Cells respond to the shift of intracellular environment toward pro-oxidant conditions by activating the transcription of numerous "antioxidant" genes. This response is based on the activation of the Nrf2 transcription factor, which transactivates the genes containing in their promoters the antioxidant response cis-elements (AREs). If the oxidative stress provokes DNA damage, a second response of the cell takes place, based on the activation of p53, which induces cell cycle arrest and/or apoptosis. Here we have explored the cross-talk between these two regulatory mechanisms. The results show that p53 counteracts the Nrf2-induced transcription of three ARE-containing promoters of the x-CT, NQO1, and GST-␣1 genes. Endogenous transcripts of these antioxidant genes accumulate as a consequence of Nrf2 overexpression or exposure to electrophile diethylmaleate, but these effects are again blocked by p53 overexpression or endogenous p53 activation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments support the hypothesis that this p53-dependent trans-repression is due to the direct interaction of p53 with the ARE-containing promoters. Considering that p53-induced apoptosis requires an accumulation of reactive oxygen species, this negative control on the Nrf2 transactivation appears to be aimed to prevent the generation of a strong antioxidant intracellular environment that could hinder the induction of apoptosis.

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common type of bone cancer, with a peak incidence in the early childhood. Emerging evidence suggests that treatments targeting cancer stem cells (CSCs) within a tumor can halt cancer and improve patient survival. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in the maintenance of the CSC phenotype, thus, identification of CSC-related miRNAs would provide information for a better understanding of CSCs. Downregulation of miRNA-29 family members (miR-29a/b/c; miR-29s) was observed in human OS, however, little is known about the functions of miR-29s in human OS CSCs. Previously, during the characterization of 3AB-OS cells, a CSC line selected from human OS MG63 cells, we showed a potent downregulation of miR-29b. In this study, after stable transfection of 3AB-OS cells with miR-29b-1, we investigated the role of miR-29b-1 in regulating cell proliferation, sarcosphere-forming ability, clonogenic growth, chemosensitivity, migration and invasive ability of 3AB-OS cells, in vitro. We found that, miR-29b-1 overexpression consistently reduced both, 3AB-OS CSCs growth in two- and three-dimensional culture systems and their sarcosphere- and colony-forming ability. In addition, while miR-29b-1 overexpression sensitized 3AB-OS cells to chemotherapeutic drug-induced apoptosis, it did not influence their migratory and invasive capacities, thus suggesting a context-depending role of miR-29b-1. Using publicly available databases, we proceeded to identify potential miR-29b target genes, known to play a role in the above reported functions. Among these targets we analyzed CD133, N-Myc, CCND2, E2F1 and E2F2, Bcl-2 and IAP-2. We also analyzed the most important stemness markers as Oct3/4, Sox2 and Nanog. Real-time RT-PCR and western-blot analyses showed that miR-29b-1 negatively regulated the expression of these markers. Overall, the results show that miR-29b-1 suppresses stemness properties of 3AB-OS CSCs and suggest that developing miR-29b-1 as a novel therapeutic agent might offer benefits for OS treatment.

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a highly aggressive tumor of the serous membranes for which there is currently no effective curative modality. Recent data suggest that hyperactivation of the tyrosine kinase SRC has a key role in MM development and therefore this kinase represents an important molecular target for MM therapy. We tested new pyrazolo [3,4-d]pyrimidine SRC inhibitors on a panel of MM cell lines expressing the active form of SRC. These SRC inhibitors exerted a significant proapoptotic effect on MM cells without affecting the normal mesothelial cell line MET-5A, supporting a possible use of these SRC inhibitors for a safe treatment of MM. We also showed that SRC inhibitor-induced apoptosis occurred concomitantly with an increase in the nuclear stability of the cyclindependent kinase inhibitor p27. This finding is remarkable considering that loss of nuclear p27 expression is a wellestablished adverse prognostic factor in MM, and p27 nuclear localization is crucial for its tumor-suppressive function. Consistently, SRC inhibition seems to promote the increase in p27 nuclear level also by inactivating the AKT kinase and downregulating cyclin D1, which would otherwise delay p27 nuclear import and provoke its cytoplasmic accumulation. To determine whether p27 stabilization has a direct role in apoptosis induced by SRC inhibition, we stably silenced the CDKN1B gene, encoding p27, in MSTO-211H and REN mesothelioma cells by transduction with lentiviral vectors expressing short hairpin RNAs against the CDKN1B transcript. Strikingly, p27 silencing was able to suppress the apoptosis induced by these SRC inhibitors in both MM cell lines, suggesting that p27 has a crucial proapoptotic role in MM cells treated with SRC inhibitors. Our findings reveal a new mechanism, dependent on p27 nuclear stabilization, by which SRC inhibition can induce apoptosis in MM cells and provide a new rationale for the use of SRC inhibitors in MM therapy.

Osteosarcoma (OS), an aggressive highly invasive and metastatic bone-malignancy, shows therapy resistance and recurrence, two features that likely depend on cancer stem cells (CSCs), which hold both self-renewing and malignant potential. So, effective anticancer therapies against OS should specifically target and destroy CSCs. We previously found that the let-7d microRNA was downregulated in the 3AB-OS-CSCs, derived from the human OS-MG63 cells. Here, we aimed to assess whether let-7d modulation affected tumorigenic and stemness properties of these OS-CSCs. We found that let-7d-overexpression reduced cell proliferation by decreasing CCND2 and E2F2 cell-cycle-activators and increasing p21 and p27 CDK-inhibitors. Let-7d also decreased sarcosphere-and-colony forming ability, two features associated with self-renewing, and it reduced the expression of stemness genes, including Oct3/4, Sox2, Nanog, Lin28B, and HMGA2. Moreover, let-7d induced mesenchymal-to-epithelial-transition, as shown by both N-Cadherin-E-cadherin-switch and decrease in vimentin. Surprisingly, such switch was accompanied by enhanced migratory/invasive capacities, with a strong increase in MMP9, CXCR4 and VersicanV1. Let-7d- overexpression also reduced cell sensitivity to apoptosis induced by both serum-starvation and various chemotherapy drugs, concomitant with decrease in caspase-3 and increase in BCL2 expression. Our data suggest that let-7d in 3AB-OS-CSCs could induce plastic-transitions from CSCs-to-non-CSCs and vice-versa. To our knowledge this is the first study to comprehensively examine the expression and functions of let-7d in OS-CSCs. By showing that let-7d has both tumor suppressor and oncogenic functions in this context, our findings suggest that, before prospecting new therapeutic strategies based on let-7d modulation, it is urgent to better define its multiple functions. J. Cell. Physiol. 231: 1832-1841, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

No abstract

Recent data suggest that SRC family kinases (SFKs) could represent potential therapeutic targets for rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), the most common soft-tissue sarcoma in children. Here, we assessed the effect of a recently developed selective SFK inhibitor (a pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine derivative, called SI221) on RMS cell lines. SI221, which showed to be mainly effective against the SFK member YES, significantly reduced cell viability and induced apoptosis, without affecting non-tumor cells, such as primary human skin fibroblasts and differentiated C2C12 cells. Moreover, SI221 decreased in vitro cell migration and invasion and reduced tumor growth in a RMS xenograft model. SFK inhibition also induced muscle differentiation in RMS cells by affecting the NOTCH3 receptor-p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) axis, which regulates the balance between proliferation and differentiation. Overall, our findings suggest that SFK inhibition, besides reducing RMS cell growth and invasive potential, could also represent a differentiation therapeutic strategy for RMS.

No abstract

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive cancer, related to asbestos exposure, which has a dismal prognosis. MPM diagnosis is late and often challenging, suggesting the need to identify more reliable molecular biomarkers. Here, we set out to identify differentially expressed miRNAs in epithelioid, biphasic, and sarcomatoid MPMs versus normal mesothelium and explored specific miRNA contribution to mesothelial tumorigenesis. We screened an LNA™-based miRNA-microrray with 14 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) MPMs and 6 normal controls. Through real-time qRT-PCR we extended the analysis of a miRNA subset and further investigated miR-320a role through state-of-the-art techniques. We identified 16 upregulated and 32 downregulated miRNAs in MPMs versus normal tissue, including the previously identified potential biomarkers miR-21, miR-126, miR-143, miR-145. We showed in an extended series that miR-145, miR-10b, and miR-320a levels can discriminate tumor versus controls with high specificity and sensitivity. We focused on miR-320a because other family members were found downregulated in MPMs. However, stable miR-320a ectopic expression induced higher proliferation and migration ability, whereas miR-320a silencing reduced these processes, not supporting a classic tumor-suppressor role in MPM cell lines. Among putative targets, we found that miR-320a binds the 3′-UTR of the immune inhibitory receptor ligand PDL1 and, consistently, miR-320a modulation affects PDL1 levels in MPM cells. Finally, we showed that p53 over-expression induces the upregulation of miR-320a, along with miR-200a and miR-34a, both known to target PDL1, and reduces PDL1 levels in MPM cells. Our data suggest that PDL1 expression might be due to a defective p53-regulated miRNA response, which could contribute to MPM immune evasion or tumorigenesis through tumor-intrinsic roles.