Cathy Staedel

αv integrins regulate cell proliferation through integrin-linked kinase (ILK) in ovarian cancer cells

Integrins regulate both adhesion and signaling processes involved in proliferation and survival. αvβ3 and αvβ5 integrins have been shown to mediate cell adhesion and migration. Here we used human ovarian cancer cell lines (IGROV1, SKOV-3) that express αvβ3 and αvβ5 to study their role in cell proliferation and the signaling pathways involved. We found that αv integrins regulate cell proliferation through activation of integrin-linked kinase (ILK). An anti-αv-blocking antibody specifically inhibits the growth of IGROV1 and SKOV-3. The inhibition of cell proliferation involves αvβ3 in IGROV1 cells, and both αvβ3 and αvβ5 in SKOV-3 cells. The reduced growth rate induced by αv integrin blockade is linked in both cell lines to G1/S cell cycle arrest. αv integrin blockade by neutralizing antibody as well as cyclic-RGD peptide caused an inhibition of ILK activity and phosphorylation of PKB/Akt on serine-473 but not on threonine-308, and was accompanied by an increase in p27Kip1 expression. Overexpression of wild-type ILK rescued the phosphorylation of PKB/Akt on serine-473 in cells treated with anti-αv antibody. Inhibition of ILK by a pharmacological inhibitor results in inhibition of cell proliferation, PKB/Akt phosphorylation and increase of p27Kip1. These results demonstrate that αv integrins regulate ovarian cancer cell proliferation through ILK.

Helicobacter pylori interferes with an embryonic stem cell micro RNA cluster to block cell cycle progression

BackgroundMicroRNAs, post-transcriptional regulators of eukaryotic gene expression, are implicated in host defense against pathogens. Viruses and bacteria have evolved strategies that suppress microRNA functions, resulting in a sustainable infection. In this work we report that Helicobacter pylori, a human stomach-colonizing bacterium responsible for severe gastric inflammatory diseases and gastric cancers, downregulates an embryonic stem cell microRNA cluster in proliferating gastric epithelial cells to achieve cell cycle arrest.ResultsUsing a deep sequencing approach in the AGS cell line, a widely used cell culture model to recapitulate early events of H. pylori infection of gastric mucosa, we reveal that hsa-miR-372 is the most abundant microRNA expressed in this cell line, where, together with hsa-miR-373, it promotes cell proliferation by silencing large tumor suppressor homolog 2 (LATS2) gene expression. Shortly after H. pylori infection, miR-372 and miR-373 synthesis is highly inhibited, leading to the post-transcriptional release of LATS2 expression and thus, to a cell cycle arrest at the G1/S transition. This downregulation of a specific cell-cycle-regulating microRNA is dependent on the translocation of the bacterial effector CagA into the host cells, a mechanism highly associated with the development of severe atrophic gastritis and intestinal-type gastric carcinoma.ConclusionsThese data constitute a novel example of host-pathogen interplay involving microRNAs, and unveil the couple LATS2/miR-372 and miR-373 as an unexpected mechanism in infection-induced cell cycle arrest in proliferating gastric cells, which may be relevant in inhibition of gastric epithelium renewal, a major host defense mechanism against bacterial infections.

Inhibition of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) RNA Polymerase by DNA Aptamers: Mechanism of Inhibition of In Vitro RNA Synthesis and Effect on HCV-Infected Cells

ABSTRACT We describe here the further characterization of two DNA aptamers that specifically bind to hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA polymerase (NS5B) and inhibit its polymerase activity in vitro. Although they were obtained from the same selection procedure and contain an 11-nucleotide consensus sequence, our results indicate that aptamers 27v and 127v use different mechanisms to inhibit HCV polymerase. While aptamer 27v was able to compete with the RNA template for binding to the enzyme and blocked both the initiation and the elongation of RNA synthesis, aptamer 127v competed poorly and exclusively inhibited initiation and postinitiation events. These results illustrate the power of the selective evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment in vitro selection procedure approach to select specific short DNA aptamers able to inhibit HCV NS5B by different mechanisms. We also determined that, in addition to an in vitro inhibitory effect on RNA synthesis, aptamer 27v was able to interfere with the multiplication of HCV JFH1 in Huh7 cells. The efficient cellular entry of these short DNAs and the inhibitory effect observed on human cells infected with HCV indicate that aptamers are useful tools for the study of HCV RNA synthesis, and their use should become a very attractive and alternative approach to therapy for HCV infection.

Cellular Internalization of Water-Soluble Helical Aromatic Amide Foldamers

The intracellular transport of drugs and therapeutics represents one of the most exciting and challenging areas at the interface of chemistry, biology, and medicine. Most of the effort in this field so far has been devoted to the development of peptide‐based delivery systems that can translocate therapeutic agents into their intracellular targets. More recently, the use of bioinspired non‐natural foldamers has resulted in the successful delivery of cargo molecules, which possess a wide range of sizes and physicochemical properties across the cell membrane. We report herein the synthesis of aromatic amide foldamers and their biological evaluation as cell‐penetrating agents. By using a well‐established synthetic route, a series of fluorescein‐labeled cationic aryl amide conjugates has been constructed, and their cellular uptake into various human cell lines has been analyzed by flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy. The assays revealed that longer oligomers achieve greater cellular translocation, with octamer Q8 proving to be a remarkable vehicle for all three cell lines. Biological studies have also indicated that these helices are biocompatible, thus showing promise in their application as cell‐penetrating agents and as vehicles to deliver biologically active molecules into cells.

All-trans retinoic acid targets gastric cancer stem cells and inhibits patient-derived gastric carcinoma tumor growth

Gastric carcinoma is the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. This cancer, most of the time metastatic, is essentially treated by surgery associated with conventional chemotherapy, and has a poor prognosis. The existence of cancer stem cells (CSC) expressing CD44 and a high aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity has recently been demonstrated in gastric carcinoma and has opened new perspectives to develop targeted therapy. In this study, we evaluated the effects of all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) on CSCs in human gastric carcinoma. ATRA effects were evaluated on the proliferation and tumorigenic properties of gastric carcinoma cells from patient-derived tumors and cell lines in conventional 2D cultures, in 3D culture systems (tumorsphere assay) and in mouse xenograft models. ATRA inhibited both tumorspheres initiation and growth in vitro, which was associated with a cell-cycle arrest through the upregulation of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors and the downregulation of cell-cycle progression activators. More importantly, ATRA downregulated the expression of the CSC markers CD44 and ALDH as well as stemness genes such as Klf4 and Sox2 and induced differentiation of tumorspheres. Finally, 2 weeks of daily ATRA treatment were sufficient to inhibit gastric tumor progression in vivo, which was associated with a decrease in CD44, ALDH1, Ki67 and PCNA expression in the remaining tumor cells. Administration of ATRA appears to be a potent strategy to efficiently inhibit tumor growth and more importantly to target gastric CSCs in both intestinal and diffuse types of gastric carcinoma.

Fluorocarbon oligonucleotide conjugates for nucleic acids delivery

Here we describe an automated synthetic pathway for the synthesis of fluorocarbon oligonucleotide conjugates (FONs) featuring fluorocarbon hydrophobic and lipophobic moieties. The presence of highly fluorinated chains allows the delivery of nucleic acids into human cells.

Identification of a structural element of the hepatitis C virus minus strand RNA involved in the initiation of RNA synthesis

The replication of the genomic RNA of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) of positive polarity involves the synthesis of a replication intermediate of negative polarity by the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (NS5B). In vitro and likely in vivo, the NS5B initiates RNA synthesis without primers. This de novo mechanism needs specific interactions between the polymerase and viral RNA elements. Cis-acting elements involved in the initiation of (–) RNA synthesis have been identified in the 3′ non-coding region and in the NS5B coding region of the HCV RNA. However, the detailed contribution of sequences and/or structures of (–) RNA involved in the initiation of (+) RNA synthesis has been less studied. In this report, we identified an RNA element localized between nucleotides 177 and 222 from the 3′-end of the (–) RNA that is necessary for efficient initiation of RNA synthesis by the recombinant NS5B. By site-directed mutagenesis experiments, we demonstrate that the structure rather than the primary sequence of this domain is important for RNA synthesis. We also demonstrate that the intact structure of this RNA element is also needed for efficient RNA synthesis when the viral NS5B functions in association with other viral and cellular proteins in cultured hepatic cells.

Inhibition of Gastric Tumor Cell Growth Using Seed-targeting LNA as Specific, Long-lasting MicroRNA Inhibitors

MicroRNAs regulate eukaryotic gene expression upon pairing onto target mRNAs. This targeting is influenced by the complementarity between the microRNA “seed” sequence at its 5′ end and the seed-matching sequences in the mRNA. Here, we assess the efficiency and specificity of 8-mer locked nucleic acid (LNA)-modified oligonucleotides raised against the seeds of miR-372 and miR-373, two embryonic stem cell-specific microRNAs prominently expressed in the human gastric adenocarcinoma AGS cell line. Provided that the pairing is perfect over all the eight nucleotides of the seed and starts at nucleotide 2 or 1 at the microRNA 5′ end, these short LNAs inhibit miR-372/373 functions and derepress their common target, the cell cycle regulator LATS2. They decrease cell proliferation in vitro upon either transfection at nanomolar concentrations or unassisted delivery at micromolar concentrations. Subcutaneously delivered LNAs reduce tumor growth of AGS xenografts in mice, upon formation of a stable, specific heteroduplex with the targeted miR-372 and -373 and LATS2 upregulation. Their therapeutic potential is confirmed in fast-growing, miR-372-positive, primary human gastric adenocarcinoma xenografts in mice. Thus, microRNA silencing by 8-mer seed-targeting LNAs appears a valuable approach for both loss-of-function studies aimed at elucidating microRNA functions and for microRNA-based therapeutic strategies.

Oncogenic MicroRNAs Biogenesis as a Drug Target: Structure–Activity Relationship Studies on New Aminoglycoside Conjugates

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a recently discovered category of small RNA molecules that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Accumulating evidence indicates that miRNAs are aberrantly expressed in a variety of human cancers and that the inhibition of these oncogenic miRNAs could find application in the therapy of different types of cancer. Herein, we describe the synthesis and biological evaluation of new small-molecule drugs that target oncogenic miRNAs production. In particular, we chose to target two miRNAs (i.e., miRNA-372 and -373) implicated in various types of cancer, such as gastric cancer. Their precursors (pre-miRNAs) are overexpressed in cancer cells and lead to mature miRNAs after cleavage of their stem-loop structure by the enzyme Dicer in the cytoplasm. Some of the newly synthesized conjugates can inhibit Dicer processing of the targeted pre-miRNAs in vitro with increased efficacy relative to our previous results (D.D. Vo et al., ACS Chem. Biol. 2014, 9, 711-721) and, more importantly, to inhibit proliferations of adenocarcinoma gastric cancer (AGS) cells overexpressing these miRNAs, thus representing promising leads for future drug development.

Rapid decay of engulfed extracellular miRNA by XRN1 exonuclease promotes transient epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

Abstract Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been shown to play an important role in intercellular communication as carriers of DNA, RNA and proteins. While the intercellular transfer of miRNA through EVs has been extensively studied, the stability of extracellular miRNA (ex-miRNA) once engulfed by a recipient cell remains to be determined. Here, we identify the ex-miRNA-directed phenotype to be transient due to the rapid decay of ex-miRNA. We demonstrate that the ex-miR-223-3p transferred from polymorphonuclear leukocytes to cancer cells were functional, as demonstrated by the decreased expression of its target FOXO1 and the occurrence of epithelial-mesenchymal transition reprogramming. We showed that the engulfed ex-miRNA, unlike endogenous miRNA, was unstable, enabling dynamic regulation and a return to a non-invasive phenotype within 8 h. This transient phenotype could be modulated by targeting XRN1/PACMAN exonuclease. Indeed, its silencing was associated with slower decay of ex-miR-223-3p and subsequently prolonged the invasive properties. In conclusion, we showed that the ‘steady step’ level of engulfed miRNA and its subsequent activity was dependent on the presence of a donor cell in the surroundings to constantly fuel the recipient cell with ex-miRNAs and of XRN1 exonuclease, which is involved in the decay of these imported miRNA.