Dataset Information

Triptolide reverses hypoxia-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition and stem-like features in pancreatic cancer by NF-?B downregulation.

ABSTRACT: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is one of the most lethal malignancies characterized by an intense tumor stroma with hypoperfused regions, a significant inflammatory response and pronounced therapy resistance. New therapeutic agents are urgently needed. The plant-derived agent triptolide also known as "thunder god vine" has a long history in traditional Chinese medicine for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and cancer and is now in a clinical phase II trial for establishing the efficacy against a placebo. The authors mimicked the situation in patient tumors by induction of hypoxia in experimental models of pancreatic cancer stem cells (CSCs) and evaluated the therapeutic effect of triptolide. Hypoxia led to induction of colony and spheroid formation, aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) and NF-?B activity, migratory potential and a switch in morphology to a fibroblastoid phenotype, as well as stem cell- and epithelial-mesenchymal transition-associated protein expression. Triptolide efficiently inhibited hypoxia-induced transcriptional signaling and downregulated epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and CSC features in established highly malignant cell lines, whereas sensitive cancer cells or nonmalignant cells were less affected. In vivo triptolide inhibited tumor take and tumor growth. In primary CSCs isolated from patient tumors, triptolide downregulated markers of CSCs, proliferation and mesenchymal cells along with upregulation of markers for apoptosis and epithelial cells. This study is the first to show that triptolide reverses EMT and CSC characteristics and therefore may be superior to current chemotherapeutics for treatment of PDA.

SUBMITTER: Liu L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4255690 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Triptolide reverses hypoxia-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition and stem-like features in pancreatic cancer by NF-κB downregulation.

Liu Li L Salnikov Alexei V AV Bauer Nathalie N Aleksandrowicz Ewa E Labsch Sabrina S Nwaeburu Clifford C Mattern Jürgen J Gladkich Jury J Schemmer Peter P Werner Jens J Herr Ingrid I

International journal of cancer 20140501 10

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is one of the most lethal malignancies characterized by an intense tumor stroma with hypoperfused regions, a significant inflammatory response and pronounced therapy resistance. New therapeutic agents are urgently needed. The plant-derived agent triptolide also known as "thunder god vine" has a long history in traditional Chinese medicine for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and cancer and is now in a clinical phase II trial for establishing the efficacy a ...[more]

PMID: 24615157

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Project description:Elevated lipocalin-2 (Lcn2) has been observed in multiple human cancers, but its biological roles remain unclear. Our purpose in this study was to investigate whether Lcn2 is involved in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development via its involvement in invasion and metastasis. Using unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis of tissue samples, we identified preferential expression of Lcn2 (>2-fold change) in the tumor group (differentiated group) versus the non-tumor group (liver cirrhosis group). LCN2 immunoreactivity was positively correlated with TNM stage (r = 0.194, P = 0.020), but not with differentiation or recurrence of HCC. Over-expression of Lcn2 was observed in HLK-2, HKK-2, and HLK-5 HCC cells. Knock-down of Lcn2 by shRNA in HKK-2 cells was correlated with the down-regulation of E-cadherin, CK-8, CK-18, and desmoplakin I/II (DesI/II) and the up-regulation of N-cadherin, vimentin (VIM), and fibronectin (FN), which are markers of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) associated with tumor progression. The characteristics of EMT were reversed by adenoviral transduction of Lcn2 into SH-J1 cells. EGF or TGF-β treatment resulted in downregulation of Lcn2 with a concomitant change in EMT. Stable Lcn2 expression in HCC cells reduced the expression of the transcription factor Twist1, resulting in the inhibition of cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro, and suppressed tumor growth and metastatic ability in a mouse model. These findings suggest that Lcn2 can reverse the EMT in HCC through transcriptional suppression of Twist 1. Thus, Lcn2 is a candidate metastasis suppressor and a potential therapeutic target for HCC. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering separated the samples into two main groups: a non-tumor group (NT, n = 40) and a HCC group (HCC, n = 40), and into two subgroups: a liver cirrhosis group (LC, n = 20) and a differentiated HCC group (difHCC, n = 20). Lcn2 was one of the unique genes with a two-fold or greater difference in expression from the mean with P < 0.01 based on the t-test for hierarchical clustering analysis.

Dataset Information

Triptolide reverses hypoxia-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition and stem-like features in pancreatic cancer by NF-?B downregulation.

Publications

Triptolide reverses hypoxia-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition and stem-like features in pancreatic cancer by NF-κB downregulation.

Similar Datasets

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