Autophagy Is Required for Glucose Homeostasis and Lung Tumor Maintenance

Macroautophagy (autophagy hereafter) recycles intracellular components to sustain mitochondrial metabolism that promotes the growth, stress tolerance, and malignancy of lung cancers, suggesting that autophagy inhibition may have antitumor activity. To assess the functional significance of autophagy in both normal and tumor tissue, we conditionally deleted the essential autophagy gene, autophagy related 7 (Atg7), throughout adult mice. Here, we report that systemic ATG7 ablation caused susceptibility to infection and neurodegeneration that limited survival to 2 to 3 months. Moreover, upon fasting, autophagy-deficient mice suffered fatal hypoglycemia. Prior autophagy ablation did not alter the efficiency of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) initiation by activation of oncogenic KrasG12D and deletion of the Trp53 tumor suppressor. Acute autophagy ablation in mice with preexisting NSCLC, however, blocked tumor growth, promoted tumor cell death, and generated more benign disease (oncocytomas). This antitumor activity occurred before destruction of normal tissues, suggesting that acute autophagy inhibition may be therapeutically beneficial in cancer. Significance: We systemically ablated cellular self-cannibalization by autophagy in adult mice and determined that it is dispensable for short-term survival, but required to prevent fatal hypoglycemia and cachexia during fasting, delineating a new role for autophagy in metabolism. Importantly, acute, systemic autophagy ablation was selectively destructive to established tumors compared with normal tissues, thereby providing the preclinical evidence that strategies to inhibit autophagy may be therapeutically advantageous for RAS-driven cancers.Val Skinner FoundationNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (RC1 CA147961)Rutgers Cancer Institute of New JerseyRutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey (P30 CA072720)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R01 CA163591)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R37 CA53370)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R01 CA130893

Elevated p62/SQSTM1 determines the fate of autophagy-deficient neural stem cells by increasing superoxide

Autophagy plays important roles in many biological processes, but our understanding of the mechanisms regulating stem cells by autophagy is limited. Interpretations of earlier studies of autophagy using knockouts of single genes are confounded by accumulating evidence for other functions of many autophagy genes. Here, we show that, in contrast to Fip200 deletion, inhibition of autophagy by deletion of Atg5, Atg16L1, or Atg7 does not impair the maintenance and differentiation of postnatal neural stem cells (NSCs). Only Fip200 deletion, but not Atg5, Atg16L1, or Atg7 deletion, caused p62/sequestome1 aggregates to accumulate in NSCs. Fip200 and p62 double conditional knockout mice demonstrated that p62 aggregate formation triggers aberrant superoxide increases by impairing superoxide dismutase functions. By comparing the inhibition of autophagy by deletion of Atg5, Atg16L1, or Atg7 with Fip200 deletion, we revealed a critical role of increased p62 in determining the fate of autophagy-deficient NSCs through intracellular superoxide control

Targeting quiescent leukemic stem cells using second generation autophagy inhibitors

In chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment induces autophagy that promotes survival and TKI-resistance in leukemic stem cells (LSCs). In clinical studies hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), the only clinically approved autophagy inhibitor, does not consistently inhibit autophagy in cancer patients, so more potent autophagy inhibitors are needed. We generated a murine model of CML in which autophagic flux can be measured in bone marrow-located LSCs. In parallel, we use cell division tracing, phenotyping of primary CML cells, and a robust xenotransplantation model of human CML, to investigate the effect of Lys05, a highly potent lysosomotropic agent, and PIK-III, a selective inhibitor of VPS34, on the survival and function of LSCs. We demonstrate that long-term haematopoietic stem cells (LT-HSCs: Lin−Sca-1+c-kit+CD48−CD150+) isolated from leukemic mice have higher basal autophagy levels compared with non-leukemic LT-HSCs and more mature leukemic cells. Additionally, we present that while HCQ is ineffective, Lys05-mediated autophagy inhibition reduces LSCs quiescence and drives myeloid cell expansion. Furthermore, Lys05 and PIK-III reduced the number of primary CML LSCs and target xenografted LSCs when used in combination with TKI treatment, providing a strong rationale for clinical use of second generation autophagy inhibitors as a novel treatment for CML patients with LSC persistence

Autophagy acts through TRAF3 and RELB to regulate gene expression via antagonism of SMAD proteins

Macroautophagy can regulate cell signalling and tumorigenesis via elusive molecular mechanisms. We establish a RAS mutant cancer cell model where the autophagy gene ATG5 is dispensable in A549 cells in vitro, yet promotes tumorigenesis in mice. ATG5 represses transcriptional activation by the TGFβ-SMAD gene regulatory pathway. However, autophagy does not terminate cytosolic signal transduction by TGFβ. Instead, we use proteomics to identify selective degradation of the signalling scaffold TRAF3. TRAF3 autophagy is driven by RAS and results in activation of the NF-κB family member RELB. We show that RELB represses TGFβ target promoters independently of DNA binding at NF-κB recognition sequences, instead binding with SMAD family member(s) at SMAD-response elements. Thus, autophagy antagonises TGFβ gene expression. Finally, autophagy-deficient A549 cells regain tumorigenicity upon SMAD4 knockdown. Thus, at least in this setting, a physiologic function for autophagic regulation of gene expression is tumour growth

Pramanicin analog induces apoptosis in human colon cancer cells: critical roles for Bcl-2, Bim, and p38 MAPK signaling.

Pramanicin (PMC) is an antifungal agent that was previously demonstrated to exhibit antiangiogenic and anticancer properties in a few in vitro studies. We initially screened a number of PMC analogs for their cytotoxic effects on HCT116 human colon cancer cells. PMC-A, the analog with the most potent antiproliferative effect was chosen to further interrogate the underlying mechanism of action. PMC-A led to apoptosis through activation of caspase-9 and -3. The apoptotic nature of cell death was confirmed by abrogation of cell death with pretreatment with specific caspase inhibitors. Stress-related MAPKs JNK and p38 were both activated concomittantly with the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. Moreover, pharmacological inhibition of p38 proved to attenuate the cell death induction while pretreatment with JNK inhibitor did not exhibit a protective effect. Resistance of Bax -/- cells and the protective nature of caspase-9 inhibition indicate that mitochondria play a central role in PMC-A induced apoptosis. Early post-exposure elevation of cellular Bim and Bax was followed by a marginal Bcl-2 depletion and Bid cleavage. Further analysis revealed that Bcl-2 downregulation occurs at the mRNA level and is critical to mediate PMC-A induced apoptosis, as ectopic Bcl-2 expression substantially spared the cells from death. Conversely, forced expression of Bim proved to significantly increase cell death. In addition, analyses of p53-/- cells demonstrated that Bcl-2/Bim/Bax modulation and MAPK activations take place independently of p53 expression. Taken together, p53-independent transcriptional Bcl-2 downregulation and p38 signaling appear to be the key modulatory events in PMC-A induced apoptosis

Early upregulation of Bim is important to mediate PMC-A induced apoptosis.

<p>Wild type HCT116 cells were transfected with empty, human Bim gene carrying expression plasmids. Transfected and untransfected cells were treated with or without 50 µM PMC-A and harvested 24 h following treatment and analyzed by flow cytometry. The results from at least 3 independent experiments are shown as means ± SD. <b>**</b>P<0.01, mean value of PMC-A-treated mock-tansfected cells against that of untreated mock-transfected was tested using unpaired student’s t-test. <b>*</b>P<0.05, mean values of PMC-A-treated Bim-transfected cells against that of PMC-A-treated mock-transfected were tested using paired student’s t-test. Apoptotic induction by PMC-A treatment was significantly increased in cells overexpressing Bim compared to the cells that possess endogenous Bim expression. Cells transfected with mock vector or Bim were collected, lysed and immunoblotted with anti-Bim antibody to confirm transfection.</p

Synthesis of PMC analogs.

<p>Synthesis of PMC analogs.</p