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Endothelium-Dependent Induction of Vasculogenic Mimicry in Human Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells Is Inhibited by Calcitriol and Curcumin.

ABSTRACT: In highly aggressive tumors, cancer cells may form channel-like structures through a process known as vasculogenic mimicry (VM). VM is generally associated with metastasis, mesenchymal phenotype, and treatment resistance. VM can be driven by antiangiogenic treatments and/or tumor microenvironment-derived factors, including those from the endothelium. Curcumin, a turmeric product, inhibits VM in some tumors, while calcitriol, the most active vitamin D metabolite, exerts potent antineoplastic effects. However, the effect of these natural products on VM in breast cancer remains unknown. Herein, we studied the effect of both compounds on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) VM-capacity in a co-culture model. The process of endothelial cell-induced VM in two human TNBC cell lines was robustly inhibited by calcitriol and partially by curcumin. Calcitriol promoted TNBC cells' morphological change from spindle-like to cobblestone-shape, while curcumin diminished VM 3D-structure. Notably, the treatments dephosphorylated several active kinases, especially those involved in the PI3K/Akt pathway. In summary, calcitriol and curcumin disrupted endothelium-induced VM in TNBC cells partially by PI3K/Akt inactivation and mesenchymal phenotype inhibition. Our results support the possible use of these natural compounds as adjuvants for VM inactivation in patients with malignant tumors inherently capable of forming VM, or those with antiangiogenic therapy, warranting further in vivo studies.

SUBMITTER: Morales-Guadarrama G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9318499 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Agents that target angiogenesis have shown limited efficacy for human triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) in clinical trials. Along with endothelium-dependent vessels, there is also vasculogenic mimicry (VM) in the microcirculation of malignant tumors. The role of VM is not completely understood regarding anti-angiogenic treatment. In this study, human TNBC MDA-MB-231 and Hs578T and non-TNBC MCF-7 and BT474 tumor-bearing mice were treated with sunitinib, an anti-angiogenic drug, using a clinically relevant schedule. The drug was administered for one week and then discontinued. Tumor growth and invasion were observed, and the microcirculation patterns were detected with PAS/endomucin staining. Moreover, hypoxia and VM-associated proteins were evaluated with Hypoxyprobe kits and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Sunitinib significantly inhibited tumor growth in the TNBC and non-TNBC tumors. However, MDA-MB-231 and Hs578T tumors regrew and were more aggressive when the treatment was stopped. The discontinuation had no significant effect on the behavior of the non-TNBC MCF-7 and BT474 tumors. The growth of endothelium-dependent vessels in the TNBC MDA-MB-231 and Hs578T tumors were blocked by sunitinib, during which the number of VM channels significantly increased and resulted in a rebound of endothelium-dependent vessels after sunitinib discontinuation. Moreover, the VM-associated proteins VE-cadherin and Twist1 upregulated in the sunitinib-treated MDA-MB-231 and Hs578T tumors. Furthermore, the clinical significance of this upregulation was validated in 174 human breast cancers. The results from human breast cancer specimens indicated that there were more VM-positive TNBC cases than those in non-TNBC cases. HIF-1α, MMP2, VE-cadherin, and Twist1 were also expressed in a higher level in human TNBC compared with non-TNBC. In aconclusion, sunitinib promoted TNBC invasion by VM. The VM status could be helpful to predict the efficacy of anti-angiogenic therapy in patients with TNBC.

Project description:Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) with the pattern of endothelial independent tubular structure formation lined by aggressive tumor cells mimics regular tumor blood vessels to ensure robust blood supply and correlates with the proliferation, invasion, metastasis, and poor prognosis of malignant tumors, which was demonstrated to be a major obstacle for resistance to antiangiogenesis therapy. Therefore, it is urgent to discover methods to abrogate the VM formation of tumors, which possesses important practical significance for improving tumor therapy. Brucine is a traditional medicinal herb extracted from seeds of Strychnos nux-vomica L. (Loganiaceae) exhibiting antitumor activity in a variety of cancer models. In the present study, the effect of brucine on vasculogenic mimicry and the related mechanism are to be investigated. We demonstrated that, in a triple-negative breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231, brucine induced a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on cell proliferation along with apoptosis induction at higher concentrations. The further study showed that brucine inhibited cell migration and invasion with a dose-dependent manner. Our results for the first time indicated that brucine could disrupt F-actin cytoskeleton and microtubule structure, thereby impairing hallmarks of aggressive tumors, like migration, invasion, and holding a possibility of suppressing vasculogenic mimicry. Hence, the inhibitory effect of brucine on vasculogenic mimicry was further verified. The results illustrated that brucine significantly suppressed vasculogenic mimicry tube formation with a dose-dependent effect indicated by the change of the number of tubules, intersections, and mean length of tubules. The in-depth molecular mechanism of vasculogenic mimicry suppression induced by brucine was finally suggested. It was demonstrated that brucine inhibited vasculogenic mimicry which might be through the downregulation of erythropoietin-producing hepatocellular carcinoma-A2 and matrix metalloproteinase-2 and metalloproteinase-9.

Project description:BackgroundHypoxia induced by antiangiogenic agents is linked to the generation of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and treatment failure through unknown mechanisms. The generation of endothelial cell-independent microcirculation in malignant tumors is defined as tumor cell vasculogenic mimicry (VM). In the present study, we analyzed the effects of an antiangiogenic agent on VM in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).MethodsMicrocirculation patterns were detected in patients with TNBC and non-TNBC. Tientsin Albino 2 (TA2) mice engrafted with mouse TNBC cells and nude mice engrafted with human breast cancer cell lines with TNBC or non-TNBC phenotypes were administered sunitinib and analyzed to determine tumor progression, survival, microcirculation, and oxygen concentration. Further, we evaluated the effects of hypoxia induced with CoCl2 and the expression levels of the transcription factor Twist1, in the presence or absence of a Twist siRNA, on the population of CD133(+) cells and VM in TNBC and non-TNBC cells.ResultsVM was detected in 35.8 and 17.8% of patients with TNBC or with non-TNBC, respectively. The growth of tumors in TNBC and non-TNBC-bearing mice was inhibited by sunitinib. The tumors in TA2 mice engrafted with mouse TNBCs and in mice engrafted a human TNBC cell line (MDA-MB-231) regrew after terminating sunitinib administration. However, this effect was not observed in mice engrafted with a non-TNBC tumor cell line. Tumor metastases in sunitinib-treated TA2 mice was accelerated, and the survival of these mice decreased when sunitinib was withdrawn. VM was the major component of the microcirculation in sunitinib-treated mice with TNBC tumors, and the population of CD133+ cells increased in hypoxic areas. Hypoxia also induced MDA-MB-231 cells to express Twist1, and CD133(+) cells present in the MDA-MB-231 cell population induced VM after reoxygenation. Moreover, hypoxia did not induce MDA-MB-231 cells transfected with an sh-Twist1 siRNA cell to form VM and generate CD133(+) cells. Conversely, hypoxia induced MCF-7 cells transfected with Twist to form VM and generate CD133+ cells.ConclusionsSunitinib induced hypoxia in TNBCs, and Twist1 expression induced by hypoxia accelerated VM by increasing population of CD133(+) cells. VM was responsible for the regrowth of TNBCs sunitinib administration was terminated.

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Endothelium-Dependent Induction of Vasculogenic Mimicry in Human Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells Is Inhibited by Calcitriol and Curcumin.

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