Cellular liquid biopsy provides unique chances for disease monitoring, preclinical model generation and therapy adjustment in rare salivary gland cancer patients.

While cell-free liquid biopsy (cfLB) approaches provide simple and inexpensive disease monitoring, cell-based liquid biopsy (cLB) may enable additional molecular genetic assessment of systemic disease heterogeneity and preclinical model development. We investigated 71 blood samples of 62 patients with various advanced cancer types and subjected enriched circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to organoid culture conditions. CTC-derived tumoroid models were characterized by DNA/RNA sequencing and immunohistochemistry, as well as functional drug testing. Results were linked to molecular features of primary tumors, metastases, and CTCs; CTC enumeration was linked to disease progression. Of 52 samples with positive CTC counts (≥1) from eight different cancer types, only CTCs from two salivary gland cancer (SGC) patients formed tumoroid cultures (P = 0.0005). Longitudinal CTC enumeration of one SGC patient closely reflected disease progression during treatment and revealed metastatic relapse earlier than clinical imaging. Multiomics analysis and functional in vitro drug testing identified potential resistance mechanisms and drug vulnerabilities. We conclude that cLB might add a functional dimension (to the genetic approaches) in the personalized management of rare, difficult-to-treat cancers such as SGC.

RASSF1A independence and early galectin-1 upregulation in PIK3CA-induced hepatocarcinogenesis: new therapeutic venues.

Aberrant activation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mTOR and Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways is a hallmark of hepatocarcinogenesis. In a subset of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs), PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling dysregulation depends on phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase, catalytic subunit alpha (PIK3CA) mutations, while RAS/MAPK activation is partly attributed to promoter methylation of the tumor suppressor Ras association domain-containing protein 1 (RASSF1A). To evaluate a possible cocarcinogenic effect of PIK3CA activation and RASSF1A knockout, plasmids expressing oncogenic forms of PIK3CA (E545K or H1047R mutants) were delivered to the liver of RASSF1A knockout and wild-type mice by hydrodynamic tail vein injection combined with sleeping beauty-mediated somatic integration. Transfection of either PIK3CA E545K or H1047R mutants sufficed to induce HCCs in mice irrespective of RASSF1A mutational background. The related tumors displayed a lipogenic phenotype with upregulation of fatty acid synthase and stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD1). Galectin-1, which was commonly upregulated in preneoplastic lesions and tumors, emerged as a regulator of SCD1. Co-inhibitory treatment with PIK3CA inhibitors and the galectin-1 inhibitor OTX008 resulted in synergistic cytotoxicity in human HCC cell lines, suggesting novel therapeutic venues.

Interleukin-6 trans-signaling is a candidate mechanism to drive progression of human DCCs during clinical latency.

Although thousands of breast cancer cells disseminate and home to bone marrow until primary surgery, usually less than a handful will succeed in establishing manifest metastases months to years later. To identify signals that support survival or outgrowth in patients, we profile rare bone marrow-derived disseminated cancer cells (DCCs) long before manifestation of metastasis and identify IL6/PI3K-signaling as candidate pathway for DCC activation. Surprisingly, and similar to mammary epithelial cells, DCCs lack membranous IL6 receptor expression and mechanistic dissection reveals IL6 trans-signaling to regulate a stem-like state of mammary epithelial cells via gp130. Responsiveness to IL6 trans-signals is found to be niche-dependent as bone marrow stromal and endosteal cells down-regulate gp130 in premalignant mammary epithelial cells as opposed to vascular niche cells. PIK3CA activation renders cells independent from IL6 trans-signaling. Consistent with a bottleneck function of microenvironmental DCC control, we find PIK3CA mutations highly associated with late-stage metastatic cells while being extremely rare in early DCCs. Our data suggest that the initial steps of metastasis formation are often not cancer cell-autonomous, but also depend on microenvironmental signals.

FRET-based calcium imaging: a tool for high-throughput/content phenotypic drug screening in Alzheimer disease.

Perturbed intracellular store calcium homeostasis is suggested to play a major role in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer disease (AD). A number of mechanisms have been suggested to underlie the impairment of endoplasmic reticulum calcium homeostasis associated with familial AD-linked presenilin 1 mutations (FAD-PS1). Without aiming at specifically targeting any of those pathophysiological mechanisms in particular, we rather performed a high-throughput phenotypic screen to identify compounds that can reverse the exaggerated agonist-evoked endoplasmic reticulum calcium release phenotype in HEK293 cells expressing FAD-PS1. For that purpose, we developed a fully automated high-throughput calcium imaging assay using a fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based calcium indicator at single-cell resolution. This novel robust assay offers a number of advantages compared with the conventional calcium measurement screening technologies. The assay was employed in a large-scale screen with a library of diverse compounds comprising 20,000 low-molecular-weight molecules, which resulted in the identification of 52 primary hits and 4 lead structures. In a secondary assay, several hits were found to alter the amyloid ß (Aß) production. In view of the recent failure of AD drug candidates identified by target-based approaches, such a phenotypic drug discovery paradigm may present an attractive alternative for the identification of novel AD therapeutics.

Development and implementation of a high-throughput compound screening assay for targeting disrupted ER calcium homeostasis in Alzheimer's disease.

Disrupted intracellular calcium homeostasis is believed to occur early in the cascade of events leading to Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. Particularly familial AD mutations linked to Presenilins result in exaggerated agonist-evoked calcium release from endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Here we report the development of a fully automated high-throughput calcium imaging assay utilizing a genetically-encoded FRET-based calcium indicator at single cell resolution for compound screening. The established high-throughput screening assay offers several advantages over conventional high-throughput calcium imaging technologies. We employed this assay for drug discovery in AD by screening compound libraries consisting of over 20,000 small molecules followed by structure-activity-relationship analysis. This led to the identification of Bepridil, a calcium channel antagonist drug in addition to four further lead structures capable of normalizing the potentiated FAD-PS1-induced calcium release from ER. Interestingly, it has recently been reported that Bepridil can reduce Aß production by lowering BACE1 activity. Indeed, we also detected lowered Aß, increased sAPPα and decreased sAPPß fragment levels upon Bepridil treatment. The latter findings suggest that Bepridil may provide a multifactorial therapeutic modality for AD by simultaneously addressing multiple aspects of the disease.

Involvement of presenilin holoprotein upregulation in calcium dyshomeostasis of Alzheimer's disease.

Mutations in presenilins (PS1 and PS2) account for the vast majority of early onset familial Alzheimer's disease cases. Beside the well investigated role of presenilins as the catalytic unit in γ-secretase complex, their involvement in regulation of intracellular calcium homeostasis has recently come into more focus of Alzheimer's disease research. Here we report that the overexpression of PS1 full-length holoprotein forms, in particular familial Alzheimer's disease-causing forms of PS1, result in significantly attenuated calcium release from thapsigargin- and bradykinin-sensitive stores. Interestingly, treatment of HEK293 cells with γ-secretase inhibitors also leads to decreased amount of calcium release from endoplasmic reticulum (ER) accompanying elevated PS1 holoprotein levels. Similarly, the knockdown of PEN-2 which is associated with deficient PS1 endoproteolysis and accumulation of its holoprotein form also leads to decreased ER calcium release. Notably, we detected enhanced PS1 holoprotein levels also in postmortem brains of patients carrying familial Alzheimer's disease PS1 mutations. Taken together, the conditions in which the amount of full length PS1 holoprotein is increased result in reduction of calcium release from ER. Based on these results, we propose that the disturbed ER calcium homeostasis mediated by the elevation of PS1 holoprotein levels may be a contributing factor to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.

Presenilins: role in calcium homeostasis.

Mutations in presenilins are responsible for the vast majority of early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease cases. Full-length presenilin structure is composed of nine transmembrane domains which are localized on the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. Upon endoproteolytic cleavage, presenilins assemble into the γ-secretase multiprotein complex and subsequently get transported to the cell surface. There is a wealth of knowledge around the role of presenilins as the catalytic component of γ-secretase, their involvement in amyloid precursor protein processing and generation of neurotoxic ß-amyloid species. However recent findings have revealed a wide range of γ-secretase-independent presenilin functions, including involvement in calcium homeostasis. Particularly, familial Alzheimer's disease presenilin mutations have been shown to interfere with the function of several molecular elements involved in endoplasmic reticulum calcium homeostasis. Presenilins modulate the activity of IP(3) and Ryanodine receptor channels, regulate SERCA pump function, affect capacitative calcium entry and function per se as endoplasmic reticulum calcium leak conductance pores.

Role of presenilin 1 in structural plasticity of cortical dendritic spines in vivo.

Mutations in presenilins are the major cause of familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD), leading to impairments of memory and synaptic plasticity followed by age-dependent neurodegeneration. Presenilins are the catalytic subunits of γ-secretase, which itself is critically involved in the processing of amyloid precursor protein to release neurotoxic amyloid ß (Aß). Besides Aß generation, there is growing evidence that presenilins play an essential role in the formation and maintenance of synapses. To further elucidate the effect of presenilin1 (PS1) on synapses, we performed longitudinal in vivo two-photon imaging of dendritic spines in the somatosensory cortex of transgenic mice over-expressing either human wild-type PS1 or the FAD-mutated variant A246E (FAD-PS1). Interestingly, the consequences of transgene expression were different in two subtypes of cortical dendrites. On apical layer 5 dendrites, we found an enhanced spine density in both mice over-expressing human wild-type presenilin1 and FAD-PS1, whereas on basal layer 3 dendrites only over-expression of FAD-PS1 increased the spine density. Time-lapse imaging revealed no differences in kinetically distinct classes of dendritic spines nor was the shape of spines affected. Although γ-secretase-dependent processing of synapse-relevant proteins seemed to be unaltered, higher expression levels of ryanodine receptors suggest a modified Ca(2+) homeostasis in PS1 over-expressing mice. However, the conditional depletion of PS1 in single cortical neurons had no observable impact on dendritic spines. In consequence, our results favor the view that PS1 influences dendritic spine plasticity in a gain-of-function but γ-secretase-independent manner.

Upregulation of CRABP1 in human neuroblastoma cells overproducing the Alzheimer-typical Abeta42 reduces their differentiation potential.

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by neurodegeneration and changes in cellular processes, including neurogenesis. Proteolytic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) plays a central role in AD. Owing to varying APP processing, several beta-amyloid peptides (Abeta) are generated. In contrast to the form with 40 amino acids (Abeta40), the variant with 42 amino acids (Abeta42) is thought to be the pathogenic form triggering the pathological cascade in AD. While total-Abeta effects have been studied extensively, little is known about specific genome-wide effects triggered by Abeta42 or Abeta40 derived from their direct precursor C99. METHODS: A combined transcriptomics/proteomics analysis was performed to measure the effects of intracellularly generated Abeta peptides in human neuroblastoma cells. Data was validated by real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) and a functional validation was carried out using RNA interference. RESULTS: Here we studied the transcriptomic and proteomic responses to increased or decreased Abeta42 and Abeta40 levels generated in human neuroblastoma cells. Genome-wide expression profiles (Affymetrix) and proteomic approaches were combined to analyze the cellular response to the changed Abeta42- and Abeta40-levels. The cells responded to this challenge with significant changes in their expression pattern. We identified several dysregulated genes and proteins, but only the cellular retinoic acid binding protein 1 (CRABP1) was up-regulated exclusively in cells expressing an increased Abeta42/Abeta40 ratio. This consequently reduced all-trans retinoic acid (RA)-induced differentiation, validated by CRABP1 knock down, which led to recovery of the cellular response to RA treatment and cellular sprouting under physiological RA concentrations. Importantly, this effect was specific to the AD typical increase in the Abeta42/Abeta40 ratio, whereas a decreased ratio did not result in up-regulation of CRABP1. CONCLUSION: We conclude that increasing the Abeta42/Abeta40 ratio up-regulates CRABP1, which in turn reduces the differentiation potential of the human neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y, but increases cell proliferation. This work might contribute to the better understanding of AD neurogenesis, currently a controversial topic.