Prognostic significance of TRAIL-R3 and CCR-2 expression in tumor epithelial cells of patients with early breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Tumor epithelial cells (TEpCs) and spindle-shaped stromal cells, not associated with the vasculature, of patients with early breast cancer express osteoprotegerin (OPG), tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B ligand, stromal cell derived factor-1, interleukin-6, macrophage colony stimulating factor, chemokine (C-C motif) ligand-2 (CCL-2) and their receptors at significantly higher levels compared with non-neoplastic breast tissues. We evaluated the clinicopathological significance of these ligands and receptors in TEpC and spindle-shaped stromal cells, not associated with the vasculature, to determine their impact on prognosis of patients with early-stage breast cancer. METHODS: We conducted immunohistochemical analyses of protein expression in primary tumors of patients with early breast cancer and analyzed their association with standard prognostic parameters and clinical outcomes, including local relapse, metastatic recurrence, disease-free survival (DFS), metastasis-free survival (MFS), and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Elevated levels of TRAIL-R3 and chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 2 (CCR-2) in TEpCs and OPG and CCL-2 in stromal cells were significantly associated with a higher risk of metastasis (p = 0.032, p = 0.003, p = 0.038, and p = 0.049; respectively). Moreover, high expression of TRAIL-R3 and CCR-2 in TEpCs was associated with shorter DFS, MFS, and OS. High TRAIL-R3 expression in TEpCs was an independent prognostic factor for DFS and OS, and high CCR-2 expression in these cells was an independent prognostic factor for MFS. CONCLUSIONS: High levels of TRAIL-R3 and CCR-2 expression in TEpCs identified patients with early breast cancer with poor outcomes.

Evaluation of preventive and therapeutic activity of novel non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, CG100649, in colon cancer: Increased expression of TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand receptors enhance the apoptotic response to combination treatment with TRAIL.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been suggested as the potential new class of preventive or therapeutic antitumor agents. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antitumor activity of the novel NSAID, CG100649. CG100649 is a novel NSAID dual inhibitor for COX-2 and carbonic anhydrase (CA)-I/-II. In the present study, we investigated the alternative mechanism by which CG100649 mediated suppression of the colon cancer growth and development. The anchorage­dependent and -independent clonogenic assay showed that CG100649 inhibited the clonogenicity of human colon cancer cells. The flow cytometric analysis showed that CG100649 induced the G2/M cell cycle arrest in colon cancer cells. Animal studies showed that CG100649 inhibited the tumor growth in colon cancer xenograft in nude mice. Furthermore, quantitative PCR and FACS analysis demonstrated that CG100649 upregulated the expression of TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) receptors (DR4 and DR5) but decreased the expression of decoy receptors (DcR1 and DcR2) in colon cancer cells. The results showed that CG100649 treatment sensitized TRAIL­mediated growth suppression and apoptotic cell death. The combination treatment resulted in significant repression of the intestinal polyp formation in APCmin/+ mice. Our data clearly demonstrated that CG100649 contains preventive and therapeutic activity for colon cancer. The present study may be useful for identification of the potential benefit of the NSAID CG100649, for the achievement of a better treatment response in colon cancer.

TRAIL upregulates decoy receptor 1 and mediates resistance to apoptosis in insulin-secreting INS-1 cells.

TRAIL/Apo2L (tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand) is a multifunctional protein regulating the homeostasis of the immune system, infection, autoimmune diseases, and apoptosis. In particular, the potential role of TRAIL in type 1 diabetes (T1D) has been studied by several research groups. A previous study found that TRAIL did not have significant cytotoxic effects on the insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cell line, INS-1. However, the mechanism was not clear. Here we demonstrate that INS-1 cells are resistant to TRAIL-induced apoptosis and show alteration in the expression of death and decoy receptors upon TRAIL treatment. To compare TRAIL-resistant INS-1 cells with TRAIL-sensitive cells, we utilized U87MG cells, which are known to be TRAIL-sensitive. TRAIL treatment showed NF-kappaB translocation to the nucleus in TRAIL-resistant INS-1 cells, and TRAIL-induced NF-kappaB activation was preceded by IkappaBalpha degradation. A pharmacological inhibitor of NF-kappaB, Bay 11-7082, blocked TRAIL-induced NF-kappaB translocation to the nucleus and IkappaBalpha degradation. Four related receptors bind TRAIL: two death receptors (DR4 and DR5) that promote apoptosis, and two decoy receptors (DcR1 and DcR2) that act as dominant-negative inhibitors of TRAIL-mediated apoptosis. In the present study, TRAIL treatment in INS-1 cells upregulated DcR1 and downregulated DR5 without altering the expression of DcR2 and DR4. The resistance to apoptosis in INS-1 cells might therefore, be a consequence of DcR1 upregulation and DR5 downregulation, and the transcription factor, NF-kappaB, could regulate the sensitivity of cells to TRAIL by controlling the ratio of decoy to death receptors. Thus, TRAIL may play an important role in the survival of pancreatic beta cells by regulating receptor expression in an NF-kappaB-dependent manner.

The TRAIL-receptor-1: TRAIL-receptor-3 and -4 ratio is a predictor for TRAIL sensitivity of cancer cells.

The tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a potent inducer of apoptosis in many cancer cells. However, a significant proportion of tumours are TRAIL-resistant erecting a major hurdle for a successful TRAIL-based treatment regimen in the future. In this context, it would be a major advantage to be able to identify the tumours that respond to TRAIL. The existence of two apoptosis-inducing receptors (TRAIL-R1 and TRAIL-R2) and two receptors that cannot transmit an apoptotic signal and have an inhibitory function (TRAIL-R3 and TRAIL-R4) make TRAIL signalling complicated. We analysed the surface expression of all four membrane-bound TRAIL receptors in cancer cell lines of various origin and primary cancer and normal cells and found a good correlation between TRAIL-sensitivity and the expression of TRAIL-R1 alone, but an even better correlation when a ratio of TRAIL-R1/TRAIL-R3+TRAIL-R4 was analysed. Experimental overexpression of TRAIL-R1 alone or in combination with TRAIL-R4 in PANC-1 cells confirmed our correlation results. Similar to the surface expression-apoptosis correlation analysis we found a high correlation between TRAIL-sensitivity and the mRNA level ratio of TRAIL-R1/TRAIL-R3+TRAIL-R4. A value of <0.85 for the ratio predicted TRAIL resistance in both protein and RNA analysis. Hence, TRAIL receptor RNA expression analysis by real-time PCR might be a feasible approach to predict possible TRAIL-responses in individual tumour samples.