Pro-prion, as a membrane adaptor protein for E3 ligase c-Cbl, facilitates the ubiquitination of IGF-1R, promoting melanoma metastasis.

Aberrant activation of receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) is usually a result of mutation and plays important roles in tumorigenesis. How RTK without mutation affects tumorigenesis remains incompletely understood. Here we show that in human melanomas pro-prion (pro-PrP) is an adaptor protein for an E3 ligase c-Cbl, enabling it to polyubiquitinate activated insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R), leading to enhanced melanoma metastasis. All human melanoma cell lines studied here express pro-PrP, retaining its glycosylphosphatidylinositol-peptide signal sequence (GPI-PSS). The sequence, PVILLISFLI in the GPI-PSS of pro-PrP, binds c-Cbl, docking c-Cbl to the inner cell membrane, forming a pro-PrP/c-Cbl/IGF-1R trimeric complex. Subsequently, IGF-1R polyubiquitination and degradation are augmented, which increases autophagy and tumor metastasis. Importantly, the synthetic peptide PVILLISFLI disrupts the pro-PrP/c-Cbl/IGF-1R complex, reducing cancer cell autophagy and mitigating tumor aggressiveness in vitro and in vivo. Targeting cancer-associated GPI-PSS may provide a therapeutic approach for treating human cancers expressing pro-PrP.

The new mitochondrial uncoupler BAM15 induces ROS production for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignant proliferative disease of myeloid hematopoietic origin and cannot be treated appropriately at present. This is due to the fact that leukemia cells are not sensitive to some of the traditional chemotherapy drugs. Or some chemotherapeutic drugs are too toxic to normal cells, affecting their wide clinical application. In this study, we identified BAM15 as a novel mitochondrial uncoupling agent by screening a library of small molecule compounds that inhibit AML cell activity. BAM15 significantly inhibited proliferation and promoted apoptosis in AML cells while at the same time being less cytotoxic to normal cells. The mechanism may be related to the disturbance of the ROS production balance. In vivo investigations revealed that BAM15 effectively suppressed AML progression and prolonged the survival time of mice. In addition, we found that BAM15 can be used in combination with cytarabine to enhance its anti-cancer activity and inhibit the activity of primary cells in AML. Therefore, we identified BAM15 as a potential drug candidate for the treatment of AML.

Crizotinib and Doxorubicin Cooperatively Reduces Drug Resistance by Mitigating MDR1 to Increase Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells Death.

As the sixth most lethal cancers worldwide, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been treated with doxorubicin (Dox) for decades. However, chemotherapy resistance, especially for Dox is an even more prominent problem due to its high cardiotoxicity. To find a regimen to reduce Dox resistance, and identify the mechanisms behind it, we tried to identify combination of drugs that can overcome drug resistance by screening tyrosine kinase inhibitor(s) with Dox with various HCC cell lines in vitro and in vivo. We report here that combination of Crizo and Dox has a synergistic effect on inducing HCC cell death. Accordingly, Crizo plus Dox increases Dox accumulation in nucleus 3-16 times compared to Dox only; HCC cell death enhanced at least 50% in vitro and tumor weights reduced ranging from 35 to 65%. Combining these two drugs reduces multiple drug resistance 1 (MDR1) protein as a result of activation of protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK), which phosphorylates eIF2α, leading to protein translational repression. Additionally, PERK stimulation activates C-Jun terminal kinase (JNK), resulting in accumulation of unfused autophagosome to enhance autophagic cell death via Poly-ADP-ribosyltransferase (PARP-1) cleavage. When the activity of PERK or JNK is blocked, unfused autophagosome is diminished, cleaved PARP-1 is reduced, and cell death is abated. Therefore, Crizo plus Dox sensitize HCC drug resistance by engaging PERK-p- eIF2α-MDR1, and kill HCC cells by engaging PERK-JNK- autophagic cell death pathways. These newly discovered mechanisms of Crizo plus Dox not only provide a potential treatment for HCC but also point to an approach to overcome MDR1 related drug resistance in other cancers.

Prion protein is required for tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα)-triggered nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signaling and cytokine production.

The expression of normal cellular prion protein (PrP) is required for the pathogenesis of prion diseases. However, the physiological functions of PrP remain ambiguous. Here, we identified PrP as being critical for tumor necrosis factor (TNF) α-triggered signaling in a human melanoma cell line, M2, and a pancreatic ductal cell adenocarcinoma cell line, BxPC-3. In M2 cells, TNFα up-regulates the expression of p-IκB-kinase α/ß (p-IKKα/ß), p-p65, and p-JNK, but down-regulates the IκBα protein, all of which are downstream signaling intermediates in the TNF receptor signaling cascade. When PRNP is deleted in M2 cells, the effects of TNFα are no longer detectable. More importantly, p-p65 and p-JNK responses are restored when PRNP is reintroduced into the PRNP null cells. TNFα also activates NF-κB and increases TNFα production in wild-type M2 cells, but not in PrP-null M2 cells. Similar results are obtained in the BxPC-3 cells. Moreover, TNFα activation of NF-κB requires ubiquitination of receptor-interacting serine/threonine kinase 1 (RIP1) and TNF receptor-associated factor 2 (TRAF2). TNFα treatment increases the binding between PrP and the deubiquitinase tumor suppressor cylindromatosis (CYLD), in these treated cells, binding of CYLD to RIP1 and TRAF2 is reduced. We conclude that PrP traps CYLD, preventing it from binding and deubiquitinating RIP1 and TRAF2. Our findings reveal that PrP enhances the responses to TNFα, promoting proinflammatory cytokine production, which may contribute to inflammation and tumorigenesis.