Project description:Although radiotherapy is a well-known effective non-surgical treatment for malignant gliomas, the therapeutic efficacy is severely limited due to the radioresistance of tumor cells. Previously, we demonstrated that Yes-associated protein (YAP) promotes glioma malignant progression. However, whether YAP plays a role in radioresistance and its potential value in cancer treatment are still unclear. In this study, we found that high YAP expression is associated with poor prognosis in malignant glioma patients undergoing radiotherapy. Research in immortalized cell lines and primary cells from GBM patients revealed that YAP exhibited a radioresistant effect on gliomas via promoting DNA damage repair. Mechanistically, after radiation, YAP was translocated into the nucleus, where it promoted the expression and secretion of FGF2, leading to MAPK-ERK pathway activation. FGF2 is a novel target gene of YAP. Inhibition of YAP-FGF2-MAPK signaling sensitizes gliomas to radiotherapy and prolongs the survival of intracranial cell-derived and patient-derived xenograft models. These results suggest that YAP-FGF2-MAPK is a key mechanism of radioresistance and is an actionable target for improving radiotherapy efficacy.
Project description:Tea domain transcription factor 4 (TEAD4) plays a pivotal role in tissue development and homeostasis by interacting with Yes-associated protein (YAP) in response to Hippo signaling inactivation. TEAD4 and YAP can also cooperate with transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)-activated Smad proteins to regulate gene transcription. Yet, it remains unclear whether TEAD4 plays a YAP-independent role in TGF-β signaling. Here, we unveil a novel tumor suppressive function of TEAD4 in liver cancer via mitigating TGF-β signaling. Ectopic TEAD4 inhibited TGF-β-induced signal transduction, Smad transcriptional activity, and target gene transcription, consequently suppressing hepatocellular carcinoma cell proliferation and migration in vitro and xenograft tumor growth in mice. Consistently, depletion of endogenous TEAD4 by siRNAs enhanced TGF-β signaling in cancer cells. Mechanistically, TEAD4 associates with receptor-regulated Smads (Smad2/3) and Smad4 in the nucleus, thereby impairing the binding of Smad2/3 to the histone acetyltransferase p300. Intriguingly, these negative effects of TEAD4 on TGF-β/Smad signaling are independent of YAP, as impairing the TEAD4-YAP interaction through point mutagenesis or depletion of YAP and/or its paralog TAZ has little effect. Together, these results unravel a novel function of TEAD4 in fine tuning TGF-β signaling and liver cancer progression in a YAP-independent manner.
Project description:Yes-associated protein (YAP) is involved in development, cell growth, cell size, and homeostasis and plays a key role in the progression of various cancers. Among them, constitutive activation of YAP can often be observed in malignant mesothelioma, which arises in the pleura, peritoneum, and pericardium because of inactivation of the Hippo pathway. To date, however, only less-effective treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery are available for patients with malignant mesothelioma. In this study, we identified narciclasine as a novel YAP inhibitor that prevents YAP from interacting with TEAD4 because it competes with TEAD4 for binding to YAP. Furthermore, narciclasine could perturb the cell growth and colony formation of malignant mesothelioma NCI-H290 cells in addition to inhibiting their growth in nude mice. Therefore, narciclasine might be a potential seed for a novel antitumor drug against malignant mesothelioma and other cancers in which hyperactivation and/or overexpression of YAP are observed.
Project description:Based on the RNA-sequencing data, previous studies revealed that extracellular matrix receptor interaction and focal adhesion signaling pathways were enriched in radioresistant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines. As the principal members of these signaling pathways, recent studies showed that FAK controlled YAP's nuclear translocation and activation in response to mechanical activation. However, the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. This study was designed to determine whether P130cas plays a role in FAK-YAP axis-mediated radioresistance. We found that P130cas promoted proliferation, altered the cell cycle profile, and enhanced tumor growth using cell lines and xenograft mouse models. After treating the cell lines and xenograft models with a single dose of 5 Gy irradiation, we observed that P130cas effectively induced radioresistance in vitro and in vivo. We confirmed that P130cas interacted with and promoted YAP stabilization, thereby facilitating YAP's activation and nuclear translocation and downregulating the radiosensitivity of NSCLC. Our data also revealed that P130cas and FAK directly interacted with each other and worked together to regulate YAP's activation and nuclear translocation. Furthermore, the present study identified that P130cas, FAK and YAP formed a triple complex to induce radioresistance. Using P130cas-ΔSH3, FAK- P712/715A mutant, YAP-ΔSH3bm and YAP-ΔWW mutant, our results showed that targeting P130cas-FAK interaction may be a more cost-effective way to overcome the YAP activation mediated radioresistance in NSCLC. Using the data of the public database and our clinical samples, the present study suggested that the expression of P130cas correlated with YAP expression and indicated a poor overall response rate of NSCLC patients who underwent radiation therapy. Overall, our study extends the knowledge of FAK-YAP interaction and provides new insight into understanding the underlying mechanisms to overcome the radioresistance of NSCLC.
Project description:The Hippo signaling pathway controls cell growth, proliferation, and apoptosis by regulating the expression of target genes that execute these processes. Acting downstream from this pathway is the YAP transcriptional coactivator, whose biological function is mediated by the conserved TEAD family transcription factors. The interaction of YAP with TEADs is critical to regulate Hippo pathway-responsive genes. Here, we describe the crystal structure of the YAP-interacting C-terminal domain of TEAD4 in complex with the TEAD-interacting N-terminal domain of YAP. The structure reveals that the N-terminal region of YAP is folded into two short helices with an extended loop containing the PXXPhiP motif in between, while the C-terminal domain of TEAD4 has an immunoglobulin-like fold. YAP interacts with TEAD4 mainly through the two short helices. Point mutations of TEAD4 indicate that the residues important for YAP interaction are required for its transforming activity. Mutagenesis reveals that the PXXPhiP motif of YAP, although making few contacts with TEAD4, is important for TEAD4 interaction as well as for the transforming activity.
Project description:Hypertrophic scar (HS) is an abnormal fibrous hyperplasia of the skin caused by excessive tissue repair in response to skin burns and trauma, which restricts physical function and impairs patients' quality of life. Numerous studies have shown that pressure garment therapy (PGT) is an effective treatment for preventing hypertrophic scars. Herein, we found that mechanical stress stimulates the neuropilin 1 (NRP1) expression through screening GSE165027, GSE137210, and GSE120194 from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and bioinformatics analysis. We verified this stimulation in the human hypertrophic scar, pressure culture cell model, and rat tail-scar model. Mechanical compression increased LATS1 and pYAP enrichment, thus repressing the expression of YAP. Functionally, the knockdown of NRP1 promoted the expression of LATS1, thus decreasing the expression of YAP and inhibiting endothelial cell proliferation. Furthermore, co-immunoprecipitation analysis confirmed that NRP1 binds to YAP, and mechanical compression disrupted this binding, which resulted in the promotion of YAP relocation to nuclear. In conclusion, our results indicated that NRP1 transduces mechanical force inhibition by inhibiting YAP expression. Mechanical pressure can release YAP bound to NRP1, which explains the phenomenon that mechanical stress increases YAP in the nucleus. Strategies targeting NRP1 may promote compression therapy with optimal and comfortable pressures.
Project description:Radiation resistance results in the recurrence and metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after radiotherapy. A major cause of radiation resistance is subversion of immune surveillance and clearance. Although our previous research has demonstrated that programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is responsible for radiation resistance in NSCLC, PD-L1 alone was not a reliable predictor of radiotherapy efficacy. For further exploration of the predictors of radiotherapy efficacy, which could add accuracy to the single biomarker - PD-L1, immunoprecipitation followed by mass spectrometry assay was performed to identify proteins that interact with PD-L1, and flotillin-1 (FLOT1) was detected as a candidate. However, the role of FLOT1 in radiation resistance in NSCLC is largely unknown. Here, we defined FLOT1 as a positive regulator of PD-L1 at the cell level, and the expression of PD-L1 was reduced following FLOT1 depletion. Furthermore, we found that the knockdown of FLOT1 impeded radiation-mediated cell migration and epithelial-mesenchymal transition process. Moreover, FLOT1 depletion enhanced radiation-induced DNA damage, thereby increasing the radiation lethality for NSCLC cells and promoting radiation-mediated tumor regression in animal models and patients with NSCLC. Furthermore, FLOT1 depletion-boosted DNA damage activated STING signaling pathway and promoted the production of CCL5 and CXCL10 that can drive CD8+ T lymphocytes chemotaxis, thereby reprogramming tumor immune microenvironment and triggering the antitumor immune response. Indeed, FLOT1 expression correlated with infiltration of immune cells in NSCLC tumor tissue samples. Taken together, our findings reported an unexplored role of FLOT1 in radiotherapy and also provided an evidence base for FLOT1 as a promising biomarker to predict the response to radiotherapy and a potential therapeutic target for enhancing radiotherapy effects.
Project description:Nu61, a radiation-resistant human tumor xenograft, was selected from a parental radiosensitive tumor SCC-61 by eight serial cycles of passage in athymic nude mice and in vivo irradiation. Replicate DNA array experiments identified 52 genes differentially expressed in nu61 tumors compared with SCC-61 tumors. Of these, 19 genes were in the IFN-signaling pathway and moreover, 25 of the 52 genes were inducible by IFN in the nu61 cell line. Among the genes involved in IFN signaling, STAT1alpha and STAT1beta were the most highly overexpressed in nu61 compared to SCC-61. STAT1alpha and STAT1beta cDNAs were cloned and stably transfected into SCC-61 tumor cells. Clones of SCC-61 tumor cells transfected with vectors expressing STAT1alpha and STAT1beta demonstrated radioprotection after exposure to 3 Gy (P < 0.038). The results indicate that radioresistance acquired during radiotherapy treatment may account for some treatment failures and demonstrate an association of acquired tumor radioresistance with up-regulation of components of the IFN-related signaling pathway.
Project description:Dysregulation of Hippo pathway leads to hyperactivation of YAP-TEAD transcriptional complex in various cancers, including colorectal cancer (CRC). In this study, we observed that HHEX (Hematopoietically expressed homeobox) may enhance transcription activity of the YAP-TEAD complex. HHEX associates with and stabilizes the YAP-TEAD complex on the regulatory genomic loci to coregulate the expression of a group of YAP/TEAD target genes. Also, HHEX may indirectly regulate these target genes by controlling YAP/TAZ expression. Importantly, HHEX is required for the pro-tumorigenic effects of YAP during CRC progression. In response to serum stimulation, CK2 (Casein Kinase 2) phosphorylates HHEX and enhances its interaction with TEAD4. A CK2 inhibitor CX-4945 diminishes the interaction between HHEX and TEAD4, leading to decreased expression of YAP/TEAD target genes. CX-4945 synergizes the antitumor activity of YAP-TEAD inhibitors verteporfin and Super-TDU. Elevated expression of HHEX is correlated with hyperactivation of YAP/TEAD and associated with poor prognosis of CRC patients. Overall, our study identifies HHEX as a positive modulator of YAP/TEAD to promote colorectal tumorigenesis, providing a new therapeutic strategy for targeting YAP/TEAD in CRC.
Project description:Myeloid cell leukemia sequence 1 (Mcl-1), an antiapoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family, is often overexpressed in tumor cells limiting the therapeutic success. Mcl-1 differs from other Bcl-2 members by its high turnover rate. Its expression level is tightly regulated by ubiquitylating and deubiquitylating enzymes. Interaction of Mcl-1 with certain Bcl-2 homology domain 3 (BH3)-only members of the Bcl-2 family can limit the access to Mcl-1 ubiquitin ligase E3 and stabilizes the antiapoptotic protein. In addition, the overexpression of the deubiquitinase ubiquitin-specific protease 9x (USP9x) can result in the accumulation of Mcl-1 by removing poly-ubiquitin chains from Mcl-1 preventing its proteasomal degradation. Analyzing radiation-induced apoptosis in Jurkat cells, we found that Mcl-1 was downregulated more efficiently in sensitive parental cells than in a resistant subclone. The decline of Mcl-1 correlated with cell death induction and clonogenic survival. Knockdown of BH3-only proteins Bim, Puma, and Noxa did not affect Mcl-1 level or radiation-induced apoptosis. However, ionizing radiation resulted in activation of USP9x and enhanced deubiquitination of Mcl-1 in the radioresistant cells preventing fast Mcl-1 degradation. USP9x knockdown enhanced radiation-induced decrease of Mcl-1 and sensitized the radioresistant cells to apoptosis induction, whereas USP9x knockdown alone did not change Mcl-1 level in unirradiated cells. Together, our results indicate that radiation-induced activation of USP9x inhibits Mcl-1 degradation and apoptosis resulting in increased radioresistance.