RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive cancer with short overall survival. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) are a class of RNAs more than 200 nucleotides long that do not code for protein and are part of the 90% of the human genome that is transcribed. Earlier experimental studies in mice showed GAS5 (growth arrest specific transcript 5) gene deletion in asbestos driven mesothelioma. GAS5 encodes for a lncRNA whose function is not well known, but it has been shown to act as glucocorticoid receptor decoy and microRNA "sponge". Our aim was to investigate the possible role of the GAS5 in the growth of MPM. METHODS: Primary MPM cultures grown in serum-free condition in 3% oxygen or MPM cell lines grown in serum-containing medium were used to investigate the modulation of GAS5 by growth arrest after inhibition of Hedgehog or PI3K/mTOR signalling. Cell cycle length was determined by EdU incorporation assay in doxycycline inducible short hairpinGAS5 clones generated from ZL55SPT cells. Gene expression was quantified by quantitative PCR. To investigate the GAS5 promoter, a 0.77 kb sequence was inserted into a pGL3 reporter vector and luciferase activity was determined after transfection into MPM cells. Localization of GAS5 lncRNA was identified by in situ hybridization. To characterize cells expressing GAS5, expression of podoplanin and Ki-67 was assessed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: GAS5 expression was lower in MPM cell lines compared to normal mesothelial cells. GAS5 was upregulated upon growth arrest induced by inhibition of Hedgehog and PI3K/mTOR signalling in in vitro MPM models. The increase in GAS5 lncRNA was accompanied by increased promoter activity. Silencing of GAS5 increased the expression of glucocorticoid responsive genes glucocorticoid inducible leucine-zipper and serum/glucocorticoid-regulated kinase-1 and shortened the length of the cell cycle. Drug induced growth arrest was associated with GAS5 accumulation in the nuclei. GAS5 was abundant in tumoral quiescent cells and it was correlated to podoplanin expression. CONCLUSIONS: The observations that GAS5 levels modify cell proliferation in vitro, and that GAS5 expression in MPM tissue is associated with cell quiescence and podoplanin expression support a role of GAS5 in MPM biology.
Assuntos
Regulação Neoplásica da Expressão Gênica , Neoplasias Pulmonares/genética , Glicoproteínas de Membrana/genética , Mesotelioma/genética , RNA Longo não Codificante/genética , Ciclo Celular/genética , Linhagem Celular Tumoral , Proliferação de Células , Genes Reporter , Proteínas Hedgehog/genética , Proteínas Hedgehog/metabolismo , Humanos , Antígeno Ki-67/genética , Antígeno Ki-67/metabolismo , Luciferases/genética , Luciferases/metabolismo , Neoplasias Pulmonares/metabolismo , Neoplasias Pulmonares/patologia , Glicoproteínas de Membrana/metabolismo , Mesotelioma/metabolismo , Mesotelioma/patologia , Mesotelioma Maligno , Fosfatidilinositol 3-Quinases/genética , Fosfatidilinositol 3-Quinases/metabolismo , Inibidores de Fosfoinositídeo-3 Quinase , Cultura Primária de Células , Regiões Promotoras Genéticas , Inibidores de Proteínas Quinases/farmacologia , RNA Longo não Codificante/antagonistas & inibidores , RNA Longo não Codificante/metabolismo , RNA Interferente Pequeno/genética , RNA Interferente Pequeno/metabolismo , Transdução de Sinais , Serina-Treonina Quinases TOR/antagonistas & inibidores , Serina-Treonina Quinases TOR/genética , Serina-Treonina Quinases TOR/metabolismoRESUMO
Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a highly chemoresistant solid tumor. We have studied this apoptotic resistance using in vitro and ex vivo three-dimensional models, which acquire a high level of chemoresistance that can be reduced by PI3K/mTOR inhibitors. Here, we investigate the activity of GDC-0980, a novel dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor, which has been proposed to be effective in mesothelioma. In this work, we aimed to identify mechanisms and markers of efficacy for GDC-0980 by utilizing 3D models of mesothelioma, both in vitro multicellular spheroids and ex vivo tumor fragment spheroids grown from patient tumor samples. We found that a subset of mesothelioma spheroids is sensitive to GDC-0980 alone and to its combination with chemotherapy. Unexpectedly, this sensitivity did not correlate with the activation of the Akt/mTOR pathway. Instead, sensitivity to GDC-0980 correlated with the presence of constitutive ATG13 puncta, a feature of autophagy, a cellular program that supports cells under stress. In tumor fragment spheroids grown from 21 tumors, we also found a subset (n = 11) that was sensitive to GDC-0980, a sensitivity that also correlated with the presence of ATG13 puncta. Interference with autophagy by siRNA of ATG7, an essential autophagic protein, increased the response to chemotherapy, but only in the sensitive multicellular spheroids. In the spheroids resistant to GDC-0980, autophagy appeared to play no role. In summary, we show that GDC-0980 is effective in mesothelioma 3D models that display ATG13 puncta, and that blockade of autophagy increases their response to chemotherapy. For the first time, we show a role for autophagy in the response to chemotherapy of 3D models of mesothelioma and propose ATG13 as a potential biomarker of the therapeutic responsiveness of mesothelioma.