Picropodophyllin causes mitotic arrest and catastrophe by depolymerizing microtubules via Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor-independent mechanism

Picropodophyllin (PPP) is an anticancer drug undergoing clinical development in NSCLC. PPP has been shown to suppress IGF-1R signaling and to induce a G2/M cell cycle phase arrest but the exact mechanisms remain to be elucidated. The present study identified an IGF-1-independent mechanism of PPP leading to pro-metaphase arrest. The mitotic block was induced in human cancer cell lines and in an A549 xenograft mouse but did not occur in normal hepatocytes/mouse tissues. Cell cycle arrest by PPP occurred in vitro and in vivo accompanied by prominent CDK1 activation, and was IGF-1R-independent since it occurred also in IGF-1R-depleted and null cells. The tumor cells were not arrested in G2/M but in mitosis. Centrosome separation was prevented during mitotic entry, resulting in a monopolar mitotic spindle with subsequent prometaphase-arrest, independent of Plk1/Aurora A or Eg5, and leading to cell features of mitotic catastrophe. PPP also increased soluble tubulin and decreased spindle-associated tubulin within minutes, indicating that it interfered with microtubule dynamics. These results provide a novel IGF-1R-independent mechanism of antitumor effects of PPP

Nuclear insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor phosphorylates proliferating cell nuclear antigen and rescues stalled replication forks after DNA damage

We have previously shown that the insulin like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) translocates to the cell nucleus, where it binds to enhancer like regions and increases gene transcription. Further studies have demonstrated that nuclear IGF1R (nIGF1R) physically and functionally interacts with some nuclear proteins, i.e. the lymphoid enhancer binding factor 1 (Lef1), histone H3, and Brahma related gene 1 proteins. In the present study, we identified the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) as a nIGF1R binding partner. PCNA is a pivotal component of the replication fork machinery and a main regulator of the DNA damage tolerance (DDT) pathway. We found that IGF1R interacts with and phosphorylates PCNA in human embryonic stem cells and other cell lines. In vitro MS analysis of PCNA coincubated with the IGF1R kinase indicated tyrosine residues 60, 133, and 250 in PCNA as IGF1R targets, and PCNA phosphorylation was followed by mono and poly ubiquitination. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments suggested that these ubiquitination events may be mediated by DDT dependent E2/E3 ligases (e.g. RAD18 and SHPRH/HLTF). Absence of IGF1R or mutation of Tyr60, Tyr133, or Tyr250 in PCNA abrogated its ubiquitination. Unlike in cells expressing IGF1R, externally induced DNA damage in IGF1R negative cells caused G1 cell cycle arrest and S phase fork stalling. Taken together, our results suggest a role of IGF1R in DDT

Receptor Tyrosine Kinases in Osteosarcoma: 2019 Update

The primary conclusions of our 2014 contribution to this series were as follows: Multiple receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) likely contribute to aggressive phenotypes in osteosarcoma and, therefore, inhibition of multiple RTKs is likely necessary for successful clinical outcomes. Inhibition of multiple RTKs may also be useful to overcome resistance to inhibitors of individual RTKs as well as resistance to conventional chemotherapies. Different combinations of RTKs are likely important in individual patients. AXL, EPHB2, FGFR2, IGF1R, and RET were identified as promising therapeutic targets by our in vitro phosphoproteomic/siRNA screen of 42 RTKs in the highly metastatic LM7 and 143B human osteosarcoma cell lines. This chapter is intended to provide an update on these topics as well as the large number of osteosarcoma clinical studies of inhibitors of multiple tyrosine kinases (multi-TKIs) that were recently published

Downregulation of IGF-1 receptor occurs after hepatic linage commitment during hepatocyte differentiation from human embryonic stem cells

The insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) has been suggested to be involved in hepatocyte differentiation. Human hepatocyte cancer cells and stem cells are known to express IGF-1R whereas normal hepatocytes do not. In the present study we optimized a differentiation protocol and verified the different stages by established markers. The expression levels of IGF-1R and major downstream signaling proteins during differentiation from human embryonic stem cells (hESC) to mature hepatocytes were investigated. We could only demonstrate a minor decrease in IGF-1R expression during endodermal differentiation compared to hESC, but declined substantially (>50%) after hepatic lineage commitment during the hepatocyte specification and maturation stages. This downregulation was paralleled by an upregulation of ERK 1/2, AKT and insulin substrate-1. Neither inhibition nor activation of IGF-1R had any essential effect on endoderm differentiation of human embryonic stem cells. Therefore, our data suggest that IGF-1R downregulation may have a regulatory impact after initiation of hepatic lineage commitment

Altered enhancer-promoter interaction leads to MNX1 expression in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia with t(7;12)(q36;p13)

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with the t(7;12)(q36;p13) translocation occurs only in very young children and has a poor clinical outcome. The expected oncofusion between breakpoint partners (MNX1 and ETV6) has only been reported in a subset of cases. However, a universal feature is the strong transcript and protein expression of MNX1, a homeobox transcription factor that is normally not expressed in hematopoietic cells. Here, we map the translocation breakpoints on chromosomes 7 and 12 in affected patients to a region proximal to MNX1 and either introns 1 or 2 of ETV6. The frequency of MNX1 overexpression in pediatric AML (n=1556, own and published data) is 2.4% and occurs predominantly in t(7;12)(q36;p13) AML. Chromatin interaction assays in a t(7;12)(q36;p13) iPSC cell line model unravel an enhancer-hijacking event that explains MNX1 overexpression in hematopoietic cells. Our data suggest that enhancer-hijacking may be a more widespread consequence of translocations where no oncofusion product was identified, including e.g. t(1;3) or t(4;12) AML