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LKB1 Tumor Suppressor: Therapeutic Opportunities Knock when LKB1 Is Inactivated.

ABSTRACT: LKB1 is commonly thought of as a tumor suppressor gene because its hereditary mutation is responsible for a cancer syndrome, and somatic inactivation of LKB1 is found in non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, and cervical cancers. However, unlike other tumor suppressors whose main function is to either suppress cell proliferation or promote cell death, one of the functions of LKB1-regulated AMPK signaling is to suppress cell proliferation in order to promote cell survival under energetic stress conditions. This unique, pro-survival function of LKB1 has led to the discovery of reagents, such as phenformin, that specifically exploit the vulnerability of LKB1-null cells in their defect in sensing energetic stress. Such targeted agents represent a novel treatment strategy because they induce cell killing when LKB1 is absent. This review article summarizes various vulnerabilities of LKB1-mutant cells that have been reported in the literature and discusses the potential of using existing or developing novel reagents to target cancer cells with defective LKB1.

SUBMITTER: Zhou W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4323096 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) are sometimes inactivated by transcriptional silencing through promoter hypermethylation. To identify novel methylated TSGs in melanoma, we carried out global mRNA expression proﬁling on a panel of 12 melanoma cell lines treated with a combination of 5-Aza-2-deoxycytidine (5AzadC) and an inhibitor of histone deacetylase, Trichostatin A. Reactivation of gene expression after drug treatment was assessed using Illumina whole-genome microarrays. After qRT-PCR conﬁrmation, we followed up 8 genes (AKAP12, ARHGEF16, ARHGAP27, ENC1, PPP1R3C, PPP1R14C, RARRES1, and TP53INP1) by quantitative DNA methylation analysis using mass spectrometry of base-speciﬁc cleaved ampliﬁcation products in panels of melanoma cell lines and fresh tumors. PPP1R3C, ENC1, RARRES1, and TP53INP1, showed reduced mRNA expression in 35–59% of the melanoma cell lines compared to melanocytes and which was correlated with a high proportion of promoter methylation (>40–60%). The same genes also showed extensive promoter methylation in 6–25% of the tumor samples, thus conﬁrming them as novel candidate TSGs in melanoma. We sought to identify melanoma TSGs silenced by promoter methylation by carrying out an array-based analysis in a well-annotated panel of 12 cell lines after combined treatment with 5AzadC and an inhibitor of histone deacetylase, Trichostatin A (TSA). Expression profiles were generated for each cell line before and after drug treatment using Illumina Sentrix Human-6 Expression version 2 BeadChips. Genes reactivated in all 12 cell lines were removed from further analysis since they are likely responding to drug treatment as part of the ‘‘cellular stress response,’’ or due to promoter demethylation of genes normally silenced in the melanocytic lineage. Genes were further ﬁltered to identify those with an average of >4-fold increased expression in at least four samples in the panel of 12 lines and >10-fold increase in at least one of the cell lines.

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LKB1 Tumor Suppressor: Therapeutic Opportunities Knock when LKB1 Is Inactivated.

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