Project description:Cancer cachexia (CC), a syndrome of skeletal muscle and adipose wasting, reduces responsiveness to therapies and increases mortality. There are no approved treatments for CC, which may relate to discordance between pre-clinical models and human CC. To address the need for clinically relevant models of lung CC, we generated inducible, lung epithelial cell specific KrasG12D/+ (G12D) mice. G12D mice develop CC over a protracted time course and phenocopy tissue and tumor, cellular, mutational, transcriptomic, and metabolic characteristics of human lung CC. G12D mice demonstrate early loss of adipose, a phenotype that was apparent across numerous models of CC and translates to patients with lung cancer. Tumor-released factors promote adipocyte lipolysis, a driver of adipose wasting in CC, and adipose wasting was inversely related to tumor burden. Thus, G12D mice model key features of human lung CC and highlight a role for early tumor metabolic reprogramming of adipose tissue in CC.
Project description:The aim of the study is to identify genes and pathways associated with muscle and adipose wasting in PDAC cachexia. Muscle and adipose were collected from same individuals to study the concurrent muscle and adipose wasting.
Project description:Cancer-associated cachexia (CAC) is a multifactorial, metabolic wasting syndrome that coincides with cancer malignancies of multiple entities. CAC is characterized by progressive loss of muscle mass and adipose tissue and diminishes therapy responsiveness. Here, we show that the expression of FGF21 is induced in livers of tumor-bearing mice with CAC. FGF21 deficiency promotes weight loss, exacerbates adipose tissue wasting and increases systemic inflammation, pointing towards a protective role of FGF21 in CAC. In line, IL6-mediated STAT3 activation induces FGF21 expression in hepatocytes as well as adipocytes. FGF21 promotes anabolic signaling cascades, increases cellular glucose uptake in response to IL6 exposure and counteracts cytokine-mediated glycerol release, thereby opposing adipose tissue loss in CAC. Eventually, we find that FGF21 is increased in cancer patients with clinical CAC. Together, we reveal a protective role for FGF21 in experimental CAC and identify the protein as a potential biomarker in clinical cachexia.
Project description:Cachexia is a wasting disorder of adipose tissues that leads to profound weight loss and frailty. One key characteristic of cachexia is elevated resting energy expenditure, which has been linked to increased fat lipolysis and thermogenesis.
Project description:Cachexia is a wasting disorder of adipose tissues that leads to profound weight loss and frailty. One key characteristic of cachexia is elevated resting energy expenditure, which has been linked to increased fat lipolysis and thermogenesis. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are serving as new messengers to mediate cell-cell communication in vivo. How tumors induce brown fat activity is unknown. Here, we found that breast cancer increased hypoxia inducible factor 1 subunit alpha (HIF1A) protein modification through extracellular-vesicle-encapsulated miR-204 targeting von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor (VHL), plays an important role in wasting by driving lipolysis and thermogenic gene expression in adipose tissues.
Project description:The regulatory gene pathways underlying the loss of adipose tissue in cancer cachexia are unknown and were explored using pangenomic transcriptome profiling. Gene expression profiles (Human Gene 1.0 ST) of abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue were studied in gastrointestinal cancer patients with (N=13) or without (N=14) cachexia. Data analyses were performed using the Affymetrix GeneChip Operating Software (GCOS) Version 1.4.
Project description:Cancer cachexia is a severe systemic wasting disease that negatively affects quality of life and survival in patients with cancer. To date, treating cancer cachexia is still a major unmet clinical need. We recently discovered the destabilization of the AMPK complex in adipose tissue as a key event in cachexia-related adipose tissue dysfunction and developed an AAV-based approach to prevent AMPK degradation and prolong cachexia-free survival. Here, we show the development and optimization of a prototypic peptide, Pen-X-ACIP, where the AMPK stabilizing peptide ACIP is fused to the cell-penetrating peptide moiety penetratin via a propargylic glycine linker to enable late-stage functionalization using click chemistry. Pen-X-ACIP was efficiently taken up by adipocytes, inhibited lipolysis and restored AMPK signaling. Tissue uptake assays showed a favorable uptake profile into adipose tissue upon intraperitoneal injection. Systemic delivery of Pen-X-ACIP into tumor-bearing animals prevented the progression of cancer cachexia without affecting tumor growth, and preserved body weight and adipose tissue mass with no discernable side effects in other peripheral organs, thereby achieving proof-of-concept. As Pen-X-ACIP also exerted its anti-lipolytic activity in human adipocytes, it now provides a promising platform for further (pre)clinical development towards a novel, first-in-class approach against cancer cachexia.
Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) causes involuntary wasting of adipose and muscle tissue, also known as cachexia. Cachexia is a major cause of cancer-related deaths, particularly among patients with PDAC. Here we profiled gene expression in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle in normal/sham control mice and in mice bearing orthotopic PDAC tumors. PDAC tumors were initiated by intra-pancreatic injection of a cell line derived from the KPC (Kras-G12D;Trp-R172H;Pdx1::Cre) genetically engineered mouse model of pancreatic cancer, or by injection of the same cell line deleted for the IL6 gene using CRISPR/Cas9. KPC-IL6 knockout (ko) cells caused less adipose wasting and no muscle loss compared with KPC-wildtype (wt) cells.
Project description:Background: Cancer cachexia (CAC) reduces patient survival and quality of life. Developments of efficient therapeutic strategies are required for the CAC treatments. This long-term process could be shortened by the drug-repositioning approach which exploits old drugs approved for non-cachexia disease. Amiloride, a diuretic drug, is clinically used for treatments of hypertension and edema due to heart failure. Here, we explored the effects of amiloride for ameliorating muscle wasting in murine models of cancer cachexia. Methods: CT26 and LLC tumor cells were subcutaneously injected into mice to induce cancer cachexia. Amiloride was intraperitoneally injected daily once tumors were formed. Cachexia features of the CT26 and LLC models, respectively, were characterized by phenotypic, histopathologic and biochemical analyses. Plasma exosomes and muscle atrophy-related proteins were quantitatively analyzed. Integrative NMR-based metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses were conducted to identify significantly altered metabolic pathways and distinctly changed metabolism-related biological processes in gastrocnemius. Results: The CT26 and LLC models displayed prominent cachexia features including decreases in body weight, skeletal muscle, adipose tissue and muscle strength. The amiloride treatment in tumor-bearing mice distinctly alleviated muscle atrophy and relieved cachexia-related features without affecting tumor growth. The CT26 and LLC cachexia mice showed increased particle density of plasma exosomes which were largely derived from tumors. Significantly, the amiloride treatment inhibited tumor-derived exosome release, which did not obviously affect exosome secretion from non-neoplastic tissues or induce observable systemic toxicities in normal healthy mice. Integrative-omics revealed significant metabolic impairments in cachectic gastrocnemius, including promoted muscular catabolism, inhibited muscular protein synthesis, blocked glycolysis and impeded ketone body oxidation. The amiloride treatment evidently improved the metabolic impairments in cachectic gastrocnemius. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated the efficacy of amiloride in ameliorating cachectic muscle wasting and elucidated the underlying mechanistic rationale for its use as an alternative strategy to improve CAC treatments.
Project description:Cachexia is a systemic wasting syndrome that develops in many cancers and increases mortality. Despite its importance, it is largely unknown how cachexia progressively and differentially induces tissue wasting. Although cachexia occurs also in pediatric patients, little is known on the underlying mechanisms. Here, we have used pediatric melanoma xenografts to determine the progression and tissue-specific impact of juvenile cachexia on skeletal muscles, heart, white and brown adipose, liver, and brain. We find that the heart and muscles undergo wasting at early stages and are the tissues most strongly impacted transcriptionally. Beyond wasting, we identify general and organ-specific transcriptional changes that likely indicate derangement of organ/tissue function by cachexia. Moreover, also the transcriptome of tissues that do not undergo wasting, such as the brain, is profoundly remodeled by cachexia. Altogether, this study provides insight into the progression of melanoma-induced pediatric cachexia and its differential impact on distinct organ systems.