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The effects of s analgus RC-160and SMS-201-995 on tyrosine phosphatase and cell proliferation were investigated in COS-7 and NIH 3T3 cells expressing human somatostatin receptor subtype 1 or 2 (SSTR1 or SSTR2 antagonize the mitogenic effect of growth factors acting on tyrosine kinase receptors such as epidermal growth factor (EGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) (9-11). Furthermore, these analogues have been found to stimulate tyrosine phosphatase activity in normal and tumoral pancreatic cells (9,(12)(13)(14)(15) and to activate the dephosphorylation of EGF receptor (9, 16). The ability of somatostatin analogues to stimulate tyrosine phosphatase correlates with their inhibitory effect on pancreatic cell growth, and this correlation supports the hypothesis that the growth inhibition is mediated by dephosphorylation of tyrosine protein signals. Somatostatin analogues might suppress tumor growth by reversing the stimulatory effect of EGF on phosphorylation of EGF receptor tyrosine kinase and EGF-phosphorylated proteins (17). We also observed that a membrane tyrosine phosphatase is coeluted with somatostatin receptor, suggesting that tyrosine phosphatase may be a part ofthe signal transduction pathway promoted by somatostatin receptor occupancy (16).The somatostatin receptor subtypes and the molecular mechanism involved in the tyrosine phosphatase stimulation have been, until now, unknown (18, 19). We must better understand what physiological response every subtype elicits, how their signals are processed in the cell, and in what normal and/or pathological tissues each is expressed to choose the appropriate analogue for targeting to specific cells for therapeutic use.In the present study, we examined the effects of two somatostatin analogues, RC-160 and SMS, on binding and signal transduction pathways of the two human cloned somatostatin receptor subtypes hSSTR1 and hSSTR2 transiently expressed in COS-7 cells. We also investigated the 2315The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) core, known to be involved in liver carcinogenesis, is processed in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). We thus investigated the impact of three HCV core isolates on ER stress, ER calcium signalling and apoptosis. We show that HCV core constructs trigger hyperexpression of Grp78/BiP, Grp 94, calreticulin and sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase, inducing ER stress. By using the ER-targeted aequorin calcium probe, we found that ER calcium depletion follows ER stress in core-expressing cells. HCV core induces apoptosis through overexpression of the CHOP/ GADD153 proapoptotic factor, Bax translocation to mitochondria, mitochondrial membrane depolarization, cytochrome c release, caspase-3 and PARP cleavage. Furthermore, reversion of HCV core-induced ER calcium depletion (by transfection of SERCA2) completely abolished mitochondrial membrane depolarization, suggesting that both ER stress (through CHOP overexpression) and calcium signalling play a major role in the HCV core-mediated control of apoptosis. ER stress and apoptosis were also found in a proportion of HCV-fulllength replicon-expressing cells and in the liver of HCV core transgenic mice. In conclusion, our data demonstrate that HCV core deregulates the control of apoptosis by inducing ER stress and ER calcium depletion providing new elements to understand the mechanisms involved in HCV-related liver chronic diseases.

While the rationale exists for the use of somatostatin analogs as antitumor agents, studies are ongoing to identify analogs with activity across the range of receptor subtypes to maximize the potential of such treatment.

Effects of the stable somatostatin analogue RC-160 on cell proliferation, tyrosine phosphatase activity, and intracellular calcium concentration were investigated in CHO cells expressing the five somatostatin receptor subtypes SSTR1 to -5. Binding experiments were performed on crude membranes by using [12-5-labeled Tyr"]Jsomatostatin-14; RC-160 exhibited moderate-to-high affinities for SSTR2, -3, and -5 (ICs0, 0.17, 0.1, and 21 nM, respectively) and low affinity for SSTR1 and -4 (ICso, 200 and 620 nM, respectively). Cell proliferation was induced in CHO cells by 10%o (vol/vol) fetal calf serum, 1 ,uM insulin, or 0.1 ,uM cholecystokinin (CCK)-8; RC-160 inhibited serum-induced proliferation of CHO cells expressing SSTR2 and SSTR5 (EC50, 53 and 150 pM, respectively) but had no effect on growth of cells expressing SSTR1, -3, or -4. In SSTR2-expressing cells, orthovanadate suppressed the growth inhibitory effect of RC-160. This analogue inhibited insulin-induced proliferation and rapidly stimulated the activity of a tyrosine phosphatase in only this cellular clone. This latter effect was observed at doses ofRC-160 (ECsD, 4.6 pM) similar to those required to inhibit growth (EC50, 53 pM) and binding to the receptor (IC50, 170 pM), implicating tyrosine phosphatase as a transducer of the growth inhibition signal in SSTR2-expressing cells. In SSTR5-expressing cells, the phosphatase pathway was not involved in the inhibitory effect of RC-160 on cell growth, since this action was not influenced by tyrosine and serine/threonine phosphatase inhibitors. In addition, in SSTR5-expressing cells, RC-160 inhibited CCK-stimulated intracellular calcium mobilization at doses (EC50, 0.35 nM) similar to those necessary to inhibit somatostatin-14 binding (IC50, 21 nM) and CCK-induced cell proliferation (EC50, 1.1 nM). This suggests that the inositol phospholipid/calcium pathway could be involved in the antiproliferative effect of RC-160 mediated by SSTR5 in these cells. RC-160 had no effect on the basal or carbacholstimulated calcium concentration in cells expressing SSTR1 to -4. Thus, we conclude that SSTR2 and SSTR5 bind RC-160 with high affinity and mediate the RC-160-induced inhibition of cell growth by distinct mechanisms.Somatostatin is a tetradecapeptide with diverse biological effects on cellular function, including inhibition of secretory and proliferative processes (1, 2). These effects are mediated by specific receptors that belong to the guanine nucleotide binding protein (G-protein)-linked receptor family (3-7).Five somatostatin receptor subtypes SSTR1 to -5 and one splice variant have been cloned from human (h), murine (m), and rat (r) sources (3-7). After expression of SSTR gene clones in mammalian cell lines, distinct profiles for binding soma-The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact.tostatin analogues and functional coupling to adenylate cyclase v...

Despite tremendous efforts worldwide from clinicians and cancer scientists, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) remains a deadly disease for which no cure is available. Recently, microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as key actors in carcinogenesis and we demonstrated that microRNA-21 (miR-21), oncomiR is expressed early during PDA. In the present study, we asked whether targeting miR-21 in human PDA-derived cell lines using lentiviral vectors (LVs) may impede tumor growth. We demonstrated that LVs-transduced human PDA efficiently downregulated miR-21 expression, both in vitro and in vivo. Consequently, cell proliferation was strongly inhibited and PDA-derived cell lines died by apoptosis through the mitochondrial pathway. In vivo, miR-21 depletion stopped the progression of a very aggressive model of PDA, to induce cell death by apoptosis; furthermore, combining miR-21 targeting and chemotherapeutic treatment provoked tumor regression. We demonstrate herein for the first time that targeting oncogenic miRNA strongly inhibit pancreatic cancer tumor growth both in vitro and in vivo. Because miR-21 is overexpressed in most human tumors; therapeutic delivery of miR-21 antagonists may still be beneficial for a large number of cancers for which no cure is available.

BackgroundNormal tissue homeostasis is maintained by dynamic interactions between epithelial cells and their microenvironment. Disrupting this homeostasis can induce aberrant cell proliferation, adhesion, function and migration that might promote malignant behavior. Indeed, aberrant stromal-epithelial interactions contribute to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) spread and metastasis, and this raises the possibility that novel stroma-targeted therapies represent additional approaches for combating this malignant disease. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of human stromal cells derived from adipose tissue (ADSC) on pancreatic tumor cell proliferation.Principal FindingsCo-culturing pancreatic tumor cells with ADSC and ADSC-conditioned medium sampled from different donors inhibited cancer cell viability and proliferation. ADSC-mediated inhibitory effect was further extended to other epithelial cancer-derived cell lines (liver, colon, prostate). ADSC conditioned medium induced cancer cell necrosis following G1-phase arrest, without evidence of apoptosis. In vivo, a single intra-tumoral injection of ADSC in a model of pancreatic adenocarcinoma induced a strong and long-lasting inhibition of tumor growth.ConclusionThese data indicate that ADSC strongly inhibit PDAC proliferation, both in vitro and in vivo and induce tumor cell death by altering cell cycle progression. Therefore, ADSC may constitute a potential cell-based therapeutic alternative for the treatment of PDAC for which no effective cure is available.

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has the poorest overall prognosis among gastrointestinal cancers; however, curative resection in early-stage PDAC greatly improves survival rates, indicating the importance of early detection. Because abnormal microRNA production is commonly detected in cancer, we investigated noninvasive precursor pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) lesions for microRNA production as a potential early biomarker of PDAC.