Breast Cancer Cells Induce Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts to Secrete Hepatocyte Growth Factor to Enhance Breast Tumorigenesis

It has been well documented that microenvironment consisting of stroma affects breast cancer progression. However, the mechanisms by which cancer cells and fibroblasts, the major cell type in stroma, interact with each other during tumor development remains to be elucidated. Here, we show that the human cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) had higher activity in enhancing breast tumorigenecity compared to the normal tissue-associated fibroblasts (NAFs) isolated from the same patients. The expression level of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) in these fibroblasts was positively correlated with their ability to enhance breast tumorigenesis in mice. Deprivation of HGF using a neutralizing antibody reduced CAF-mediated colony formation of human breast cancer cells, indicating that CAFs enhanced cancer cell colony formation mainly through HGF secretion. Co-culture with human breast cancer MDA-MB-468 cells in a transwell system enhanced NAFs to secret HGF as well as promote tumorigenecity. The newly gained ability of these “educated” NAFs became irreversible after continuing this process till fourth passage. These results suggested that breast cancer cells could alter the nature of its surrounding fibroblasts to secrete HGF to support its own progression through paracrine signaling

Sema3E/Plexin-D1 Mediated Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition in Ovarian Endometrioid Cancer

Cancer cells often employ developmental cues for advantageous growth and metastasis. Here, we report that an axon guidance molecule, Sema3E, is highly expressed in human high-grade ovarian endometrioid carcinoma, but not low-grade or other ovarian epithelial tumors, and facilitates tumor progression. Unlike its known angiogenic activity, Sema3E acted through Plexin-D1 receptors to augment cell migratory ability and concomitant epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Sema3E-induced EMT in ovarian endometrioid cancer cells was dependent on nuclear localization of Snail1 through activation of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase and ERK/MAPK. RNAi-mediated knockdown of Sema3E, Plexin-D1 or Snail1 in Sema3E-expressing tumor cells resulted in compromised cell motility, concurrent reversion of EMT and diminished nuclear localization of Snail1. By contrast, forced retention of Snail1 within the nucleus of Sema3E-negative tumor cells induced EMT and enhanced cell motility. These results show that in addition to the angiogenic effects of Sema3E on tumor vascular endothelium, an EMT strategy could be exploited by Sema3E/Plexin-D1 signaling in tumor cells to promote cellular invasion/migration

Conditionally Replicating Adenovirus Expressing TIMP2 Increases Survival in a Mouse Model of Disseminated Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer remains difficult to treat mainly due to presentation of the disease at an advanced stage. Conditionally-replicating adenoviruses (CRAds) are promising anti-cancer agents that selectively kill the tumor cells. The present study evaluated the efficacy of a novel CRAd (Ad5/3-CXCR4-TIMP2) containing the CXCR4 promoter for selective viral replication in cancer cells together with TIMP2 as a therapeutic transgene, targeting the matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) in a murine orthotopic model of disseminated ovarian cancer. An orthotopic model of ovarian cancer was established in athymic nude mice by intraperitonal injection of the human ovarian cancer cell line, SKOV3-Luc, expressing luciferase. Upon confirmation of peritoneal dissemination of the cells by non-invasive imaging, mice were randomly divided into four treatment groups: PBS, Ad-ΔE1-TIMP2, Ad5/3-CXCR4, and Ad5/3-CXCR4-TIMP2. All mice were imaged weekly to monitor tumor growth and were sacrificed upon reaching any of the predefined endpoints, including high tumor burden and significant weight loss along with clinical evidence of pain and distress. Survival analysis was performed using the Log-rank test. The median survival for the PBS cohort was 33 days; for Ad-ΔE1-TIMP2, 39 days; for Ad5/3-CXCR4, 52.5 days; and for Ad5/3-CXCR4-TIMP2, 63 days. The TIMP2-armed CRAd delayed tumor growth and significantly increased survival when compared to the unarmed CRAd. This therapeutic effect was confirmed to be mediated through inhibition of MMP9. Results of the in vivo study support the translational potential of Ad5/3-CXCR4-TIMP2 for treatment of human patients with advanced ovarian cancer

MiR-218 Inhibits Invasion and Metastasis of Gastric Cancer by Targeting the Robo1 Receptor

MicroRNAs play key roles in tumor metastasis. Here, we describe the regulation and function of miR-218 in gastric cancer (GC) metastasis. miR-218 expression is decreased along with the expression of one of its host genes, Slit3 in metastatic GC. However, Robo1, one of several Slit receptors, is negatively regulated by miR-218, thus establishing a negative feedback loop. Decreased miR-218 levels eliminate Robo1 repression, which activates the Slit-Robo1 pathway through the interaction between Robo1 and Slit2, thus triggering tumor metastasis. The restoration of miR-218 suppresses Robo1 expression and inhibits tumor cell invasion and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, our results describe a Slit-miR-218-Robo1 regulatory circuit whose disruption may contribute to GC metastasis. Targeting miR-218 may provide a strategy for blocking tumor metastasis

Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) acts as an invasion-metastasis suppressor in ovarian endometrioid carcinoma

[[abstract]]Metastasis and invasion occur in the majority of epithelial ovarian carcinoma at diagnosis. To delineate the molecular signature in ovarian cancer invasion, we established and characterized a human ovarian endometrioid carcinoma (EC) cell line OVTW59-P0 and its invasion-related sublines (P1-P4, in the order of increasing invasive activity). P4 showed faster migration and larger xenograft formation with metastasis than P0. By microarray analysis of different gene expression among P0-P4 sublines, one group of gene was found negatively correlated with cancer invasion. Among these genes, IGFBP-3 was identified as one of the most remarkably suppressed gene that showed lower gene expression in P4 than P0. Re-expression of IGFBP-3 in P4 effectively inhibited cell migration, invasion and metastasis, but did not affect cell proliferation. In 35 patients with EC tumors, low IGFBP-3 expression correlated clinically with higher tumor grade, advanced stage and poor survival. Our results provide evidence and indicate that IGFBP-3 plays an important role as an invasion-metastasis suppressor in ovarian EC

IGFBP-3 suppresses tumor invasion through down regulation of ERK mitogen-activated protein kinases in ovarian endometrioid carcinoma

[[abstract]]We previously identified the insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) as an invasion-suppressor in ovarian endometrioid adenocarcinoma using an ovarian cancer invasion model of OVTW59 sublines and cDNA microarray analysis. IGFBP-3 was found highly expressed in the lower invasive subline P0 and lower expressed in the higher invasive subline P4. The functional role of differential expression of IGFBP-3 in the tumor progression, especially in the invasion and metastasis of ovarian cancer, was studied by IGFBP-3 cDNA transfection into the P4 cells and siRNA transfection into the P0 cells. It was found that higher IGFBP-3 expression was associated with more contracted morphology and lesser cell lamellipodial protrusion. IGFBP-3 could inhibit cell migration in the scratch analysis and cell invasion in the invasion chamber assay; in addition, it could also inhibit tumor growth and metastasis and cause apoptosis in the animal model. IGFBP-3 suppression using siRNA could reverse these functions. We further studied the inhibitory mechanism of IGFBP-3 in cancer migration, invasion and metastasis, especially focusing in the signaling pathways and the interacting genes related to IGFBP-3. Our result showed that IGFBP-3 expression was associated with lower activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) ERK1 and 2, but not the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3K). Inhibition of ERK activity using PD98059 showed similar inhibition of cell migration in scratch test and in three-dimensional culture system. Clinically, 35 patients with ovarian Endometrioid adenocarcinoma were immunostained with IGFBP-3, and low IGFBP-3 expression was found correlated significantly with higher tumor grade, advanced stage and poor survival. Both in animal model and clinical cases, low IGFBP-3 expression was associated significantly with nuclear localization of pERK. It is concluded that the IGFBP-3 gene plays a role as a tumor suppressor in ovarian cancer pathogenesis to inhibit tumor cell migration, invasion and metastasis. The suppression of invasive ability was associated with the inhibition of ERK MAPK signaling pathway