Myoferlin controls mitochondrial structure and activity in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and affects tumor aggressiveness

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related death. Therapeutic options remain very limited and are based on classical chemotherapies. Energy metabolism reprogramming appears as an emerging hallmark of cancer and is considered a therapeutic target with considerable potential. Myoferlin, a ferlin family member protein overexpressed in PDAC, is involved in plasma membrane biology and has a tumor-promoting function. In the continuity of our previous studies, we investigated the role of myoferlin in the context of energy metabolism in PDAC. We used selected PDAC tumor samples and PDAC cell lines together with small interfering RNA technology to study the role of myoferlin in energetic metabolism. In PDAC patients, we showed that myoferlin expression is negatively correlated with overall survival and with glycolytic activity evaluated by 18F-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography. We found out that myoferlin is more abundant in lipogenic pancreatic cancer cell lines and is required to maintain a branched mitochondrial structure and a high oxidative phosphorylation activity. The observed mitochondrial fission induced by myoferlin depletion led to a decrease of cell proliferation, ATP production, and autophagy induction, thus indicating an essential role of myoferlin for PDAC cell fitness. The metabolic phenotype switch generated by myoferlin silencing could open up a new perspective in the development of therapeutic strategies, especially in the context of energy metabolism

Myoferlin, a new autophagy player in pancreatic cancer cells

Despite intensive research, Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Early-stage of the disease is clinically silent and the diagnosis of the disease is mostly made at an advanced stage. This late diagnosis contributes to one of the lowest 5-year survival rates (<5%). Today, PDAC are treated by surgery and/or adjuvant therapy, increasing only slightly the median survival of the patients. There is therefore an urgent need to develop new effective therapies for PDAC patients. PDAC are characterized by a high autophagic activity involved in its chemoresistance. Recently, key regulatory proteins controlling the metabolic reprogramming of PDAC cells were identified. By governing both autophagic flux and lysosomal catabolism, these proteins support the efficient processing of cargo from autophagy, providing PDAC cells with access to critical sources of nutrients. Interestingly, the high autophagy level in PDAC correlates with a poor patient outcome. Myoferlin, a member of the ferlin family overexpressed at protein level in different cancer types including PDAC, is a transmembrane protein able to bound to phospholipids and described to play an important function in membrane fusion. This characteristic invited us to investigate whether myoferlin could participate to autophagy, a process involving membrane fusion. Panc-1 cell line was used as a model of PDAC basal autophagy. Myoferlin expression was silenced using interfering RNA technology. Autophagosome abundance was evaluated by LC3-II western-blot and flow cytometry. Results indicated a significant increase in autophagosome abundance 48 h after myoferlin-silencing. This increase could arise from an increase of autophagy initiation or from an inhibition of autolysosome degradation. Using autophagy inhibitors, autophagic flux was evaluated by LC3-II and p62 western-blot after myoferlin-silencing. Results suggested a blockade in the autophagic process, impairing termination and autophagosome degradation by lysosome activity. Knowing the affinity of myoferlin for phospholipids, we wonder if this protein could interact with the phosphatidylethanolamine-conjugated LC3-II protein. Proximity-ligation assay suggested a close interaction between myoferlin and LC3. These results evoke an unexplored and undescribed role for myoferlin in autophagy. Understanding the involvement of myoferlin in this rediscovered biological process could give new clues in the development of new therapeutic strategy.Involvement of myoferlin in autophagy and metabolic adaptation in pancreas cance

Myoferlin is a key regulator of EGFR activity in breast cancer.

Myoferlin is a member of the ferlin family of proteins that participate in plasma membrane fusion, repair and endocytosis. While some reports have implicated myoferlin in cancer, the extent of its expression in and contributions to cancer are not well established. In this study, we show that myoferlin is overexpressed in human breast cancers and that it is has a critical role in controlling degradation of the EGFR after its activation and internalization in breast cancer cells. Myoferlin depletion blocked EGF-induced cell migration and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Both effects were induced as a result of impaired degradation of phosphorylated EGFR via dysfunctional plasma membrane caveolae and alteration of caveolin homooligomerization. In parallel, myoferlin depletion reduced tumor development in a chicken chorioallantoic membrane xenograft model of human breast cancer. Considering the therapeutic significance of EGFR targeting, our findings identify myoferlin as an novel candidate function to target for future drug development

Myoferlin controls mitochondrial structure and metabolism in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and affects tumor aggressiveness.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common type of pancreatic cancer, and the third leading cause of cancer related death. Therapeutic options remain very limited and are still based on classical chemotherapies. Cell fraction can survive to the chemotherapy and is responsible for tumor relapse. It appears that these cells rely on oxydative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) for survival. Myoferlin, a membrane protein involved in cell fusion was recently shown by our laboratory to be overexpressed in pancreatic cancer. In the present study, we discovered that myoferlin was more expressed in cell lines undergoing (OXPHOS) than in glycolytic cell lines. In the former cell lines, we showed that myoferlin silencing reduced OXPHOS activity and forced cells to switch to glycolysis. The decrease in OXPHOS activity is associated with mitochondrial condensation and network disorganization. An increase of Dynamin-related protein (DRP)-1 phosphorylation in myoferlin-depleted cells led us to suggest mitochondrial fission, reducing cell proliferation, ATP production and inducing autophagy and ROS accumulation. Electron microscopy observation revealed mitophagy, suggesting mitochondrial alterations. To confirm the clinical importance of myoferlin in PDAC, we showed that low myoferlin expression was significantly correlated to high overall survival. Myoferlin staining of PDAC sections was negatively correlated with several 18FDG PET indices indicating that glycolytic lesions had less myoferlin. These observations are fully in accordance with our in vitro data. As the mitochondrial function was associated with cell chemoresistance, the metabolic switch induced by myoferlin silencing could open up a new perspective in the development of therapeutic strategies. Among them, targeting functional domains (C2, Dysf, …) of myoferlin should be a priority

Novel Relative ICPL Based Quantitative Phospho- and Glycoproteome Analysis Method

Large scale proteomic analysis remains challenging partially because proteins are inhomogeneous and often influenced by a variety of structural modifications. In particular, these specific chemical modifications called posttranslational modifications (PTM) are crucial determinants for the protein function and biological role. Up to now there have been a growing number of studies describing the enrichment and identification of PTM. However, a significant dearth of data offering a reliable methodology for PTM quantification does exist. The present work aims at developing a label based protein PTM quantification strategy and demonstrating its value on comparative analysis of cells originating from two distinct prostate metastasis sites. PC3 and LNCaP cells isolated from bone and lymph node prostate cancer metastasis sites respectively, were lysed and spiked with three non-human proteins serving as internal standards. Following this, the samples were reduced and alkylated, digested with trypsin and subjected to peptide ICPL (isotope coded protein label) labeling. The two peptide containing samples were joined together followed by the affinity isolation of phospho- (using TiO2 metal affinity chromatography) and glycopeptides (oxidized glycans were bound on hydrazide resin). The enriched fraction as well as the flow-through were analyzed on a 2D-(SCX and C18-RP)-nano-HPLC system. The peptide identification and quantification was conducted using electrospray ion-trap mass spectrometer (Bruker, HCT-ultra). Validation of the differentially modulated proteins was conducted in several biological and technical replicates using the label free MSe based quantification strategy. This PTM based, novel relative protein quantification using post-digest ICPL has detected over 598 individual proteins. Of these more than 95 % have been successfully quantified. PTM enrichment methodologies allowed an isolation rate of 91 % and 50 % for phosphorylated and glycosylated proteins respectively. The detailed comparison of PC3 and LNCaP cells has shown specific overexpression of selected proteins indicating differences between these two prostate metastatic cell lines. Several of these modulated proteins have been previously described to be related to prostate cancer (e.g. annexin A2 and vimentin) while others could be considered as potentially novel. These proteins might be implicated in the fundamental process related to metastasis dissemination. However, because of the known discrepancy between cell systems and clinical material, the present study can be regarded only as a step towards elucidation of these complex interactions

Novel post-digest isotope coded protein labeling method for phospho- and glycoproteome analysis

In the field of proteomics there is an apparent lack of reliable methodology for quantification of posttranslational modifications. Present study offers a novel post-digest ICPL quantification strategy directed towards characterization of phosphorylated and glycosylated proteins. The value of the method is demonstrated based on the comparison of two prostate related metastatic cell lines originating from two distinct metastasis sites (PC3 and LNCaP). The method consists of protein digestion, ICPL labeling, mixing of the samples, PTM enrichment and MS-analysis. Phosphorylated peptides were isolated using TiO(2), whereas the enrichment of glycosylated peptides was performed using hydrazide based chemistry. Isolated PTM peptides were analyzed along with non enriched sample using 2D-(SCX-RP)-Nano-HPLC-MS/MS instrumentation. Taken together the novel ICPL labeling method offered a significant improvement of the number of identified (∼600 individual proteins) and quantified proteins (>95%) in comparison to the classical ICPL method. The results were validated using alternative protein quantification strategies as well as label-free MS quantification method. On the biological level, the comparison of PC3 and LNCaP cells has shown specific modulation of proteins implicated in the fundamental process related to metastasis dissemination. Finally, a preliminary study involving clinically relevant autopsy cases reiterated the potential biological value of the discovered proteins

Innovative methodology for the identification of soluble biomarkers in fresh tissues

International audienceThe identification of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers from early lesions, measurable in liquid biopsies remains a major challenge, particularly in oncology. Fresh human material of high quality is required for biomarker discovery but is often not available when it is totally required for clinical pathology investigation. Hence, all OMICs studies are done on residual and less clinically relevant biological samples. Here after, we present an innovative, simple, and non-destructive, procedure named EXPEL that uses rapid, pressure-assisted, interstitial fluid extrusion, preserving the specimen for full routine clinical pathology investigation. In the meantime, the technique allows a comprehensive OMICs analysis (proteins, metabolites, miRNAs and DNA). As proof of concept, we have applied EXPEL on freshly collected human colorectal cancer and liver metastases tissues. We demonstrate that the procedure efficiently allows the extraction, within a few minutes, of a wide variety of biomolecules holding diagnostic and prognostic potential while keeping both tissue morphology and antigenicity unaltered. Our method enables, for the first time, both clinicians and scientists to explore identical clinical material regardless of its origin and size, which has a major positive impact on translation to the clinic

Myoferlin controls mitochondrial structure in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and affects tumor aggressiveness

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common type of pancreatic cancer, and the third leading cause of cancer related death. Therapeutic options remain very limited and are still based on classical chemotherapies. Cell fraction can survive to the chemotherapy and is responsible for tumor relapse. It appears that these cells rely on OXPHOS for survival. Myoferlin, a membrane protein involved in cell fusion was recently shown by our laboratory to be overexpressed in pancreatic cancer. In the present study, we discovered that myoferlin was more expressed in cell lines undergoing oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) than in glycolytic cell lines. In the former cell lines, we showed that myoferlin silencing reduced OXPHOS activity and forced cells to switch to glycolysis. The decrease in OXPHOS activity is associated with mitochondrial network disorganization. Dynamin-related protein (DRP)-1 phosphorylation led us to suggest mitochondrial fission, reducing cell proliferation, ATP production and inducing autophagy and ROS accumulation. To confirm the clinical importance of myoferlin in PDAC, we showed that low myoferlin expression was significantly correlated to high overall survival. Myoferlin staining of PDAC sections was negatively correlated with several 18FDG PET indices indicating that glycolytic lesions had less myoferlin. As the mitochondrial function is demonstrated to enhance the cell resistance to the treatment, the metabolic switch forced by myoferlin silencing could open up a new perspective in the development of therapeutic strategies

The angiogenesis suppressor gene AKAP12 is under the epigenetic control of HDAC7 in endothelial cells.

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are a family of 18 enzymes that deacetylate lysine residues of both histone and nonhistone proteins and to a large extent govern the process of angiogenesis. Previous studies have shown that specific inhibition of HDAC7 blocks angiogenesis both in vitro and in vivo. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not fully understood and hence preclude any meaningful development of suitable therapeutic modalities. The goal of the present study was to further the understanding of HDAC7 epigenetic control of angiogenesis in human endothelial cells using the proteomic approach. The underlying problem was approached through siRNA-mediated gene-expression silencing of HDAC7 in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). To this end, HUVEC proteins were extracted and proteomically analyzed. The emphasis was placed on up-regulated proteins, as these may represent potential direct epigenetic targets of HDAC7. Among several proteins, A-kinase anchor protein 12 (AKAP12) was the most reproducibly up-regulated protein following HDAC7 depletion. This overexpression of AKAP12 was responsible for the inhibition of migration and tube formation in HDAC7-depleted HUVEC. Mechanistically, H3 histones associated with AKAP12 promoter were acetylated following the removal of HDAC7, leading to an increase in its mRNA and protein levels. AKAP12 is responsible for protein kinase C mediated phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3). Phosphorylated STAT3 increasingly binds to the chromatin and AKAP12 promoter and is necessary for maintaining the elevated levels of AKAP12 following HDAC7 knockdown. We demonstrated for the first time that AKAP12 tumor/angiogenesis suppressor gene is an epigenetic target of HDAC7, whose elevated levels lead to a negative regulation of HUVEC migration and inhibit formation of tube-like structures