p53: its mutations and their impact on transcription.

p53 is a tumor suppressor protein whose key function is to maintain the integrity of the cell. Mutations in p53 have been found in up to 50 % of all human cancers and cause an increase in oncogenic phenotypes such as proliferation and tumorigenicity. Both wild-type and mutant p53 have been shown to transactivate their target genes, either through directly binding to DNA, or indirectly through protein-protein interactions. This review discusses possible mechanisms behind both wild-type and mutant p53-mediated transactivation and touches on the concept of addiction to mutant p53 of cancer cells and how that may be used for future therapies.

FOXC2 promotes vasculogenic mimicry and resistance to anti-angiogenic therapy.

Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) describes the formation of pseudo blood vessels constructed of tumor cells that have acquired endothelial-like properties. VM channels endow the tumor with a tumor-derived vascular system that directly connects to host blood vessels, and their presence is generally associated with poor patient prognosis. Here we show that the transcription factor, Foxc2, promotes VM in diverse solid tumor types by driving ectopic expression of endothelial genes in tumor cells, a process that is stimulated by hypoxia. VM-proficient tumors are resistant to anti-angiogenic therapy, and suppression of Foxc2 augments response. This work establishes co-option of an embryonic endothelial transcription factor by tumor cells as a key mechanism driving VM proclivity and motivates the search for VM-inhibitory agents that could form the basis of combination therapies with anti-angiogenics.

Allele specific gain-of-function activity of p53 mutants in lung cancer cells.

p53 mutations are mostly single amino acid changes resulting in expression of a stable mutant protein with "gain of function" (GOF) activity having a dominant oncogenic role rather than simple loss of function of wild-type p53. Knock-down of mutant p53 in human lung cancer cell lines with different endogenous p53 mutants results in loss of GOF activity as shown by lowering of cell growth rate. Two lung cancer cell lines, ABC1 and H1437, carrying endogenous mutants p53-P278S and -R267P, show reduction in growth rate on knock-down on p53 levels. However, whereas reduction of the p53 level induces loss of tumorigenicity in nude mice for ABC1 cells, it escalates tumorigenicity for H1437 cells. We have tested their transactivation potential on p53 target gene promoters by performing transient transcriptional assays in the p53-null H1299 lung cancer cell line. Interestingly, while the mutant p53 target promoter Axl was activated by both the mutants, the p21 promoter was activated by p53-R267P and wild-type p53 but not by p53-P278S; showing a clear difference in transcriptional activity between the two mutants. Our results demonstrate allele specificity between GOF p53 mutants and attempt to show that the specificity is dependent on the transactivation property of GOF p53; it also suggests importance of p21 activation in tumor suppression by p53.

Addiction of lung cancer cells to GOF p53 is promoted by up-regulation of epidermal growth factor receptor through multiple contacts with p53 transactivation domain and promoter.

Human lung cancers harboring gain-of-function (GOF) p53 alleles express higher levels of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). We demonstrate that a number of GOF p53 alleles directly upregulate EGFR. Knock-down of p53 in lung cancer cells lowers EGFR expression and reduces tumorigenicity and other GOF p53 properties. However, addiction of lung cancer cells to GOF p53 can be compensated by overexpressing EGFR, suggesting that EGFR plays a critical role in addiction. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) using lung cancer cells expressing GOF p53 alleles showed that GOF p53 localized to the EGFR promoter. The sequence where GOF p53 is found to interact by ChIP seq can act as a GOF p53 response element. The presence of GOF p53 on the EGFR promoter increased histone H3 acetylation, indicating a mechanism whereby GOF p53 enhances chromatin opening for improved access to transcription factors (TFs). ChIP and ChIP-re-ChIP with p53, Sp1 and CBP histone acetylase (HAT) antibodies revealed docking of GOF p53 on Sp1, leading to increased binding of Sp1 and CBP to the EGFR promoter. Up-regulation of EGFR can occur via GOF p53 contact at other novel sites in the EGFR promoter even when TAD-I is inactivated; these sites are used by both intact and TAD-I mutated GOF p53 and might reflect redundancy in GOF p53 mechanisms for EGFR transactivation. Thus, the oncogenic action of GOF p53 in lung cancer is highly dependent on transactivation of the EGFR promoter via a novel transcriptional mechanism involving coordinated interactions of TFs, HATs and GOF p53.