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Nanog maintains stemness of Lkb1-deficient lung adenocarcinoma and prevents gastric differentiation.

ABSTRACT: Growing evidence supports that LKB1-deficient KRAS-driven lung tumors represent a unique therapeutic challenge, displaying strong cancer plasticity that promotes lineage conversion and drug resistance. Here we find that murine lung tumors from the Kras^LSL-G12D/+ ; Lkb1^flox/flox (KL) model show strong plasticity, which associates with up-regulation of stem cell pluripotency genes such as Nanog. Deletion of Nanog in KL model initiates a gastric differentiation program and promotes mucinous lung tumor growth. We find that NANOG is not expressed at a meaningful level in human lung adenocarcinoma (ADC), as well as in human lung invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma (IMA). Gastric differentiation involves activation of Notch signaling, and perturbation of Notch pathway by the γ-secretase inhibitor LY-411575 remarkably impairs mucinous tumor formation. In contrast to non-mucinous tumors, mucinous tumors are resistant to phenformin treatment. Such therapeutic resistance could be overcome through combined treatments with LY-411575 and phenformin. Overall, we uncover a previously unappreciated plasticity of LKB1-deficient tumors and identify the Nanog-Notch axis in regulating gastric differentiation, which holds important therapeutic implication for the treatment of mucinous lung cancer.

SUBMITTER: Tong X

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7933951 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Stem-like cells in solid tumors are purported to contribute to cancer development and poor treatment outcome. The abilities to self-renew, differentiate, and resist anticancer therapies are hallmarks of these rare cells, and steering them into lineage commitment may be one strategy to curb cancer development or progression. Vitamin D is a prohormone that can alter cell growth and differentiation and may induce the differentiation cancer stem-like cells. In this study, octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (OCT4)-positive/Nanog homeobox (Nanog)- positive lung adenocarcinoma stem-like cells (LACSCs) were enriched from spheroid cultured SPC-A1 cells and differentiated by a two-stage induction (TSI) method, which involved knockdown of hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF1?) expression (first stage) followed by sequential induction with 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3, VD3) and suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) treatment (second stage). The results showed the HIF1?-knockdowned cells displayed diminished cell invasion and clonogenic activities. Moreover, the TSI cells highly expressed tumor suppressor protein p63 (P63) and forkhead box J1 (FOXJ1) and lost stem cell characteristics, including absent expression of OCT4 and Nanog. These cells regained sensitivity to cisplatin in vitro while losing tumorigenic capacity and decreased tumor cell proliferation in vivo. Our results suggest that induced transdifferentiation of LACSCs by vitamin D and SAHA may become novel therapeutic avenue to alter tumor cell phenotypes and improve patient outcome.The development and progression of lung cancer may involve rare population of stem-like cells that have the ability to grow, differentiate, and resist drug treatment. However, current therapeutic strategies have mostly focused on tumor characteristics and neglected the potential source of cells that may contribute to poor clinical outcome. We generated lung adenocarcinoma stem-like cells from spheroid culture and induced their transdifferentiation by a two-stage method of knocking down HIF1? expression followed by vitamin Dand suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (VD3/SAHA) treatment. We observed the induced cells lost stem-like characteristics, regained sensitivity to cisplatin, and displayed reduced tumorigenic capacity. These findings suggest that targeting stem-like cells by reverting them to more specialized state may be an approach to treat lung cancer.

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Nanog maintains stemness of Lkb1-deficient lung adenocarcinoma and prevents gastric differentiation.

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