Project description:Ferroptosis is a new form of regulated, non-apoptotic cell death characterized by excessive lipid peroxidation upon loss of activity of the lipid repair enzyme glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4). Sorafenib, an FDA-approved multi-kinase inhibitor drug for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), has been shown to induce ferroptosis. Protein phosphorylation changes upon Sorafenib treatment have been previously reported in patient studies and in cell culture however the early phosphorylation changes during induction of ferroptosis are not completely understood. This work highlights these changes through a time course from 7 to 60 min of Sorafenib treatment in SKHep1 cells to provide insight on the induction of ferroptosis. 6,186 unique phosphosites were quantified from 2,381 phosphoproteins in this study and phosphorylation changes occurred in as early as 30 minutes of Sorafenib treatment. By 60 minutes, significant changes in key regulatory pathways were identified, including sites from ferroptosis-related proteins, indicating the involvement of phospho-regulated signaling during ferroptosis induction.
Project description:In our experiments with a xenograft model, mouse-IFN (mIFN) treatment was suggested to exaggerate the antitumor effects of sorafenib on hepatocellular carcinoma in vivo. We explored how mIFN enhances the in vivo antitumor effects of sorafenib.
Project description:The multi-kinase inhibitor drug sorafenib is used as first line treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma and advanced renal cell carcinoma. Sorafenib mainly undergos cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4-mediated oxidation and uridine diphosphate glucuronosyl transferase (UGT) 1A9-mediated glucuronidation in liver, but the biotransformation of sorafenib in kidney remains unclear. Therefore, we integrated the mRNA expression data of 36 kidney samples and the corresponding metabolic activities for sorafenib to study the metabolic mechanism of sorafenib in kidney.
Project description:Sorafenib is a multi-kinase blocker and one of the few suggested drug treatments for aggressive hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. However, drug resistance to sorafenib may often occur over time and cause further tumor aggression. Recently, cancer stem cells were found in HCC and were speculated to be involved in tumor progression. SOX9 is highly expressed in HCC cancer stem cells and promotes cell proliferation and self-renewal. Meanwhile, HCC patients with higher SOX9 expression show poorer prognosis [1]. Whether SOX9 is involved in sorafenib resistance in HCC is still unclear. Here, we found that sorafenib treatment increased SOX9 expression in HCC cell lines. Overexpression of exogenous SOX9 in HCC increased sorafenib resistance both in vitro and in vivo, whereas down-regulation led to inhibition of sorafenib resistance. Knock-down of SOX9 by RNA interference caused down-regulation of downstream genes, including ATP binding cassette subfamily G member 2 (ABCG2). The drug resistance to sorafenib caused by SOX9 overexpression could be ameliorated by overexpression of SOX9 in combination withby ABCG2 inhibition in HCC cell lines. In the cohort of patients resistant to sorafenib, we found that patients with lower SOX9 expression had more prolonged overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Cox analysis shows that SOX9 expression exerts as an independent risk factor for HCC, and logistic regression analysis reveals that SOX9 expression, tumor capsule deficiency, tumor diameters, and microvascular invasion are risk factors for poor prognosis of HCC patients. These findings demonstrate that SOX9 enhances sorafenib resistance and may regulate this process by modulating ABCG2 expression.
Project description:Sorafenib is the first-line treatment for advanced stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but rapid disease re-progression occurs in most treated cases, with molecular mechanism remaining elusive. The resistance to sorafenib has been correlated with inflammation, and here we investigated how the pro-inflammatory TIFA signaling modulates the inflammatory tumor microenvironment to negate sorafenib cytotoxicity and prime for HCC dissemination. We found that the TIFA-NF-κB axis in HCC cells compromised sorafenib cytotoxicity in alliance with pro-tumor M2 macrophages, suggesting an intensive crosstalk between HCCs and M2 macrophages. To identify the key mediators of such crosstalk between HCC cells and macrophages underlying sorafenib resistance, primary macrophages were cocultured with HCC cells and then subjected to targeted RNA-panels for transcriptome analysis of innate immune and inflammatory factors.
Project description:Tumor samples and matching healthy tissue from 23 human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients and one hepatocellular adenoma patient were collected after surgical resection. Total RNA was harvested and sequenced with a strand-specific single-end RNA-seq protocol.
Project description:We used array-based comparative genomic hybridization (arrayCGH) of 76 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) to search for genetically disrupted genes.
Project description:Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common causes of death worldwide and the fourth most prevalent type of cancer. Whereas curative treatments such as liver transplantation, ablation or surgery are optimal for early stages, only paliative treatments are given to intermediate and advanced stages of the disease. Despite the introduction of immune regulators as first-line treatments for advanced stages, Sorafenib is still the standard of care in the clinical practice. In cell lysates, anti-tumoral properties of Sorafenib were related to upregulation of miR-200c-3p (anti-tumoral miRNA) at 6 hours of treatment and downregulation of miR-222-5p and miR-512-3p (pro-tumoral miRNAs) at 24 hours. We have identified these miRNA biomarkers of Sorafenib treatment response in plasma of patients with advanced HCC treated with Sorafenib. In particular, miR-200c-3p has been related to increased survival benefit whereas miR-222-5p and miR-512-3p have been related to worse prognosis. Our study has sequenced HepG2 cells treated with Sorafenib and miR-200c-3p inhibitor, and transfected with miR-222-5p and miR-512-3p mimics to unravel the molecular pathways governing Sorafenib response
Project description:Checkpoint inhibitors combined with sorafenib for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment have achieved satisfactory results in many clinical trials. Understanding the mechanism underlying this modality may provide better strategies to eradicate HCC. In the present study, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients who received combination sintilimab and sorafenib treatment were analyzed by single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq).