Overexpression of miR-7-1 increases efficacy of green tea polyphenols for induction of apoptosis in human malignant neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y and SK-N-DZ cells.

Neuroblastoma is an extracranial solid tumor that usually occurs in infants and children. Malignant neuroblastomas remain mostly refractory to currently available chemotherapeutic agents. So, new therapeutic agents and their molecular mechanisms for induction of cell death must be explored for successful treatment of human malignant neuroblastomas. Two polyphenolic compounds, which are abundant in green tea, are (-)-epigallocatechin (EGC) and (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) that possess impressive anti-cancer properties. It is not known yet whether EGC and EGCG can modulate the levels of expression of specific microRNAs (miRs) for induction of apoptosis in human malignant neuroblastomas. In this investigation, we revealed that treatment with EGC or EGCG caused induction of apoptosis with significant changes in expression of specific oncogenic miRs (OGmiRs) and tumor suppressor miRs (TSmiRs) in human malignant neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y and SK-N-DZ cell lines. Treatment of both cell lines with either 50 µM EGC or 50 µM EGCG decreased expression of the OGmiRs (miR-92, miR-93, and miR-106b) and increased expression of the TSmiRs (miR-7-1, miR-34a, and miR-99a) leading to induction of extrinsic and intrinsic pathways of apoptosis. Our data also demonstrated that overexpression of miR-93 decreased efficacy while overexpression of miR-7-1 increased efficacy of the green tea polyphenols for induction of apoptosis in both cell lines. In conclusion, our current investigation clearly indicates that overexpression of miR-7-1 can highly potentiate efficacy of EGCG for induction of apoptosis in human malignant neuroblastoma cells.

Krüppel-like factor 4 regulates intestinal epithelial cell morphology and polarity.

Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) is a zinc finger transcription factor that plays a vital role in regulating cell lineage differentiation during development and maintaining epithelial homeostasis in the intestine. In normal intestine, KLF4 is predominantly expressed in the differentiated epithelial cells. It has been identified as a tumor suppressor in colorectal cancer. KLF4 knockout mice demonstrated a decrease in number of goblet cells in the colon, and conditional ablation of KLF4 from the intestinal epithelium led to altered epithelial homeostasis. However, the role of KLF4 in differentiated intestinal cells and colon cancer cells, as well as the mechanism by which it regulates homeostasis and represses tumorigenesis in the intestine is not well understood. In our study, KLF4 was partially depleted in the differentiated intestinal epithelial cells by a tamoxifen-inducible Cre recombinase. We found a significant increase in the number of goblet cells in the KLF4-deleted small intestine, suggesting that KLF4 is not only required for goblet cell differentiation, but also required for maintaining goblet cell numbers through its function in inhibiting cell proliferation. The number and position of Paneth cells also changed. This is consistent with the KLF4 knockout study using villin-Cre [1]. Through immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining and statistical analysis, we found that a stem cell and/or tuft cell marker, DCAMKL1, and a proliferation marker, Ki67, are affected by KLF4 depletion, while an enteroendocrine cell marker, neurotensin (NT), was not affected. In addition, we found KLF4 depletion altered the morphology and polarity of the intestinal epithelial cells. Using a three-dimensional (3D) intestinal epithelial cyst formation assay, we found that KLF4 is essential for cell polarity and crypt-cyst formation in human colon cancer cells. These findings suggest that, as a tumor suppressor in colorectal cancer, KLF4 affects intestinal epithelial cell morphology by regulating proliferation, differentiation and polarity of the cells.