ATG9A loss confers resistance to trastuzumab via c-Cbl mediated Her2 degradation

Acquired or de novo resistance to trastuzumab remains a barrier to patient survival and mechanisms underlying this still remain unclear. Using stable isotope labelling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC)-based quantitative proteomics to compare proteome profiles between trastuzumab sensitive/resistant cells, we identified autophagy related protein 9A (ATG9A) as a down-regulated protein in trastuzumab resistant cells (BT474-TR). Interestingly, ATG9A ectopic expression markedly decreased the proliferative ability of BT474-TR cells but not that of the parental line (BT474). This was accompanied by a reduction of Her2 protein levels and AKT phosphorylation (S473), as well as a decrease in Her2 stability, which was also observed in JIMT1 and MDA-453, naturally trastuzumab-resistant cells. In addition, ATG9A indirectly promoted c-Cbl recruitment to Her2 on T1112, a known c-Cbl docking site, leading to increased K63 Her2 polyubiquitination. Whereas silencing c-Cbl abrogated ATG9A repressive effects on Her2 and downstream PI3K/AKT signaling, its depletion restored BT474-TR proliferative rate. Taken together, our findings show for this first time that ATG9A loss in trastuzumab resistant cells allowed Her2 to escape from lysosomal targeted degradation through K63 poly-ubiquitination via c-Cbl. This study identifies ATG9A as a potentially druggable target to overcome resistance to anti-Her2 blockade

Proteomic profile of KSR1-regulated signalling in response to genotoxic agents in breast cancer

Kinase suppressor of Ras 1 (KSR1) has been implicated in tumorigenesis in multiple cancers, including skin, pancreatic and lung carcinomas. However, our recent study revealed a role of KSR1 as a tumour suppressor in breast cancer, the expression of which is potentially correlated with chemotherapy response. Here, we aimed to further elucidate the KSR1-regulated signalling in response to genotoxic agents in breast cancer. Stable isotope labelling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) was implemented to globally characterise cellular protein levels induced by KSR1 in the presence of doxorubicin or etoposide. The acquired proteomic signature was compared and GO-STRING analysis was subsequently performed to illustrate the activated functional signalling networks. Furthermore, the clinical associations of KSR1 with identified targets and their relevance in chemotherapy response were examined in breast cancer patients. We reveal a comprehensive repertoire of thousands of proteins identified in each dataset and compare the unique proteomic profiles as well as functional connections modulated by KSR1 after doxorubicin (Doxo-KSR1) or etoposide (Etop-KSR1) stimulus. From the up-regulated top hits, several proteins, including STAT1, ISG15 and TAP1 are also found to be positively associated with KSR1 expression in patient samples. Moreover, high KSR1 expression, as well as high abundance of these proteins, is correlated with better survival in breast cancer patients who underwent chemotherapy. In aggregate, our data exemplify a broad functional network conferred by KSR1 with genotoxic agents and highlight its implication in predicting chemotherapy response in breast cancer

Impaired CK1 Delta Activity Attenuates SV40-Induced Cellular Transformation In Vitro and Mouse Mammary Carcinogenesis In Vivo

Simian virus 40 (SV40) is a powerful tool to study cellular transformation in vitro, as well as tumor development and progression in vivo. Various cellular kinases, among them members of the CK1 family, play an important role in modulating the transforming activity of SV40, including the transforming activity of T-Ag, the major transforming protein of SV40, itself. Here we characterized the effects of mutant CK1δ variants with impaired kinase activity on SV40-induced cell transformation in vitro, and on SV40-induced mammary carcinogenesis in vivo in a transgenic/bi-transgenic mouse model. CK1δ mutants exhibited a reduced kinase activity compared to wtCK1δ in in vitro kinase assays. Molecular modeling studies suggested that mutation N172D, located within the substrate binding region, is mainly responsible for impaired mutCK1δ activity. When stably over-expressed in maximal transformed SV-52 cells, CK1δ mutants induced reversion to a minimal transformed phenotype by dominant-negative interference with endogenous wtCK1δ. To characterize the effects of CK1δ on SV40-induced mammary carcinogenesis, we generated transgenic mice expressing mutant CK1δ under the control of the whey acidic protein (WAP) gene promoter, and crossed them with SV40 transgenic WAP-T-antigen (WAP-T) mice. Both WAP-T mice as well as WAP-mutCK1δ/WAP-T bi-transgenic mice developed breast cancer. However, tumor incidence was lower and life span was significantly longer in WAP-mutCK1δ/WAP-T bi-transgenic animals. The reduced CK1δ activity did not affect early lesion formation during tumorigenesis, suggesting that impaired CK1δ activity reduces the probability for outgrowth of in situ carcinomas to invasive carcinomas. The different tumorigenic potential of SV40 in WAP-T and WAP-mutCK1δ/WAP-T tumors was also reflected by a significantly different expression of various genes known to be involved in tumor progression, specifically of those involved in wnt-signaling and DNA repair. Our data show that inactivating mutations in CK1δ impair SV40-induced cellular transformation in vitro and mouse mammary carcinogenesis in vivo

ER status heterogeneity in breast cancer: role in response to endocrine treatment

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The role of pseudokinases in cancer

Kinases play a critical role in regulating many cellular functions including development, differentiation and proliferation. To date, over 518 proteins with kinase activity, comprising ~2-3% of total cellular proteins, have been identified from within the human kinome. Interestingly, approximately 10% of kinases are categorised as pseudokinases since they lack one or more conserved catalytic residues within their kinase domain and were originally thought to have no enzymatic activity. Recently, there has been strong evidence to suggest that some pseudokinsases can not only function as scaffold proteins, but may also possess kinase activity leading to modulation of cell signalling pathways. Altered activity of these pseudokinases can result in impaired cellular function, particularly in malignancies. In this review we are discussing recent evidence that apart from a scaffolding role, pseudokinases also orchestrate cellular processes as active kinases per se in signalling pathways of malignant cells

Human kinome siRNA screening to identify novel targets implicated in fibroblast-mediated triple negative breast cancer cells invasion

Introduction: Triple negative Breast-Cancer (TNBC) represents the breast cancer subtype with the poorest prognosis, which lacks targeted treatment options. Despite the increasing evidence that tumor microenvironment signalling influences the behaviour of surrounding cancer cells, still relatively little is known about which changes in stromal cells influence tumor cells behaviour. Kinases are proteins by which signals are transmitted inside and outside the cells. Alterations in kinases expression could lead to dramatic changes in single cells and ultimately the surrounding microenvironment. Future treatment design for TNBC should provide tools to neutralize not only tumorigenic cells but also the cancer-associated microenvironment cells. The aim of this study is to identify kinases expressed in fibroblasts that able to influence the aggressiveness / invasive potential of TNBC cells. Material and methods: A library of siRNAs targeting human kinase were used in fibroblast , after silencing fibroblast were co-culturing with TNBC cell line (MDA-MB231). After spheroids formation, Matrigel and chemoattractant were added to the well in order to promote invasion. Imaging of wells after 3 and 6 days was performed in order to measure invasion and pictures were analysed with Image-J software. Results and discussion: We were able to identify n=33 kinases that were able to significantly (p<0.05) influence the breast cancer cells invasion profile. The Gene Ontology analysis of those kinases shows that the one of main pathways involved in tumor-stroma cross-talk is angiogenesis. Among selected kinases, TIE1 (tyrosine kinase with immunoglobulin-like and EGF-like domains 1) which silencing was able to reduce invasion by 25%, in an independent analysis was found to be overexpressed in cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) as compared to normal ones, suggesting that it can be involved in both invasion promotion and in fibroblast transition to CAF. Conclusion: We have identified new kinases that are expressed in normal fibroblasts, which appear to be implicated in breast cancer cells behaviour. These kinases can represent a putative molecular target to treat TNBC, that to date lack of an effective pharmacological. We plan to performed additional studies (include exosome and SILAC analysis ) to further elucidated the role of these Kinases in tumor-stroma cross talk and the influence on invasion

Phosphorylation of CK1d: identification of Ser370 as the major phosphorylation site targeted by PKA in vitro and in vivo

The involvement of CK1 (casein kinase 1) delta in the regulation of multiple cellular processes implies a tight regulation of its activity on many different levels. At the protein level, reversible phosphorylation plays an important role in modulating the activity of CK1delta. In the present study, we show that PKA (cAMP-dependent protein kinase), Akt (protein kinase B), CLK2 (CDC-like kinase 2) and PKC (protein kinase C) alpha all phosphorylate CK1delta. PKA was identified as the major cellular CK1deltaCK (CK1delta C-terminal-targeted protein kinase) for the phosphorylation of CK1delta in vitro and in vivo. This was implied by the following evidence: PKA was detectable in the CK1deltaCK peak fraction of fractionated MiaPaCa-2 cell extracts, PKA shared nearly identical kinetic properties with those of CK1deltaCK, and both PKA and CK1deltaCK phosphorylated CK1delta at Ser370 in vitro. Furthermore, phosphorylation of CK1delta by PKA decreased substrate phosphorylation of CK1delta in vitro. Mutation of Ser370 to alanine increased the phosphorylation affinity of CK1delta for beta-casein and the GST (gluthatione S-transferase)-p53 1-64 fusion protein in vitro and enhanced the formation of an ectopic dorsal axis during Xenopus laevis development. Anchoring of PKA and CK1delta to centrosomes was mediated by AKAP (A-kinase-anchoring protein) 450. Interestingly, pre-incubation of MiaPaCa-2 cells with the synthetic peptide St-Ht31, which prevents binding between AKAP450 and the regulatory subunit RII of PKA, resulted in a 6-fold increase in the activity of CK1delta. In summary, we conclude that PKA phosphorylates CK1delta, predominantly at Ser370 in vitro and in vivo, and that site-specific phosphorylation of CK1delta by PKA plays an important role in modulating CK1delta-dependent processes

The HSV-1 ICP22 protein selectively impairs histone repositioning upon Pol II transcription downstream of genes

Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infection and stress responses disrupt transcription termination by RNA Polymerase II (Pol II). In HSV-1 infection, but not upon salt or heat stress, this is accompanied by a dramatic increase in chromatin accessibility downstream of genes. Here, we show that the HSV-1 immediate-early protein ICP22 is both necessary and sufficient to induce downstream open chromatin regions (dOCRs) when transcription termination is disrupted by the viral ICP27 protein. This is accompanied by a marked ICP22-dependent loss of histones downstream of affected genes consistent with impaired histone repositioning in the wake of Pol II. Efficient knock-down of the ICP22-interacting histone chaperone FACT is not sufficient to induce dOCRs in ΔICP22 infection but increases dOCR induction in wild-type HSV-1 infection. Interestingly, this is accompanied by a marked increase in chromatin accessibility within gene bodies. We propose a model in which allosteric changes in Pol II composition downstream of genes and ICP22-mediated interference with FACT activity explain the differential impairment of histone repositioning downstream of genes in the wake of Pol II in HSV-1 infection