Oncogenic Kras activates a hematopoietic-to-epithelial IL-17 signaling axis in preinvasive pancreatic neoplasia
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ABSTRACT: Many human cancers are dramatically accelerated in the setting of chronic inflammation. However the specific cellular and molecular elements mediating this effect remain largely unknown. Using a murine model of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN), we found that KrasG12D induces expression of functional IL-17 receptors on PanIN cells, and stimulates infiltration of the pancreatic stroma by IL-17-producing immune cells. Both effects are augmented by chronic pancreatitis, resulting in functional in vivo changes in gene expression among PanIN epithelial cells. Forced IL-17 overexpression dramatically accelerates PanIN initiation and progression, while inhibition of IL-17 signaling using genetic or pharmacologic techniques effectively prevents PanIN formation. Together, these studies suggest that a hematopoietic-to-epithelial IL-17 signaling axis is a potent and requisite driver of PanIN formation.
Project description:Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers with a 5 year survival rate of about 5%. Therapeutic options are limited, especially for patients that present with late state disease and metastasis. Although the metastatic burden of pancreatic cancer is usually high, little is known about the mechanisms that regulate delamination and dissemination of epithelial cells from preinvasive and malignant pancreatic lesions. Here, we used a preinvasive mouse model of pancreatic cancer to conditionally knockout p120 catenin (Ctnnd1). Mice with biallelic loss of p120 catenin progressively develop high grade PanIN lesions and neoplasia accompanied by prominent acute and chronic inflammatory processes. Loss of p120 catenin in the context of oncogenic Kras also promotes remarkable apical and basal epithelial cell extrusion. Abundant single epithelial cells exit PanIN epithelium basally, survive, and display features of malignancy. Similar extrusion defects are observed following p120 catenin knockdown in vitro, and these effects are completely abrogated by activation of S1P/S1P2 signaling. Our results establish p120 catenin and S1P/S1P2 signaling as novel regulators of non-EMT mediated epithelial cell invasion in pancreatic neoplasia. Transcriptomes of KCiMist1G; p120wt/wt and KCiMist1G; p120f/f pancreases were compared, with three replicates each, using microarray.
Project description:Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers with a 5 year survival rate of about 5%. Therapeutic options are limited, especially for patients that present with late state disease and metastasis. Although the metastatic burden of pancreatic cancer is usually high, little is known about the mechanisms that regulate delamination and dissemination of epithelial cells from preinvasive and malignant pancreatic lesions. Here, we used a preinvasive mouse model of pancreatic cancer to conditionally knockout p120 catenin (Ctnnd1). Mice with biallelic loss of p120 catenin progressively develop high grade PanIN lesions and neoplasia accompanied by prominent acute and chronic inflammatory processes. Loss of p120 catenin in the context of oncogenic Kras also promotes remarkable apical and basal epithelial cell extrusion. Abundant single epithelial cells exit PanIN epithelium basally, survive, and display features of malignancy. Similar extrusion defects are observed following p120 catenin knockdown in vitro, and these effects are completely abrogated by activation of S1P/S1P2 signaling. Our results establish p120 catenin and S1P/S1P2 signaling as novel regulators of non-EMT mediated epithelial cell invasion in pancreatic neoplasia.
Project description:Development of systems that reconstitute hallmark features of human pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanINs), the precursor to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, could generate new strategies for early diagnosis and intervention. However, human cell-based PanIN models with defined mutations are unavailable. Here, we report that genetic modification of primary human pancreatic cells leads to development of lesions resembling native human PanINs. Primary human pancreas duct cells harbouring oncogenic KRAS and induced mutations in CDKN2A, SMAD4 and TP53 expand in vitro as epithelial spheres. After pancreatic transplantation, mutant clones form lesions histologically similar to native PanINs, including prominent stromal responses. Gene expression profiling reveals molecular similarities of mutant clones with native PanINs, and identifies potential PanIN biomarker candidates including Neuromedin U, a circulating peptide hormone. Prospective reconstitution of human PanIN development from primary cells provides experimental opportunities to investigate pancreas cancer development, progression and early-stage detection.
Project description:Here, we sought to understand the function of stromal interleukin-33 (IL-33) in PanIN and PDA. We collected pancreatic tissues from various mouse models of PanIN and PDA for single cell RNA sequencing to assess IL-33 expression across the microenviornment. We also implanted syngeneic orthotopic pancreatic tumors into mice harboring a conditional stromal IL-33 knockout and sequenced the resulting tumors.
Project description:IL-17 is required for the initiation and progression of pancreatic cancer, particularly in the context of inflammation, as previously shown by genetic and pharmacological approaches. The cellular compartment and downstream molecular mediators of IL-17-mediated pancreatic tumorigenesis have not been fully identified. We interrogated the cellular compartment required by generating transgenic animals with Interleukin 17 receptor A (IL-17RA) genetically deleted from the pancreatic epithelial compartment vs. the hematopoietic compartment via generation of IL-17RA-deficient (IL17-RA-/-) bone marrow chimeras, in the context of embryonically activated or inducible Kras. Deletion of IL-17RA from the pancreatic epithelial compartment, but not from hematopoietic, resulted in delayed premalignant lesions initiation and progression and increased CD8+ cytotoxic T cells infiltration to the tumor microenvironment. Absence of IL-17RA in the pancreatic compartment affected transcriptional profiles of epithelial cells, modulating stemness and immunological pathways. Interestingly, B7-H4, a known inhibitor of T cell activation encoded by the gene Vtcn1, was the most upregulated checkpoint molecule via IL17 early during pancreatic tumorigenesis, and its genetic deletion delayed pancreatic premalignant lesions development and reduced immunosuppression. We reveal pancreatic epithelial IL-17RA requirement for pancreatic tumorigenesis by reprogramming the immune pancreatic landscape which is partially orchestrated by regulation of B7-H4.
Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has one of the worst prognoses of any human malignancy and there are few human cellular models of disease progression. When human PDAC cells are injected into immunodeficient animals, they create tumors of the late stage from which they were derived. We hypothesized that if human pancreatic cancer cells were converted to pluripotency and then allowed to differentiate back into pancreas, the developmental progression would recapitulate early stages of the cancer. To that end, we have generated isogenic matched sets of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-like lines from epithelial cells of human pancreatic tumors and from histologically normal epithelial cells at the resected pancreatic margins. Notably, when injected into immunodeficient mice, at low or high passages, a human pancreatic cancer iPS-like line, but not the corresponding margin iPS-like line, slowly generates intra-epithelial neoplasia (PanIN) ductal structures that typically reflect the early stages of human pancreatic cancer. The PanIN-like ducts can be isolated and cultured. They secrete protein products reflective of PanINs and provide new insights into underlying regulatory networks. An additional iPS-like line from histologically normal cells at a pancreatic resection margin, but containing a mutation that predisposes to PDAC, does not generate PanIN ductal structures. These studies demonstrate that iPS technology can be exploited to recapitulate early progression events of a human epithelial cancer. Study includes a single experiment (#10): a tumor-adjacent pancreatic tissue control (10N); tumor tissue (10C); IPS-transformed tissue control (10N12); and IPS-transformed tumor tissue (10C22).
Project description:Immunoprevention is an emerging consideration for solid tumors, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). We and others have shown that Kras mutations in genetic models of spontaneous pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN), which is a precursor to PDAC, results in CD73 expression in the neoplastic epithelium and some populations of infiltrating immune cells, including macrophages and CD8 T cells. CD73 is an ecto-enzyme that converts extracellular adenosine monophosphate (AMP) to adenosine, a critical immune inhibitory molecule in PDAC. We hypothesized inhibition of CD73 would reduce the incidence of PanIN formation and alter the immune microenvironment. To test our hypothesis, we used the KrasG12D; PdxCre1 (KC) genetically engineered mouse (GEM) model and tested the utility of AB-680, a small molecule inhibitor targeting CD73, to inhibit PanIN progression. AB-680, or vehicle control, was administered using oral gavage delivery three days/week at 10mg/kg, beginning when the mice were two months old and lasting three months. We euthanized the mice at five months old. In the KC model, we quantified significantly less pancreatitis, early and advanced PanIN, and quantified a significant increase in M1 macrophages in AB-680-treated mice. Single Cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of pancreata of AB-680 treated mice revealed increased infiltration of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, and mature B cells. The scRNA-seq analysis showed that CD73 inhibition reduced M2 macrophages, acinar, and PanIN cell populations. CD73 inhibition enhanced immune surveillance and expanded unique clonotypes of TCR and BCR, indicating that inhibition of CD73 augments adaptive immunity early in the neoplastic microenvironment.
Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has one of the worst prognoses of any human malignancy and there are few human cellular models of disease progression. When human PDAC cells are injected into immunodeficient animals, they create tumors of the late stage from which they were derived. We hypothesized that if human pancreatic cancer cells were converted to pluripotency and then allowed to differentiate back into pancreas, the developmental progression would recapitulate early stages of the cancer. To that end, we have generated isogenic matched sets of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-like lines from epithelial cells of human pancreatic tumors and from histologically normal epithelial cells at the resected pancreatic margins. Notably, when injected into immunodeficient mice, at low or high passages, a human pancreatic cancer iPS-like line, but not the corresponding margin iPS-like line, slowly generates intra-epithelial neoplasia (PanIN) ductal structures that typically reflect the early stages of human pancreatic cancer. The PanIN-like ducts can be isolated and cultured. They secrete protein products reflective of PanINs and provide new insights into underlying regulatory networks. An additional iPS-like line from histologically normal cells at a pancreatic resection margin, but containing a mutation that predisposes to PDAC, does not generate PanIN ductal structures. These studies demonstrate that iPS technology can be exploited to recapitulate early progression events of a human epithelial cancer.
Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is the devastating disease in urgent need to identify new strategies for diagnosing and treating. Chronic pancreatitis is a risk factor for PDA in humans. Nardilysin (Nrdc, NRDC), a zinc peptidase of the M16 family has been shown to promote cancer cell growth in vitro. Here, we report that pancreatic deletion of Nrdc dramatically accelerates formation of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) and invasive PDA in the presence of oncogenic Kras. Nrdc was expressed in the nucleus of pancreatic acinar cells and pancreatic deletion of Nrdc was dispensable for pancreatic development in mice, but led to spontaneous chronic pancreatitis concomitant with acinar-to-ductal conversion, fibrotic change, infiltrated inflammatory cells, increased apoptosis, and atrophic pancreas in adult mice. Ex vivo acinar cell explants culture experiments showed that acinar-to-ductal conversion was not induced through a cell autonomous mechanism and that expression of several chemokines, including Cxcl10, was markedly up-regulated in Nrdc-null pancreatic acinar cells. Microarray analysis revealed that pathways implicated in pancreatitis and tumorigenesis, including chemotaxis, NF-κB and Erk1/2 signaling, were up-regulated in Nrdc-cKO pancreata compared with WT controls. Finally, immunostaining for NRDC revealed absence of NRDC expression in a subset of human PanINs and PDAs. These data demonstrate a previously unappreciated tumor suppressive function of Nrdc in the pancreas through suppressing chronic pancreatitis with acinar-to-ductal conversion in mice.