Ataxia-Telangiectasia, Mutated (ATM)/Nuclear Factor κ light chain enhancer of activated B cells (NFκB) signaling controls basal and DNA damage-induced transglutaminase 2 expression.

Transglutaminase 2 (TG2) is a ubiquitously expressed enzyme that cross-links proteins and its overexpression, linked to a drug resistant phenotype, is commonly observed in cancer cells. Further, up-regulation of TG2 expression occurs during response to various forms of cell stress; however, the molecular mechanisms that drive inducible expression of the TG2 gene (TGM2) require elucidation. Here we show that genotoxic stress induces TG2 expression through the Ataxia-Telangiectasia, Mutated (ATM)/Nuclear Factor κ light chain enhancer of activated B cells (NFκB) signaling pathway. We further document that NFκB is both necessary and sufficient to drive constitutive TG2 expression in cultured cell lines. Additionally, shRNA-mediated knockdown or pharmacological inhibition of the ATM kinase results in reduced constitutive TG2 expression and NFκB transcriptional activity. We document that the NFκB subunit p65 (RelA) interacts with two independent consensus NFκB binding sites within the TGM2 promoter, that mutation of either site or pharmacological inhibition of NFκB reduces TGM2 promoter activity, and genotoxic stress drives heightened association of p65 with the TGM2 promoter. Finally, we observed that knockdown of either p65 or ATM in MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells expressing recombinant TG2 partially reduces resistance to doxorubicin, indicating that the drug resistance linked to overexpression of TG2 functions, in part, through p65 and ATM. This work establishes a novel ATM-dependent signaling loop where TG2 and NFκB activate each other resulting in sustained activation of NFκB and acquisition of a drug-resistant phenotype.

The transglutaminase 2 gene (TGM2), a potential molecular marker for chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity, is epigenetically silenced in breast cancer.

Tissue transglutaminase (TG2) is a ubiquitously expressed enzyme capable of catalyzing protein cross-links. TG2-dependent cross-links are important in extracellular matrix integrity and it has been proposed that this TG2 activity establishes a barrier to tumor spread. Furthermore, TG2 controls sensitivity to the chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin. Both doxorubicin sensitivity and TG2 expression are highly variable in cultured human breast cancer cell lines and inspection of the human gene (termed TGM2) determined that a canonical CpG island exists within its 5' flank. These features, when combined with its potential tumor suppressor activity, make TG2 an attractive candidate for epigenetic silencing. Consistent with this, we observed that culturing breast tumor cells with the DNA demethylating agent 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-azadC) resulted in a robust increase in TG2 expression. Analysis of DNA harvested from cultured lines and primary breast tumor samples indicated that TGM2 often displays aberrant hypermethylation and that there is a statistically significant correlation between gene methylation and reduced expression. Finally, we observed that doxorubicin-resistant MCF-7/ADR cells do not show TGM2 silencing but that doxorubicin-sensitive MCF-7 cells do and that culturing MCF-7 cells on 5-azadC and subsequently restoring TG2 expression reduced sensitivity to doxorubicin. This work indicates that the TGM2 gene is a target for epigenetic silencing in breast cancer and suggests that this aberrant molecular event is a potential marker for chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity.