CD99 triggering induces a novel processes of death in Ewing's sarcoma cells involving reactivation of p53 functions and RAS upregulation.
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ABSTRACT: CD99 is a transmembrane protein, whose expression is constantly associated to EwingM-bM-^@M-^Ys Sarcoma (EWS), a class of pediatric bone tumors with particular poor prognosis. We previously reported that engagement of CD99 leads to massive and rapid EWS cell death through a non-canonical path. Here we report that death occurs through a novel mechanism starting from classical apoptotic features, such as phosphatydilserine exposure on cell surface and mitochondrial depolarization and ending with massive cytoplasmic hypervacuolization (autophagosomes and micropinosomes). Mechanistically, CD99 induces upregulation of IGFI-R and RAS and rapid MDM2 degradation, which leads to p53 reactivation. We propose that upon CD99 engagement and subsequent p53 reactivation, the EWS-ets oncogene becomes insufficient to sustain EWS transformation; in this context, up-regulated RAS, deprived of a cooperating oncogenic stimulus, might contribute to the delivery of fatal rather than pro-survival signal. The most CD99-responsive EWS cells have either wild type or transcriptional active P53, though mutated, and greatly benefit from MDM2 degradation. Due to the low rate of P53 inactivating mutations in EWS patients, these findings sustain CD99-targeting with specific MAbs either to directly kill EWS cells or to increase sensitivity to chemotherapy. By recruiting also RAS, CD99 delivers a signal which exceeds that of drugs designed exclusive to reactivate p53 functions, besides being easily druggable Ewing Sarcoma cell lines 6647 control or treated with the anti-CD99 0662 MAb were profiled to discover mechanisms related to CD99 targeting. Treated cells were compared to control cells after 30, 60 and 120 minutes of exposure to 0662 (10M-BM-5g/ml); all treatments are in duplicate.
Project description:CD99 is a transmembrane protein, whose expression is constantly associated to Ewing’s Sarcoma (EWS), a class of pediatric bone tumors with particular poor prognosis. We previously reported that engagement of CD99 leads to massive and rapid EWS cell death through a non-canonical path. Here we report that death occurs through a novel mechanism starting from classical apoptotic features, such as phosphatydilserine exposure on cell surface and mitochondrial depolarization and ending with massive cytoplasmic hypervacuolization (autophagosomes and micropinosomes). Mechanistically, CD99 induces upregulation of IGFI-R and RAS and rapid MDM2 degradation, which leads to p53 reactivation. We propose that upon CD99 engagement and subsequent p53 reactivation, the EWS-ets oncogene becomes insufficient to sustain EWS transformation; in this context, up-regulated RAS, deprived of a cooperating oncogenic stimulus, might contribute to the delivery of fatal rather than pro-survival signal. The most CD99-responsive EWS cells have either wild type or transcriptional active P53, though mutated, and greatly benefit from MDM2 degradation. Due to the low rate of P53 inactivating mutations in EWS patients, these findings sustain CD99-targeting with specific MAbs either to directly kill EWS cells or to increase sensitivity to chemotherapy. By recruiting also RAS, CD99 delivers a signal which exceeds that of drugs designed exclusive to reactivate p53 functions, besides being easily druggable
Project description:Ewing sarcoma (EWS) is an aggressive pediatric bone tumor characterized by unmet clinical needs and an incompletely understood epigenetic heterogeneity. Here we considered CD99, a major surface molecule hallmark of EWS malignancy. Fluctuations of CD99 expression strongly impair cell dissemination, differentiation, and death. CD99 is also loaded within extracellular vesicles (EVs) and the delivery of CD99 positive or CD99 negative EVs dynamically exerts oncogenic or oncosuppressive functions to recipient cells, respectively. We undertook mass spectrometry and functional annotation analysis to investigate the consequences of CD99 silencing on the proteomic landscape of EWS cells and related EVs. Our data demonstrate that i. the decrease of CD99 leads to major changes in the proteomic profile of EWS cells and EVs; ii. intracellular and extracellular compartments display two distinct signatures of differentially expressed proteins; iii. proteomic changes converge to the modulation of cell migration and immune-modulation biological processes; iv. CD99-silenced cells and related EVs are characterized by a migration-suppressive, pro-immunostimulatory proteomic profile. Overall, our data provide a novel source of CD99-associated protein biomarkers to be considered for further validation as mediators of EWS malignancy and as EWS disease liquid biopsy markers.
Project description:Ewing sarcoma (EWS) is an aggressive bone tumor of uncertain cellular origin. CD99 is a membrane protein that is expressed in most cases of EWS, although its function in the disease is unknown. Here we have shown that endogenous CD99 expression modulates EWS tumor differentiation and malignancy. We determined that knocking down CD99 expression in human EWS cell lines reduced their ability to form tumors and bone metastases when xenografted into immunodeficient mice and diminished their tumorigenic characteristics in vitro. Further, reduction of CD99 expression resulted in neurite outgrowth and increased expression of β-III tubulin and markers of neural differentiation. Analysis of a panel of human EWS cells revealed an inverse correlation between CD99 and H-neurofilament expression, as well as an inverse correlation between neural differentiation and oncogenic transformation. As knockdown of CD99 also led to an increase in phosphorylation of ERK1/2, we suggest that the CD99-mediated prevention of neural differentiation of EWS occurs through MAPK pathway modulation. Together, these data indicate a new role for CD99 in preventing neural differentiation of EWS cells and suggest that blockade of CD99 or its downstream molecular pathway may be a new therapeutic approach for EWS.
Project description:Ewing sarcoma (EwS), a highly aggressive malignancies affecting children and young adults, is primarily driven by a distinctive oncogenic fusion (EWSR1-ETS), whose activity is a principal source of epigenetic and clinical heterogeneity. However, another molecule (CD99) is constantly present in EWS cells. Despite the fact that this molecule is widely reported to modulate EWS genetic profile and tumor malignancy, the relevance of CD99 alone or in association with the chimera has been largely ignored. In this study, we explored the dynamic relationship between EWS::FLI1, the main fusion observed in EWS, and CD99 through experimental inducible models for the expression of one or the other molecule. The transcriptome of cells with or without expression of EWS::FLI or CD99 were analyzed in dynamics and associated with in tumor cell growth. CD99-associated EWS gene profile was found to have commonalities with that induced by EWS::FLI but also some peculiar diversities. In particular, both EWS::FLI and CD99 regulates targets of the DREAM complex but CD99 expression specifically impacts on those genes that are targets of FOXM1 and involved in the setting of G2/M phase of cell cycle. Most of these CD99-regulated genes were found to be associated to worst clinical prognosis in two different clinical datasets on the freely available R2 platform , further supporting the clinical relevance of CD99-mediated regulation of EWS gene expression.
Project description:Ewing sarcoma (EWS) is an aggressive mesenchymal tumor with unmet clinical need and significant social impacts on children, adolescents and young adults. CD99, a hallmark surface molecule of EWS, participates in crucial biological processes including cell migration, differentiation and death. EWS cells can release CD99 through exosomes, specialized extracellular vesicles with major cell communication roles. Here we show that, as a consequence of CD99 silencing, EWS cells deliver exosomes with oncosuppressive functions which significantly reduce tumor aggressiveness. These CD99-lacking microvesicles modulate gene expression of the EWS recipient cells, reduce proliferation and migration, in turn inducing a more differentiated less malignant phenotype. The most relevant effects were detected on the AP-1 signaling pathway whose regulation was found to be dependent on the specific cargo loaded in vesicles after CD99 shutdown. Investigation of the miRNA content of CD99-deprived exosomes identified miR-199a-3p as a key driver to reverse EWS malignancy in experimental models as well as in clinical specimens. All together our data provide evidence that the abrogation of CD99 in EWS tumor cells leads to produce and release exosomes capable to transfer their antineoplastic effects into the nearby tumor cells, suggesting a novel atypical role for these microvesicles in reversion of malignancy rather than in priming the soil for progression and metastatic seeding. This conceptually innovative approach might offer a new therapeutic opportunity to treat a tumor still refractory to most treatments.
Project description:Ewing sarcoma (ES) is the second most common pediatric malignancy of the bones and soft tissue, but few advances in therapeutic options have been made over the past several decades. A characteristic feature of ES that and an attractive therapeutic targets is the EWS-FLI1 fusion protein. A small molecule inhibitor of EWS-FLI1, YK-4-279 was as a targeted therapy option for Ewing sarcoma patients. A YK-4-279 analog, TK216, is currently in clinical trial. With any targeted therapy, there is always the risk that tumors will become resistant and stop responding to treatment. Here, we investigated resistance mechanisms to YK-4-279 (YK) by developing ES cell lines specifically resistant to YK. We found that expression of the cell surface protein CD99 was elevated in YK-resistant cells. Increased CD99 expression occurs within five days of YK treatment in vivo. When CD99 expression is reduced by shRNA, resistant cells regain sensitivity to YK but reducing CD99 expression in non-resistant cells does not affect sensitivity. Little is known about CD99 function in the context of Ewing sarcoma, but the data presented here indicates the function of CD99 is altered upon acquisition of YK resistance, and that CD99 serves a critical function in developed resistance to YK-4-279. RNA sequencing analysis yielded candidate genes that may also be involved in the YK resistance mechanism. We identified a potential modulator of CD99 function, ANO1, a member of the ANO family and a participant in membrane-bound ion channel activity. CD99 has previously been linked with membrane-associated ion channels. A functional association between the two proteins remains to be investigated.
Project description:CD99 triggering induces a novel processes of death in Ewing's sarcoma cells involving reactivation of p53 functions and RAS upregulation.
Project description:RNA-sequencing was performed to gain insight into the mechanism responsible for the apoptosis and cell cycle arrest induced by loss of Mdm2 in p53-null cells. Following CreERT2-mediated deletion of Mdm2 in three p53-null cell types (T cell lymphoma, sarcoma, and fibroblasts), RNA-sequencing was performed. This high-throughput data revealed Mdm2 deletion in p53-null cells upregulated p53/p73 transcriptional target genes known to induce apoptosis and cell cycle arrest.
Project description:The t(11;22)(p13;q12) translocation is pathognomonic for the highly aggressive desmoplastic small round cell tumour (DSRCT). The translocation fuses exon 7 of the EWS gene to exon 8 of the WT1 gene (EWS/WT1). Two splice variants of EWS/WT1 exist, arising from the presence (+KTS) or absence (-KTS) of three amino acids: lysine, threonine and serine between zinc fingers 3 and 4. To investigate the oncogenic properties of both isoforms of EWS/WT1, we over-expressed EWS/WT1 in untransformed murine embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). We demonstrate that neither isoform of EWS/WT1 is sufficient to transform wild type MEFs, however the oncogenic potential of both isoforms is unmasked by the loss of p53. Expression of EWS/WT1 in MEFs lacking at least one allele of p53 resulted in enhanced cell proliferation, clonogenic survival and anchorage-independent growth. In addition EWS/WT1 expression in wild type MEFs attenuated several p53-dependent responses, including cell cycle arrest after irradiation and daunorubicin induced apoptosis. We show that DSRCT commonly have copy number amplification of MDM2 and MDMX, suggesting loss of p53 function in the tumours. Expression of either isoform of EWS/WT1 in MEFs induced characteristic mRNA expression profiles, including up-regulation of canonical Wnt pathway signaling. This was validated in cell lines and in a series of DSCRT, which confirmed canonical Wnt pathway activation in the tumours. We show for the first time that both isoforms of EWS/WT1 have oncogenic potential and that in addition to co-operating with loss of p53 function can also further attenuate p53-mediated responses. In addition we provide the first link between EWS/WT1 and Wnt pathway signaling. These data provide novel insights into the function of the EWS/WT1 fusion protein which characterizes DSCRT. Four independently generated pools of wild type MEFs were infected with tetracycline repressible EWS/WT1+KTS, EWS/WT1-KTS or GFP, selected with hygromycin and protein expression confirmed. Four GFP, four KTS+ and four KTS- samples were hybridized to the Ilumina BeadChip.
Project description:Relapse after allo-HCT is a major cause of death of AML patients and results from immune evasion of AML blasts. Dysfunction of the p53 signaling pathway is frequent in AML and often caused by upregulation of the central p53 negative regulator Murine Double Minute 2 (MDM2). Besides its oncogenic effects p53 also regulates immune function and immune surveillance of solid cancer. We hypothesize that p53 also controls immune-related genes in AML cells and that p53 reactivation via MDM2-inhibition may enhance the immunogenicity of AML cells to allogeneic T cells.