Essentiality of fatty acid synthase in the 2D to anchorage-independent growth transition in transforming cells

Upregulation of fatty acid synthase (FASN) is a common event in cancer, although its mechanistic and potential therapeutic roles are not completely understood. In this study, we establish a key role of FASN during transformation. FASN is required for eliciting the anaplerotic shift of the Krebs cycle observed in cancer cells. However, its main role is to consume acetyl-CoA, which unlocks isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-dependent reductive carboxylation, producing the reductive power necessary to quench reactive oxygen species (ROS) originated during the switch from two-dimensional (2D) to three-dimensional (3D) growth (a necessary hallmark of cancer). Upregulation of FASN elicits the 2D-to-3D switch; however, FASN's synthetic product palmitate is dispensable for this process since cells satisfy their fatty acid requirements from the media. In vivo, genetic deletion or pharmacologic inhibition of FASN before oncogenic activation prevents tumor development and invasive growth. These results render FASN as a potential target for cancer prevention studies.M.Q.F. is a recipient of the following grants: FIS PI13/00430 and FIS PI16/00354 funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and AECC Scientific Foundation (Beca de Retorno 2010). R.C. is a recipient of the following grants: FIS PI11/00832 and FIS PI14/00726 funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), II14/00009 and PIE15/00068 from the Ministerio de Sanidad, Spain. N.S.C. is a recipient of an NIH grant (5R35CA197532). O.Y.T. is a recipient of the grants BFU2014-57466 from the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO). J.P.B. is funded by MINECO (SAF2016-78114-R), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (RD12/0043/0021), Junta de Castilla y Leon (Escalera de Excelencia CLU-2017-03), Ayudas Equipos Investigacion Biomedicina 2017 Fundacion BBVA, and Fundacion Ramon Areces. This study was partially supported by the generous donations from Fundacion CRIS Contra el Cancer and AVON Spain. We thank Drs. Erwin Wagner and Nabil Djouder for their critical review of the paper.S

The impact of attention to news about tax changes on the stock market

We approach to point out new direction of measurement the attention of the news related to changes in taxes by using the application Google Trends. The objective of the study is to extend literature that investigates the impact of the information's search intensity provided by Google Trends on capital market. We show that increasing attention on tax changes measured by Google search decrease stock prices of the US companies listed on NASDAQ. Moreover, we focus on abnormal Google searches related to particular shocks. The study investigates the positive relationship between attention to news about tax changes and stock prices in a specific year. The cross-sectional analysis employs data from 2004 and 2005. At that time, President George Bush enacted tax breaks for overseas corporate profits, which had a great impact on search intensity within the period. Additionally, we differentiate between market capitalisation by using the dummy variables to put on the role changes of probability on selected datasets. The results confirmed higher impact of attention on large cap companies and point out the importance of sentiment analysis at liquid markets.O

Harnessing Transcriptionally driven chromosomal instability adaptation to target therapy-refractory lethal prostate cancer.

Metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) inevitably acquires resistance to standard therapy preceding lethality. Here, we unveil a chromosomal instability (CIN) tolerance mechanism as a therapeutic vulnerability of therapy-refractory lethal PCa. Through genomic and transcriptomic analysis of patient datasets, we find that castration and chemotherapy-resistant tumors display the highest CIN and mitotic kinase levels. Functional genomics screening coupled with quantitative phosphoproteomics identify MASTL kinase as a survival vulnerability specific of chemotherapy-resistant PCa cells. Mechanistically, MASTL upregulation is driven by transcriptional rewiring mechanisms involving the non-canonical transcription factors androgen receptor splice variant 7 and E2F7 in a circuitry that restrains deleterious CIN and prevents cell death selectively in metastatic therapy-resistant PCa cells. Notably, MASTL pharmacological inhibition re-sensitizes tumors to standard therapy and improves survival of pre-clinical models. These results uncover a targetable mechanism promoting high CIN adaptation and survival of lethal PCa

Master Transcription Factor Reprogramming Unleashes Selective Translation Promoting Castration Resistance and Immune Evasion in Lethal Prostate Cancer

Signaling rewiring allows tumors to survive therapy. Here we show that the decrease of the master regulator microphthalmia transcription factor (MITF) in lethal prostate cancer unleashes eukaryotic initiation factor 3B (eIF3B)-dependent translation reprogramming of key mRNAs conferring resistance to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and promoting immune evasion. Mechanistically, MITF represses through direct promoter binding eIF3B, which in turn regulates the translation of specific mRNAs. Genome-wide eIF3B enhanced cross-linking immunoprecipitation sequencing (eCLIP-seq) showed specialized binding to a UC-rich motif present in subsets of 5\u27 untranslated regions. Indeed, translation of the androgen receptor and major histocompatibility complex I (MHC-I) through this motif is sensitive to eIF3B amount. Notably, pharmacologic targeting of eIF3B-dependent translation in preclinical models sensitizes prostate cancer to ADT and anti-PD-1 therapy. These findings uncover a hidden connection between transcriptional and translational rewiring promoting therapy-refractory lethal prostate cancer and provide a druggable mechanism that may transcend into effective combined therapeutic strategies. SIGNIFICANCE: Our study shows that specialized eIF3B-dependent translation of specific mRNAs released upon downregulation of the master transcription factor MITF confers castration resistance and immune evasion in lethal prostate cancer. Pharmacologic targeting of this mechanism delays castration resistance and increases immune-checkpoint efficacy. This article is featured in Selected Articles from This Issue, p. 2489

Prospective individual patient data meta-analysis of two randomized trials on convalescent plasma for COVID-19 outpatients

Data on convalescent plasma (CP) treatment in COVID-19 outpatients are scarce. We aimed to assess whether CP administered during the first week of symptoms reduced the disease progression or risk of hospitalization of outpatients. Two multicenter, double-blind randomized trials (NCT04621123, NCT04589949) were merged with data pooling starting when = 50 years and symptomatic for <= 7days were included. The intervention consisted of 200-300mL of CP with a predefined minimum level of antibodies. Primary endpoints were a 5-point disease severity scale and a composite of hospitalization or death by 28 days. Amongst the 797 patients included, 390 received CP and 392 placebo; they had a median age of 58 years, 1 comorbidity, 5 days symptoms and 93% had negative IgG antibody-test. Seventy-four patients were hospitalized, 6 required mechanical ventilation and 3 died. The odds ratio (OR) of CP for improved disease severity scale was 0.936 (credible interval (CI) 0.667-1.311); OR for hospitalization or death was 0.919 (CI 0.592-1.416). CP effect on hospital admission or death was largest in patients with <= 5 days of symptoms (OR 0.658, 95%CI 0.394-1.085). CP did not decrease the time to full symptom resolution