Combined treatment with verapamil, a calcium channel blocker, and B428, a synthetic uPA inhibitor, impairs the metastatic ability of a murine mammary carcinoma.

Urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and metalloproteinases (MMP) play key roles in invasion and metastasis, degrading extracellular matrix compounds and modulating tumor cell motility. Their regulation is an attractive therapeutic target for controlling tumor metastasis. Previously we have demonstrated that urokinase overexpression in murine mammary tumor cells is regulated by a Ca2+-dependent pathway and that blockage of Ca2+ channels by verapamil partially inhibited their invasive and metastatic ability. Moreover, the catalytic inhibition of uPA by a synthetic uPA inhibitor B428 reduced local tumor invasiveness but not tumor cell dissemination. We evaluated the effect of a combined treatment with verapamil and B428 on the murine mammary carcinoma F3II behavior in vivo and in vitro. In vivo administration of the combined treatment was not associated to an overt toxicity. Only the daily combined treatment, beginning after tumor take, reduced the incidence and the number of spontaneous lung metastasis, while no differences were found in the subcutaneous growth of the primary tumor. Interestingly, a remarkable reduction in plasma MMP-9 activity was found associated to metastasis impairment. In addition, the number of experimental lung metastases was also significantly diminished, with respect to the control group, only when both compounds were co-administered daily, beginning three days after i.v. tumor cell injection. In vitro, both compounds, either separately or combined, could inhibit secreted uPA activity. F3II cell migration was significantly inhibited by incubation with 50 microM verapamil, 15 microM B428 or the co-treatment with 7.5 microM B428 + 25 microM verapamil. The cell spread was also significantly reduced when F3II cells were exposed to the compounds, with an additive effect when B428 + verapamil combination was used. The combination of two compounds acting through different molecular targets may be useful to improve the control of metastatic dissemination.

Increased Bcl-xL expression mediates v-Src-induced resistance to anoikis in intestinal epithelial cells.

Acquisition of resistance to anoikis (detachment-induced apoptosis) is considered to be a requirement for transformed intestinal epithelial cells to invade surrounding tissues and metastasize to distant organs. Increased Src kinase activity, which is a feature of a large proportion of colorectal cancers, has been identified as one of the factors that can contribute to anoikis resistance. However, the molecular mechanism by which high levels of Src activity contribute to anoikis resistance in intestinal epithelial cells is unknown. Here we show that high Src activity confers resistance to anoikis in intestinal epithelial cells, at least in part, by inducing Bcl-xL overexpression, and that this induction is mediated by the MEK/MAPK pathway. Based on the findings reported here, and on our previous study showing that Bcl-xL plays a critical role in ras-induced resistance to anoikis, we propose that the increased Bcl-xL levels found in colorectal cancers play a significant role in the induction of resistance to anoikis during the progression of this disease.

CD44 expression in human gliomas.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Glioma invasiveness involves the attachment of tumor cells to the brain extracellular matrix, rich in hyaluronic acid (HA). CD44, the principal receptor for HA is found as a standard molecule (CD44s) or as variants (CD44v). We undertook a retrospective study to evaluate the expression pattern of CD44s, the isoforms CD44v3, v4/5 and v6 and to correlate their expression with clinical-anatomopathological parameters and survival rate. METHODS: The expression of these molecules was evaluated immunohistochemically in 84 gliomas. RESULTS: No expression of CD44v was detected in any tumors. CD44s staining of tumor cells was found in 70 of 84 (83.3%) of the gliomas. In 23 of 39 (59.0%) of the GBM more than the 70% of the cells were stained, while only 2 of 21 (9.5%) of LGA showed high expression. The association between CD44 and histological grade remained when the prognostic variables were considered in a multivariate analysis. Higher expression of CD44 was associated with worse overall survival rate; however, the Cox analysis indicated that survival was not associated with CD44. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that overexpression of CD44s could be relevant in determining the highly invasive behaviour of gliomas, though it does not behave as an independent prognostic factor for survival.

Expression of CD44s and CD44 splice variants in human melanoma.

The ability of tumor cells to adhere and detach from extracellular matrix and endothelial cells, is a crucial step in the metastatic process and may alter the clinical prognosis of some human tumors such as melanomas. CD44, the major cell surface receptor for hyaluronate, has been implicated in cell adhesion and in tumor progression. We studied the expression of standard CD44 molecule (CD44s) and its variants v3 and v6 in 57 human primary melanoma biopsies, without previous treatment. We analyzed the association between CD44 expression and the principal clinicopathological features, including survival. Fifty-six of 57 tumors expressed CD44s, associated to the cytoplasmic membrane. No expression of CD44v3 or CD44v6 was detected. No association between CD44s expression and prognostic factors such as tumor thickness, growth type, stage or anatomic site of the lesion was found. However, a positive correlation between CD44s expression and Clark level (Spearman, p<0.001) was found. While only 33.3% of melanomas Clark I + II showed high expression of CD44s (more than 50% of positive cells), 82.6% of melanomas Clark IV + V did so. Kaplan-Meier analysis revelead that patients whose melanomas had high expression of CD44s showed a reduced relapse free survival (RFS) rate, though without statistical significance. No difference between the level of CD44 expression and overall survival (OS) was found. We conclude that melanomas only expressed CD44s, and that its level was associated with Clark's stage. CD44s seems not to be useful as a tumor marker, because it does not predict either RFS or OS.