Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) gene signatures predict outcomes in breast and prostate tumor patients
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE269968 | GEO | 2024/06/21
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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Project description:Tumor microenvironment coevolves with and simultaneously sustains cancer progression. Reactive fibroblasts found in prostate cancer (PCa), known as cancer associated fibroblasts (CAF), have been indeed shown to fuel tumor development and metastasis by mutually interacting with PCa cells. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms that lead to activation of CAFs from tissue-resident fibroblasts, circulating marrow-derived fibroblast progenitors or mesenchymal stem cells. Through integrated gene and microRNA expression profiling, here we showed that transcriptome of CAFs isolated from prostate tumors strictly resembles that of normal fibroblasts stimulated in vitro with interleukin-6 (IL6), thus confirming the capability of the cytokine to promote acquisition of an activated and cancer-promoting phenotype, and, for the first time, proving that IL6 is able per se to induce all the complex transcriptional changes characteristic of patient-derived CAFs. Comparison with publicly available datasets, however, suggested that prostate CAFs may be alternatively characterized by IL6 and TGF?-related signatures, indicating that either signal, depending on the context, tumor stage and etiology, may concur to fibroblast activation. Our analyses also highlighted pathways relevant for induction of reactive stroma, including genes the role of which in fibroblast activation is still to be explored. In addition, we revealed a role for muscle-specific miR-133b as a soluble factor secreted by activated fibroblasts to support paracrine activation of non-activated fibroblasts or promote tumor progression. Overall, in this study we provided insights on the molecular mechanisms driving fibroblast activation in prostate cancer, thus contributing to identify novel hits for the development of therapeutic strategies targeting the crucial interplay between tumor cells and their microenvironment. Tumor microenvironment coevolves with and simultaneously sustains cancer progression. Reactive fibroblasts found in prostate cancer (PCa), known as cancer associated fibroblasts (CAF), have been indeed shown to fuel tumor development and metastasis by mutually interacting with PCa cells. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms that lead to activation of CAFs from tissue-resident fibroblasts, circulating marrow-derived fibroblast progenitors or mesenchymal stem cells. Through integrated gene and microRNA expression profiling, here we showed that transcriptome of CAFs isolated from prostate tumors strictly resembles that of normal fibroblasts stimulated in vitro with interleukin-6 (IL6), thus confirming the capability of the cytokine to promote acquisition of an activated and cancer-promoting phenotype, and, for the first time, proving that IL6 is able per se to induce all the complex transcriptional changes characteristic of patient-derived CAFs. Comparison with publicly available datasets, however, suggested that prostate CAFs may be alternatively characterized by IL6 and TGF?-related signatures, indicating that either signal, depending on the context, tumor stage and etiology, may concur to fibroblast activation. Our analyses also highlighted pathways relevant for induction of reactive stroma, including genes the role of which in fibroblast activation is still to be explored. In addition, we revealed a role for muscle-specific miR-133b as a soluble factor secreted by activated fibroblasts to support paracrine activation of non-activated fibroblasts or promote tumor progression. Overall, in this study we provided insights on the molecular mechanisms driving fibroblast activation in prostate cancer, thus contributing to identify novel hits for the development of therapeutic strategies targeting the crucial interplay between tumor cells and their microenvironment. Tumor microenvironment coevolves with and simultaneously sustains cancer progression. Reactive fibroblasts found in prostate cancer (PCa), known as cancer associated fibroblasts (CAF), have been indeed shown to fuel tumor development and metastasis by mutually interacting with PCa cells. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms that lead to activation of CAFs from tissue-resident fibroblasts, circulating marrow-derived fibroblast progenitors or mesenchymal stem cells. Through integrated gene and microRNA expression profiling, here we showed that transcriptome of CAFs isolated from prostate tumors strictly resembles that of normal fibroblasts stimulated in vitro with interleukin-6 (IL6), thus confirming the capability of the cytokine to promote acquisition of an activated and cancer-promoting phenotype, and, for the first time, proving that IL6 is able per se to induce all the complex transcriptional changes characteristic of patient-derived CAFs. Comparison with publicly available datasets, however, suggested that prostate CAFs may be alternatively characterized by IL6 and TGF?-related signatures, indicating that either signal, depending on the context, tumor stage and etiology, may concur to fibroblast activation. Our analyses also highlighted pathways relevant for induction of reactive stroma, including genes the role of which in fibroblast activation is still to be explored. In addition, we revealed a role for muscle-specific miR-133b as a soluble factor secreted by activated fibroblasts to support paracrine activation of non-activated fibroblasts or promote tumor progression. Overall, in this study we provided insights on the molecular mechanisms driving fibroblast activation in prostate cancer, thus contributing to identify novel hits for the development of therapeutic strategies targeting the crucial interplay between tumor cells and their microenvironment. In the present study, patient derived-CAFs and HPFs activated in vitro with either TGF? or IL6 were comparatively analyzed for gene and microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles, with the aim to define transcriptional pathways responsible for fibroblast activation and establish whether different subpopulations of CAFs may exist in PCa.
2015-09-01 | E-GEOD-68164 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Tumor microenvironment coevolves with and simultaneously sustains cancer progression. Reactive fibroblasts found in prostate cancer (PCa), known as cancer associated fibroblasts (CAF), have been indeed shown to fuel tumor development and metastasis by mutually interacting with PCa cells. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms that lead to activation of CAFs from tissue-resident fibroblasts, circulating marrow-derived fibroblast progenitors or mesenchymal stem cells. Through integrated gene and microRNA expression profiling, here we showed that transcriptome of CAFs isolated from prostate tumors strictly resembles that of normal fibroblasts stimulated in vitro with interleukin-6 (IL6), thus confirming the capability of the cytokine to promote acquisition of an activated and cancer-promoting phenotype, and, for the first time, proving that IL6 is able per se to induce all the complex transcriptional changes characteristic of patient-derived CAFs. Comparison with publicly available datasets, however, suggested that prostate CAFs may be alternatively characterized by IL6 and TGFβ-related signatures, indicating that either signal, depending on the context, tumor stage and etiology, may concur to fibroblast activation. Our analyses also highlighted pathways relevant for induction of reactive stroma, including genes the role of which in fibroblast activation is still to be explored. In addition, we revealed a role for muscle-specific miR-133b as a soluble factor secreted by activated fibroblasts to support paracrine activation of non-activated fibroblasts or promote tumor progression. Overall, in this study we provided insights on the molecular mechanisms driving fibroblast activation in prostate cancer, thus contributing to identify novel hits for the development of therapeutic strategies targeting the crucial interplay between tumor cells and their microenvironment. Tumor microenvironment coevolves with and simultaneously sustains cancer progression. Reactive fibroblasts found in prostate cancer (PCa), known as cancer associated fibroblasts (CAF), have been indeed shown to fuel tumor development and metastasis by mutually interacting with PCa cells. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms that lead to activation of CAFs from tissue-resident fibroblasts, circulating marrow-derived fibroblast progenitors or mesenchymal stem cells. Through integrated gene and microRNA expression profiling, here we showed that transcriptome of CAFs isolated from prostate tumors strictly resembles that of normal fibroblasts stimulated in vitro with interleukin-6 (IL6), thus confirming the capability of the cytokine to promote acquisition of an activated and cancer-promoting phenotype, and, for the first time, proving that IL6 is able per se to induce all the complex transcriptional changes characteristic of patient-derived CAFs. Comparison with publicly available datasets, however, suggested that prostate CAFs may be alternatively characterized by IL6 and TGFβ-related signatures, indicating that either signal, depending on the context, tumor stage and etiology, may concur to fibroblast activation. Our analyses also highlighted pathways relevant for induction of reactive stroma, including genes the role of which in fibroblast activation is still to be explored. In addition, we revealed a role for muscle-specific miR-133b as a soluble factor secreted by activated fibroblasts to support paracrine activation of non-activated fibroblasts or promote tumor progression. Overall, in this study we provided insights on the molecular mechanisms driving fibroblast activation in prostate cancer, thus contributing to identify novel hits for the development of therapeutic strategies targeting the crucial interplay between tumor cells and their microenvironment. Tumor microenvironment coevolves with and simultaneously sustains cancer progression. Reactive fibroblasts found in prostate cancer (PCa), known as cancer associated fibroblasts (CAF), have been indeed shown to fuel tumor development and metastasis by mutually interacting with PCa cells. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms that lead to activation of CAFs from tissue-resident fibroblasts, circulating marrow-derived fibroblast progenitors or mesenchymal stem cells. Through integrated gene and microRNA expression profiling, here we showed that transcriptome of CAFs isolated from prostate tumors strictly resembles that of normal fibroblasts stimulated in vitro with interleukin-6 (IL6), thus confirming the capability of the cytokine to promote acquisition of an activated and cancer-promoting phenotype, and, for the first time, proving that IL6 is able per se to induce all the complex transcriptional changes characteristic of patient-derived CAFs. Comparison with publicly available datasets, however, suggested that prostate CAFs may be alternatively characterized by IL6 and TGFβ-related signatures, indicating that either signal, depending on the context, tumor stage and etiology, may concur to fibroblast activation. Our analyses also highlighted pathways relevant for induction of reactive stroma, including genes the role of which in fibroblast activation is still to be explored. In addition, we revealed a role for muscle-specific miR-133b as a soluble factor secreted by activated fibroblasts to support paracrine activation of non-activated fibroblasts or promote tumor progression. Overall, in this study we provided insights on the molecular mechanisms driving fibroblast activation in prostate cancer, thus contributing to identify novel hits for the development of therapeutic strategies targeting the crucial interplay between tumor cells and their microenvironment. In the present study, patient derived-CAFs and HPFs activated in vitro with either TGFβ or IL6 were comparatively analyzed for gene and microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles, with the aim to define transcriptional pathways responsible for fibroblast activation and establish whether different subpopulations of CAFs may exist in PCa.
2015-09-01 | E-GEOD-68165 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are a major stromal component of human breast cancers and often promote tumor proliferation, progression and malignancy. We previously established an experimental CAF (exp-CAF) cell line equipped with a potent tumor-promoting ability. It was generated through prolonged incubation of immortalized human mammary fibroblasts with human breast cancer cells in a tumor xenograft mouse model. Herein, we found that the exp-CAFs highly express Runt-related transcription factor 3 (RUNX3), while counterpart fibroblasts do not. In breast cancer patients, the proportion of RUNX3-positive stromal fibroblast-like cells tends to be higher in cancerous regions than in non-cancerous regions. These findings suggest an association of RUNX3 with CAF characteristics in human breast cancers. To investigate the functional role of RUNX3 in CAFs, the exp-CAFs with or without shRNA-directed knockdown of RUNX3 were implanted with breast cancer cells subcutaneously in immunodeficient mice. Comparison of the resulting xenograft tumors revealed that tumor growth was significantly attenuated when RUNX3 expression was suppressed in the fibroblasts. Consistently, Ki-67 and CD31 immunohistochemical staining of the tumor sections indicated reduction of cancer cell proliferation and microvessel formation in the tumors formed with the RUNX3-suppressed exp-CAFs. These results suggest that increased RUNX3 expression could contribute to the tumor-promoting ability of CAFs through mediating cancer cell growth and neoangiogenesis in human breast tumors.
2023-08-15 | GSE240453 | GEO
Project description:Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease for which prognosis and treatment strategies are largely governed by the receptor status (estrogen, progesterone and Her2-neu) of the tumor cells. Gene expression profiling of whole breast tumors further stratifies breast cancer into several molecular subtypes which also co-segregate with the receptor status of the tumor cells. We postulated that cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) within the tumor stroma may exhibit subtype specific gene expression profiles and thus contribute to the biology of the disease in a subtype specific manner. Several studies have reported gene expression profile differences between CAFs and normal breast fibroblasts but in none of these studies were the results stratified based on tumor subtypes. To address whether gene expression in breast cancer associated fibroblasts varies between breast cancer subtypes, we compared the gene expression profiles of early passage primary CAFs isolated from twenty human breast cancer samples representing three main subtypes; seven ER+, seven triple negative (TNBC) and six Her2+. We observed significant expression differences between CAFs derived from Her2+ breast cancer and CAFs from TNBC and ER+ cancers, particularly in pathways associated with cytoskeleton and integrin signaling. In the case of Her2+ breast cancer, the signaling pathways found to be selectively up regulated in CAFs may contribute to the more invasive properties and unfavorable prognosis of Her2+ breast cancer. These data demonstrate that in addition to the distinct molecular profiles that characterize the neoplastic cells, CAF gene expression is also differentially regulated in distinct subtypes of breast cancer. We isolated CAFs from twenty primary breast cancer samples representing three main subtypes (ER+ (n=7), TNBC (n=7), Her2+ (n=6)) and performed gene expression profile analyses on RNA isolated from these early passage CAFs. Those samples were done in two batches with 4 samples repeated in both batches. One TNBC sample was found to be an outlier and not used in the analysis.
2013-12-20 | E-GEOD-37614 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Using a 3D co-culture model, we identified significant sub-type-specific changes in the gene expression, metabolic, and therapeutic sensitivity profiles of breast cancer cells in contact with cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). CAF-induced gene expression signatures predicted clinical outcome and immune-related differences in the microenvironment. We found that CAFs strongly protect carcinoma cells from lapatinib, attributable to its reduced accumulation in carcinoma cells and an elevated apoptotic threshold. Using synthetic lethality approaches, we identified molecular pathways whose inhibition sensitizes HER2+ breast cancer cells to lapatinib both in vitro and in vivo including JAK2/STAT3 and hyaluronic acid. Neoadjuvant lapatinib therapy in HER2+ breast tumors lead to a significant increase of phospho-STAT3+ cancer cells and a decrease in the spatial proximity of proliferating (Ki67+) cells to CAFs impacting therapeutic responses. Our studies identify CAF-induced physiologically and clinically relevant changes in cancer cells and offer novel approaches for overcoming microenvironment-mediated therapeutic resistance.
2016-09-28 | GSE80333 | GEO
Project description:We identified total 174 significantly differentially expressed miRNAs between tumors and the normal tissues, and 109 miRNAs between serum from patients and serum from healthy individuals. There are only 10 common miRNAs. This suggests that only a small portion of tumor miRNAs are released into serum selectively. Interestingly, the expression change pattern of 28 miRNAs is opposite between breast cancer tumors and serum. Functional analysis shows that the differentially expressed miRNAs and their target genes form a complex interaction network affecting many biological processes and involving in cancer-related pathways such as prostate, basal cell carcinoma, acute myeloid leukymia, and more. A bunch of miRNAs have been demonstrated to be aberrantly expressed in cancer tumor tissue and serum. The miRNA signatures identified from the serum samples could serve as potential noninvasive diagnostic markers for breast cancer. The roles of the miRNAs in cancerigenesis is unclear. In this study, we generated the expression profiles of miRNAs from the paired breast cancer tumors, normal, tissue, and serum samples from eight patients using small RNA-sequencing. Serum samples from eight healthy individuals were used as normal controls.
2014-04-10 | E-GEOD-56614 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Only about 25% of familial breast cancer is explained by mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, fewer by moderate penetrance genes like P53, PTEN, CHEK2, ATM and PALB2 and an unknown fraction by common variants of genes with low penetrance. Evidence suggests that additional dominant breast cancer genes exist and these are referred to as BRCAX. Clinical presentation of families with highly increased incidence of breast cancer that are non-BRCA1/BRCA2, suggests dominant inheritance of such high penetrance breast cancer genes. Because cancer genes often confer a specific clinical presentation (e.g. age of onset, sex-ratio, tissue spectrum) it seems useful to initiate their discovery by such clinical criteria. An earlier linkage study of BRCAX / non-BRCA1/2 breast cancer families aimed to enrich for a common genetic defect by setting stringent inclusion criteria, failed to identify new breast cancer susceptibility loci. Motivated by results of BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast tumors that have characteristic genomic signatures (array-CGH 'phenotypes'), we present the largest dataset to date showing the genomic profiles of 58 BRCAX primary breast tumors by array-CGH and show by unsupervised hierarchical clustering that they form a heterogeneous group with 4 distinct subtypes that are different from (n = 48) sporadic controls. This provides a possible explanation for the lack of high LOD scores in linkage studies. The presence of more than one BRCAX sub-type suggests the existence of more than one BRCAX gene. We propose approaches that can be employed to stratify BRCAX families based on array-CGH data. 58 primary breast carcinomas from non-BRCA1/2 hereditary breast cancer families (HBC) compared to 48 sporadic tumors
2011-02-01 | E-GEOD-18626 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Current therapeutic outcomes for breast cancer underscore the complexity of treating a heterogeneous disease. Indeed, studies have shown that differences in gene expression among patients with the same subtype of breast cancer are correlated with the response to treatment. This strongly suggests that there is an urgent need to treat breast cancer with a personalized approach. Here we employed cell signaling pathway signatures predict pathway activity in subtypes of MMTV-Myc mammary tumors. We then split tumors into subsets and developed individualized combinatorial treatments for two subtypes with distinct pathway activation patterns. In this treatment, we focus on papillary subtype-specific treatment, targeting Myc, Stat3, and Akt pathways. We compared gene expression differences after treatment.
2018-05-09 | GSE81284 | GEO
Project description:Primary tumor growth induces host tissue responses that are believed to support and promote tumor progression. Identification of the molecular characteristics of the tumor microenvironment and elucidation of its crosstalk with tumor cells may therefore be crucial for improving our understanding of the processes implicated in cancer progression, identifying potential therapeutic targets, and uncovering stromal gene expression signatures that may predict clinical outcome. A key issue to resolve, therefore, is whether the stromal response to tumor growth is largely a generic phenomenon, irrespective of the tumor type, or whether the response reflects tumor-specific properties. To address similarity or distinction of stromal gene expression changes during cancer progression, oligonucleotide-based Affymetrix microarray technology was used to compare the transcriptomes of laser-microdissected stromal cells derived from invasive human breast and prostate carcinoma. Invasive breast and prostate cancer-associated stroma was observed to display distinct transcriptomes, with a limited number of shared genes. Interestingly, both breast and prostate tumor-specific dysregulated stromal genes were observed to cluster breast and prostate cancer patients, respectively, into two distinct groups with statistically different clinical outcomes. By contrast, a gene signature that was common to the reactive stroma of both tumor types did not have survival predictive value. Univariate Cox analysis identified genes whose expression level was most strongly associated with patient survival. Taken together, these observations suggest that the tumor microenvironment displays distinct features according to the tumor type that provides survival-predictive value. 6 samples of stroma surrounding invasive breast primary tumors; 6 matched samples of normal stroma. 6 samples of stroma surrounding invasive prostate primary tumors; 6 matched samples of normal stroma.
2011-03-31 | E-GEOD-26910 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:In prostate cancer (PC), cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) exhibit contrasting biological properties to non-malignant prostate fibroblasts (NPFs) and promote tumorigenesis. Resolving intercellular signaling pathways between CAFs and prostate tumor epithelium may offer novel opportunities for research translation. To this end, the proteome and phosphoproteome of four pairs of patient-matched CAFs and NPFs were characterized to identify discriminating proteomic signatures. Samples were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) with a hyper-reaction monitoring data-independent acquisition (HRM-DIA) workflow. Proteins that exhibited a significant increase in CAFs versus NPFs were enriched for the functional categories ‘cell adhesion’ and the ‘extracellular matrix’. The CAF phosphoproteome exhibited enhanced phosphorylation of proteins associated with the ‘spliceosome’ and ‘actin binding’. STRING analysis of the CAF proteome revealed a prominent interaction hub associated with collagen synthesis, modification, and signaling. It contained multiple collagens, including the fibrillar types COL1A1/2 and COL5A1; the receptor tyrosine kinase discoidin domain-containing receptor 2 (DDR2), a receptor for fibrillar collagens; and lysyl oxidase-like 2 (LOXL2), which promotes collagen crosslinking. Increased activity and/or expression of LOXL2 and DDR2 in CAFs were confirmed by enzymatic assays and Western blot analyses. Pharmacological inhibition of CAF-derived LOXL2 perturbed extracellular matrix (ECM) organization and decreased cell migration in wound-healing assays. Furthermore, it significantly impaired the motility of co-cultured RWPE2 prostate tumor epithelial cells. These results indicate that CAF-derived LOXL2 is an important mediator of intercellular communication within the PC tumor microenvironment and a potential therapeutic target.
2019-05-24 | PXD010611 | Pride