JNK- and Akt-mediated Puma expression in the apoptosis of cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer cells

2012 ◽  
Vol 444 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiwei Zhao ◽  
Jingjing Wang ◽  
Jingsheng Tang ◽  
Xinyu Liu ◽  
Qian Zhong ◽  
...  

BH3 (Bcl-2 homology domain 3)-only proteins have an important role in the cisplatin resistance of cells. However, the effect of BH3-only proteins on cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer cells has not been thoroughly elucidated. Our results from the present study indicate that Puma plays a critical role in the apoptosis of chemo-resistant ovarian cancer cells treated with BetA (betulinic acid). The reduction of Puma expression inhibits Bax activation and apoptosis. However, p53 gene silencing has little effect on Puma activation. Further experiments demonstrated that Akt-mediated FoxO3a (forkhead box O3a) nuclear translocation and the JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase)/c-Jun pathway only partially trigger Puma induction and apoptosis, whereas dominant-negative c-Jun expression with FoxO3a reduction completely inhibits Puma expression and cell death. Furthermore, our results suggest that JNK regulates the Akt/FoxO3a signalling pathway. Therefore the dual effect of JNK can efficiently trigger Puma activation and apoptosis in chemoresistant cells. Taken together, our results demonstrate the role of Puma in BetA-induced apoptosis and the molecular mechanisms of Puma expression regulated by BetA during ovarian cancer cell apoptosis. Our findings suggest that the JNK-potentiated Akt/FoxO3a and JNK-mediated c-Jun pathways co-operatively trigger Puma expression, which determines the threshold for overcoming chemoresistance in ovarian cancer cells.

Author(s):  
Jinxin Chen ◽  
Xiaocen Li ◽  
Lu Yang ◽  
Mengmeng Li ◽  
Ye Zhang ◽  
...  

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of gynecologic cancer-related deaths. Emerging research has revealed a close relationship between circular RNAs (circRNAs) and ovarian cancer development, metastasis, and prognosis. The objective of our research was to further explore the relationship between circASH2L and ovarian cancer. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the differential expression of circRNAs between normal ovaries and ovarian cancer tissues. The impact of circASH2L on the proliferation, invasion, and tumorigenicity of ovarian cancer cells was evaluated using gain- and loss-of-function experiments. The molecular mechanisms of circASH2L function were investigated using bioinformatics analysis, RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization, western blots, and dual-luciferase reporter assays. The results showed that circASH2L was remarkably upregulated in ovarian cancer. The invasion and growth of ovarian cancer cells were suppressed by circASH2L knockdown in vitro, and downregulation of circASH2L restrained both angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis of tumor xenografts in vivo. Furthermore, circASH2L was mostly distributed in the cytoplasm, where it competes with vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) for binding to miR-665. These findings indicate that circASH2L has an oncogenic function in ovarian cancer. In conclusion, circASH2L plays a critical role in regulating ovarian cancer cell tumorigenesis, angiogenesis, and lymphangiogenesis through the miR-665/VEGFA axis and, therefore, is a possible candidate target for ovarian cancer treatment.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1866
Author(s):  
Katia A. Mesquita ◽  
Reem Ali ◽  
Rachel Doherty ◽  
Michael S. Toss ◽  
Islam Miligy ◽  
...  

FEN1 plays critical roles in long patch base excision repair (LP-BER), Okazaki fragment maturation, and rescue of stalled replication forks. In a clinical cohort, FEN1 overexpression is associated with aggressive phenotype and poor progression-free survival after platinum chemotherapy. Pre-clinically, FEN1 is induced upon cisplatin treatment, and nuclear translocation of FEN1 is dependent on physical interaction with importin β. FEN1 depletion, gene inactivation, or inhibition re-sensitizes platinum-resistant ovarian cancer cells to cisplatin. BRCA2 deficient cells exhibited synthetic lethality upon treatment with a FEN1 inhibitor. FEN1 inhibitor-resistant PEO1R cells were generated, and these reactivated BRCA2 and overexpressed the key repair proteins, POLβ and XRCC1. FEN1i treatment was selectively toxic to POLβ deficient but not XRCC1 deficient ovarian cancer cells. High throughput screening of 391,275 compounds identified several FEN1 inhibitor hits that are suitable for further drug development. We conclude that FEN1 is a valid target for ovarian cancer therapy.


2004 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 547-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven R Quist ◽  
Shan Wang-Gohrke ◽  
Tanja Köhler ◽  
Rolf Kreienberg ◽  
Ingo B Runnebaum

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 2443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeon Kyu Lee ◽  
Jinyeong Lim ◽  
So Young Yoon ◽  
Jong Cheon Joo ◽  
Soo Jung Park ◽  
...  

Ovarian cancer is the gynecological malignancy with the poorest prognosis, in part due to its high incidence of recurrence. Platinum agents are widely used as a first-line treatment against ovarian cancer. Recurrent tumors, however, frequently demonstrate acquired chemo-resistance to platinum agent toxicity. To improve chemo-sensitivity, combination chemotherapy regimens have been investigated. This study examined anti-tumor effects and molecular mechanisms of cytotoxicity of Oldenlandia diffusa (OD) extracts on ovarian cancer cells, in particular, cells resistant to cisplatin. Six ovarian cancer cells including A2780 and cisplatin-resistant A2780 (A2780cis) as representative cell models were used. OD was extracted with water (WOD) or 50% methanol (MOD). MOD significantly induced cell death in both cisplatin-sensitive cells and cisplatin-resistant cells. The combination treatment of MOD with cisplatin reduced viability in A2780cis cells more effectively than treatment with cisplatin alone. MOD in A2780cis cells resulted in downregulation of the epigenetic modulator KDM1B and the DNA repair gene DCLRE1B. Transcriptional suppression of KDM1B and DCLRE1B induced cisplatin sensitivity. Knockdown of KDM1B led to downregulation of DCLRE1B expression, suggesting that DCLRE1B was a KDM1B downstream target. Taken together, OD extract effectively promoted cell death in cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer cells under cisplatin treatment through modulating KDM1B and DCLRE1B.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 247-259

Semaphorins are a large family of genes involved in the development and morphogenesis of the nervous system. SEMA5A has been reported as a bi-functional molecule, acting as both oncogene and tumor suppressor in different types of cancer. High expression levels of SEMA5A and its receptor, Plexin-B3, were associated with aggressiveness in pancreatic and prostate cancers. Our previous study in ovarian cancer metastasis indicates that FAK knock-down can suppress ovarian cancer cells migration and invasion. We hypothesized that SEMA5A expression promotes ovarian cancer invasion and metastasis. We investigated the expression of SEMA5A in patients with metastatic ovarian cancer (n = 43), localized tumor (n = 37) and normal ovarian tissue (n = 12) from non-malignant diseases as control with different histopathological characteristics. For Silencing of SEMA5A in vitro, we treated human ovarian cancer cells (OVCAR-3, A2780/CP70) with miR-27a and miR-27b. We observed significantly higher expression of SEMA5A protein (P= 0.001) in metastatic ovarian cancer tissue associated with poor overall survival outcomes compared to localized ovarian cancer and control. In vitro silencing of SEMA5A reduced migration and invasion of ovarian cancer cell. Our data offer opportunities for the therapeutic modulation and biomarker of metastatic ovarian cancer.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun-Mi Yoo ◽  
Cheol-Jung Lee ◽  
Seung-Min Kim ◽  
Seon-Yeon Cho ◽  
Juhee Park ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1131-1141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Vergara ◽  
Stefania De Domenico ◽  
Andrea Tinelli ◽  
Eleonora Stanca ◽  
Loretta L. Del Mercato ◽  
...  

We describe the molecular mechanisms of the action of novel trans-restricted analogues of resveratrol with enhanced anti-cancer properties.


Author(s):  
Yali Fan ◽  
Quanmei Sun ◽  
Xia Li ◽  
Jiantao Feng ◽  
Zhuo Ao ◽  
...  

Mechanical factors in the tumor microenvironment play an important role in response to a variety of cellular activities in cancer cells. Here, we utilized polyacrylamide hydrogels with varying physical parameters simulating tumor and metastatic target tissues to investigate the effect of substrate stiffness on the growth, phenotype, and chemotherapeutic response of ovarian cancer cells (OCCs). We found that increasing the substrate stiffness promoted the proliferation of SKOV-3 cells, an OCC cell line. This proliferation coincided with the nuclear translocation of the oncogene Yes-associated protein. Additionally, we found that substrate softening promoted elements of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), including mesenchymal cell shape changes, increase in vimentin expression, and decrease in E-cadherin and β-catenin expression. Growing evidence demonstrates that apart from contributing to cancer initiation and progression, EMT can promote chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer cells. Furthermore, we evaluated tumor response to standard chemotherapeutic drugs (cisplatin and paclitaxel) and found antiproliferation effects to be directly proportional to the stiffness of the substrate. Nanomechanical studies based on atomic force microscopy (AFM) have revealed that chemosensitivity and chemoresistance are related to cellular mechanical properties. The results of cellular elastic modulus measurements determined by AFM demonstrated that Young’s modulus of SKOV-3 cells grown on soft substrates was less than that of cells grown on stiff substrates. Gene expression analysis of SKOV-3 cells showed that mRNA expression can be greatly affected by substrate stiffness. Finally, immunocytochemistry analyses revealed an increase in multidrug resistance proteins, namely, ATP binding cassette subfamily B member 1 and member 4 (ABCB1 and ABCB4), in the cells grown on the soft gel resulting in resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs. In conclusion, our study may help in identification of effective targets for cancer therapy and improve our understanding of the mechanisms of cancer progression and chemoresistance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Zhang ◽  
Guoqing Hou ◽  
Andong Liu ◽  
Hui Xu ◽  
Yang Guan ◽  
...  

Abstract Ovarian cancer remains the most lethal gynecologic malignancy with late detection and acquired chemoresistance. Advanced understanding of the pathophysiology and novel treatment strategies are urgently required. A growing body of proteomic investigations suggest that phosphorylation has a pivotal role in the regulation of ovarian cancer associated signaling pathways. Matrine has been extensively studied for its potent anti-tumor activities. However, its effect on ovarian cancer cells and underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Herein we showed that matrine treatment inhibited the development and progression of ovarian cancer cells by regulating proliferation, apoptosis, autophagy, invasion and angiogenesis. Matrine treatment retarded the cancer associated signaling transduction by decreasing the phosphorylation levels of ERK1/2, MEK1/2, PI3K, Akt, mTOR, FAK, RhoA, VEGFR2, and Tie2 in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, matrine showed excellent antitumor effect on chemoresistant ovarian cancer cells. No obvious toxic side effects were observed in matrine-administrated mice. As the natural agent, matrine has the potential to be the targeting drug against ovarian cancer cells with the advantages of overcoming the chemotherapy resistance and decreasing the toxic side effects.


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