Application of fluorescence resonance energy transfer to study syndecan-3 signaling on the surface of neural cells

Syndecans are cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans which are present in all tissues and cell types and have distinct temporal and spatial expression patterns. They play important roles in embryonic development of the organism and control relocation and alteration of extracellular matrix components. Syndecans regulate cell migration, adhesion and proliferation and are engaged in tissue injury, inflammation processes, pathogenesis of infectious diseases and tumor biology. This thesis summarizes the results of studies on one of the syndecan family receptors syndecan-3 (also known as N-syndecan). This proteoglycan is abundantly expressed in developing brain. Syndecan-3 acts as a signaling receptor upon binding of its ligand, heparin-binding growth associated molecule (HB-GAM; also known as pleiotrophin), which activates the cortactin c-Src signaling pathway. This leads to rapid neurite extension in neuronal cells, which makes syndecan-3 an interesting transmembrane receptor in neuronal development and regeneration. However, little is known about the signaling mechanism of syndecan-3. Here I show formation of ligand-syndecan-3 signaling complexes at the cell surface using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET). Ligand binding leads to dimerization of syndecan-3 at the cell surface. The dimerized syndecan-3 colocalizes with actin in the filopodia of cells. Lysine 383 in the juxtamembrane (ERKE) sequence and G392 and G396 from GXXXG canonical motif are shown to be important for the ligand-induced dimerization, whereas the cytosolic domain are not required for the dimerization. In addition to acting as a signaling receptor, syndecan-3 acts as a co-receptor in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ligand binding. FRET analysis suggests that interactions of syndecan-3 and EGFR depend on a shared ligand such as heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HB-EGF). Furthermore, it was shown that syndecan-3 may act as a receptor for other ligands, like glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). In addition, I have found a new receptor for HB-GAM glypican-2 which may be involved in regulation of HB-GAM signaling by competing with syndecan-3 for ligand binding.Syndekaanit ovat solun pinnan hepaanisulfaattiproteoglykaaneja, joita esiintyy kaikissa kudoksissa ja solutyypeissä. Syndekaaneilla on tärkeitä toimintoja alkionkehityksen aikana. Syndekaanit säätelevät solujen liikkuvuutta ja tarttumista ja niiden toiminnot liittyvät kudosvaurioon, tulehdusreaktioihin, tartuntatautien patogeneesiin ja syövän biologiaan. Tässä väitöskirjatyössä käsitellään yhden syndekaaniproteiiniperheen jäsenen, syndekaani-3 proteoglykaanin, tutkimusten tuloksia. Syndekaani-3 proteiinia ilmennetään runsaasti aivoissa kehityksen aikana. Sitoutuessaan ligandiin se välittää signaalin, joka nopeasti aikaansaa hermosolujen ulokkeiden kasvua. Osoitan tässä väitöskirjatyössä ligandin ja syndekaani-3 proteiinin muodostavan viestinvälityskompleksin solun pinnalla. Ligandin sitoutuminen johtaa syndekaani-3 reseptorien dimerisoitumiseen solun pinnalla. Lisäksi kuvaan uuden HB-GAM reseptorin, glypikaani-2 proteiinin, joka mahdollisesti säätelee HB-GAM proteiinin aikaansaamaa signalointia kilpailemalla glypikaani-2 -proteiinin kanssa sen syndekaani-3 sitoutumispaikoista

Ligand-induced dimerization of syndecan-3 at the cell surface

Syndecan-3 (N-syndecan) is a transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan abundantly expressed in developing brain. In addition to acting as a coreceptor, syndecan-3 acts as a signaling receptor upon binding of its ligand HB-GAM (heparin-binding growth-associated molecule; pleiotrophin), which activates the cortactin-src kinase signaling pathway. This leads to rapid neurite extension in neuronal cells, which makes syndecan-3 as an interesting transmembrane receptor in neuronal development and regeneration. However, little is known about the signaling mechanism of syndecan-3. Here we have analyzed formation of ligand-N-syndecan signaling complexes at the cell surface using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET). We show that ligand binding leads to dimerization of syndecan-3 at the cell surface. The dimerized syndecan-3 colocalizes with actin in the filopodia of cells. Several amino acid residues (K383, G392 and G396) in the transmembrane domain are shown to be important for the ligand-induced dimerization, whereas the cytosolic domain is not required for the dimerization.Peer reviewe

Functional temozolomide sensitivity testing of patient-specific glioblastoma stem cell cultures is predictive of clinical outcome

Serum-free culturing of patient-derived glioblastoma biopsies enrich for glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) and is recognized as a disease-relevant model system in glioblastoma (GBM). We hypothesized that the temozolomide (TMZ) drug sensitivity of patient-derived GSC cultures correlates to clinical sensitivity patterns and has clinical predictive value in a cohort of GBM patients. To this aim, we established 51 individual GSC cultures from surgical biopsies from both treatment-naive primary and pretreated recurrent GBM patients. The cultures were evaluated for sensitivity to TMZ over a dosing range achievable in normal clinical practice. Drug efficacy was quantified by the drug sensitivity score. MGMT-methylation status was investigated by pyrosequencing. Correlative, contin-gency, and survival analyses were performed for associations between experimental and clinical data. We found a heterogeneous response to temozolomide in the GSC culture cohort. There were significant differences in the sensitivity to TMZ between the newly diagnosed and the TMZ-treated recurrent disease (pPeer reviewe

Systematic drug sensitivity testing reveals synergistic growth inhibition by dasatinib or mTOR inhibitors with paclitaxel in ovarian granulosa cell tumor cells

Objective. Resistance to standard chemotherapy poses a major clinical problem in the treatment of ovarian cancer patients. Adult-type granulosa cell tumor (AGCT) is a unique ovarian cancer subtype for which efficient treatment options are lacking in advanced disease. To this end, systematic drug response and transcriptomics profiling were performed to uncover new therapy options for AGCTs. Methods. The responses of three primary and four recurrent AGCTs to 230 anticancer compounds were screened in vitro using a systematic drug sensitivity and resistance testing (DSRT) platform, coupled with mRNA sequencing. The responses of the AGCTs were compared with those of human granulosa luteal cells and bone marrow mononuclear cells. Results. Patient-derived AGCT cells showed selective sensitivity to the Src family tyrosine kinase inhibitor dasatinib. A combination of either dasatinib or an mTOR-inhibitor everolimus with paclitaxel resulted in synergistic inhibition of AGCT cell viability. The key kinase targets of dasatinib and members of the mTOR pathway were constantly expressed at mRNA and protein levels, indicating multikinase signal addictions in the AGCT cells. Transcriptomic characterization of the tumors revealed no known oncogenic mutations, suggesting that the drug sensitivity of AGCTs was rather conveyed by selective target expression. Conclusions. We used a systematic functional approach to reveal novel treatment options for a unique gynecological cancer. The selective synergy found between taxanes and dasatinib or mTOR inhibitors warrants further clinical investigations of these combinations in relapsed or aggressive AGCTs and demonstrate that high throughput drug screening and molecular profiling can provide an effective approach to uncover new therapy options. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

High NRF2 Levels Correlate with Poor Prognosis in Colorectal Cancer Patients and with Sensitivity to the Kinase Inhibitor AT9283 In Vitro

Aberrant hyperactivation of nuclear factor erythroid 2 (NF-E2) p45-related factor 2 (NRF2) is a common event in many tumour types and associates with resistance to therapy and poor patient prognosis; however, its relevance in colorectal tumours is not well-established. Measuring the expression of surrogate genes for NRF2 activity in silico, in combination with validation in patients’ samples, we show that the NRF2 pathway is upregulated in colorectal tumours and that high levels of nuclear NRF2 correlate with a poor patient prognosis. These results highlight the need to overcome the protection provided by NRF2 and present an opportunity to selectively kill cancer cells with hyperactive NRF2. Exploiting the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, we generated colorectal cancer cell lines with hyperactive NRF2 and used them to perform a drug screen. We identified AT9283, an Aurora kinase inhibitor, for its selectivity towards killing cancer cells with hyperactive NRF2 as a consequence to either genetic or pharmacological activation. Our results show that hyperactivation of NRF2 in colorectal cancer cells might present a vulnerability that could potentially be therapeutically exploited by using the Aurora kinase inhibitor AT9283

Transmembrane Prostatic Acid Phosphatase (TMPAP) Interacts with Snapin and Deficient Mice Develop Prostate Adenocarcinoma

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Minimal information for chemosensitivity assays (MICHA): a next-generation pipeline to enable the FAIRification of drug screening experiments

Chemosensitivity assays are commonly used for preclinical drug discovery and clinical trial optimization. However, data from independent assays are often discordant, largely attributed to uncharacterized variation in the experimental materials and protocols. We report here the launching of Minimal Information for Chemosensitivity Assays (MICHA), accessed via https://micha-protocol.org. Distinguished from existing efforts that are often lacking support from data integration tools, MICHA can automatically extract publicly available information to facilitate the assay annotation including: 1) compounds, 2) samples, 3) reagents and 4) data processing methods. For example, MICHA provides an integrative web server and database to obtain compound annotation including chemical structures, targets and disease indications. In addition, the annotation of cell line samples, assay protocols and literature references can be greatly eased by retrieving manually curated catalogues. Once the annotation is complete, MICHA can export a report that conforms to the FAIR principle (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) of drug screening studies. To consolidate the utility of MICHA, we provide FAIRified protocols from five major cancer drug screening studies as well as six recently conducted COVID-19 studies. With the MICHA web server and database, we envisage a wider adoption of a community-driven effort to improve the open access of drug sensitivity assays.Peer reviewe

HMGB4 is expressed by neuronal cells and affects the expression of genes involved in neural differentiation

HMGB4 is a new member in the family of HMGB proteins that has been characterized in sperm cells, but little is known about its functions in somatic cells. Here we show that HMGB4 and the highly similar rat Transition Protein 4 (HMGB4L1) are expressed in neuronal cells. Both proteins had slow mobility in nucleus of living NIH-3T3 cells. They interacted with histones and their differential expression in transformed cells of the nervous system altered the post-translational modification statuses of histones in vitro. Overexpression of HMGB4 in HEK 293T cells made cells more susceptible to cell death induced by topoisomerase inhibitors in an oncology drug screening array and altered variant composition of histone H3. HMGB4 regulated over 800 genes in HEK 293T cells with a p-valuePeer reviewe

HB-GAM (pleiotrophin) reverses inhibition of neural regeneration by the CNS extracellular matrix

Chondroitin sulfate (CS) glycosaminoglycans inhibit regeneration in the adult central nervous system (CNS). We report here that HB-GAM (heparin-binding growth-associated molecule; also known as pleiotrophin), a CS-binding protein expressed at high levels in the developing CNS, reverses the role of the CS chains in neurite growth of CNS neurons in vitro from inhibition to activation. The CS-bound HB-GAM promotes neurite growth through binding to the cell surface proteoglycan glypican-2; furthermore, HB-GAM abrogates the CS ligand binding to the inhibitory receptor PTPs (protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma). Our in vivo studies using two-photon imaging of CNS injuries support the in vitro studies and show that HB-GAM increases dendrite regeneration in the adult cerebral cortex and axonal regeneration in the adult spinal cord. Our findings may enable the development of novel therapies for CNS injuries.Peer reviewe

Quantitative scoring of differential drug sensitivity for individually optimized anticancer therapies

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