Project description:We used our novel Cherry-niche system to specifically isolate cells from the metastatic niche of 4T1 lung metastasis and compared their profile with the one obtained isolating lungs cells distal from the tumour growth.
Project description:Development of effective therapies against brain metastasis is currently hindered by limitations in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms driving it. Here we define the contributions of tumour-secreted exosomes to brain metastatic colonization and demonstrate that pre-conditioning the brain microenvironment with exosomes from brain metastatic cells enhances cancer cell outgrowth. Proteomic analysis identified cell migration-inducing and hyaluronan-binding protein (CEMIP) as elevated in exosomes from brain metastatic, but not lung or bone metastatic cells. CEMIP depletion in tumour cells impaired brain metastasis, disrupting invasion and tumour cell association with the brain vasculature, phenotypes rescued by pre-conditioning the brain microenvironment with CEMIP+ exosomes. Moreover, uptake of CEMIP+ exosomes by brain endothelial and microglial cells induced endothelial cell branching and inflammation in the perivascular niche by upregulating Ptgs2, Tnf, and Ccl/Cxcl 86 cytokines, known to promote brain vascular remodeling and metastasis. CEMIP was elevated in tumour tissues and exosomes from patients with brain metastasis and predicted brain metastasis progression and patient survival. Collectively, our findings suggest that targeting of exosomal CEMIP could constitute a future avenue for the prevention and treatment of brain metastasis.
Project description:Development of effective therapies against brain metastasis is currently hindered by limitations in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms driving it. Here we define the contributions of tumour-secreted exosomes to brain metastatic colonization and demonstrate that pre-conditioning the brain microenvironment with exosomes from brain metastatic cells enhances cancer cell outgrowth. Proteomic analysis identified cell migration-inducing and hyaluronan-binding protein (CEMIP) as elevated in exosomes from brain metastatic, but not lung or bone metastatic cells. CEMIP depletion in tumour cells impaired brain metastasis, disrupting invasion and tumour cell association with the brain vasculature, phenotypes rescued by pre-conditioning the brain microenvironment with CEMIP+ exosomes. Moreover, uptake of CEMIP+ exosomes by brain endothelial and microglial cells induced endothelial cell branching and inflammation in the perivascular niche by upregulating Ptgs2, Tnf, and Ccl/Cxcl cytokines, known to promote brain vascular remodeling and metastasis. CEMIP was elevated in tumour tissues and exosomes from patients with brain metastasis and predicted brain metastasis progression and patient survival. Collectively, our findings suggest that targeting of exosomal CEMIP could constitute a future avenue for the prevention and treatment of brain metastasis.
Project description:Cancer cell behaviour is strongly influenced by the surrounding cellular environment, making the characterization of the local tumour microenvironment (or niche) a fundamental question in tumour biology. To date, a direct investigation of the early cellular changes induced by metastatic cells within the surrounding tissue is difficult to achieve, especially at early micro-metastatic stages and for low frequency niche populations. Here we present the strategy whereby metastatic cancer cells release a cell-penetrating fluorescent protein that is efficiently taken up by neighbouring cells, allowing spatial identification of the local metastatic cellular environment within the whole tissue. Notably, this strategy can be used to follow metastatic niches from early micro-metastasis to late macro-metastasis, allowing temporal resolution. Moreover, the presence of low represented niche cells can be detected and characterized among the bulk tissue. To highlight its potential, we have used this niche-labelling strategy to study the lung metastatic environment of breast cancer cells. We uncover the presence of lung parenchymal cells within the metastatic niche where lung epithelial cells show stem cell-like features with expression of lung progenitor markers, multi-lineage differentiation potential and self-renewal activity. Moreover, lung epithelial cells can be directly perturbed by cancer cells in ex vivo co-culture assays and support their growth. In summary, here we describe a novel labelling system that enables spatial resolution of the metastatic microenvironment and provide evidence that the tissue cellular environment surrounding metastatic growth is characterized by undifferentiated features. The data highlight the significant potential of this method as a platform for new discoveries.
Project description:The presence of disseminated tumour cells (DTCs) in bone marrow predicts poorer metastasis-free survival of breast cancer patients with localized disease, and their eradication improves long-term prognosis. DTCs persist in distant tissues despite administration of adjuvant chemotherapy, ostensibly because the majority of DTCs are quiescent. Here, we provide evidence that the microenvironment of DTCs protects them from chemotherapy independent of cell cycle status. We show that chemoresistant DTCs associate with the perivascular niche (PVN) of distant tissues, and that they are protected from therapies by vascular endothelium. Inhibiting key integrin-mediated interactions between DTCs and the PVN, driven partly by endothelial-derived von Willebrand Factor, sensitizes DTCs to chemotherapy and prevents bone metastasis. Importantly, chemosensitization is achieved without inducing DTC proliferation, or exacerbating chemotherapy-induced toxicities. These results suggest that prefacing adjuvant therapy with integrin inhibitors is a viable clinical strategy to eradicate DTCs and prevent metastasis.
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the following subset Series: GSE40171: RNA sequencing of circulating tumour cells implicates WNT signaling in pancreatic cancer metastasis (mouse data) GSE40174: RNA sequencing of circulating tumour cells implicates WNT signaling in pancreatic cancer metastasis (human data) Refer to individual Series
Project description:We analysed the signature of the non-immune cells from the metastatic niche and the distal lung using the breast tumour 4T1 cell line as a model of lung metastasis from breast cancer
Project description:This experiment looks at the dissection of the microenvironment in the lung metastatic niche in a model of murine triple-negative breast cancer as disease progresses. Mice received an orthotopic inoculation of 4T1 cells and disease was allowed to progress for 7, 14, or 21 days correlating to the pre-metastatic, micro-metastatic, and metastatic niche, respectively. Healthy controls were obtained along with each time point.
Project description:In cancer progression to metastasis, disseminated cancer cells frequently lodge near vasculature in secondary organs. However, our understanding of the cellular crosstalk evoked at perivascular sites is still rudimentary. In this study, we identified an inter-cellular machinery governing formation of a pro-metastatic vascular niche during breast cancer colonization in lungs. Transcriptomic analysis of endothelial cells (ECs) isolated from mouse lungs with metastases revealed a marked upregulation of genes linked to proliferation, inflammation and numerous secreted proteins. We showed that four secreted factors, INHBB, SCGB3A1, OPG and LAMA1, induced in ECs form a supportive niche that promotes metastasis in mice, by enhancing stem cell properties and survival ability of cancer cells. Interestingly, the blocking vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF), a major cytokine regulating EC behaviors, dramatically suppressed EC proliferation whereas no impact was observed on the expression of the four vascular niche factors in lung ECs. We found that the formation of a vascular niche is correlated with inflammation, and revealed that metastasis-associated macrophages are essential for production of all of four niche factors in lung ECs. Macrophages are activated via TNC-TLR4 at perivasculature and sequentially stimulate ECs to produce the four niche factors. Thus, our findings provide mechanistic insights into the formation of a perivascular niche and offer the possibility that targeting macrophages may synergize with existing anti-angiogenic drugs to effectively suppress vascular function in metastatic colonization. We used microarrays to analyze the global changes of gene expression in mouse lung endothelial cells associated with metastasis of Tenascin C-depleted breast cancer cells