Identification of cell type-specific correlations between ERK activity and cell viability upon treatment with ERK1/2 inhibitors.

Increased MAPK signaling is a hallmark of various cancers and is a central regulator of cell survival. Direct ERK1/2 inhibition is considered a promising approach to avoid ERK1/2 reactivation caused by upstream kinases BRAF, MEK1/2, and KRAS, as well as by receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors, but the dynamics and selectivity of ERK1/2 inhibitors are much less studied compared with BRAF or MEK inhibitors. Using ERK1/2 and downstream kinase ELK1 reporter cell lines of lung cancer (H1299; NRASQ61K), colon cancer (HCT-116; KRASG13D), neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y), and leukemia (U937), we examined the relationship between ERK inhibition and drug-induced toxicity for five ERK inhibitors: SCH772984, ravoxertinib, LY3214996, ulixertinib, and VX-11e, as well as one MEK inhibitor, PD0325901. Comparing cell viability and ERK inhibition revealed different ERK dependencies for these cell lines. We identify several drugs, such as SCH772984 and VX-11e, which induce excessive toxicity not directly related to ERK1/2 inhibition in specific cell lines. We also show that PD0325901, LY3214996, and ulixertinib are prone to ERK1/2 reactivation over time. We distinguished two types of ERK1/2 reactivation: the first could be reversed by adding a fresh dose of inhibitors, while the second persists even after additional treatments. We also showed that cells that became resistant to the MEK1/2 inhibitor PD0325901 due to ERK1/2 reactivation remained sensitive to ERK1/2 inhibitor ulixertinib. Our data indicate that correlation of ERK inhibition with drug-induced toxicity in multiple cell lines may help to find more selective and effective ERK1/2 inhibitors.

MGL S3 Chimeric Enzyme Drives Apoptotic Death of EGFR-Dependent Cancer Cells through ERK Downregulation.

Methionine dependence of malignant cells is one of the cancer hallmarks. It is well described that methionine deprivation drives cancer cells death, both in vitro and in vivo. Methionine gamma-lyase (MGL) isolated from different species or obtained by genetic engineering can be used for effective methionine depletion. In this work, we show that MGL S3, a genetically engineered protein comprised of MGL from Clostridium sporogenesis fused to epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like peptide, reduces, in vitro, the number of cancer cells of four different origins-neuroblastoma, lung, breast, and colon cancer. We reveal that MGL S3 is more toxic for neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y and lung cancer H1299 cells compared to MGL tetani, and causes cell death by the induction of apoptosis. In addition, the observed death of cells treated with MGL S3 is accompanied by the prominent downregulation of ERK activity. By the analysis of transcriptomic data of more than 1500 cancer cell lines and patient samples, we show that the high expression of four genes from the methionine metabolism pathway (AHCY, CBS, DNMT3A, and MTAP) is associated with poor prognosis for breast cancer and neuroblastoma patients. Additionally, cells of these origins are characterized by a high correlation between EGFR dependency and DNMT3A/CBS expression. Finally, we demonstrate the ability of MGL S3 to enhance the sensitivity of H1299 cells to EGFR inhibition with gefitinib.

Subtype of Neuroblastoma Cells with High KIT Expression Are Dependent on KIT and Its Knockdown Induces Compensatory Activation of Pro-Survival Signaling.

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a pediatric cancer with high clinical and molecular heterogeneity, and patients with high-risk tumors have limited treatment options. Receptor tyrosine kinase KIT has been identified as a potential marker of high-risk NB and a promising target for NB treatment. We investigated 19,145 tumor RNA expression and molecular pathway activation profiles for 20 cancer types and detected relatively high levels of KIT expression in NB. Increased KIT expression was associated with activation of cell survival pathways, downregulated apoptosis induction, and cell cycle checkpoint control pathways. KIT knockdown with shRNA encoded by lentiviral vectors in SH-SY5Y cells led to reduced cell proliferation and apoptosis induction up to 50%. Our data suggest that apoptosis induction was caused by mitotic catastrophe, and there was a 2-fold decrease in percentage of G2-M cell cycle phase after KIT knockdown. We found that KIT knockdown in NB cells leads to strong upregulation of other pro-survival growth factor signaling cascades such as EPO, NGF, IL-6, and IGF-1 pathways. NGF, IGF-1 and EPO were able to increase cell proliferation in KIT-depleted cells in an ERK1/2-dependent manner. Overall, we show that KIT is a promising therapeutic target in NB, although such therapy efficiency could be impeded by growth factor signaling activation.

Cytotoxic Marine Alkaloid 3,10-Dibromofascaplysin Induces Apoptosis and Synergizes with Cytarabine Resulting in Leukemia Cell Death.

Myeloid leukemia is a hematologic neoplasia characterized by a clonal proliferation of hematopoietic stem cell progenitors. Patient prognosis varies depending on the subtype of leukemia as well as eligibility for intensive treatment regimens and allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Although significant progress has been made in the therapy of patients including novel targeted treatment approaches, there is still an urgent need to optimize treatment outcome. The most common therapy is based on the use of chemotherapeutics cytarabine and anthrayclines. Here, we studied the effect of the recently synthesized marine alkaloid 3,10-dibromofascaplysin (DBF) in myeloid leukemia cells. Unsubstituted fascaplysin was early found to affect cell cycle via inhibiting CDK4/6, thus we compared the activity of DBF and other brominated derivatives with known CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib, which was earlier shown to be a promising candidate to treat leukemia. Unexpectedly, the effect DBF on cell cycle differs from palbociclib. In fact, DBF induced leukemic cells apoptosis and decreased the expression of genes responsible for cancer cell survival. Simultaneously, DBF was found to activate the E2F1 transcription factor. Using bioinformatical approaches we evaluated the possible molecular mechanisms, which may be associated with DBF-induced activation of E2F1. Finally, we found that DBF synergistically increase the cytotoxic effect of cytarabine in different myeloid leukemia cell lines. In conclusion, DBF is a promising drug candidate, which may be used in combinational therapeutics approaches to reduce leukemia cell growth.

Comparative study of HIV-1 inhibition efficiency by carrageenans from red seaweeds family gigartinaceae, Tichocarpaceae and Phyllophoraceae.

The efficiency of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) inhibition by sulfated polysaccharides isolated from the various families of red algae of the Far East Pacific coast were studied. The anti-HIV-1 activity of kappa and lambda-carrageenans from Chondrus armatus, original highly sulfated X-carrageenan with low content of 3,6-anhydrogalactose from Tichocarpus crinitus and i/κ-carrageenan with hybrid structure isolated from Ahnfeltiopsis flabelliformis was found. The antiviral action of these polysaccharides and its low-weight oligosaccharide was compared with commercial κ-carrageenan. Here we used the HIV-1-based lentiviral particles and evaluated that these carrageenans in non-toxic concentrations significantly suppress the transduction potential of lentiviral particles pseudotyped with different envelope proteins, targeting cells of neuronal or T-cell origin. The antiviral action of these carrageenans was confirmed using the chimeric replication competent Mo-MuLV (Moloney murine leukemia retrovirus) encoding marker eGFP protein. We found that X-carrageenans from T. crinitus and its low weight derivative and λ-carrageenan from C. armatus effectively suppress the infection caused by retrovirus. The obtained data suggest that the differences in the suppressive effect of carrageenans on the transduction efficiency of HIV-1 based lentiviral particles may be related to the structural features of the studied polysaccharides.

Multikinase inhibitors modulate non-constitutive proteasome expression in colorectal cancer cells.

Introduction: Proteasomes are multi-subunit protein complexes responsible for protein degradation in cells. Immunoproteasomes and intermediate proteasomes (together non-constitutive proteasomes) are specific forms of proteasomes frequently associated with immune response, antigen presentation, inflammation and stress. Expression of non-constitutive proteasome subunits has a prognostic value in several types of cancer. Thus, factors that modulate non-constitutive proteasome expression in tumors are of particular interest. Multikinase inhibitors (MKIs) demonstrate promising results in treatment of cancer. At the same time, their immunomodulatory properties and effects on non-constitutive proteasome expression in colorectal cancer cells are poorly investigated. Methods: Proteasome subunit expression in colorectal cancer was evaluated by bioinformatic analysis of available datasets. Two colorectal cancer cell lines, expressing fluorescent non-constitutive proteasomes were treated with multikinase inhibitors: regorafenib and sorafenib. The proteasome subunit expression was assessed by real-time PCR, Western blotting and flow cytometry. The proteasome activity was studied using proteasome activity-based probe and fluorescent substrates. Intracellular proteasome localization was revealed by confocal microscopy. Reactive oxygen species levels following treatment were determined in cells. Combined effect of proteasome inhibition and treatment with MKIs on viability of cells was estimated. Results: Expression of non-constitutive proteasomes is increased in BRAF-mutant colorectal tumors. Regorafenib and sorafenib stimulated the activity and synthesis of non-constitutive proteasomes in examined cell lines. MKIs induced oxidative stress and redistribution of proteasomes within cells. Sorafenib stimulated formation of cytoplasmic aggregates, containing proteolyticaly active non-constitutive proteasomes, while regorafenib had no such effect. MKIs caused no synergistic action when were combined with the proteasome inhibitor. Discussion: Obtained results indicate that MKIs might affect the crosstalk between cancer cells and immune cells via modulation of intracellular proteasome pool. Observed phenomenon should be considered when MKI-based therapy is applied.

Improving the power of drug toxicity measurements by quantitative nuclei imaging.

Imaging-based anticancer drug screens are becoming more prevalent due to development of automated fluorescent microscopes and imaging stations, as well as rapid advancements in image processing software. Automated cell imaging provides many benefits such as their ability to provide high-content data, modularity, dynamics recording and the fact that imaging is the most direct way to access cell viability and cell proliferation. However, currently most publicly available large-scale anticancer drugs screens, such as GDSC, CTRP and NCI-60, provide cell viability data measured by assays based on colorimetric or luminometric measurements of NADH or ATP levels. Although such datasets provide valuable data, it is unclear how well drug toxicity measurements can be integrated with imaging data. Here we explored the relations between drug toxicity data obtained by XTT assay, two quantitative nuclei imaging methods and trypan blue dye exclusion assay using a set of four cancer cell lines with different morphologies and 30 drugs with different mechanisms of action. We show that imaging-based approaches provide high accuracy and the differences between results obtained by different methods highly depend on drug mechanism of action. Selecting AUC metrics over IC50 or comparing data where significantly drugs reduced cell numbers noticeably improves consistency between methods. Using automated cell segmentation protocols we analyzed mitochondria activity in more than 11 thousand drug-treated cells and showed that XTT assay produces unreliable data for CDK4/6, Aurora A, VEGFR and PARP inhibitors due induced cell size growth and increase in individual mitochondria activity. We also explored several benefits of image-based analysis such as ability to monitor cell number dynamics, dissect changes in total and individual mitochondria activity from cell proliferation, and ability to identify chromatin remodeling drugs. Finally, we provide a web tool that allows comparing results obtained by different methods.

Targeting ARID1A-Deficient Cancers: An Immune-Metabolic Perspective.

Epigenetic remodeling and metabolic reprogramming, two well-known cancer hallmarks, are highly intertwined. In addition to their abilities to confer cancer cell growth advantage, these alterations play a critical role in dynamically shaping the tumor microenvironment and antitumor immunity. Recent studies point toward the interplay between epigenetic regulation and metabolic rewiring as a potentially targetable Achilles' heel in cancer. In this review, we explore the key metabolic mechanisms that underpin the immunomodulatory role of AT-rich interaction domain 1A (ARID1A), the most frequently mutated epigenetic regulator across human cancers. We will summarize the recent advances in targeting ARID1A-deficient cancers by harnessing immune-metabolic vulnerability elicited by ARID1A deficiency to stimulate antitumor immune response, and ultimately, to improve patient outcome.

Human Blood Serum Can Diminish EGFR-Targeted Inhibition of Squamous Carcinoma Cell Growth through Reactivation of MAPK and EGFR Pathways.

Regardless of the presence or absence of specific diagnostic mutations, many cancer patients fail to respond to EGFR-targeted therapeutics, and a personalized approach is needed to identify putative (non)responders. We found previously that human peripheral blood and EGF can modulate the activities of EGFR-specific drugs on inhibiting clonogenity in model EGFR-positive A431 squamous carcinoma cells. Here, we report that human serum can dramatically abolish the cell growth rate inhibition by EGFR-specific drugs cetuximab and erlotinib. We show that this phenomenon is linked with derepression of drug-induced G1S cell cycle transition arrest. Furthermore, A431 cell growth inhibition by cetuximab, erlotinib, and EGF correlates with a decreased activity of ERK1/2 proteins. In turn, the EGF- and human serum-mediated rescue of drug-treated A431 cells restores ERK1/2 activity in functional tests. RNA sequencing revealed 1271 and 1566 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the presence of cetuximab and erlotinib, respectively. Erlotinib- and cetuximab-specific DEGs significantly overlapped. Interestingly, the expression of 100% and 75% of these DEGs restores to the no-drug level when EGF or a mixed human serum sample, respectively, is added along with cetuximab. In the case of erlotinib, EGF and human serum restore the expression of 39% and 83% of DEGs, respectively. We further assessed differential molecular pathway activation levels and propose that EGF/human serum-mediated A431 resistance to EGFR drugs can be largely explained by reactivation of the MAPK signaling cascade.

Nucleoside Analog 2',3'-Isopropylidene-5-Iodouridine as Novel Efficient Inhibitor of HIV-1.

Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors are the first class of drugs to be approved by the FDA for the suppression of HIV-1 and are widely used for this purpose in combination with drugs of other classes. Despite the progress in HIV-1 treatment, there is still the need to develop novel efficient antivirals. Here the efficiency of HIV-1 inhibition by a set of original 5-substituted uridine nucleosides was studied. We used the replication deficient human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1)-based lentiviral particles and identified that among the studied compounds, 2',3'-isopropylidene-5-iodouridine was shown to cause anti-HIV-1 activity. Importantly, no toxic action of this compound against the cells of T-cell origin was found. We determined that this compound is significantly more efficient at suppressing HIV-1 compared to Azidothymidine (AZT) when taken at the high non-toxic concentrations. We did not find any profit when using AZT in combination with 2',3'-isopropylidene-5-iodouridine. 2',3'-Isopropylidene-5-iodouridine acts synergistically to repress HIV-1 when combined with the CDK4/6 inhibitor Palbociclib in low non-toxic concentration. No synergistic antiviral action was detected when AZT was combined with Palbociclib. We suggest 2',3'-isopropylidene-5-iodouridine as a novel perspective non-toxic compound that may be used for HIV-l suppression.

Emetine in Combination with Chloroquine Induces Oncolytic Potential of HIV-1-Based Lentiviral Particles.

Chloroquine and Emetine are drugs used to treat human parasitic infections. In addition, it has been shown that these drugs have an antiviral effect. Both drugs were also found to cause a suppressive effect on the growth of cancer cells of different origins. Here, using the replication-deficient HIV-1-based lentiviral vector particles, we evaluated the ability of the combination of these drugs to reduce viral transduction efficiency. We showed that these drugs act synergistically to decrease cancer cell growth when added in combination with medium containing lentiviral particles. We found that the combination of these drugs with lentiviral particles decreases the viability of treated cells. Taken together, we state the oncolytic potential of the medium containing HIV-1-based particles provoked by the combination of Chloroquine and Emetine.

PRMT1 is an important factor for medulloblastoma cell proliferation and survival.

Aberrant expression of protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) has been implicated in a number of brain tumors, but the role of PRMT1 in medulloblastoma, the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor, remains unexplored. By examining the publicly available databases of pediatric brain tumor collection, we found that PRMT1 was predominantly expressed in medulloblastomas across all the pediatric brain tumors and that the high-level expression of PRMT1 correlated with poor survival of medulloblastoma patients. To determine the role of PRMT1 in medulloblastoma cells, we established an inducible knockdown system and demonstrated that PRMT1 depletion decreased medulloblastoma cell proliferation and induced cell apoptosis. Furthermore, the diamidine compounds, previously shown to exhibit selective PRMT1 inhibition, suppressed medulloblastoma cell viability in a dose-dependent manner. Finally, we observed induction of medulloblastoma cell apoptosis by the potent diamidine compounds at low micromolar concentrations. Together, our results suggest that PRMT1 could be an actionable therapeutic target in medulloblastoma.

Viral fibrotic scoring and drug screen based on MAPK activity uncovers EGFR as a key regulator of COVID-19 fibrosis.

Understanding the molecular basis of fibrosis, the lethal complication of COVID-19, is urgent. By the analysis of RNA-sequencing data of SARS-CoV-2-infected cells combined with data mining we identified genes involved in COVID-19 progression. To characterize their implication in the fibrosis development we established a correlation matrix based on the transcriptomic data of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. With this method, we have identified a cluster of genes responsible for SARS-CoV-2-fibrosis including its entry receptor ACE2 and epidermal growth factor EGF. Then, we developed Vi-Fi scoring-a novel drug repurposing approach and simultaneously quantified antiviral and antifibrotic activities of the drugs based on their transcriptomic signatures. We revealed the strong dual antifibrotic and antiviral activity of EGFR/ErbB inhibitors. Before the in vitro validation, we have clustered 277 cell lines and revealed distinct COVID-19 transcriptomic signatures of the cells with similar phenotypes that defines their suitability for COVID-19 research. By ERK activity monitoring in living lung cells, we show that the drugs with predicted antifibrotic activity downregulate ERK in the host lung cells. Overall, our study provides novel insights on SARS-CoV-2 dependence on EGFR/ERK signaling and demonstrates the utility of EGFR/ErbB inhibitors for COVID-19 treatment.

Immunoproteasome Activity and Content Determine Hematopoietic Cell Sensitivity to ONX-0914 and to the Infection of Cells with Lentiviruses.

Proteasomes are intracellular structures responsible for protein degradation. The 20S proteasome is a core catalytic element of the proteasome assembly. Variations of catalytic subunits generate different forms of 20S proteasomes including immunoproteasomes (iPs), which are present mostly in the immune cells. Certain cells of the immune system are primary targets of retroviruses. It has been shown that several viral proteins directly affect proteasome functionality, while inhibition of proteasome activity with broad specificity proteasome inhibitors stimulates viral transduction. Here we specifically addressed the role of the immunoproteasomes during early stages of viral transduction and investigated the effects of specific immunoproteasome inhibition and activation prior to infection using a panel of cell lines. Inhibition of iPs in hematopoietic cells with immunoproteasome-specific inhibitor ONX-0914 resulted in increased infection by VSV-G pseudotyped lentiviruses. Moreover, a tendency for increased infection of cloned cells with endogenously decreased proteasome activity was revealed. Conversely, activation of iPs by IFN-γ markedly reduced the viral infectivity, which was rescued upon simultaneous immunoproteasome inhibition. Our results indicate that immunoproteasome activity might be determinative for the cellular antiretroviral resistance at least for the cells with high iP content. Finally, therapeutic application of immunoproteasome inhibitors might promote retroviral infection of cells in vivo.

Selective Inhibition of HDAC Class I Sensitizes Leukemia and Neuroblastoma Cells to Anticancer Drugs.

The acquired resistance of neuroblastoma (NB) and leukemia cells to anticancer therapy remains the major challenge in the treatment of patients with these diseases. Although targeted therapy, such as receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) inhibitors, has been introduced into clinical practice, its efficacy is limited to patients harboring mutant kinases. Through the analysis of transcriptomic data of 701 leukemia and NB patient samples and cell lines, we revealed that the expression of RTK, such as KIT, FLT3, AXL, FGFR3, and NTRK1, is linked with HDAC class I. Although HDAC inhibitors have antitumor activity, they also have high whole-body toxicity. We developed a novel belinostat derivative named hydrazostat, which targets HDAC class I with limited off-target effects. We compared the toxicity of these drugs within the panel of leukemia and NB cell lines. Next, we revealed that HDAC inhibition with hydrazostat reactivates NTRK1, FGFR3, ROR2, KIT, and FLT3 expression. Based on this finding, we tested the efficacy of hydrazostat in combination with RTK inhibitor imatinib. Additionally, we show the ability of hydrazostat to enhance venetoclax-induced apoptosis. Thus, we reveal the connection between HDACs and RTK and describe a useful strategy to overcome the complications of single-agent therapies.

A Cell-Based Platform for the Investigation of Immunoproteasome Subunit ß5i Expression and Biology of ß5i-Containing Proteasomes.

The degradation of most intracellular proteins is a dynamic and tightly regulated process performed by proteasomes. To date, different forms of proteasomes have been identified. Currently the role of non-constitutive proteasomes (immunoproteasomes (iPs) and intermediate proteasomes (intPs)) has attracted special attention. Here, using a CRISPR-Cas9 nickase technology, four cell lines: histiocytic lymphoma, colorectal adenocarcinoma, cervix adenocarcinoma, and hepatocarcinoma were modified to express proteasomes with mCherry-tagged ß5i subunit, which is a catalytic subunit of iPs and intPs. Importantly, the expression of the chimeric gene in modified cells is under the control of endogenous regulatory mechanisms and is increased following IFN-γ and/or TNF-α stimulation. Fluorescent proteasomes retain catalytic activity and are distributed within the nucleus and cytoplasm. RNAseq reveals marginal differences in gene expression profiles between the modified and wild-type cell lines. Predominant metabolic pathways and patterns of expressed receptors were identified for each cell line. Using established cell lines, we demonstrated that anti-cancer drugs Ruxolitinib, Vincristine and Gefitinib stimulated the expression of ß5i-containing proteasomes, which might affect disease prognosis. Taken together, obtained cell lines can be used as a platform for real-time studies of immunoproteasome gene expression, localization of iPs and intPs, interaction of non-constitutive proteasomes with other proteins, proteasome trafficking and many other aspects of proteasome biology in living cells. Moreover, the established platform might be especially useful for fast and large-scale experiments intended to evaluate the effects of different conditions including treatment with various drugs and compounds on the proteasome pool.

Growth factor signaling predicts therapy resistance mechanisms and defines neuroblastoma subtypes.

Neuroblastoma (NB) has a low frequency of recurrent mutations compared to other cancers, which hinders the development of targeted therapies and novel risk stratification strategies. Multikinase inhibitors have shown potential in treating high-risk NB, but their efficacy is likely impaired by the cancer cells' ability to adapt to these drugs through the employment of alternative signaling pathways. Based on the expression of 48 growth factor-related genes in 1189 NB tumors, we have developed a model for NB patient survival prediction. This model discriminates between stage 4 NB tumors with favorable outcomes (>80% overall survival) and very poor outcomes (<10%) independently from MYCN-amplification status. Using signaling pathway analysis and gene set enrichment methods in 60 NB patients with known therapy response, we identified signaling pathways, including EPO, NGF, and HGF, upregulated in patients with no or partial response. In a therapeutic setting, we showed that among six selected growth factors, EPO, and NGF showed the most pronounced protective effects in vitro against several promising anti-NB multikinase inhibitors: imatinib, dasatinib, crizotinib, cabozantinib, and axitinib. Mechanistically kinase inhibitors potentiated NB cells to stronger ERK activation by EPO and NGF. The protective action of these growth factors strongly correlated with ERK activation and was ERK-dependent. ERK inhibitors combined with anticancer drugs, especially with dasatinib, showed a synergistic effect on NB cell death. Consideration of growth factor signaling activity benefits NB outcome prediction and tailoring therapy regimens to treat NB.

Two Receptors, Two Isoforms, Two Cancers: Comprehensive Analysis of KIT and TrkA Expression in Neuroblastoma and Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Pediatric cancers represent a wide variety of different tumors, though they have unique features that distinguish them from adult cancers. Receptor tyrosine kinases KIT and TrkA functions in AML and NB, respectively, are well-characterized. Though expression of these receptors is found in both tumors, little is known about KIT function in NB and TrkA in AML. By combining gene enrichment analysis with multidimensional scaling we showed that pediatric AMLs with t(8;21) or inv16 and high KIT expression levels stand out from other AML subtypes as they share prominent transcriptomic features exclusively with KIT-overexpressing NBs. We showed that AML cell lines had a predominant expression of an alternative TrkAIII isoform, which reportedly has oncogenic features, while NB cell lines had dominating TrkAI-II isoforms. NB cells, on the other hand, had an abnormal ratio of KIT isoforms as opposed to AML cells. Both SCF and NGF exerted protective action against doxorubicin and cytarabine for t(8;21) AML and NB cells. We identified several gene sets both unique and common for pediatric AML and NB, and this expression is associated with KIT or TrkA levels. NMU, DUSP4, RET, SUSD5, NOS1, and GABRA5 genes are differentially expressed in NBs with high KIT expression and are associated with poor survival in NB. We identified HOXA10, BAG3, and MARCKS genes that are connected with TrkA expression and are marker genes of poor outcome in AML. We also report that SLC18A2, PLXNC1, and MRPL33 gene expression is associated with TrkA or KIT expression levels in both AML and NB, and these genes have a prognostic value for both cancers. Thus, we have provided a comprehensive characterization of TrkA and KIT expression along with the oncogenic signatures of these genes across two pediatric tumors.

Synergistic suppression of t(8;21)-positive leukemia cell growth by combining oridonin and MAPK1/ERK2 inhibitors.

One of the most common chromosomal translocations in acute myeloid leukemia is t(8;21)(q22;q22), which results in the appearance of abnormal transcripts encoding for the fusion protein RUNX1-ETO. Therefore, this oncoprotein is considered to be a pertinent and promising target for treating t(8;21) leukemia. Previously, we have shown that downregulation of RUNX1-ETO leads to activation of intracellular signaling pathways enhancing cell survival and determined that the protein ERK2 can mediate activation of most of these pathways. Here we used a combination of oridonin (natural tetracycline diterpenoid), which has been shown to exhibit anti-RUNX1-ETO activity, and ERK2 kinase inhibitors. We found that treatment of leukemic t(8;21)-positive Kasumi-1 cells with oridonin cause decrease of phosphorylated ERK1/2. Treatment of these cells with ERK2 inhibitors makes them more sensitive to RUNX1-ETO inhibition with oridonin. Therefore we postulate that simultaneous inhibition of RUNX1-ETO and ERK2 cause synergistic effect on survival of leukemic cells.

Gene expression and molecular pathway activation signatures of MYCN-amplified neuroblastomas.

Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer arising from sympathetic nervous system. Remarkable heterogeneity in outcomes is one of its widely known features. One of the traits strongly associated with the unfavorable subtype is the amplification of oncogene MYCN. Here, we performed cross-platform biomarker detection by comparing gene expression and pathway activation patterns from the two literature reports and from our experimental dataset, combining profiles for the 761 neuroblastoma patients with known MYCN amplification status. We identified 109 / 25 gene expression / pathway activation biomarkers strongly linked with the MYCN amplification. The marker genes/pathways are involved in the processes of purine nucleotide biosynthesis, ATP-binding, tetrahydrofolate metabolism, building mitochondrial matrix, biosynthesis of amino acids, tRNA aminoacylation and NADP-linked oxidation-reduction processes, as well as in the tyrosine phosphatase activity, p53 signaling, cell cycle progression and the G1/S and G2/M checkpoints. To connect molecular functions of the genes involved in MYCN-amplified phenotype, we built a new molecular pathway using known intracellular protein interaction networks. The activation of this pathway was highly selective in discriminating MYCN-amplified neuroblastomas in all three datasets. Our data also suggest that the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors may provide new opportunities for the treatment of the MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma subtype.