell lines showed that the MesCC subtype was more proliferative and more anoikis-resistant than the EpiCC. By applying the EpiCC/MesCC classification to the TCGA renal clear cell carcinoma cohort, our results indicated interoperability of the subtyping scheme, and revealed preferential drug response of MesCC to bevacizumab.

Interpretation

The EpiCC/MesCC classification shows promise for prognostic and therapeutic stratification in OCCC patients and warrants further investigation in the context of OCCC gene expression subtype-tailored treatment strategies.

ATAD2 predicts poor outcomes in patients with ovarian cancer and is a marker of proliferation

The oncogene ATPase family AAA domain-containing protein 2 (ATAD2) has been demonstrated to promote malignancy in a number of different types of tumor; however, its expression and role in ovarian cancer (OC) remain unknown. In the present study, it was demonstrated that ATAD2 acts as both a marker and a driver of cell proliferation in OC. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and bioinformatics analyses were used to evaluate ATAD2 expression in OC, and multi-omics integrated analyses were used to dissect which factor resulted in its upregulation. Multiplex IHC assay was used to reveal the specific expression of ATAD2 in proliferating OC cells. CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing was performed to investigate the effect of ATAD2 deletion on OC proliferation. The results demonstrated that ATAD2 is elevated in primary OC tissues compared with the adjacent normal tissue and metastases from the stomach. Genetic copy number amplification is a primary cause resulting in upregulation of ATAD2, and this was most frequently observed in OC. High ATAD2 expression was associated with advanced progression and predicted an unfavorable prognosis. ATAD2 could be used to identify cases of OC with a high proliferation signature and could label proliferating cells in OC. CRISPR-Cas9-mediated ATAD2 deletion resulted in a significant decrease in both cell proliferation and colony formation ability. Mechanistically, ATAD2-knockdown resulted in deactivation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, particularly the JNK-MAPK pathway, resulting in suppression of proliferation. Collectively, the data from the present study demonstrated that the ATD2 gene was frequently amplified and protein expression levels were upregulated in OC. Therefore, ATAD2 may serve as an attractive diagnostic and prognostic OC marker, which may be used to identify patients with primary OC, whom are most likely to benefit from ATAD2 gene-targeted proliferation intervention therapies.

Decreased DHRS2 expression is associated with HDACi resistance and poor prognosis in ovarian cancer

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have been linked to a variety of cancers, and HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) are a promising class of drugs that have demonstrated anti-cancer effects. However, we have little knowledge regarding the selection and application of HDAC inhibitors to the personalized treatment of ovarian cancer (OC). Here, we report a correlation between the high expression of HDACs and poor outcomes in OC patients, which reveals that HDACi are a class of agents that show great promise for the treatment of OC. Furthermore, we found that HDACi increased both the mRNA and protein levels of DHRS2, which has been shown to be closely linked to HDACi sensitivity when it is highly expressed, especially in ovarian cancer cells. Consistently, we found that suppression of DHRS2 reduced the sensitivity of OC cells to HDAC inhibitors via attenuation of the inhibitory effects of HDAC inhibitors on Mcl-1 in vitro. Our study demonstrated that DHRS2 expression was decreased in OC tissues and that high expression of DHRS2 was correlated with better outcomes in OC patients. In addition, DHRS2 expression was closely related to the effects of chemotherapy. Our study reveals the role of DHRS2 in cell apoptosis induced by HDAC inhibitors and explores the clinical attributes of DHRS2 in OC from a new perspective, suggesting that OC patients with high DHRS2 expression may benefit from treatment with HDAC inhibitors.

Discovery and Validation of Novel Biomarkers for Detection of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Detection of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) poses a critical medical challenge. However, novel biomarkers for diagnosis remain to be discovered. Therefore, innovative approaches are of the utmost importance for patient outcome. Here, we present a concept for blood-based biomarker discovery, investigating both epithelial and specifically stromal compartments, which have been neglected in search for novel candidates. We queried gene expression profiles of EOC including microdissected epithelium and adjacent stroma from benign and malignant tumours. Genes significantly differentially expressed within either the epithelial or the stromal compartments were retrieved. The expression of genes whose products are secreted yet absent in the blood of healthy donors were validated in tissue and blood from patients with pelvic mass by NanoString analysis. Results were confirmed by the comprehensive gene expression database, CSIOVDB (Ovarian cancer database of Cancer Science Institute Singapore). The top 25% of candidate genes were explored for their biomarker potential, and twelve were able to discriminate between benign and malignant tumours on transcript levels (p < 0.05). Among them T-cell differentiation protein myelin and lymphocyte (MAL), aurora kinase A (AURKA), stroma-derived candidates versican (VCAN), and syndecan-3 (SDC), which performed significantly better than the recently reported biomarker fibroblast growth factor 18 (FGF18) to discern malignant from benign conditions. Furthermore, elevated MAL and AURKA expression levels correlated significantly with a poor prognosis. We identified promising novel candidates and found the stroma of EOC to be a suitable compartment for biomarker discovery.

BORIS Expression in Ovarian Cancer Precursor Cells Alters the CTCF Cistrome and Enhances Invasiveness through GALNT14

High-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) is the most aggressive and predominant form of epithelial ovarian cancer and the leading cause of gynecologic cancer-related death. We have previously shown that CTCFL (also known as BORIS, Brother of the Regulator of Imprinted Sites) is expressed in most ovarian cancers, and is associated with global and promoter-specific DNA hypomethylation, advanced tumor stage, and poor prognosis. To explore its role in HGSC, we expressed BORIS in human fallopian tube secretory epithelial cells (FTSEC), the presumptive cells of origin for HGSC. BORIS-expressing cells exhibited increased motility and invasion, and BORIS expression was associated with alterations in several cancer-associated gene expression networks, including fatty acid metabolism, TNF signaling, cell migration, and ECM-receptor interactions. Importantly, GALNT14, a glycosyltransferase gene implicated in cancer cell migration and invasion, was highly induced by BORIS, and GALNT14 knockdown significantly abrogated BORIS-induced cell motility and invasion. In addition, in silico analyses provided evidence for BORIS and GALNT14 coexpression in several cancers. Finally, ChIP-seq demonstrated that expression of BORIS was associated with de novo and enhanced binding of CTCF at hundreds of loci, many of which correlated with activation of transcription at target genes, including GALNT14. Taken together, our data indicate that BORIS may promote cell motility and invasion in HGSC via upregulation of GALNT14, and suggests BORIS as a potential therapeutic target in this malignancy. IMPLICATIONS: These studies provide evidence that aberrant expression of BORIS may play a role in the progression to HGSC by enhancing the migratory and invasive properties of FTSEC.

FAM83D promotes ovarian cancer progression and its potential application in diagnosis of invasive ovarian cancer

Although invasive epithelial ovarian cancer (IOC) and low malignant potential ovarian tumour (LMP) are similar, they are associated with different outcomes and treatment strategies. The current accuracy in distinguishing these diseases is unsatisfactory, leading to delays or unnecessary treatments. We compared the molecular signature of IOC and LMP cases by analysing their transcriptomic data and re‐clustered them according to these data rather than the pathological dissection. We identified that FAM83D was highly expressed in IOC. To verify the role of FAM83D in the progression and metastasis, we used the isogenic ovarian cancer metastatic models, highly metastatic cells (HM) and non‐metastatic cells (NM). Overexpression of FAM83D significantly promoted cell proliferation, migration and spheroid formation. This was consistent with previous data showing that high FAM83D expression is associated with poor prognosis in cancer patients. Moreover, similar to the HM cells, the FAM83D‐overexpressing NM cells demonstrated stronger phosphorylation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and c‐Raf. This indicates that the action of FAM83D is mediated by the activation of the EGFR pathway. Taken together, this report suggested that FAM83D might be an excellent molecular marker to discriminate between IOC and LMP.

TET1 reprograms the epithelial ovarian cancer epigenome and reveals casein kinase 2α as a therapeutic target

Ten-eleven translocation methylcytosine dioxygenase-1, TET1, takes part in active DNA demethylation. However, our understanding of DNA demethylation in cancer biology and its clinical significance remain limited. This study showed that TET1 expression correlated with poor survival in advanced-stage epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC), and with cell migration, anchorage-independent growth, cancer stemness, and tumorigenicity. In particular, TET1 was highly expressed in serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma (STIC), a currently accepted type II EOC precursor, and inversely correlated with TP53 mutations. Moreover, TET1 could demethylate the epigenome and activate multiple oncogenic pathways, including an immunomodulation network having casein kinase II subunit alpha (CK2α) as a hub. Patients with TET1^high CK2α^high EOCs had the worst outcomes, and TET1-expressing EOCs were more sensitive to a CK2 inhibitor, both in vitro and in vivo. Our findings uncover the oncogenic and poor prognostic roles of TET1 in EOC and suggest an unexplored role of epigenetic reprogramming in early ovarian carcinogenesis. Moreover, the immunomodulator CK2α represents a promising new therapeutic target, warranting clinical trials of the tolerable CK2 inhibitor, CX4945, for precision medicine against EOC. Copyright © 2019 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

NOTCH2/NOTCH3/DLL3/MAML1/ADAM17 signaling network is associated with ovarian cancer

Notch signaling is well-known for its role in regulating cell self-renewal and differentiation. Within the cancer research field, it has been identified that dysregulated Notch signaling is involved directly with various types of cancer. Although Notch signaling is generally considered as oncogenic, it sometimes acts as a tumor suppressor, highlighting the complexity of the role of Notch in cancer. A number of studies have associated Notch signaling components with ovarian cancer, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are not well-elucidated. In the present study, the roles of main components of Notch signaling in ovarian cancer were systematically analyzed through large data portals, including Prediction of Clinical Outcomes from Genomic Profiles, Gene Expression across Normal and Tumor tissue, CSIOVDB, Broad Institute Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia and cBioPortal. Upregulated expression of proteins in the Notch signaling pathway components in ovarian cancer was identified to be generally associated with poor overall and disease-free survival time, and more advanced cancer stages. In addition, Notch components were enriched in ovarian cancer tissues and cell lines. These results led to a proposed neurogenic locus notch homolog protein (NOTCH)2/NOTCH3/Delta-like protein 3/Mastermind-like protein 1/a disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain-containing protein 17 network. Anticancer drugs, developed to target this network, may have high specificity in treating Notch-associated ovarian cancer.

The FZD7-TWIST1 axis is responsible for anoikis resistance and tumorigenesis in ovarian carcinoma

Frizzled family receptor 7 (FZD7), a Wnt signaling receptor, is associated with the maintenance of stem cell properties and cancer progression. FZD7 has emerged as a potential therapeutic target because it is capable of transducing both canonical and noncanonical Wnt signals. In this study, we investigated the regulatory pathway downstream of FZD7 and its functional roles. We found that FZD7 expression was crucial to the maintenance of the mesenchymal phenotype, anoikis resistance, and spheroid and tumor formation in ovarian cancer (OC). We identified TWIST1 as the crucial downstream effector of the FZD7 pathway. TWIST1, a basic helix loop helix transcription factor, is known to associate with mesenchymal and cancer stem cell phenotypes. Manipulating TWIST1 expression mimicked the functional consequences observed in the FZD7 model, and overexpression of TWIST1 partially rescued the functional phenotypes abolished by FZD7 knockdown. We further proved that FZD7 regulated TWIST1 expression through epigenetic modifications of H3K4me3 and H3K27ac at the TWIST1 proximal promoter. We also identified that the FZD7‐TWIST1 axis regulates the expression of BCL2, a gene that controls apoptosis. Identification of this FZD7‐TWIST1‐BCL2 pathway reaffirms the mechanism of anoikis resistance in OC. We subsequently showed that the FZD7‐TWIST1 axis can be targeted by using a small molecule inhibitor of porcupine, an enzyme essential for secretion and functional activation of Wnts. In conclusion, our results identified that the FZD7‐TWIST1 axis is important for tumorigenesis and anoikis resistance, and therapeutic inhibition results in cell death in OCs.

Decoding transcriptomic intra-tumour heterogeneity to guide personalised medicine in ovarian cancer

The evaluation of intra-tumour heterogeneity (ITH) from a transcriptomic point of view is limited. Single-cell cancer studies reveal significant genomic and transcriptomic ITH within a tumour and it is no longer adequate to employ single-subtype assignment as this does not acknowledge the ITH that exists. Molecular assessment of subtype heterogeneity (MASH) was developed to comprehensively report on the composition of all transcriptomic subtypes within a tumour lesion. Using MASH on 3431 ovarian cancer samples, correlation and association analyses with survival, metastasis and clinical outcomes were performed to assess the impact of subtype composition as a surrogate for ITH. The association was validated on two independent cohorts. We identified that 30% of ovarian tumours consist of two or more subtypes. When biological features of the subtype constituents were examined, we identified significant impact on clinical outcomes with the presence of poor prognostic subtypes (Mes or Stem-A). Poorer outcomes correlated with having higher degrees of poor prognostic subtype populations within the tumour. Subtype prediction in several independent datasets reflected a similar prognostic trend. In addition, paired analysis of primary and recurrent/metastatic tumours demonstrated Mes and/or Stem-A subtypes predominated in recurrent and metastatic tumours regardless of the original primary subtype. Given the biological and prognostic value in delineating individual subtypes within a tumour, a clinically applicable MASH assay using NanoString^® technology was developed as a classification tool to comprehensively describe constituents of molecular subtypes. Copyright © 2018 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Prolactin signaling drives tumorigenesis in human high grade serous ovarian cancer cells and in a spontaneous fallopian tube derived model

The pathways responsible for tumorigenesis of high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) from the fallopian tube epithelium (FTE) are still poorly understood. A human prolactin (PRL) like gene, Prl2c2 was amplified >100 fold in a spontaneous model of FTE-derived ovarian cancer (MOE^high - murine oviductal epithelium high passage). Prl2c2 stable knockdown in MOE^high cells demonstrated a significant reduction in cell proliferation, 2-dimensional foci, anchorage independent growth, and blocked tumor formation. The overall survival of ovarian cancer patients from transcriptome analysis of 1868 samples was lower when abundant PRL and prolactin receptors (PRL-R) were expressed. A HGSOC cell line (OVCAR3) and a tumorigenic human FTE cell line (FT33-Tag-Myc) were treated with recombinant PRL and a significant increase in cellular proliferation was detected. A CRISPR/Cas9 mediated PRL-R deletion in OVCAR3 and FT33-Tag-Myc cells demonstrated significant reduction in cell proliferation and eliminated tumor growth using the OVCAR3 model. PRL was found to phosphorylate STAT5, m-TOR and ERK in ovarian cancer cells. This study identified Prl2c2 as a driver of tumorigenesis in a spontaneous model and confirmed that prolactin signaling supports tumorigenesis in high grade serous ovarian cancer.

Transcriptomic immune profiling of ovarian cancers in paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration associated with anti-Yo antibodies

BACKGROUND

Paraneoplastic neurological syndromes are rare conditions where an autoimmune reaction against the nervous system appears in patients suffering from a tumour, but not linked to the spreading of the tumour. A break in the immune tolerance is thought to be the trigger.

METHODS

The transcriptomic profile of 12 ovarian tumours (OT) from patients suffering from paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration (PCD) linked to anti-Yo antibodies (anti-Yo PCD OT) was compared with 733 ovarian tumours (OT control) from different public databases using linear model analysis.

RESULTS

A prominent significant transcriptomic over-representation of CD8+ and Treg cells was found in anti-Yo PCD OT, as compared to the OT control. However, the overall degree of immune cell infiltration was similar, according to the ESTIMATE immune score. We also found an under-representation of M2 macrophages in anti-Yo PCD OT. Furthermore, the differentially expressed genes were enriched for AIRE-related genes, a well-known transcription factor associated with a broad range of autoimmune diseases. Finally, we found that the differentially expressed genes were correlated to the transcriptomic profiling of the cerebellar structures.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data pinpointed the enrichment of acquired immune response, particularly high density of CD8+ lymphocytes, and high-level expression of CDR-related antigens in anti-Yo PCD OT.

The tumour suppressor OPCML promotes AXL inactivation by the phosphatase PTPRG in ovarian cancer

In ovarian cancer, the prometastatic RTK AXL promotes motility, invasion and poor prognosis. Here, we show that reduced survival caused by AXL overexpression can be mitigated by the expression of the GPI-anchored tumour suppressor OPCML Further, we demonstrate that AXL directly interacts with OPCML, preferentially so when AXL is activated by its ligand Gas6. As a consequence, AXL accumulates in cholesterol-rich lipid domains, where OPCML resides. Here, phospho-AXL is brought in proximity to the lipid domain-restricted phosphatase PTPRG, which de-phosphorylates the RTK/ligand complex. This prevents AXL-mediated transactivation of other RTKs (cMET and EGFR), thereby inhibiting sustained phospho-ERK signalling, induction of the EMT transcription factor Slug, cell migration and invasion. From a translational perspective, we show that OPCML enhances the effect of the phase II AXL inhibitor R428 in vitro and in vivo We therefore identify a novel mechanism by which two spatially restricted tumour suppressors, OPCML and PTPRG, coordinate to repress AXL-dependent oncogenic signalling.

The RNA binding protein SORBS2 suppresses metastatic colonization of ovarian cancer by stabilizing tumor-suppressive immunomodulatory transcripts

BACKGROUND

Ovarian cancer constitutes one of the most lethal gynecologic malignancies for females. Currently, early detection strategies and therapeutic options for ovarian cancer are far from satisfactory, leading to high diagnosis rates at late stages and disease relapses. New avenues of therapy are needed that target key processes in ovarian cancer progression. While a variety of non-coding RNAs have been proven to regulate ovarian cancer metastatic progression, the functional roles of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) in this process are less well defined.

RESULTS

In this study, we identify that the RBP sorbin and SH3 domain containing 2 (SORBS2) is a potent suppressor of ovarian cancer metastatic colonization. Mechanistic studies show that SORBS2 binds the 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) of WFDC1 (WAP four-disulfide core domain 1) and IL-17D (Interleukin-17D), two secreted molecules that are shown to act as metastasis suppressors. Enhanced expression of either WFDC1 or IL-17D potently represses SORBS2 depletion-mediated cancer metastasis promotion. By enhancing the stability of these gene transcripts, SORBS2 suppresses ovarian cancer invasiveness and affects monocyte to myeloid-derived suppressor cell and M2-like macrophage polarization, eliciting a tumor-suppressive immune microenvironment.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data illustrate a novel post-transcriptional network that links cancer progression and immunomodulation within the tumor microenvironment through SORBS2-mediated transcript stabilization.

MARCKS contributes to stromal cancer-associated fibroblast activation and facilitates ovarian cancer metastasis

The Cancer Genome Atlas network has revealed that the 'mesenchymal' epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) subtype represents the poorest outcome, indicating a crucial role of stromal cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in disease progression. The cooperative role of CAFs in EOC metastasis has long been recognized, but the mechanisms of stromal CAFs activation are still obscure. Therefore, we carried out an integrative analysis to identify the regulator genes that are responsible for CAFs activation in microdissected tumor stroma profiles. Here, we determined that myristoylated alanine-rich C-kinase substrate (MARCKS) was highly expressed in ovarian stroma, and was required for the differentiation and tumor promoting function of CAFs. Suppression of MARCKS resulted in the loss of CAF features, and diminished role of CAFs in supporting tumor cell growth in 3D organotypic cultures and in murine xenograft model. Mechanistically, we found that MARCKS maintained CAF activation through suppression of cellular senescence and activation of the AKT/Twist1 signaling. Moreover, high MARCKS expression was associated with poor patient survival in EOC. Collectively, our findings identify the potential of MARCKS inhibition as a novel stroma-oriented therapy in EOC.