Conventional cancer treatment strategies assume that maximum patient benefit is achieved through maximum killing of tumor cells. However, by eliminating the therapy-sensitive population, this strategy accelerates emergence of resistant clones that proliferate unopposed by competitors—an evolutionary phenomenon termed “competitive release.” We present an evolution-guided treatment strategy designed to maintain a stable population of chemosensitive cells that limit proliferation of resistant clones by exploiting the fitness cost of the resistant phenotype. We treated MDA-MB-231/luc triple-negative and MCF7 estrogen receptor–positive (ER+) breast cancers growing orthotopically in a mouse mammary fat pad with paclitaxel, using algorithms linked to tumor response monitored by magnetic resonance imaging. We found that initial control required more intensive therapy with regular application of drug to deflect the exponential tumor growth curve onto a plateau. Dose-skipping algorithms during this phase were less successful than variable dosing algorithms. However, once initial tumor control was achieved, it was maintained with progressively smaller drug doses. In 60 to 80% of animals, continued decline in tumor size permitted intervals as long as several weeks in which no treatment was necessary. Magnetic resonance images and histological analysis of tumors controlled by adaptive therapy demonstrated increased vascular density and less necrosis, suggesting that vascular normalization resulting from enforced stabilization of tumor volume may contribute to ongoing tumor control with lower drug doses. Our study demonstrates that an evolution-based therapeutic strategy using an available chemotherapeutic drug and conventional clinical imaging can prolong the progression-free survival in different preclinical models of breast cancer.

Mitosis occurs efficiently, but when it is disturbed or delayed, p53-dependent cell death or senescence is often triggered after mitotic exit. To characterize this process, we conducted CRISPR-mediated loss-of-function screens using a cell-based assay in which mitosis is consistently disturbed by centrosome loss. We identified 53BP1 and USP28 as essential components acting upstream of p53, evoking p21-dependent cell cycle arrest in response not only to centrosome loss, but also to other distinct defects causing prolonged mitosis. Intriguingly, 53BP1 mediates p53 activation independently of its DNA repair activity, but requiring its interacting protein USP28 that can directly deubiquitinate p53 in vitro and ectopically stabilize p53 in vivo. Moreover, 53BP1 can transduce prolonged mitosis to cell cycle arrest independently of the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), suggesting that while SAC protects mitotic accuracy by slowing down mitosis, 53BP1 and USP28 function in parallel to select against disturbed or delayed mitosis, promoting mitotic efficiency.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.16270.001

Expression of profilin-1 (Pfn1) is downregulated in breast cancer cells, the functional significance of which is yet to be understood. To address this question, in this study we evaluated how perturbing Pfn1 affects motility and invasion of breast cancer cells. We show that loss of Pfn1 expression leads to enhanced motility and matrigel invasiveness of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. Interestingly, silencing Pfn1 expression is associated with downregulation of both cell -cell and cell -matrix adhesions with concomitant increase in motility and dramatic scattering of normal human mammary epithelial cells. Thus, these data for the first time suggest that loss of Pfn1 expression may have significance in breast cancer progression. Consistent with these findings, even a moderate overexpression of Pfn1 induces actin stress-fibres, upregulates focal adhesion, and dramatically inhibits motility and matrigel invasiveness of MDA-MB-231 cells. Using mutants of Pfn1 that are defective in binding to either actin or proline-rich ligands, we further show that overexpressed Pfn1 must have a functional actin-binding site to suppress cell motility. Finally, animal experiments reveal that overexpression of Pfn1 suppresses orthotopic tumorigenicity and micro-metastasis of MDA-MB-231 cells in nude mice. These data imply that perturbing Pfn1 could be a good molecular strategy to limit the aggressiveness of breast cancer cells.

Profilin1, a ubiquitously expressed actin-binding protein, plays a critical role in cell migration through actin cytoskeletal regulation. Given the traditional view of profilin1 as a promigratory molecule, it is difficult to reconcile observations that profilin1 is down-regulated in various invasive adenocarcinomas and that reduced profilin1 expression actually confers increased motility to certain adenocarcinoma cells. In this study, we show that profilin1 negatively regulates lamellipodin targeting to the leading edge in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells and normal cells; profilin1 depletion increases lamellipodin concentration at the lamellipodial tip (where it binds Ena/VASP), and this mediates the hypermotility. We report that the molecular mechanism underlying profilin1's modulation of lamellipodin localization relates to phosphoinositide control. Specifically, we show that phosphoinositide binding of profilin1 inhibits the motility of MDA-MB-231 cells by negatively regulating PI(3,4)P 2 at the membrane and thereby limiting recruitment of lamellipodin [a PI(3,4)P 2 -binding protein] and Ena/ VASP to the leading edge. In summary, this study uncovers a unique biological consequence of profilin1-phosphoinositide interaction, thus providing direct evidence of profilin1's regulation of cell migration independent of its actin-related activity.T he ubiquitously expressed cytoskeleton-modulating protein profilin1 influences multiple processes involved in cell motility, making it a challenge to elucidate the exact molecular mechanism that controls migration. At least one major function of profilin1 is to regulate actin polymerization. Profilin1 regenerates actin monomers from disassembling filament networks by facilitating the exchange of ATP for ADP on G-actin. By further inhibiting spontaneous nucleation of G-actin, profilin1 causes an accumulation of profilin1/ATP-G-actin pool available for polymerization. Because profilin1 also has an affinity for poly-Lproline sequences, it binds to almost all major actin nucleating and F-actin elongating proteins that contain proline-rich domains [e.g., N-WASP (neuronal Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein), Ena (enabled)/VASP (vasodilator stimulated phosphoprotein), and formins], and this allows profilin1-mediated recruitment of ATP-G-actin to these proteins, enhancing actin polymerization (1, 2). In addition, profilin1 binds to plasma membrane presumably through its interactions with various phosphoinositides (3). Profilin1 binds to phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate [PI(4,5)P 2 ], phosphatidylinositol-3,4-bisphosphate [PI(3,4)P 2 ], and phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-triphosphate [PI(3,4,5) P 3 ]), at least in vitro (4). Based on PI(4,5)P 2 binding, it has been proposed that the phosphoinositide binding site of profilin1 overlaps with its actin-binding site (5), and to some extent spans a second region neighboring the polyproline binding site (6). This has prompted speculation that the major role of phosphoinositide binding of profilin1 would be to inhibit its interaction with act...

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