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Apatinib inhibits VEGF signaling and promotes apoptosis in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

ABSTRACT: Tumor cells co-express vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and VEGF receptors (VEGFRs) that interact each other to support a self-sustainable cell growth. So far, this autocrine VEGF loop is not reported in human intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). Apatinib is a highly selective VEGFR2 inhibitor, but its effects on ICC have not been investigated. In this study, we reported that VEGF and phosphorylated VEGFR2 were expressed at a significantly high level in ICC patient tissues (P<0.05). In vitro, treating ICC cell lines RBE and SSP25 with recombinant human VEGF (rhVEGF) induced phosphorylation of VEGFR1 (pVEGFR1) and VEGFR2 (pVEGFR2); however, only the VEGFR2 played a role in the anti-apoptotic cell growth through activating a PI3K-AKT-mTOR anti-apoptotic signaling pathway which generated more VEGF to enter this autocrine loop. Apatinib inhibited the anti-apoptosis induced by VEGF signaling, and promoted cell death in vitro. In addition, Apatinib treatment delayed xenograft tumor growth in vivo. In conclusion, the autocrine VEGF/VEGFR2 signaling promotes ICC cell survival. Apatinib inhibits anti-apoptotic cell growth through suppressing the autocrine VEGF signaling, supporting a potential role for using Apatinib in the treatment of ICC.

SUBMITTER: Peng H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4941382 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Apatinib inhibits VEGF signaling and promotes apoptosis in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

Peng Hong H Zhang Qiuyang Q Li Jiali J Zhang Ning N Hua Yunpeng Y Xu Lixia L Deng Yubin Y Lai Jiaming J Peng Zhenwei Z Peng Baogang B Chen Minhu M Peng Sui S Kuang Ming M

Oncotarget 20160301 13

Tumor cells co-express vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and VEGF receptors (VEGFRs) that interact each other to support a self-sustainable cell growth. So far, this autocrine VEGF loop is not reported in human intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). Apatinib is a highly selective VEGFR2 inhibitor, but its effects on ICC have not been investigated. In this study, we reported that VEGF and phosphorylated VEGFR2 were expressed at a significantly high level in ICC patient tissues (P<0.05). I ...[more]

PMID: 26967384

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Project description:BackgroundConsiderable evidence shows that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play an important role in tumor development. However, their function in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) metastasis and the underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood.MethodscircNFIB (hsa_circ_0086376, termed as cNFIB hereafter) was identified in human ICC tissues through circRNAs sequencing. The biological role of cNFIB was determined in vitro and in vivo by gain or loss of functional experiments. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and RNA pull-down assays were conducted to analyze the interaction of cNFIB with dual specificity mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase1 (MEK1). Duolink in situ proximity ligation assay (PLA) and coimmunoprecipitation (co-IP) assay were used to investigate the effects of cNFIB on the interaction between MEK1 and mitogen-activated protein kinase 2 (ERK2). Finally, a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments were performed to explore the influences of cNFIB on the anti-tumor activity of trametinib (a MEK inhibitor).ResultscNFIB was significantly down-regulated in human ICC tissues with postoperative metastases. The loss of cNFIB was highly associated with aggressive characteristics and predicted unfavorable prognosis in ICC patients. Functional studies revealed that cNFIB inhibited the proliferation and metastasis of ICC cells in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, cNFIB competitively interacted with MEK1, which induced the dissociation between MEK1 and ERK2, thereby resulting in the suppression of ERK signaling and tumor metastasis. Moreover, we found that ICC cells with high levels of cNFIB held the potential to delay the trametinib resistance. Consistently, in vivo and in vitro studies demonstrated that cotreatment with trametinib and lentivirus vector encoding cNFIB showed greater inhibitory effect than isolated trametinib treatment.ConclusionsOur findings identified that cNFIB played a key role in ICC growth and metastasis by regulating MEK1/ERK signaling. Given the efficacy of cNFIB modulation on ICC suppression and trametinib sensitivity, cNFIB appears to be a potential therapeutic molecule for ICC treatment.

Project description:Desmoplasia is a hallmark of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), which constitutes a barrier to infiltration of lymphocyte, but not myeloid cells. Given that dense desmoplastic stroma has been reported to be a barrier to infiltration of lymphocyte, but not myeloid cells. We here investigated whether fibroblastic FAP influenced ICC progression via non-T cell-related immune mechanisms. We demonstrated fibroblastic FAP expression was critical for STAT3 activation and CCL2 production, and ICC-CAFs were the primary source of CCL2 in human ICC microenvironment by using ICC-Fbs from six ICC patients. Fibroblastic knockdown of FAP significantly impaired the ability of ICC-CAFs to promote ICC growth, MDSCs infiltration and angiogenesis, which was restored by adding exogenous CCL2. Furthermore, interestingly, the tumor-promoting effect of fibroblastic FAP is dependent on MDSCs via secretion of CCL2, as depletion of Gr-1+ cells reversed the restoring effects of exogenous CCL2 on tumor growth and angiogenesis. In vitro migration assay confirmed that exogenous CCL2 could rescue the impaired ability of ICC-Fbs to attract Gr-1+ cells caused by fibroblastic FAP knockdown. In contrast, fibroblastic FAP knockdown had no effect on ICC cell proliferation and apoptotic resistance. Depletion MDSCs by anti-Gr-1 monoclonal antibody in subcutaneous transplanted tumor model abrogated tumor promotion by ICC-CAFs suggested that the pro-tumor function of Fibroblastic FAP relied on MDSCs. Mechanical, flow cytometry and chamber migration assay were conducted to find Fibroblastic FAP was required by the ability of ICC-CAFs to promote MDSC migration directly. Moreover, fibroblastic FAP knockdown had no effect on cell proliferation and apoptotic resistance. Here, we revealed the T-cell independent mechanisms underlying the ICC-promoting effect of fibroblastic FAP by attracting MDSCs via CCL2, which was mainly attributed to the ability of FAP to attract MDSCs and suggests that specific targeting fibroblastic FAP may represent a promising therapeutic strategy against ICC.

Project description:Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHCC) is the second most frequent primary malignant liver tumor following hepatocellular carcinoma. It is a highly fatal disease and has few therapeutics. The CXC chemokine ligand-12 (CXCL12)/CXC chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) axis has been shown to be involved in tumorgenesis, proliferation, and angiogenesis in a variety of cancers including IHCC. However, its prognostic significance in IHCC is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the functional role of CXCR4 in the progression and metastasis of IHCC and explore the underlying mechanism.The CXCR4 expression, overall survival, and the clinical characteristics including age, sex, differentiation degree, tumor size, vascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, and T stage were analyzed for 122 IHCC patients. Short hairpin RNA (shRNA) against CXCR4 was used to disrupt the CXCL12/CXCR4 signal transduction pathways in IHCC cell lines. In vitro assays, including CCK-8 assay, flow cytometry, and colony formation assay, and in vivo tumor formation assay were utilized to detect the cell phenotype of CXCR4 knockdown cells. Transwell and wound healing assays were used to examine the IHCC cell invasion and migration ability. The Wnt pathway was assessed by Western blot and ?-Catenin/Tcf transcription reporter assay.We demonstrated that CXCR4 expression was closely correlated with IHCC progression and metastasis characteristics. The overall survival of patients with high CXCR4 expression was significantly lower than that of patients with low CXCR4 expression. Furthermore, we showed that the abrogation of CXCR4 had significantly negative influence on the IHCC cell phenotype, including in vitro cell proliferation, cell cycle, colony formation, cell invasion, and in vivo tumorigenicity. In addition, CXCR4 knockdown downregulated Wnt target genes and mesenchymal markers such as Vimentin and Slug.In conclusion, our result shows that high CXCR4 expression is associated with IHCC progression and metastasis via the canonical Wnt pathway, suggesting that CXCR4 may serve as a promising therapeutic target for IHCC.

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Apatinib inhibits VEGF signaling and promotes apoptosis in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

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Apatinib inhibits VEGF signaling and promotes apoptosis in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

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