Inactivation of the putative suppressor gene DOK1 by promoter hypermethylation in primary human cancers.

The DOK1 gene is a putative tumour suppressor gene located on the human chromosome 2p13 which is frequently rearranged in leukaemia and other human tumours. We previously reported that the DOK1 gene can be mutated and its expression down-regulated in human malignancies. However, the mechanism underlying DOK1 silencing remains largely unknown. We show here that unscheduled silencing of DOK1 expression through aberrant hypermethylation is a frequent event in a variety of human malignancies. DOK1 was found to be silenced in nine head and neck cancer (HNC) cell lines studied and DOK1 CpG hypermethylation correlated with loss of gene expression in these cells. DOK1 expression could be restored via demethylating treatment using 5-aza-2'deoxycytidine. In addition, transduction of cancer cell lines with DOK1 impaired their proliferation, consistent with the critical role of epigenetic silencing of DOK1 in the development and maintenance of malignant cells. We further observed that DOK1 hypermethylation occurs frequently in a variety of primary human neoplasm including solid tumours (93% in HNC, 81% in lung cancer) and haematopoietic malignancy (64% in Burkitt's lymphoma). Control blood samples and exfoliated mouth epithelial cells from healthy individuals showed a low level of DOK1 methylation, suggesting that DOK1 hypermethylation is a tumour specific event. Finally, an inverse correlation was observed between the level of DOK1 gene methylation and its expression in tumour and adjacent non tumour tissues. Thus, hypermethylation of DOK1 is a potentially critical event in human carcinogenesis, and may be a potential cancer biomarker and an attractive target for epigenetic-based therapy.

Insulin-feedback via PI3K-C2alpha activated PKBalpha/Akt1 is required for glucose-stimulated insulin secretion.

Phosphatidylinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) play central roles in insulin signal transduction. While the contribution of class Ia PI3K members has been extensively studied, the role of class II members remains poorly understood. The diverse actions of class II PI3K-C2alpha have been attributed to its lipid product PI(3)P. By applying pharmacological inhibitors, transient overexpression and small-interfering RNA-based knockdown of PI3K and PKB/Akt isoforms, together with PI-lipid profiling and live-cell confocal and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, we now demonstrate that in response to insulin, PI3K-C2alpha generates PI(3,4)P(2), which allows the selective activation of PKBalpha/Akt1. Knockdown of PI3K-C2alpha expression and subsequent reduction of PKBalpha/Akt1 activity in the pancreatic beta-cell impaired glucose-stimulated insulin release, at least in part, due to reduced glucokinase expression and increased AS160 activity. Hence, our results identify signal transduction via PI3K-C2alpha as a novel pathway whereby insulin activates PKB/Akt and thus discloses PI3K-C2alpha as a potential drugable target in type 2 diabetes. The high degree of codistribution of PI3K-C2alpha and PKBalpha/Akt1 with insulin receptor B type, but not A type, in the same plasma membrane microdomains lends further support to the concept that selectivity in insulin signaling is achieved by the spatial segregation of signaling events.

The Ectodysplasin receptor EDAR acts as a tumor suppressor in melanoma by conditionally inducing cell death.

Ectodysplasin receptor EDAR is seen as a typical Tumor Necrosis Factor receptor (TNFR) family member known to interact with its ligand Eda-A1, and signaling mainly through the nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) and c-jun N-terminal kinases pathways. Mutations in genes that encode proteins involved in EDAR transduction cascade cause anhidrotic ectodermal dysplasia. Here, we report an unexpected pro-apoptotic activity of EDAR when unbound to its ligand Eda-A1, which is independent of NF-κB pathway. Contrarily to other death receptors, EDAR does recruit caspase-8 to trigger apoptosis but solely upon ligand withdrawal, thereby behaving as the so-called dependence receptors. We propose that pro-apoptotic activity of unbound EDAR confers it a tumor suppressive activity. Along this line, we identified loss-of-pro-apoptotic function mutations in EDAR gene in human melanoma. Moreover, we show that the invalidation of EDAR in mice promotes melanoma progression in a B-Raf mutant background. Together, these data support the view that EDAR constrains melanoma progression by acting as a dependence receptor.

Targeting netrin-1/DCC interaction in diffuse large B-cell and mantle cell lymphomas.

DCC (Deleted in Colorectal Carcinoma) has been demonstrated to constrain tumor progression by inducing apoptosis unless engaged by its ligand netrin-1. This has been shown in breast and colorectal cancers; however, this tumor suppressive function in other cancers is not established. Using a transgenic mouse model, we report here that inhibition of DCC-induced apoptosis is associated with lymphomagenesis. In human diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), an imbalance of the netrin-1/DCC ratio suggests a loss of DCC-induced apoptosis, either via a decrease in DCC expression in germinal center subtype or by up-regulation of netrin-1 in activated B-cell (ABC) one. Such imbalance is also observed in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). Using a netrin-1 interfering antibody, we demonstrate both in vitro and in vivo that netrin-1 acts as a survival factor for ABC-DLBCL and MCL tumor cells. Together, these data suggest that interference with the netrin-1/DCC interaction could represent a promising therapeutic strategy in netrin-1-positive DLBCL and MCL.

Regulation by miR181 family of the dependence receptor CDON tumor suppressive activity in neuroblastoma.

BACKGROUND: The Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway plays an important role in neural crest cell fate during embryonic development and has been implicated in the progression of multiple cancers that include neuroblastoma, a neural crest cell-derived disease. While most of the SHH signaling is mediated by the well-described canonical pathway leading to the activation of Smoothened and Gli, it has recently been shown that cell-adhesion molecule-related/downregulated by oncogenes (CDON) serves as a receptor for SHH and contributes to SHH-induced signaling. CDON has also been recently described as a dependence receptor, triggering apoptosis in the absence of SHH. This CDON proapoptotic activity has been suggested to constrain tumor progression. METHODS: CDON expression was analyzed by quantitative-reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in a panel of 226 neuroblastoma patients and associated with stages, overall survival, and expression of miR181 family members using Kaplan Meier and Pearson correlation methods. Cell death assays were performed in neuroblastoma cell lines and tumor growth was investigated in the chick chorioallantoic model. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS: CDON expression was inversely associated with neuroblastoma aggressiveness (P < .001). Moreover, re-expression of CDON in neuroblastoma cell lines was associated with apoptosis in vitro and tumor growth inhibition in vivo. We show that CDON expression is regulated by the miR181 miRNA family, whose expression is directly associated with neuroblastoma aggressiveness (survival: high miR181-b 73.2% vs low miR181-b 54.6%; P = .03). CONCLUSIONS: Together, these data support the view that CDON acts as a tumor suppressor in neuroblastomas, and that CDON is tightly regulated by miRNAs.

Combining chemotherapeutic agents and netrin-1 interference potentiates cancer cell death.

The secreted factor netrin-1 is upregulated in a fraction of human cancers as a mechanism to block apoptosis induced by netrin-1 dependence receptors DCC and UNC5H. Targeted therapies aiming to trigger tumour cell death via netrin-1/receptors interaction interference are under preclinical evaluation. We show here that Doxorubicin, 5-Fluorouracil, Paclitaxel and Cisplatin treatments trigger, in various human cancer cell lines, an increase of netrin-1 expression which is accompanied by netrin-1 receptors increase. This netrin-1 upregulation which appears to be p53-dependent is a survival mechanism as netrin-1 silencing by siRNA is associated with a potentiation of cancer cell death upon Doxorubicin treatment. We show that candidate drugs interfering with netrin-1/netrin-1 receptors interactions potentiate Doxorubicin, Cisplatin or 5-Fluorouracil-induced cancer cell death in vitro. Moreover, in a model of xenografted nude mice, we show that systemic Doxorubicin treatment triggers netrin-1 upregulation in the tumour but not in normal organs, enhancing and prolonging tumour growth inhibiting effect of a netrin-1 interfering drug. Together these data suggest that combining conventional chemotherapies with netrin-1 interference could be a promising therapeutic approach.

Transcriptional regulation of the human tumor suppressor DOK1 by E2F1.

The expression of the tumor suppressor DOK1 is repressed in a variety of human tumors as a result of hypermethylation of its promoter region. However, the molecular mechanisms by which DOK1 expression is regulated have been poorly investigated. Here, we show that the expression of DOK1 is regulated mainly by the transcription factor E2F1. We identified three putative E2F1 response elements (EREs) in the DOK1 promoter region. E2F1 had a relatively higher binding affinity for the ERE located between bp -498 and -486 compared with the other two EREs. E2F1 gene silencing strongly inhibited DOK1 expression. E2F1-driven DOK1 transcription occurred in the presence of cellular stresses, such as accumulation of DNA damage induced by etoposide. DOK1 silencing promoted cell proliferation and protected against etoposide-induced apoptosis, indicating that DOK1 acts as a key mediator of cellular stress-induced cell death. Most importantly, we observed that DNA methylation of the DOK1 core promoter region found in head and neck cancer cell lines hampered the recruitment of E2F1 to the DOK1 promoter and compromised DOK1 expression. In summary, our data show that E2F1 is a key factor in DOK1 expression and provide novel insights into the regulation of these events in cancer cells.