Peptidomics Strategies to Evaluate Cancer Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Treatment.

Peptides have potential bioactive functions, and the peptidomics landscape has been broadly investigated for various diseases, including cancer. In this chapter, we reviewed the past four years of literature available and selected 16 peer-reviewed publications exploring peptidomics in diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment in cancer research. We highlighted their main aims, mass spectrometry-based peptidomics, multi-omics, data-driven and in silico strategies, functional assays, and clinical applications. Moreover, we underscored several levels of difficulties in translating the peptidomics findings to clinical practice, aiming to learn with the accumulated knowledge and guide upcoming studies. Finally, this review reinforces the peptidomics robustness in discovering potential candidates for monitoring the several stages of cancer disease and therapeutic treatment, leveraging the management of cancer patients in the future.

A Transcriptional Link between HER2, JAM-A and FOXA1 in Breast Cancer.

Overexpression of the human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) is associated with aggressive disease in breast and certain other cancers. At a cellular level, the adhesion protein Junctional Adhesion Molecule-A (JAM-A) has been reported to regulate the expression of HER3 via a transcriptional pathway involving FOXA1. Since FOXA1 is also a suggested transcription factor for HER2, this study set out to determine if JAM-A regulates HER2 expression via a similar mechanism. An integrated tripartite approach was taken, involving cellular expression studies after targeted disruption of individual players in the putative pathway, in silico identification of relevant HER2 promoter regions and, finally, interrogation of cancer patient survival databases to deconstruct functionally important links between HER2, JAM-A and FOXA1 gene expression. The outcome of these investigations revealed a unidirectional pathway in which JAM-A expression transcriptionally regulates that of HER2 by influencing the binding of FOXA1 to a specific site in the HER2 gene promoter. Moreover, a correlation between JAM-A and HER2 gene expression was identified in 75% of a sample of 40 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas, and coincident high mean mRNA expression of JAM-A, HER2 and FOXA1 was associated with poorer survival outcomes in HER2-positive (but not HER2-negative) patients with either breast or gastric tumors. These investigations provide the first evidence of a transcriptional pathway linking JAM-A, HER2 and FOXA1 in cancer settings, and support potential future pharmacological targeting of JAM-A as an upstream regulator of HER2.

Functional Antagonism of Junctional Adhesion Molecule-A (JAM-A), Overexpressed in Breast Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS), Reduces HER2-Positive Tumor Progression.

Breast ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is clinically challenging, featuring high diagnosis rates and few targeted therapies. Expression/signaling from junctional adhesion molecule-A (JAM-A) has been linked to poor prognosis in invasive breast cancers, but its role in DCIS is unknown. Since progression from DCIS to invasive cancer has been linked with overexpression of the human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2), and JAM-A regulates HER2 expression, we evaluated JAM-A as a therapeutic target in DCIS. JAM-A expression was immunohistochemically assessed in patient DCIS tissues. A novel JAM-A antagonist (JBS2) was designed and tested alone/in combination with the HER2 kinase inhibitor lapatinib, using SUM-225 cells in vitro and in vivo as validated DCIS models. Murine tumors were proteomically analyzed. JAM-A expression was moderate/high in 96% of DCIS patient tissues, versus 23% of normal adjacent tissues. JBS2 bound to recombinant JAM-A, inhibiting cell viability in SUM-225 cells and a primary DCIS culture in vitro and in a chick embryo xenograft model. JBS2 reduced tumor progression in in vivo models of SUM-225 cells engrafted into mammary fat pads or directly injected into the mammary ducts of NOD-SCID mice. Preliminary proteomic analysis revealed alterations in angiogenic and apoptotic pathways. High JAM-A expression in aggressive DCIS lesions and their sensitivity to treatment by a novel JAM-A antagonist support the viability of testing JAM-A as a novel therapeutic target in DCIS.

Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-3 Expression Is Regulated at Transcriptional Level in Breast Cancer Settings by Junctional Adhesion Molecule-A via a Pathway Involving Beta-Catenin and FOXA1.

The success of breast cancer therapies targeting the human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) is limited by the development of drug resistance by mechanisms including upregulation of HER3. Having reported that HER2 expression and resistance to HER2-targeted therapies can be regulated by Junctional Adhesion Molecule-A (JAM-A), this study investigated if JAM-A regulates HER3 expression. Expressional alteration of JAM-A in breast cancer cells was used to test expressional effects on HER3 and its effectors, alongside associated functional behaviors, in vitro and semi-in vivo. HER3 transcription factors were identified and tested for regulation by JAM-A. Finally a patient tissue microarray was used to interrogate connections between putative pathway components connecting JAM-A and HER3. This study reveals for the first time that HER3 and its effectors are regulated at gene/protein expression level by JAM-A in breast cancer cell lines; with functional consequences in in vitro and semi-in vivo models. In bioinformatic, cellular and patient tissue models, this was associated with regulation of the HER3 transcription factor FOXA1 by JAM-A via a pathway involving ß-catenin. Our data suggest a novel model whereby JAM-A expression regulates ß-catenin localization, in turn regulating FOXA1 expression, which could drive HER3 gene transcription. JAM-A merits investigation as a novel target to prevent upregulation of HER3 during the development of resistance to HER2-targeted therapies, or to reduce HER3-dependent tumorigenic signaling.

Antibiotic Tetrocarcin-A Down-regulates JAM-A, IAPs and Induces Apoptosis in Triple-negative Breast Cancer Models.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) lack expression of three important receptors, and have limited treatment options. High expression of junctional adhesion molecule-A (JAM-A) has been linked with aggressive tumor phenotypes including TNBC. This study aimed to evaluate the bioactivity of a JAM-A-down-regulating compound, Tetrocarcin-A, in TNBC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: TNBC cell viability, colony formation and xenograft growth were examined in Tetrocarcin-A-treated HCC38 human cells, 4T1 mouse cells or patient-derived primary cells. Protein expression of cell fate signaling effectors was examined by immunoblotting (versus transient JAM-A gene silencing). Apoptotic pathways were investigated in parallel. RESULTS: Tetrocarcin-A reduced TNBC cell viability in vitro and in an in ovo/semi-in vivo xenograft model. Tetrocarcin-A-induced JAM-A down-regulation and reduced ERK phosphorylation, followed by c-FOS phosphorylation on its transcription-regulating residue, which down-regulated several inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) proteins and induced caspase-dependent intrinsic pathway of apoptosis. CONCLUSION: Tetrocarcin-A merits further investigation as a novel anti-tumor agent in TNBC.

Natural compound Tetrocarcin-A downregulates Junctional Adhesion Molecule-A in conjunction with HER2 and inhibitor of apoptosis proteins and inhibits tumor cell growth.

Overexpression of the tight junction protein Junctional Adhesion Molecule-A (JAM-A) has been linked to aggressive disease in breast and other cancers, but JAM-targeting drugs remain elusive. Screening of a natural compound library identified the antibiotic Tetrocarcin-A as a novel downregulator of JAM-A and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) protein expression in breast cancer cells. Lysosomal inhibition partially rescued the downregulation of JAM-A and HER2 caused by Tetrocarcin-A, and attenuated its cytotoxic activity. Tetrocarcin-A treatment or JAM-A silencing reduced AKT and ERK phosphorylation, inhibited c-FOS phosphorylation at Threonine-232 (its transcriptional regulation site), inhibited nuclear localization of c-FOS, and downregulated expression of the inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAP). This was accompanied by Tetrocarcin-A-induced caspase-dependent apoptosis. To begin evaluating the potential clinical relevance of our findings, we extended our studies to other models. Encouragingly, Tetrocarcin-A downregulated JAM-A expression and caused cytotoxicity in primary breast cells and lung cancer stem cells, and inhibited the growth of xenografts in a semi-in vivo model involving invasion across the chicken egg chorioallantoic membrane. Taken together, our data suggest that Tetrocarcin-A warrants future evaluation as a novel cancer therapeutic by virtue of its ability to downregulate JAM-A expression, reduce tumorigenic signaling and induce apoptosis.

Paradigms lost-an emerging role for over-expression of tight junction adhesion proteins in cancer pathogenesis.

Tight junctions (TJ) are multi-protein complexes located at the apicalmost tip of the lateral membrane in polarised epithelial and endothelial cells. Their principal function is in mediating intercellular adhesion and polarity. Accordingly, it has long been a paradigm that loss of TJ proteins and consequent deficits in cell-cell adhesion are required for tumour cell dissemination in the early stages of the invasive/metastatic cascade. However it is becoming increasingly apparent that TJ proteins play important roles in not just adhesion but also intracellular signalling events, activation of which can contribute to, or even drive, tumour progression and metastasis. In this review, we shall therefore highlight cases wherein the gain of TJ proteins has been associated with signals promoting tumour progression. We will also discuss the potential of overexpressed TJ proteins to act as therapeutic targets in cancer treatment. The overall purpose of this review is not to disprove the fact that loss of TJ-based adhesion contributes to the progression of several cancers, but rather to introduce the growing body of evidence that gain of TJ proteins may have adhesion-independent consequences for promoting progression in other cancers.