Project description:Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive, and often fatal disorder. Using an in-silico data-driven approach, we identified a robust connection between the transcriptomic perturbations in IPF disease and those induced by saracatinib, a selective Src kinase inhibitor, originally developed for oncological indications.We investigated the anti-fibrotic efficacy of saracatinib relative to nintedanib and pirfenidone in in vitro modele using normal human lung fibroblasts (NHLFs).
Project description:Biliary tract carcinoma (BTC) has a poor prognosis due to limited treatment options. There is therefore urgent need to identify new targets and to design innovative therapeutic approaches. Among potential candidate molecules, we evaluated the non-receptor tyrosine kinase Src, observing promising antitumor effects of its small molecule inhibitor Saracatinib in BTC preclinical models. The presence of an active Src protein was investigated by immunohistochemistry in 19 surgical samples from BTC patients. Upon Saracatinib treatment, the phosphorylation of Src and of its downstream transducers was evaluated in the BTC cell lines TFK-1, EGI-1, HuH28 and TGBC1-TKB. The effect of Saracatinib on proliferation and migration was analyzed in these same cell lines, and its antitumor activity was essayed in EGI-1 mouse xenografts. Saracatinib-modulated transcriptome was profiled in EGI-1 cells and in tumor samples of the xenograft model. Src was activated in about 80% of the human BTC samples. In cultured BTC cell lines, low-dose Saracatinib counteracted the activation of Src and of its downstream effectors, increased the fraction of cells in G0/G1 phase, and inhibited cell migration. At high concentrations (median dose from 2.26 to 6.99 µM), Saracatinib was also capable of inhibiting BTC cell proliferation. In vivo, Saracatinib treatment resulted in delayed tumor growth, associated with an impaired vascular network. We here provide a demonstration that the targeted inhibition of Src kinase by Saracatinib is of therapeutic benefit in preclinical models of BTC. We propose our results as a basis for the design of Saracatinib-based clinical applications. EGI-1 cell line treated with Saracatinib at the dose of 10 µM vs EGI-1 cell line untreated; EGI-1 xenograft treated with Saracatinib at the dose of 25 mg/Kg/die vs EGI-1 xenograft untreated Transcriptional alteration mediated by Saracatinib in vitro and in vivo
Project description:Biliary tract carcinoma (BTC) has a poor prognosis due to limited treatment options. There is therefore urgent need to identify new targets and to design innovative therapeutic approaches. Among potential candidate molecules, we evaluated the non-receptor tyrosine kinase Src, observing promising antitumor effects of its small molecule inhibitor Saracatinib in BTC preclinical models. The presence of an active Src protein was investigated by immunohistochemistry in 19 surgical samples from BTC patients. Upon Saracatinib treatment, the phosphorylation of Src and of its downstream transducers was evaluated in the BTC cell lines TFK-1, EGI-1, HuH28 and TGBC1-TKB. The effect of Saracatinib on proliferation and migration was analyzed in these same cell lines, and its antitumor activity was essayed in EGI-1 mouse xenografts. Saracatinib-modulated transcriptome was profiled in EGI-1 cells and in tumor samples of the xenograft model. Src was activated in about 80% of the human BTC samples. In cultured BTC cell lines, low-dose Saracatinib counteracted the activation of Src and of its downstream effectors, increased the fraction of cells in G0/G1 phase, and inhibited cell migration. At high concentrations (median dose from 2.26 to 6.99 µM), Saracatinib was also capable of inhibiting BTC cell proliferation. In vivo, Saracatinib treatment resulted in delayed tumor growth, associated with an impaired vascular network. We here provide a demonstration that the targeted inhibition of Src kinase by Saracatinib is of therapeutic benefit in preclinical models of BTC. We propose our results as a basis for the design of Saracatinib-based clinical applications.
Project description:Advanced ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy in the United States. Ovarian cancer cells are known to have diminished response to TGF-beta, but it remains unclear whether TGF-beta can modulate ovarian cancer cell growth in an indirect manner through cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). Using transcriptome profiling analyses on TGF-beta-treated ovarian fibroblasts, we identified a TGF-beta-responsive gene signature in ovarian fibroblasts. Identifying TGF-beta-regulated genes in the ovarian microenvironment helps in understanding the role of TGF-beta in ovarian cancer progression. The human telomerase-immortalized ovarian fibroblast line NOF151 was treated with 5ng/mL of either TGF-beta-1 or TGF-beta-2. Total RNA was isolated from control samples and TGF-beta-treated fibroblasts samples at 48 hours post-treatment, followed by cDNA synthesis, IVT and biotin labeling. Samples were then hybridized onto Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 microarrays. For each treatment group, three independent samples were prepared for the microarray experiment.
Project description:Advanced ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy in the United States. Ovarian cancer cells are known to have diminished response to TGF-beta, but it remains unclear whether TGF-beta can modulate ovarian cancer cell growth in an indirect manner through cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). Using transcriptome profiling analyses on TGF-beta-treated ovarian fibroblasts, we identified a TGF-beta-responsive gene signature in ovarian fibroblasts. Identifying TGF-beta-regulated genes in the ovarian microenvironment helps in understanding the role of TGF-beta in ovarian cancer progression.
Project description:Optimizing the efficiency of definitive endoderm differentiation is significant for the generation of diverse organ-like structures. In this study, we utilized saracatinib to enhance definitive endoderm differentiation in pluripotent stem cells. We found saracatinib significantly improved the definitive endoderm differentiation at low concentrations. To investigate the impact of 0.5 μM saracatinib on definitive endoderm differentiation of ESC H1 cells, we conducted RNA-seq analysis with differentiated cells with or without 0.5 μM saracatinib treatment.
Project description:The survival of isolated metastatic cells and expansion into macroscopic tumour has been recognized as a limiting step for metastasis formation in several cancer types yet the determinants of this process remain largely uncharacterized. In colorectal cancer (CRC), we identify a transcriptional programme in tumour-associated stromal cells, which is intimately linked to a high risk of developing recurrent disease after therapy. A large proportion of CRCs display mutational inactivation of the TGF-beta pathway but paradoxically they are characterized by high TGF-beta production. In these tumours, TGF-beta instructs a transcriptional programme in stromal cells, which confers a high risk of developing metastatic disease. We quantified the association of TGF-beta-activated fibroblasts with disease progression. To this end, we used as surrogates the gene expression programme upregulated by addition of TGF-beta to normal colon mucosa-derived fibroblasts (CCD-Co-18) in culture. CCD-Co-18 were seeded at 60% confluence and treated with TGF-β1. Gene expression profiles were measured in duplicate using HG-U133 plus 2.0. We used RMA background correction, quantile normalization and RMA summarization (Gautier et al., 2004). A TGF-β response signature was obtained by selecting genes with limma P-value < 0.05 and at least two fold up-regulation in TGF-β treated fibroblasts.
Project description:Human MRC5 pulmonary fibroblasts (CCL-171) were exposed or not to TGF-β at 10 ng/mL. RNA samples were harvested 24 hours after TGF-β exposition. Two independent experiments were carried out.