Project description:Neurological disorders induced by chemotherapy, including pain and other debilitating sensory conditions correlate with alterations in diverse systemic, cellular, and molecular processes. Chemotherapeutic agents variously induce inflammatory responses, metabolic disorders and associated gene expression changes, all of which have the capacity to impact sensory function . Early evidence of independent effects by cancer alone on some of these same processes led us to hypothesize that neurological symptoms may emerge from cooperativity in the effects of chemotherapy and cancer. We tested this hypothesis in a rodent model of human colon cancer after a full course of human-scaled treatment with the commonly used chemotherapeutic agent oxaliplatin. Transcriptional profiling of dorsal root ganglia demonstrated that cancer and chemotherapy in combination produced changes that were unpredictable or undetectable from those observed with either alone. Unique combinatorial effects of chemotherapy and cancer were conserved as dysregulation of select ion-channel proteins and associated reduction in excitability of sensory neurons responsible for proprioception. Recognition of the non-additive interactions between chemotherapy and cancer may lead to the development of more effective strategies for the prevention and/or treatment of chronic neurological disorders commonly associated with cancer therapy. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying neurologic dysfunction following chemotherapy treatment in animals bearing and not bearing cancer.
Project description:Pancreatic cancer (Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma; PDAC) is highly resistant to chemotherapy. Effective alternative therapies have yet to emerge, and therefore, chemotherapy remains the best available systematic treatment. The discovery of safe and available adjuncts that can improve chemotherapeutic efficacy could potentially improve survival outcomes. We show that a hyperglycemic state enhances the efficacy of conventional single- and multi-agent chemotherapies against PDAC. Molecular analyses of tumors exposed to relatively high glucose levels revealed that GCLC (catalytic subunit of glutamate-cysteine ligase), a key regulator of a metabolic pathway, glutathione biosynthesis, is diminished and underlies chemo-sensitization. Inhibition to GCLC phenocopied the effect of an induced hyperglycemic state in mouse models of PDAC, while rescuing the pathway abrogated the anti-tumor effects observed with chemotherapy treatment under high glucose conditions.
Project description:Ovarian cancer is characterized by transcoelomic metastasis into the peritoneal cavity. The peritoneal malignant ascites is enriched with ovarian cancer cells and a small amount of tumor-associated immune cells which create a unique microenvironment actively contributing to progression of the disease. However, it is remain unclear how cancer cells communicate to its local environment under the influence of chemotherapy. To address this issue, we performed LC-MS/MS analyses of ovarian cancer ascites from the same patients before and after chemotherapy. We found that neoadjuvant chemotherapy causes a significant changes in the composition of ascites, and these changes are similar in samples obtained from all patients (n=10). Functional annotation of upregulated proteins with the use of KEGG and GO databases revealed that malignant ascites after chemotherapy were enriched with the cluster of spliceosomal proteins. These splicing factors were linked to induction of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition leading to a more aggressive phenotype of cancer cells.
Project description:Changes in cellular lipid metabolism are a common feature in most solid tumors, which occur already in early stages of the tumor progression. However, it remains unclear if the tumor-specific lipid changes can be detected at the level of systemic lipid metabolism. The objective of this study was to perform comprehensive analysis of lipids in breast cancer patient serum samples. Lipidomic profiling using an established analytical platform was performed in two cohorts of breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The analyses were performed for 142 patients before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and the results before chemotherapy were validated in an independent cohort of 194 patients. The analyses revealed that in general the tumor characteristics are not reflected in the serum samples. However, there was an association of specific triacylglycerols (TGs) in patients' response to chemotherapy. These TGs containing mainly oleic acid (C18:1) were found in lower levels in those patients showing pathologic complete response before receiving chemotherapy. Some of these TGs were also associated with estrogen receptor status and overall or disease-free survival of the patients. The results suggest that the altered serum levels of oleic acid in breast cancer patients are associated with their response to chemotherapy.
Project description:Acute exposure to acrylamide (ACR), a type-2 alkene, may lead to a ataxia, skeletal muscles weakness and numbness of the extremities in exposed human and laboratory animals. Recently, a zebrafish model for ACR neurotoxicity mimicking most of the pathophysiological processes described in mammalian models, was generated in 8 days post-fertilization larvae. In order to better understand the predictive value of the zebrafish larvae model of acute ACR neurotoxicity, in the present manuscript the ACR acute neurotoxicity has been characterized in the brain of adult zebrafish, and the results compared with those obtained with the whole-larvae. Although qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data shows important differences in the ACR effects between the adult brain and the whole-larvae, the overall effects of ACR in adult zebrafish, including a significant decrease in locomotor activity, altered expression of transcriptional markers of proteins involved in synaptic vesicle cycle, presence of ACR-adducts on cysteine residues of some synaptic proteins, and changes in the profile of some neurotransmitter systems, are similar to those described in the larvae. Thus, these results support the suitability of the zebrafish ACR acute neurotoxicity recently developed in larvae for screening of molecules with therapeutic value to treat this toxic neuropathy.
Project description:Chemotherapy in complex with surgical removal remain the most common approaches in cancer treatment, but their effectiveness is limited by the emergence of chemoresistance. In order to reveal changes in transcriptomic profiles of cancer cells remaining after platinum-based chemotherapy, we created primary cultures of cancer cells isolated from paired ascites of ovarian cancer patients taken at the time of diagnosis and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Enrichment analysis revealed significant activation of genes associated with DNA repair and cell cycle regulation in tumor cells after chemotherapy.
Project description:Treatment of PC3 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines with sublethal doses of docetaxel or cisplatin in vitro resulted in induction of polyploid cancer cells. Single cell copy number profiling was conducted to understand resistance of polyploid cancer cells to chemotherapy.
Project description:Cytotoxic chemotherapy is used to treat many thousands of patients across many cancer types annually. Recent studies have demonstrated that chemotherapy causes systemic response that can be exploited to promote cancer cell survival and dissemination, termed “chemotherapy-induced metastasis. However, there have been no studies investigating how chemotherapy alters the extracellular matrix of breast tumors, or if those changes might help to support metastatic dissemination. Here, we report the first characterization of the chemotherapy-treated breast cancer matrisome using the MMTV-PyMT transgenic mouse model of breast cancer. We identify distinct changes induced by different cytotoxic chemotherapies. In particular, we identify collagen IV as significantly associated with taxane-based chemotherapy treatment. Biological validation confirmed collagen IV as chemotherapy-associated and identified collagen IV-driven Src and FAK signaling as important mediators of invasion in the post-chemotherapy tumor microenvironment.