Project description:Cancer cachexia (CC) is a poorly understood cause of morbidity and mortality, which has no efficacious treatment or generally-accepted management strategy. The consensus definition for CC identified skeletal muscle loss as a key marker in the diagnosis and classification of cachexia. The importance of fat wasting however, is less understood. During cachexia, different adipose depots demonstrate differential wasting rates. Studies from animal models have suggested adipose tissue may be a key driver of muscle wasting through fat-muscle crosstalk but human studies in this area are lacking. We performed global gene expression profiling of intra-abdominal (IAAT) and subcutaneous (SAT) adipose from weight stable and cachectic cancer patients and healthy controls. Cachexia was defined as >2% weight loss plus low CT-muscularity. Biopsies of SAT and IAAT were taken from patients undergoing resection for oesophago-gastric cancer, and healthy controls (donor nephrectomy) (n=16 and 8 respectively). RNA was isolated and reverse transcribed. cDNA was hybridised to the Affymetrix Clariom S Microarray and data was analysed using R/Bioconductor. Differential expression of genes was assessed using empirical Bayes and moderated-t-statistic approaches. Category enrichment analysis was used with a tissue-specific background to examine the biological context of differentially expressed genes. Selected differentially regulated genes were validated by qPCR. ELISA for Intelectin-1 was performed on IAAT samples for the corresponding patients. The current cohort plus 12 additional patients from each group also had plasma Intelectin-1 ELISA carried out. In IAAT versus SAT comparisons there were 2101, 1722 and 1659 significantly regulated genes in the cachectic, weight stable and control groups respectively. There were 2200 significantly regulated genes from IAAT in cachectic patients compared to controls and 1253 significantly regulated genes from IAAT in weight stable cancer patients compared to controls. The gene showing the largest difference in expression was Intelectin-1 (Omentin-1) (FDR corrected p=0.0001); a novel adipocytokine associated with weight loss in other groups. Genes involving inflammation were enriched in cancer and control IAAT versus SAT though different groups of genes contributed. Energy metabolism and fat browning genesets were downregulated in cancer IAAT as were key fat browning genes (e.g. UCP1). SAT and IAAT have unique gene expression signatures. IAAT is metabolically active in cancer, and maybe a target for therapeutic manipulation. IAAT may play a fundamental role in cachexia, but the downregulation of energy metabolism genes implies a limited role for fat browning in human cachectic patients, in contrast to pre-clinical models.
Project description:Background Loss of skeletal muscle mass in advanced cancer is recognized as an independent predictor of mortality. Mechanisms involved in this wasting process and parameters for early diagnosis are still lacking. As skeletal muscle is considered as a secretory organ, the aim of this present experimental work was to characterize the changes in muscle proteome and secretome associated with cancer-induced cachexia to better understand cellular mechanisms involved in this wasting process and to identify secreted proteins which might reflect the ongoing muscle atrophy process. Methods We investigated first the changes in the muscle proteome associated with cancer-induced cachexia by using differential label-free proteomic analysis on muscle of the C26 mouse model. The differentially abundant proteins were submitted to sequential bioinformatic secretomic analysis in order to identify potentially secreted proteins. Selected reaction monitoring and Western blotting were used to verify the presence of candidate proteins at the circulating level. Their muscle source was demonstrated by assessing their gene expression in skeletal muscle and in cultured myotubes. Finally, we also investigated their regulation in muscle cells. Alterations in several molecular pathways potentially involved in muscle atrophy were highlighted using Gene ontology enrichment analyses. Results Our results revealed a dramatic increased production (2-to 25-fold) by the muscle of several acute phase reactants (APR: Haptoglobin, Serpina3n, Complement C3, Serum amyloid A1) which are also released in the circulation during C26 cancer cachexia. Their production was confirmed in other preclinical models of cancer cachexia as well as in cancer patients. The muscular origin of these APR was demonstrated by their increased expression in skeletal muscle and myotubes. Glucocorticoids and pro-inflammatory cytokines contribute directly to their increased expression in muscle cells in vitro, while the role of IL-6 in the muscular induction of these APR was demonstrated in vivo. Conclusions Cancer is associated with marked changes in muscle secretome during muscle wasting. Our study demonstrates a marked increased production of APR by skeletal muscle in pre-clinical models of cancer cachexia and in cancer patients. Further studies are required to unravel the potential role of these proteins in muscle atrophy and their interest as biomarkers of cancer cachexia.
Project description:To characterize the transcriptome differences between different adipose depots, a total of 36 adipose samples were used for high-throughput sequencing. At last, about 23,000 transcripts were identified.
Project description:Here, we investigate the systematic impact of tumor cachexia on muscle function. From a nutritional supplementation perspective, we examine the influence of fatty acid metabolism on the cachectic state, revealing that dietary supplementation with high-fat diet does not alleviate the muscle and fat dysfunction induced by tumors but instead accelerates muscle degradation. Utilizing RNA-seq transcriptome data from muscle tissue, we identify metabolic abnormalities in muscle during cachexia, with the PDK4 gene being activated initially and showing significant enrichment of PPARδ targets. We find that inhibiting PDK4 can mitigate the cachectic state and observe a relationship between the activation of muscle PDK4 and PPARδ during cachexia. This is supported by epigenomic data revealing that PDK4 is a transcriptional target gene of PPARδ in muscle. Activation and mechanical modulation of PPARδ in vivo significantly impact muscle atrophy caused by cachexia. Our research suggests that targeting PPARδ could serve as a therapeutic drug target for tumor cachexia.
Project description:Cachexia is a wasting syndrome characterized by pronounced skeletal muscle loss. In cancer, cachexia associates with increased morbidity and mortality and decreased treatment tolerance. Although advances have been made in understanding the mechanisms of cachexia, translating these advances to the clinic has been challenging. One reason for this shortcoming may be the current animal models that fail to fully recapitulate the etiology of human cancer-induced tissue wasting. Because pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) presents with a high incidence of cachexia, we engineered a mouse model of PDA, that we named KPP. KPP mice, similar to PDA patients, progressively lose skeletal and adipose mass as a consequence of their tumors. In addition, KPP muscles exhibit a similar gene ontology to cachectic patients. We envision the KPP model will be a useful resource for advancing our mechanistic understanding and ability to treat cancer cachexia.
Project description:Cachexia is a wasting syndrome characterized by pronounced skeletal muscle loss. In cancer, cachexia associates with increased morbidity and mortality and decreased treatment tolerance. Although advances have been made in understanding the mechanisms of cachexia, translating these advances to the clinic has been challenging. One reason for this shortcoming may be the current animal models that fail to fully recapitulate the etiology of human cancer-induced tissue wasting. Because pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) presents with a high incidence of cachexia, we engineered a mouse model of PDA, that we named KPP. KPP mice, similar to PDA patients, progressively lose skeletal and adipose mass as a consequence of their tumors. In addition, KPP muscles exhibit a similar gene ontology to cachectic patients. We envision the KPP model will be a useful resource for advancing our mechanistic understanding and ability to treat cancer cachexia.
Project description:Cachexia is an exacerbating event in many types of cancer that is strongly associated with a poor prognosis. We have identified cytokine, signaling and transcription factors that are required for cachexia in the mouse C26 colon carcinoma model of cancer. C2C12 myotubes treated with conditioned medium from C26 cancer cells induced atrophy and activated a STAT-dependent reporter gene but not reporter genes dependent on SMAD, FOXO, C/EBP, NF-ĸB, or AP-1. Of the gp130 family members IL-11, IL-6, oncostatin M (OSM), and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), only OSM and LIF were sufficient to activate the STAT reporter in myotubes. A LIF blocking antibody abolished C26 CM-induced STAT reporter activation STAT3 phosphorylation and myotube atrophy, but blocking antibodies to IL-6 or OSM did not. JAK2 inhibitors also blocked the C26 CM-induced STAT reporter activation, STAT3 phosphorylation, and atrophy in myotubes. LIF at levels found in the C26 CM was sufficient for STAT reporter activation and atrophy in myotubes. In vivo, an increase in serum LIF preceded the increase in IL-6 in mice with C26 tumors. Overexpression of a dominant negative Stat3Cβ-EGFP gene in myotubes and in mouse muscle blocked the atrophy caused by C26 CM or C26 tumors, respectively. Taken together these data support an important role of LIF- JAK2-STAT3 in C26 cachexia and point to a therapeutic approach for at least some types of cancer cachexia. from three replicate wells of cells at each treatment, pools of total RNA were used to create cDNA which were evaluated on Affymetrix mouse gene 1.0 ST v.1 arrays.
Project description:The regulatory gene pathways underlying the loss of adipose tissue in cancer cachexia are unknown and were explored using pangenomic transcriptome profiling. Gene expression profiles (Human Gene 1.0 ST) of abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue were studied in gastrointestinal cancer patients with (N=13) or without (N=14) cachexia. Data analyses were performed using the Affymetrix GeneChip Operating Software (GCOS) Version 1.4.
Project description:Pancreatic cancer is characterized by a high frequency of cachexia, pain and neural invasion (N-inv). Neural damage is occurred by N-inv and modulates pain and muscle atrophy via the activation of astrocyte in the connected spine. The activated astrocyte by N-inv, thus, may affect cachexia in pancreatic cancer. Clinical studies in patients and autopsy cases with pancreatic cancer have revealed that N-inv is related to cachexia and astrocytic activation. We established a novel murine model of cancer cachexia using N-inv of human pancreatic cancer cells. Mice with N-inv showed a loss of body weight, skeletal muscle, and fat mass without appetite loss, which are compatible with an animal model of cancer cachexia. Activation of astrocytes in the spinal cord connected with N-inv was observed in our model. Experimental cachexia was suppressed by disrupting neural routes or inhibiting the activation of astrocytes. These data provide the first evidence that N-inv induces cachexia via astrocytic activation of neural route in pancreatic cancer. We produced neural invasion (N-inv) model using intraneural injection of Capan-1 cells to left sciatic nerve of male SCID mouse. For controls, subcutaneous model (SC) and PBS model were produced. Microarray analysis was performed using the first lumbar cord (L1) from PBS, SC, and N-inv mice at 6 w (n = 2 each).