Summary Cancer cell lines are major model systems for mechanistic investigation and drug development. However, protein expression data linked to high-quality DNA, RNA and drug screening data have not been available across a large number of cancer cell lines. Using reverse-phase protein arrays, we measured expression levels of ∼230 key cancer-related proteins in >650 independent cell lines, many of which have publically available genomic, transcriptomic and drug screening data. Our dataset recapitulates the effects of mutated pathways on protein expression observed in patient samples, and demonstrates that proteins and particularly phosphoproteins provide information for predicting drug sensitivity that is not available from the corresponding mRNAs. We also developed a user-friendly bioinformatic resource, MCLP, to help serve the biomedical research community.

About half of all melanomas harbor a mutation that results in a constitutively active BRAF kinase mutant (BRAF V600E/K ) that can be selectively inhibited by targeted BRAF inhibitors (BRAFis). While patients treated with BRAFis initially exhibit measurable clinical improvement, the majority of patients eventually develop drug resistance and relapse. Here, we observed marked elevation of WNT5A in a subset of tumors from patients exhibiting disease progression on BRAFi therapy. WNT5A transcript and protein were also elevated in BRAFiresistant melanoma cell lines generated by long-term in vitro treatment with BRAFi. RNAi-mediated reduction of endogenous WNT5A in melanoma decreased cell growth, increased apoptosis in response to BRAFi challenge, and decreased the activity of prosurvival AKT signaling. Conversely, overexpression of WNT5A promoted melanoma growth, tumorigenesis, and activation of AKT signaling. Similarly to WNT5A knockdown, knockdown of the WNT receptors FZD7 and RYK inhibited growth, sensitized melanoma cells to BRAFi, and reduced AKT activation. Together, these findings suggest that chronic BRAF inhibition elevates WNT5A expression, which promotes AKT signaling through FZD7 and RYK, leading to increased growth and therapeutic resistance. Furthermore, increased WNT5A expression in BRAFi-resistant melanomas correlates with a specific transcriptional signature, which identifies potential therapeutic targets to reduce clinical BRAFi resistance.

HLA-E is a non-classical MHC molecule whose expression by tumour cells has been recently reported in several human cancer types. We studied HLA-E expression in colorectal cancer patients, its clinical significance and prognostic value, as well as characterized its expression in colorectal cancer cell lines. We analysed HLA-E expression at the transcript level by qRT-PCR in micro-dissected samples and at the protein level by semiquantitative immunohistochemistry on paraffin-embedded tissue sections from 42 biopsies of colorectal cancer patients. We observed that HLA-E transcript and protein are spontaneously overexpressed in a significant proportion of colorectal tumour biopsies, as compared to normal mucosae. We also found a negative correlation between HLA-E expression and the CD57 + cells infiltrate. Moreover, we analysed HLA-E expression in several colorectal cancer cell lines and demonstrated that IFN-γ upregulates the expression of membrane HLA-E in vitro. Interestingly, we demonstrated that colorectal cancer cell lines overexpressing HLA-E at the cell surface inhibited NK-mediated cell lysis. Although IFN-γ regulatory role needs further investigation, we provide evidence suggesting that this cytokine, within the tumour microenvironment, could promote HLA-E translocation to the surface of tumour epithelial cells. Furthermore, we showed that upregulation of HLA-E could be a marker of shorter disease-free survival in Dukes' C patients and we suggest that this molecule renders tumours less susceptible to immune attack.

Background: In the present study, we demonstrate, in rigorous fashion, that human monocyte-derived immature dendritic cells (DCs) can efficiently cross-present tumor-associated antigens when co-cultured with a mixture of human melanoma cells rendered apoptotic/necrotic by γ irradiation (Apo-Nec cells).