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Label-retaining liver cancer cells are relatively resistant to sorafenib.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:The standard therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is sorafenib, with most patients experiencing disease progression within 6 months. Label-retaining cancer cells (LRCC) represent a novel subpopulation of cancer stem cells (CSC). The objective was to test whether LRCC are resistant to sorafenib. METHODS:We tested human HCC derived LRCC and non-LRCC before and after treatment with sorafenib. RESULTS:LRCC derived from human HCC are relatively resistant to sorafenib. The proportion of LRCC in HCC cell lines is increased after sorafenib while the general population of cancer cells undergoes growth suppression. We show that LRCC demonstrate improved viability and toxicity profiles, and reduced apoptosis, over non-LRCC. We show that after treatment with sorafenib, LRCC upregulate the CSC marker aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family, wingless-type MMTV-integration-site family, cell survival and proliferation genes, and downregulate apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, cell adhesion and stem cells differentiation genes. This phenomenon was accompanied by non-uniform activation of specific isoforms of the sorafenib target proteins extracellular-signal-regulated kinases and v-akt-murine-thymoma-viral-oncogene homologue (AKT) in LRCC but not in non-LRCC. A molecular pathway map for sorafenib treated LRCC is proposed. CONCLUSIONS:Our results suggest that HCC derived LRCC are relatively resistant to sorafenib. Since LRCC can generate tumours with as few as 10 cells, our data suggest a potential role for these cells in disease recurrence. Further investigation of this phenomenon might provide novel insights into cancer biology, cancer recurrence and drug resistance with important implications for the development of novel cancer therapies based on targeting LRCC.

SUBMITTER: Xin HW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6993136 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Label-retaining liver cancer cells are relatively resistant to sorafenib.

Xin Hong-Wu HW Ambe Chenwi M CM Hari Danielle M DM Wiegand Gordon W GW Miller Tyler C TC Chen Jin-Qiu JQ Anderson Andrew J AJ Ray Satyajit S Mullinax John E JE Koizumi Tomotake T Langan Russell C RC Burka Douglas D Herrmann Michelle A MA Goldsmith Paul K PK Stojadinovic Alexander A Rudloff Udo U Thorgeirsson Snorri S SS Avital Itzhak I

Gut 20130214 12

<h4>Objective</h4>The standard therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is sorafenib, with most patients experiencing disease progression within 6 months. Label-retaining cancer cells (LRCC) represent a novel subpopulation of cancer stem cells (CSC). The objective was to test whether LRCC are resistant to sorafenib.<h4>Methods</h4>We tested human HCC derived LRCC and non-LRCC before and after treatment with sorafenib.<h4>Results</h4>LRCC derived from human HCC are relatively resistant ...[more]

PMID: 23411027

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Project description:Recently, we reported that liver Label Retaining Cancer Cells (LRCC) can initiate tumors with only 10 cells and are relatively resistant to the targeted drug Sorafenib, a standard of practice in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). LRCC are the only cancer stem cells (CSC) isolated alive according to a stem cell fundamental function, asymmetric cell division. Metformin has been reported to preferentially target many other types of CSC of different organs, including liver. It's important to know if LRCC, a novel class of CSC, are relatively resistant to metformin, unlike other types of CSC. As metformin inhibits the Sorafenib-Target-Protein (STP) PI3K, and LRCC are newly described CSC, we undertook this study to test the effects of Metformin on Sorafenib-treated HCC and HCC-derived-LRCC.We tested various STP levels and phosphorylation status, associated genes' expression, proliferation, viability, toxicity, and apoptosis profiles, before and after treatment with Sorafenib with/without Metformin.Metformin enhances the effects of Sorafenib on HCC, and significantly decreased viability/proliferation of HCC cells. This insulin-independent effect was associated with inhibition of multiple STPs (PKC, ERK, JNK and AKT). However, Metformin increased the relative proportion of LRCCs. Comparing LRCC vs. non-LRCC, this effect was associated with improved toxicity and apoptosis profiles, down-regulation of cell death genes and up-regulation of cell proliferation and survival genes in LRCC. Concomitantly, Metformin up-regulated pluripotency, Wnt, Notch and SHH pathways genes in LRCC vs. non-LRCC.Metformin and Sorafenib have enhanced anti-cancer effects. However, in contradistinction to reports on other types of CSC, Metformin is less effective against HCC-derived-CSC LRCC. Our results suggest that combining Metformin with Sorafenib may be able to repress the bulk of tumor cells, but as with other anti-cancer drugs, may leave LRCC behind leading to cancer recurrence. Therefore, liver LRCC, unlike other types of CSC, are relatively resistant to the reported anti-cancer stem cell drug metformin. This is the first report that there is a type of CSC that is not relatively resistant to the CSC-targeting drug. Our findings suggest that a drug targeting LRCC may be critically needed to target CSC and prevent cancer recurrence. These may significantly contribute to the understanding of Metformin's anti-cancer effects and the development of novel drugs targeting the relatively resistant LRCC.

Project description:The epithelial lining of the small intestine is continuously renewed from a small number of stem cells including Lgr5 expressing crypt base cells that have been shown to be a rapidly cycling stem cell population in homeostasis. Alternative markers of intestinal stem cells have variously identified populations as rapidly cycling or quiescent with proposed roles for the latter as a parallel or reserve stem cell population. However, the exact nature of quiescent crypt cells remains unknown. Here by applying novel mouse models that permit their isolation and characterisation as label-retaining cells (LRCs), and for the first time performing lineage tracing from them, we show quiescent cells to be committed secretory precursors that are capable of recall to the stem cell state. We reveal LRCs to be a small subset of the rapidly cycling Lgr5 expressing population committed along the Paneth-enteroendocrine lineage. Significantly, after injury and subsequent regeneration they are clonogenic, as shown by both lineage tracing and organoid growth demonstrating that they can be recalled to the stem cell pool. These findings in establishing quiescent cells as an effective clonogenic reserve during injury provides a motivation for investigating their role in the maintenance of cancer growth following adjuvant treatment. Six age and sex (female) matched Cyp1a1-H2B-YFP mice ten days post βNF induction were used comparing three cell populations from each. Following epithelial isolation, single cell preparation and staining with anti-CD24 anitbody and UEA-1 lectin, 30,000 cells were flow sorted for each population: Paneth cells (Paneth) were defined as CD24+/UEA+, YFP-LRCs (YFPpos) as CD24+/UEA-/YFP+ and LCCs (YFPneg) as CD24+/UEA-/YFP-. Microarray expression comparison was then performed to identify unique markers of each population. RNA amplification and hybridisation was performed at the Paterson Institute, Manchester, UK, Microarray Facility using Nugen Ovation Pico WTA System for amplification and then hybridisation to a Mouse Exon 1.0 ST Array. Arrays were scanned using an Affymetrix GeneChip scanner 3000 running GCOS software.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Label-retaining cancer cells (LRCC) have been proposed as a model of slowly cycling cancer stem cells (CSC) which mediate resistance to chemotherapy, tumor recurrence, and metastasis. The molecular mechanisms of chemoresistance in LRCC remain to-date incompletely understood. This study aims to identify molecular targets in LRCC that can be exploited to overcome resistance to gemcitabine, a standard chemotherapy agent for the treatment of pancreas cancer. METHODS:LRCC were isolated following Cy5-dUTP staining by flow cytometry from pancreatic cancer cell lines. Gene expression profiles obtained from LRCC, non-LRCC (NLRCC), and bulk tumor cells were used to generate differentially regulated pathway networks. Loss of upregulated targets in LRCC on gemcitabine sensitivity was assessed via RNAi experiments and pharmacological inhibition. Expression patterns of PDPK1, one of the upregulated targets in LRCC, was studied in patients' tumor samples and correlated with pathological variables and clinical outcome. RESULTS:LRCC are significantly more resistant to gemcitabine than the bulk tumor cell population. Non-canonical EGF (epidermal growth factor)-mediated signal transduction emerged as the top upregulated network in LRCC compared to non-LRCC, and knock down of EGF signaling effectors PDPK1 (3-phosphoinositide dependent protein kinase-1), BMX (BMX non-receptor tyrosine kinase), and NTRK2 (neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase 2) or treatment with PDPK1 inhibitors increased growth inhibition and induction of apoptosis in response to gemcitabine. Knockdown of PDPK1 preferentially increased growth inhibition and reduced resistance to induction of apoptosis upon gemcitabine treatment in the LRCC vs non-LRCC population. These findings are accompanied by lower expression levels of PDPK1 in tumors compared to matched uninvolved pancreas in surgical resection specimens and a negative association of membranous localization on IHC with high nuclear grade (p?<?0.01). CONCLUSION:Pancreatic cancer cell-derived LRCC are relatively resistant to gemcitabine and harbor a unique transcriptomic profile compared to bulk tumor cells. PDPK1, one of the members of an upregulated EGF-signaling network in LRCC, mediates resistance to gemcitabine, is found to be dysregulated in pancreas cancer specimens, and might be an attractive molecular target for combination therapy studies.

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Label-retaining liver cancer cells are relatively resistant to sorafenib.

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Label-retaining liver cancer cells are relatively resistant to sorafenib.

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