The BRAF V600E mutation causes impaired expression of sodium iodide symporter (NIS) and radioiodine refractoriness of thyroid cancer, but the underlying mechanism remains undefined. In this study, we hypothesized that histone deacetylation at the NIS (SLC5A5) promoter was the mechanism. Using the chromatin immunoprecipitation approach, we examined histone acetylation status on the lysine residues H3K9/14, H3K18, total H4, and H4K16 at the NIS promoter under the influence of BRAF V600E. We found that expression of stably or transiently transfected BRAF V600E inhibited NIS expression while the deacetylase inhibitor SAHA stimulated NIS expression in PCCL3 rat thyroid cells. Although BRAF V600E enhanced global histone acetylation, it caused histone deacetylation at the NIS promoter while SAHA caused acetylation in the cells. In human thyroid cancer BCPAP cells harboring homozygous BRAF V600E mutation, BRAF V600E inhibitor, PLX4032, and MEK inhibitor, AZD6244, increased histone acetylation of the NIS promoter, suggesting that BRAF V600E normally maintained histone in a deacetylated state at the NIS promoter. The regions most commonly affected with deacetylation by BRAF V600E were the transcriptionally active areas upstream of the translation start that contained important transcription factor binding sites, including nucleotides −297/−107 in the rat NIS promoter and −692/−370 in the human NIS promoter. Our findings not only reveal an epigenetic mechanism for BRAF V600E-promoted NIS silencing involving histone deacetylation at critical regulatory regions of the NIS promoter but also provide further support for our previously proposed combination therapy targeting major signaling pathways and histone deacetylase to restore thyroid gene expression for radioiodine treatment of thyroid cancer.

This is an Open Access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC) (www.karger.com/OA-license), applicable to the online version of the article only. Distribution permitted for non-commercial purposes only. Department of AbstractBackground/Aims: Cancer cells are resistant to ischemia and starvation. Glioma-associated oncogene homolog 1 (Gli1) is a positive transcriptional activator of Hedgehog (Hh) pathway and plays an essential role in the development of cancers, including breast cancer. However, how Gli1 promotes cell survival remains elusive. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the pro-survival effect of Gli1 under serum starvation and its molecular mechanism in ERpositive breast cancer cells. Methods: Gene expression was determined by quantitative realtime PCR (QRT-PCR) and Western blot. The survival of Gli1 stably transfected ER-positive breast cancer cell lines (Gli1-MCF-7 and Gli1-T47D cells) and their untransfected control cells was estimated by WST-8 assay. Microarray analysis was performed to screen downstream Hh/Gli1 target genes in Gli1-overexpressed MCF-7 cells. Transcriptional activities of NFkappaB were measured by luciferase assays. ChIP analysis was performed to explore whether cIAP2 was a direct target gene of Gli1. Results: Serum starvation significantly up-regulated the expression of Gli1 gene through activating PI3K/AKT pathway. Over-expression of Gli1 markedly promoted cell survival under serum starvation. Microarray analysis revealed that 338 genes were differentially expressed in Gli1-MCF-7 cells compared with those in the control cells. Among these genes, cellular inhibitor of apoptosis 2 (cIAP2), coding an anti-apoptosis and pro-survival protein, was significantly up-regulated not only by Hh/Gli1 pathway, but also by serum starvation. However, ChIP assay revealed no binding of Gli1 to cIAP2 promoter at the region of -1792 to -1568bp. Moreover, over-expression of Gli1 resulted in enhanced transactivation of transcriptional factor NF-κB. Suppression of NF-κB signaling with NF-κB inhibitor J. Xu and G. Huang contributed equally to this work.