Hongchun Liu

A novel long non-coding RNA-ARA: Adriamycin Resistance Associated

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as an integral functional component of human genome and have been investigated as critical regulators in molecular biology of cancer. A recent study reported that lncRNA-UCA1 induced drug resistance in adriamycin chemotherapy. However, the contributions of lncRNAs to adriamycin resistance in cancers remain largely unknown. To address this issue, we performed a genome-wide lncRNA microarray analysis in adriamycin resistant MCF-7/ADR and parental MCF-7 cells, and revealed differential expression of lncRNAs in distinct category and chromosome distribution patterns. A specific differentially expressed lncRNA (Adriamycin Resistance Associated, termed ARA) was validated in MCF-7/ADR and HepG2/ADR cells. ARA is derived from an intron of PAK3 gene, predicted to contain several stable hairpins in secondary structure and has conservative sequences in primates. ARA expression is significantly associated with adriamycin sensitivity in a panel of breast and liver cancer cell lines and is markedly up-regulated in parental sensitive MCF-7 and HepG2 cell lines after receiving adriamycin treatment. The functions of ARA were assessed by silencing this lncRNA in vitro, and we found that ARA knockdown reduced the proliferation, induced cell death, G2/M arrest and migration defects. Furthermore, microarray transcriptomic analysis was carried out to comprehensively depict the ARA-regulated genes. We showed that ARA can modulate multiple signalling pathways, including MAPK signalling pathway, metabolism pathways, cell cycle and cell adhesion-related biological pathways, and regulate cellular processes, including transcriptional processes and protein binding function. Overall, our results indicate novel insights of adriamycin resistance in lncRNA level.

Curcumin Induces Cell Death and Restores Tamoxifen Sensitivity in the Antiestrogen-Resistant Breast Cancer Cell Lines MCF-7/LCC2 and MCF-7/LCC9

Curcumin, a principal component of turmeric (Curcuma longa), has potential therapeutic activities against breast cancer through multiple signaling pathways. Increasing evidence indicates that curcumin reverses chemo-resistance and sensitizes cancer cells to chemotherapy and targeted therapy in breast cancer. To date, few studies have explored its potential antiproliferation effects and resistance reversal in antiestrogen-resistant breast cancer. In this study, we therefore investigated the efficacy of curcumin alone and in combination with tamoxifen in the established antiestrogen-resistant breast cancer cell lines MCF-7/LCC2 and MCF-7/LCC9. We discovered that curcumin treatment displayed anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities and induced cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase. Of note, the combination of curcumin and tamoxifen resulted in a synergistic survival inhibition in MCF-7/LCC2 and MCF-7/LCC9 cells. Moreover, we found that curcumin targeted multiple signals involved in growth maintenance and resistance acquisition in endocrine resistant cells. In our cell models, curcumin could suppress expression of pro-growth and anti-apoptosis molecules, induce inactivation of NF-κB, Src and Akt/mTOR pathways and downregulate the key epigenetic modifier EZH2. The above findings suggested that curcumin alone and combinations of curcumin with endocrine therapy may be of therapeutic benefit for endocrine-resistant breast cancer.

Discovery of potent N-(isoxazol-5-yl)amides as HSP90 inhibitors.

HSP90 is ubiquitously overexpressed in a broad spectrum of human cancers and has been recognized as an attractive target for cancer treatment. Here, we described the fragment screening, synthesis and structure-activity relationship studies of small molecule inhibitors with 4,5-diarylisoxazole scaffold targeting HSP90. Among them, the compound N-(3-(2,4-dihydroxy-5-isopropylphenyl)-4-(4-((4-morpholinopiperidin-1-yl)methyl)phenyl)isoxazol-5-yl)cyclopropanecarboxamide (108) showed high affinity for binding to HSP90 (FP binding assay, IC50 = 0.030 μM) and inhibited the proliferation of various human cancer cell lines with averaging GI50 about 88 nM. Compound 108 exhibited its functional inhibition of HSP90 by depleting key signaling pathways and concomitantly elevating of HSP70 and HSP27 in U-87MG cells. Further in vivo studies showed that compound 108 strongly suppressed the tumor growth of human glioblastoma xenograft model U-87MG with T/C = 18.35% at 50 mg/kg q3w/2.5w. Moreover, compound 108 also exhibited good pharmacokinetic properties. Together, our study implicates that compound 108 is a promising candidate of HSP90 inhibitor and is currently advanced to preclinical study.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of cytotoxic activity of novel anthracene l-rhamnopyranosides

A series of anthracene L-rhamnopyranosides were designed and synthesized in a practical way and their cytotoxic activity was examined in vitro. Most compounds exhibited both potent cytotoxicity against several tumor cell lines and high DNA binding capacity. The preliminary results showed that subtle modifications of rhamnosyl moiety in anthracene rhamnosides with acetyl group had a selective toxicity for different tumor cells and the displacement of C-10 carbonyl group in emodin by acetylmethylene group was helpful to improve the inhibitory activity. Lipophilicity of the anthracene glycosides was not a crucial factor for cytotoxicity and most molecules with good cytotoxicity could inhibit the catalytic activity of Top2alpha.

A mutant HBs antigen (HBsAg)183–191 epitope elicits specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in acute hepatitis B patients

HBs antigen (HBsAg)183–191 (FLLTRILTI, R187 peptide) is a dominant human leucocyte antigen‐A2 (HLA‐A2)‐restricted epitope associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in Caucasian populations. However, its prevalence is poorly understood in China, where there is a high incidence of HBV infection. In this report, we sequenced the region of HBsAg derived from 103 Chinese patients. Approximately 16·5% of the patients bore a mutant HBsAg183–191 epitope in which the original arginine (R187) was substituted with a lysine (K187 mutant peptide). Importantly, K187 still bound to HLA‐A2 with high affinity, and elicited specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses in HLA‐A2/Kb transgenic mice. K187‐specific CTLs were also generated successfully in acute hepatitis B (AHB) patients, indicating that this mutant epitope is processed and presented effectively. Our findings show that R187‐specific CTLs can cross‐react with the K187 peptide. These findings reveal that K187 still has the property of an HLA‐A2 restricted epitope, and elicits a protective anti‐HBV CTL response in humans.

Featured Article: Teriflunomide, an immunomodulatory drug, exerts anticancer activity in triple negative breast cancer cells

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is defined as a group of primary breast cancers lacking expression of estrogen, progesterone, and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2) receptors, characterized by higher relapse rate and lower survival compared with other subtypes. Due to lack of identified targets and molecular heterogeneity, conventional chemotherapy is the only available option for treatment of TNBC, but non-discordant positive therapeutic efficacy could not be achieved. Here, we demonstrated that these TNBC cells were sensitive to teriflunomide, which was a well-known immunomodulatory drug for treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS). Potent anti-cancer effects in TNBC in vitro, including proliferation inhibition, cell cycle delay, cell apoptosis, and suppression of cell motility and invasiveness, could be achieved with this agent. Of note, we showed that multiple signals involved in TNBC proliferation, survival, migratory, and invasive potential were under regulation by teriflunomide. Among them, we identified down-regulation of growth factor receptors to abolish growth maintenance, suppression of c-Myc, and cyclin D1 to contribute to its anti-proliferative effect, modulation of components of cell cycle to induce S-phase arrest, degradation of Bcl-xL, and up-regulation of BAX via activation of MAPK pathway to induce apoptosis, and inhibition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process, matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9) expression, and inactivation of Src/FAK to reduce TNBC migration and invasion. The results identified teriflunomide may be of therapeutic benefit for the more aggressive and difficult-to-treat breast cancer subtype, indicating the use of teriflunomide for clinical trials for treatment of TNBC patients.

Identification of a new series of potent diphenol HSP90 inhibitors by fragment merging and structure-based optimization

Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) is a molecular chaperone to fold and maintain the proper conformation of many signaling proteins, especially some oncogenic proteins and mutated unstable proteins. Inhibition of HSP90 was recognized as an effective approach to simultaneously suppress several aberrant signaling pathways, and therefore it was considered as a novel target for cancer therapy. Here, by integrating several techniques including the fragment-based drug discovery method, fragment merging, computer aided inhibitor optimization, and structure-based drug design, we were able to identify a series of HSP90 inhibitors. Among them, inhibitors 13, 32, 36 and 40 can inhibit HSP90 with IC50 about 20-40 nM, which is at least 200-fold more potent than initial fragments in the protein binding assay. These new HSP90 inhibitors not only explore interactions with an under-studied subpocket, also offer new chemotypes for the development of novel HSP90 inhibitors as anticancer drugs.

Cell surface sialic acid inhibits Cx43 gap junction functions in constructed Hela cancer cells involving in sialylated N-cadherin

Numerous studies have shown that changes in the glycan structures of cells correlate with tumorigenesis, however, a casual link between the altered glycan structures and the abnormal GJIC in cancer cells is rarely studied. In this paper, we investigated the effects of sialic acid on the Cx43 gap junction functions, and clarified its potential mechanisms thereby. Sialidase significantly increased Cx43 gap junction functions in constructed Cx43-Hela cells along with down-regulation of cell surface sialic acid, which is dramatically reversed by sialidase inhibitor NeuAc2en. Further study indicated that sialidase failed to affect Cx43 at either protein or phosphorylation level, instead, it induced a considerable fraction of Triton X-100 insoluble, as compared with the untreated cells. We also found that sialidase treatment reduced the N-cadherin glycosylation and enhanced both Cx43–ZO-1 interaction and N-cadherin–ZO-1 association. Moreover, sialidase promoted the cell–cell adhesion with elevating N-cadherin binding to β-catenin, accompanied by increasing colocalization of Cx43 with microtubules at the cell periphery. Based on live cell microscopy, with the FARP technology in the Cx43-EGFP-Hela cells, we found that Cx43 in the plague recovered more quickly in sialidase treatment group, indicating that sialidase could promote the Cx43 traffic to the plague. Overall, these studies indicate cell surface sialic acid on cancer cells may suppress Cx43 gap junction functions via inhibiting Cx43 traffic to the plague involving in sialylated N-cadherin, a process that likely underlies the intimate association between abnormal GJIC and glycosylation on cancer development.

Synthesis and antitumor activity of 10-arylcamptothecin derivatives.

A series of 10-arylcamptothecin derivatives was designed and synthesized. The key step of the synthesis was achieved by employing Suzuki cross-coupling chemistry. All of the new derivatives were tested for cytotoxicity against three human tumor cell lines, BEL-7402, A549, and HL-60; most of the derivatives exhibited potent cytotoxicity. The stability study showed that compound 30 was more stable than its lead compound 10-hydroxycamptothecin under the physiological condition. Mechanistic study demonstrated that compound 30 and its hydrochloride 31 had a pharmacological profile similar with camptothecin.

MS80, a novel sulfated polysaccharide, inhibits CD40-NF-κB pathway via targeting RIP2

In the previous studies, MS80 was found to be able to inhibit the pulmonary fibrosis. However, the target of MS80 remains unclear. To determine the target and the anti-fibrosis mechanisms of MS80, affinity column, MALDI-TOF-MS/MS, co-immunoprecipitation, and co-localization were used. The results showed that MS80 targeting protein was receptor interacting protein 2 (RIP2), which was further confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation and co-localization. Moreover, MS80 inhibited the CD40 ligation-induced NF-κB activation, and subsequently inflammatory cytokines secretion, the collagen synthesis, and the excessive proliferation of fibroblasts. Thus the detailed molecular machinery was ascribed to the involvement of MS80 in targeting CD40 signal pathway via binding and blocking RIP2, the key component of CD40 signal transduction. The findings addressed here may substantially account for the effects of MS80 in combating the pulmonary fibrosis.