竹内 俊幸

CERS6 is associated with metastasis and poor prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients through d18:1/C16:0 ceramide (C16 ceramide)-mediated cell migration, though the detailed mechanism has not been elucidated. In the present study, examinations including co-immunoprecipitation, liquid chromatography, and tandem mass spectrometry analysis were performed to identify a novel binding partner of CERS6. Among the examined candidates, LASP1 was a top-ranked binding partner, with the LIM domain possibly required for direct interaction. In accord with those findings, CERS6 and LASP1 were found to co-localize on lamellipodia in several lung cancer cell lines. Furthermore, silencing of CERS6 and/or LASP1 significantly suppressed cell migration and lamellipodia formation, whereas ectopic addition of C16 ceramide partially rescued those phenotypes. Both LASP1 and CERS6 showed co-immunoprecipitation with actin, with those interactions markedly reduced when the LASP1–CERS6 complex was abolished. Based on these findings, it is proposed that LASP1–CERS6 interaction promotes cancer cell migration.

The enzyme-labeled antigen method is an immunohistochemical technique detecting plasma cells producing specific antibodies in tissue sections. The probe is an antigen labeled with an enzyme or biotin. This immunohistochemical technique is appliable to frozen sections of paraformaldehyde (PFA)-fixed tissues, but it has been difficult to apply it to formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) sections. In the current study, factors inactivating the antibody reactivity during the process of preparing FFPE sections were investigated. Lymph nodes of rats immunized with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) or a mixture of keyhole limpet hemocyanin/ovalbumin/bovine serum albumin were employed as experimental models. Plasma cells producing specific antibodies, visualized with HRP (as an antigen with enzymatic activity) or biotinylated proteins in 4% PFA-fixed frozen sections, significantly decreased in unbuffered 10% formalin-fixed frozen sections. The positive cells were further decreased by paraffin embedding following formalin fixation. In paraffin-embedded sections fixed in precipitating fixatives such as ethanol and acetone and those prepared with the AMeX method, the antigen-binding reactivity of antibodies was preserved. Fixation in periodate-lysine-paraformaldehyde and Zamboni solution also kept the antigen-binding reactivity in paraffin to some extent. In conclusion, formalin fixation and paraffin embedding were major causes inactivating antibodies. Precipitating fixatives could retain the antigen-binding reactivity of antibodies in paraffin-embedded sections.

Alanine-serine-cysteine transporter 2 (ASCT2) has been associated with increased levels of metabolism in various malignant tumors. However, its biological significance in the proliferation of prostate cancer (PCa) cells remains under investigation. We used the cBioPortal database to assess the effect of ASCT2 expression on the oncological outcomes of 108 PCa patients. To evaluate the function of ASCT2 in castration-sensitive PCa (CSPC) and castration-resistant PCa (CRPC), LNCaP cells and the ARV7-positive PCa cell line, 22Rv1, were assessed using cell proliferation assays and Western blot analyses. The ASCT2 expression level was associated with biochemical recurrence-free survival after prostatectomy in patients with a Gleason score ≥ 7. In vitro experiments indicated that the growth of LNCaP cells after combination therapy of ASCT2 siRNA and enzalutamide treatment was significantly reduced, compared to that following treatment with enzalutamide alone or ASCT2 siRNA transfection alone (p < 0.01, 0.01, respectively). After ASCT2 inhibition by siRNA transfection, the growth of 22Rv1 cells was significantly suppressed as compared with negative control siRNA via downregulation of ARV7 both in fetal bovine serum and androgen-deprivation conditions (p < 0.01, 0.01, respectively). We demonstrated that ASCT2 inhibition significantly reduced the proliferation rates of both CSPC and CRPC cells in vitro.

PURPOSE: We previously reported that polyphyllin D, a main component of the traditional Chinese medicinal herb Paris polyphylla, exhibited anticancer effects in vitro against human neuroblastoma cells. The aims of this investigation was to examine the presence or absence of in vivo anti-metastasis effects of polyphyllin D were to establish a liver metastasis model of neuroblastoma and to evaluate the anti-metastasis effects of polyphyllin D. METHODS: Subcutaneous and intraperitoneal tumors, and metastasis models were established in immune-deficient BALB/c nude and BALB/c Rag-2/Jak3 double-deficient (BRJ) mice using the human neuroblastoma cell lines IMR-32, LA-N-2, or NB-69. For evaluating polyphyllin D activity, we used a mouse model of liver metastasis with the IMR-32 cells line injected through the tail vein. We analyzed the livers number and area of liver tumors in of the phosphate buffer solution- and polyphyllin D-treated groups. RESULTS: Liver metastasis and intraperitoneal dissemination models were successfully established in immune-deficient BRJ mice using the three human neuroblastoma cell lines. In the liver metastasis, the model of IMR-32 cells, we found that polyphyllin D suppressed both the number and total area of metastatic foci the average number of metastatic foci, average focus areas, and number of cleaved caspase-3-positive cells were significantly lower in the polyphyllin D group (p = 0.016, 0.020, 0.043, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: We developed a mouse models of neuroblastoma metastasis and demonstrated for the first time that polyphyllin D has an antitumor effect on neuroblastoma liver metastases.

Ceramide synthase 6 (CERS6) promotes lung cancer metastasis by stimulating cancer cell migration. To examine the underlying mechanisms, we performed luciferase analysis of the CERS6 promoter region and identified the Y-box as a cis-acting element. As a parallel analysis of database records for 149 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cancer patients, we screened for trans-acting factors with an expression level showing a correlation with CERS6 expression. Among the candidates noted, silencing of either CCAAT enhancer-binding protein γ (CEBPγ) or Y-box binding protein 1 (YBX1) reduced the CERS6 expression level. Following knockdown, CEBPγ and YBX1 were found to be independently associated with reductions in ceramide-dependent lamellipodia formation as well as migration activity, while only CEBPγ may have induced CERS6 expression through specific binding to the Y-box. The mRNA expression levels of CERS6, CEBPγ, and YBX1 were positively correlated with adenocarcinoma invasiveness. YBX1 expression was observed in all 20 examined clinical lung cancer specimens, while 6 of those showed a staining pattern similar to that of CERS6. The present findings suggest promotion of lung cancer migration by possible involvement of the transcription factors CEBPγ and YBX1.

Sphingolipids constitute a class of bio-reactive molecules that transmit signals and exhibit a variety of physical properties in various cell types, though their functions in cancer pathogenesis have yet to be elucidated. Analyses of gene expression profiles of clinical specimens and a panel of cell lines revealed that the ceramide synthase gene CERS6 was overexpressed in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues, while elevated expression was shown to be associated with poor prognosis and lymph node metastasis. NSCLC profile and in vitro luciferase analysis results suggested that CERS6 overexpression is promoted, at least in part, by reduced miR-101 expression. Under a reduced CERS6 expression condition, the ceramide profile became altered, which was determined to be associated with decreased cell migration and invasion activities in vitro. Furthermore, CERS6 knockdown suppressed RAC1-positive lamellipodia/ruffling formation and attenuated lung metastasis efficiency in mice, while forced expression of CERS6 resulted in an opposite phenotype in examined cell lines. Based on these findings, we consider that ceramide synthesis by CERS6 has important roles in lung cancer migration and metastasis.

Resveratrol (RSV) has recently attracted keen interest because of its pleiotropic effects. It exerts a wide range of health-promoting effects. In addition to health-promoting effects, RSV possesses anti-carcinogenic activity. However, a non-physiological concentration is needed to achieve an anti-cancer effect, and its in vivo bioavailability is low. Therefore, the clinical application of phytochemicals requires alternative candidates that induce the desired effects at a lower concentration and with increased bioavailability. We previously reported a low IC50 of vaticanol C (VTC), an RSV tetramer, among 12 RSV derivatives (Ito T. et al, 2003). However, the precise mechanism involved remains to be determined. Here, we screened an in-house chemical library bearing RSV building blocks ranging from dimers to octamers for cytotoxic effects in several leukemia and cancer cell lines and their anti-cancer drug-resistant sublines. Among the compounds, VTC exhibited the highest cytotoxicity, which was partially inhibited by a caspase 3 inhibitor, Z-VAD-FMK. VTC decreased the expression of sphingosine kinase 1, sphingosine kinase 2 and glucosylceramide synthase by transcriptional or post-transcriptional mechanisms, and increased cellular ceramides/dihydroceramides and decreased sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P). VTC-induced sphingolipid rheostat modulation (the ratio of ceramide/S1P) is thought to be involved in cellular apoptosis. Indeed, exogenous S1P addition modulated VTC cytotoxicity significantly. A combination of SPHK1, SPHK2, and GCS chemical inhibitors induced sphingolipid rheostat modulation, cell growth suppression, and cytotoxicity similar to that of VTC. These results suggest the involvement of sphingolipid metabolism in VTC-induced cytotoxicity, and indicate VTC is a promising prototype for translational research.

There is urgent need for biomarkers that provide early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) as well as discrimination of autoimmune pancreatitis, as current clinical approaches are not suitably accurate for precise diagnosis. We used mass spectrometry to analyze protein profiles of more than 300 plasma specimens obtained from PDAC, noncancerous pancreatic diseases including autoimmune pancreatitis patients and healthy subjects. We obtained 1063 proteomic signals from 160 plasma samples in the training cohort. A proteomic signature consisting of 7 mass spectrometry signals was used for construction of a proteomic model for detection of PDAC patients. Using the test cohort, we confirmed that this proteomic model had discrimination power equal to that observed with the training cohort. The overall sensitivity and specificity for detection of cancer patients were 82.6% and 90.9%, respectively. Notably, 62.5% of the stage I and II cases were detected by our proteomic model. We also found that 100% of autoimmune pancreatitis patients were correctly assigned as noncancerous individuals. In the present paper, we developed a proteomic model that was shown able to detect early-stage PDAC patients. In addition, our model appeared capable of discriminating patients with autoimmune pancreatitis from those with PDAC.

We previously identified PSMD2, a subunit of the 19S regulatory complex of proteasomes, as a constituent of a signature associated with the acquisition of metastatic phenotype and poor prognosis in lung cancers. In the present study, we found that knockdown of PSMD2 decreased proteasome activity, and induced growth inhibition and apoptosis in lung cancer cell lines. These effects of siRNA-mediated PSMD2 inhibition were associated with changes in the balance between phosphorylated AKT and p38, as well as with induction of p21. In addition, patients with higher PSMD2 expression had poorer prognosis and a small fraction of lung cancer specimens carried increased copies of PSMD2. Notably, our findings clearly illustrate that lung adenocarcinomas can be divided into two groups; those with and without general upregulation of proteasome pathway genes including PSMD2. This general upregulation was significantly more prevalent in the non-terminal respiratory unit (non-TRU)-type, a recently proposed genetically and clinicopathologically relevant expression profile-defined classification of adenocarcinomas (P < 0.001 by Fisher's exact test). Patients with adenocarcinomas with general upregulation had significantly shorter survival after potentially curative resection (P = 0.0001 by log-rank test) independent of disease stage, as shown by multivariate Cox regression analysis. Our results suggest that PSMD2 may be a good molecular target candidate and that other co-regulated proteasome pathway genes and/or their common regulator(s) might also be potential targets, warranting future study including elucidation of the underlying common regulatory mechanism.

Various stresses of the tumor microenvironment produced by insufficient nutrients, pH, and oxygen can contribute to the generation of altered metabolic and proliferative states that promote the survival of metastatic cells. Among many cellular stress-response pathways activated under such conditions are the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) pathway and the unfolded protein response (UPR), which is elicited as a response to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. In this study, we report the identification of a novel cancer invasion and metastasis-related gene (hereafter referred to as CIM, also called ERLEC1), which influences both of these stress-response pathways to promote metastasis. CIM was identified by comparing the gene expression profile of a highly metastatic human lung cancer cell line with its weakly metastatic parental clone. We showed that CIM is critical for metastatic properties in this system. Proteomic approaches combined with bioinformatic analyses revealed that CIM has multifaceted roles in controlling the response to hypoxia and ER stress. Specifically, CIM sequestered OS-9 from the HIF-1α complex and PHD2, permitting HIF-1α accumulation by preventing its degradation. Ectopic expression of CIM in lung cancer cells increased their tolerance to hypoxia. CIM also modulated UPR through interaction with the key ER stress protein BiP, influencing cell proliferation under ER stress conditions. Our findings shed light on how tolerance to multiple cellular stresses at a metastatic site can be evoked by an integrated mechanism involving CIM, which can function to coordinate those responses in a manner that promotes metastatic cell survival.

PURPOSE: In order to aid the development of patient-tailored therapeutics, we attempted to identify a relapse-related signature that allows selection of a group of adenocarcinoma patients with a high probability of relapse. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Whole-genome expression profiles were analyzed in 117 lung adenocarcinoma samples using microarrays consisting of 41,000 probes. A weighted voting classifier for identifying patients with a relapse-related signature was constructed with an approach that allowed no information leakage during each training step, using 10-fold cross-validation and 100 random partitioning procedures. RESULTS: We identified a relapse-related molecular signature represented by 82 probes (RRS-82) through genome-wide expression profiling analysis of a training set of 60 patients. The robustness of RRS-82 in the selection of patients with a high probability of relapse was then validated with a completely blinded test set of 27 adenocarcinoma patients, showing a clear association of high risk RRS-82 with very poor patient prognosis regardless of disease stage. The discriminatory power of RRS-82 was further validated using an additional independent cohort of 30 stage I patients who underwent surgery at a distinct period of time as well as with the Duke data set on a different platform. Furthermore, completely separate training and validation procedures using another data set recently reported by the Director's Challenge Consortium also successfully confirmed the predictive power of the genes comprising RRS-82. CONCLUSION: RRS-82 may be useful for identifying adenocarcinoma patients at very high risk for relapse, even those with cancer in the early stage.

There is marked disparity with a slight overlap among prognosis-predictive signatures reported thus far for lung cancers. In this study, we aimed at linking poor prognosis with particular pathways and/or functions of the gene sets involved to better understand the underlying molecular characteristics associated with the prognosis of lung adenocarcinomas. Gene set enrichment analysis identified a gene set down-regulated by rapamycin as the most significant, whereas several others responsive to withdrawal of glucose or amino acids, which are related to signaling converging onto mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), were also shown to be significantly associated, in addition to those related to DNA damage response and cell cycle progression. We also used connectivity map (C-MAP) analysis, an independent bioinformatics approach, to search for Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs that potentially transform an unfavorable signature to a favorable one. Those results identified inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and mTOR, as well as unexpected drugs such as phenothiazine antipsychotics and resveratrol as potential candidates. Experimental validation revealed that the latter unexpected agents also inhibited signaling converging onto mTOR and exhibited antitumor activities. In addition, deregulation of multiple signaling converging onto mTOR was shown to be significantly associated with sensitivity to PI-103, a dual specificity PI3K/mTOR inhibitor that is not contained in the C-MAP database, lending further support for the connection. Our results clearly show the existence of gene set-definable, intrinsic heterogeneities in lung adenocarcinomas, which seem to be related to both clinical behavior and sensitivity to agents affecting the identified pathways.

The proneural basic-helix-loop-helix protein achaete-scute homologue 1 (ASH1) is expressed in a very limited spectrum of normal and cancerous cells in a lineage-specific manner, including normal pulmonary neuroendocrine cells and lung cancer cells with neuroendocrine features. Our previous results indicated that ASH1 may play a crucial role in the growth and survival of lung cancers with neuroendocrine features, which prompted us to investigate the molecular function of ASH1 in relation to its involvement in carcinogenic processes. Herein, we report for the first time that ASH1 functions as a dual transcription factor by activating neuroendocrine differentiation markers and also repressing putative tumor suppressors. This protein was found to inactivate DKK1 and DKK3, negative regulators of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling, E-cadherin, and integrin beta1 through ASH1-mediated deacetylation and repressive trimethylation of lysine 27 (H3K27me3) of histone H3 in the promoter regions of DKK1 and E-cadherin. In addition, ASH1-transduced A549 adenocarcinoma cells exhibited markedly altered morphology characteristics compared with lung cancer cells with neuroendocrine features both in vitro and in vivo and also grew faster in vivo. Our results provide important clues for a better understanding of the molecular and cellular biological roles of ASH1 in the process of carcinogenesis of lung cancers with neuroendocrine features and warrant future investigations to shed light on the lineage-specific dependency of this transcription factor with dual functions.

Amplification and overexpression of the miR- 17- 92 microRNAs ( miRNA) cluster at 13q31.3 has recently reported, with pointers to functional involvement in the development of B- cell lymphomas and lung cancers. In the present study, we show that inhibition of miR- 17- 5p and miR- 20a with antisense oligonucleotides ( ONs) can induce apoptosis selectively in lung cancer cells overexpressing miR- 17- 92, suggesting the possibility of 'Oncomi R addiction to expression of these miRNAs in a subset of lung cancers. In marked contrast, antisense ONs against miR-18a and miR- 19a did not exhibit such inhibitory effects, whereas inhibition of miR-92-1 resulted in only modest reduction of cell growth, showing significant distinctions among miRNAs of the miR- 17- 92 cluster in terms of their roles in cancer cell growth. During the course of this study, we also found that enforced expression of a genomic region, termed C2, residing 30 to miR- 17- 92 in the intron 3 of C13orf25 led to marked growth inhibition in association with double stranded RNA- dependent protein kinase activation. Finally, this study also revealed that the vast majority of C13orf25 transcripts are detected as Drosha- processed cleavage products on Northern blot analysis and that a novel polyadenylation site is present 30 to the miR- 17- 92 cluster and 50 to the C2 region. Taken together, the present findings contribute towards better understanding of the oncogenic roles of miR- 17- 92, which might ultimately lead to the future translation into clinical applications.

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to gain insight into the relationship between expression profiles and underlying genetic changes, which are known to be important for the pathogenesis of lung cancers. METHODS: Expression profiles of 18,175 unique genes and three major targets for genetic changes, p53, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and K-ras, were investigated in 149 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, including 90 patients with adenocarcinoma to determine their relationships with various clinicopathologic features and Gene Ontology (GO) terms. RESULTS: This study successfully established a basis for expression profile-defined classification, which can classify adenocarcinomas into two major types, terminal respiratory unit (TRU) type and non-TRU type. Our GO term-based identifier of particular biologic processes, molecular functions, and cellular compartments clearly showed characteristic retention of normal peripheral lung features in TRU type, in sharp contrast to the significant association of non-TRU type with cell cycling and proliferation-related features. While significantly higher frequency of EGFR mutation was observed in TRU type, we found that the presence of EGFR mutations was a significant predictor of shorter postoperative survival for TRU type, independent of disease stage. We were also able to identify a set of genes in vivo with significant upregulation in the presence of EGFR mutations. CONCLUSION: This study has shed light on heterogeneity in lung cancers, especially in adenocarcinomas, by establishing a molecularly, genetically, and clinically relevant, expression profile-defined classification. Future studies using independent patient cohorts are warranted to confirm the prognostic significance of EGFR mutations in TRU-type adenocarcinoma.

Injection of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) intraperitoneally into model animals induces acute liver injury mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) as normal metabolites in hepatocytes. In this study, the molecular process in this type of liver injury was analyzed from the aspect of liver function and regulatory factors. Down-regulation of liver-specific genes was accomplished through suppression of liver-enriched transcription factors and box A factors found in the catalase gene, and induction of NF-kappaB, AP-1 and a novel factor denoted as 'cx' in the catalase gene. Expression profiles of these genes were restored to normal levels in the late stage of injury (48 h). On the other hand, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were induced in the early stage (6 h) and 36 h, respectively. Interestingly, ERK2 was transiently activated at 3 h CCl4-treatment. These observations suggested that hepatotoxin by CCl4-injection concomitantly induces both processes in acute injury and liver regeneration.

DNA methylation of an imprinted control region (ICR) directs the allele-specific and reciprocal expression of the mouse H19 and the insulin-like growth factor 2 (Igf2) genes, mediated by controlling enhancer access. The ICR shows enhancer blocking activity through CTCF binding to an unmethylated sequence. The unmethylated state of the maternal ICR is maintained throughout development after establishment in the germ line; however, little is known of the molecular mechanisms that regulate DNA methylation. Hence, in this study we show that a dyad Oct-binding sequence (DOS) in the ICR mediates the demethylation of low-density methylation but not hypermethylation and is required to maintain the unmethylated state against the tendency for de novo methylation within the ICR in the embryonic carcinoma cell line P19. Furthermore, we also reveal that the unmethylated state of at least one CTCF-binding site within the ICR is under the control of DOS. Our results suggest that the ICR, as a CTCF-dependent insulator, requires DOS as well as CTCF-binding sites and that DOS maintains the maternal specific unmethylated state of the ICR at postimplantation stages.

Like such hepatic genes as those for albumin and aldolase B, the rat catalase gene shows markedly reduced expression in carcinogenesis of hepatocytes, Strong silencer activity has been widely observed in the 5'-flanking region of the gene, downstream from the G-rich sequence identified in a previous study. In this study, we identified and characterized multiple elements involved in negative regulation of catalase gene expression by reporter assay and gel shift assay. One of the silencer elements is located 3 kb upstream of the gene and has GATATCCCGATATC as core sequence. The observation that protein binding to the element is abundantly expressed in dedifferentiated hepatoma cell lines, but scarcely in well-differentiated cell lines suggests that this element is involved in negative regulation of the catalase gene expression in hepatocarcinogenesis. This element was targeted by a novel 20-kDa nuclear protein, which is designated HNRF (hepatocarcinogenesis-related negative regulatory factor).

The rat catalase gene promoter lacks a TATA box, and has eight initiation sites of transcription as well as several GT and CCAAT boxes, To elucidate the mechanism of transcription in this TATA-less promoter, we analyzed nuclear factors binding to this regulatory region of the catalase gene, Functional analysis of the promoter region revealed that a pair of inverted repeat motifs located on both sides of the transcription initiation sites played an important role in the gene expression, The core sequence of this element is GYCMGGCCCKCTCYKG (M=A/C, K=G/T, Y=T/C), and four species of complex were observed to bind to this sequence, Furthermore, this element in the chimeric promoter negatively interacted with the initiator element of the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase gene, These results suggested that the rat catalase gene is regulated by a novel mechanism involving the inverted repeated structure of the promoter and characteristic binding factors.