Dual Functions of the Homeoprotein DLX4 in Modulating Responsiveness of Tumor Cells to Topoisomerase II-Targeting Drugs
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Published OnlineFirst December 7, 2012; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-12-3538 Cancer Tumor and Stem Cell Biology Research Dual Functions of the Homeoprotein DLX4 in Modulating Responsiveness of Tumor Cells to Topoisomerase II-Targeting Drugs Bon Q. Trinh, Song Yi Ko, Nicolas Barengo, Shiaw-Yih Lin, and Honami Naora Abstract Topoisomerase II (TOP2)-targeting poisons such as anthracyclines and etoposide are commonly used for cancer chemotherapy and kill tumor cells by causing accumulation of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB). Several lines of evidence indicate that overexpression of TOP2A, the gene encoding topoisomerase IIa, increases sensitivity of tumor cells to TOP2 poisons, but it is not clear why some TOP2A-overexpressing (TOP2A-High) tumors respond poorly to these drugs. In this study, we identified that TOP2A expression is induced by DLX4, a homeoprotein that is overexpressed in breast and ovarian cancers. Analysis of breast cancer datasets revealed that TOP2A-high cases that also highly expressed DLX4 responded more poorly to anthracycline-based chemotherapy than TOP2A-high cases that expressed DLX4 at low levels. Overexpression of TOP2A alone in tumor cells increased the level of DSBs induced by TOP2 poisons. In contrast, DLX4 reduced the level of TOP2 poison-induced DSBs irrespective of its induction of TOP2A. DLX4 did not stimulate homologous recombination– mediated repair of DSBs. However, DLX4 interacted with Ku proteins, stimulated DNA-dependent protein kinase activity, and increased erroneous end-joining repair of DSBs. Whereas DLX4 did not reduce levels of TOP2 poison-induced DSBs in Ku-deficient cells, DLX4 stimulated DSB repair and reduced the level of TOP2 poison– induced DSBs when Ku was reconstituted in these cells. Our findings indicate that DLX4 induces TOP2A expression but reduces sensitivity of tumor cells to TOP2 poisons by stimulating Ku-dependent repair of DSBs. These opposing activities of DLX4 could explain why some TOP2A-overexpressing tumors are not highly sensitive to TOP2 poisons. Cancer Res; 73(2); 1–11. Ó2012 AACR. Introduction malian TOP2 isoforms, TOP2a is essential for cell growth (7). DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) are the most lethal form of TOP2 poisons such as etoposide and anthracyclines (e.g., DNA damage and are primarily repaired by 2 pathways. The doxorubicin and epirubicin) are commonly used as anti-cancer homologous recombination (HR) pathway is a high-fidelity drugs. TOP2 poisons trap the enzyme in a complex with DNA at repair mechanism that uses the sister chromatid as a template. a step after DSBs have occurred, thereby causing DSBs to The canonical nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathway is accumulate to lethal levels (8). Experimental studies have a initiated by the binding of Ku heterodimers to DNA ends, shown that overexpressing TOP2 in cells increases TOP2 – a which recruit the catalytic subunit of DNA-dependent protein poison induced cell death, whereas downregulating TOP2 – kinase (DNA-PK) to form a complex that enables ligation of decreases sensitivity (9 11). On the other hand, there have fl a DNA ends with little or no homology (1, 2). Cells that are been con icting studies about the clinical value of TOP2 in defective in the HR or NHEJ pathways are highly sensitive to predicting responsiveness to TOP2 poisons. The TOP2A gene a poisons that target topoisomerase II (TOP2; refs. 3–6). TOP2 is that encodes TOP2 maps to 17q21-22, a region that is fi an enzyme that induces transient DSBs to relieve torsional ampli ed in about 12% of breast and ovarian cancers (12, stress imposed on DNA during replication (7). Of the 2 mam- 13). Whereas several studies have reported that TOP2A ampli- fication identifies patients with cancer who respond favorably to anthracycline-based chemotherapy (13, 14), others have found the TOP2A status has no predictive value (15–17). Authors' Affiliation: Department of Systems Biology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas However, a molecular explanation for the discordance between these experimental and clinical studies has not been identified. Note: Supplementary data for this article are available at Cancer Research Online (http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/). Homeobox genes constitute a gene superfamily encoding transcription factors (often termed homeoproteins) that con- Corresponding Author: Honami Naora, University of Texas MD Anderson – Cancer Center, Department of Systems Biology, 7435 Fannin Street, Unit trol developmental patterning (18 20). Increasing evidence 950, Houston, TX 77054. Phone: 713-563-4222; Fax: 713-563-4235; indicates that aberrant expression of many homeobox genes E-mail: [email protected] in tumors deregulates cell proliferation and cell survival (19, doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-12-3538 20). For example, the homeobox gene CDX2 inhibits cell Ó2012 American Association for Cancer Research. proliferation and is downregulated in many colon cancers www.aacrjournals.org OF1 Downloaded from cancerres.aacrjournals.org on September 28, 2021. © 2012 American Association for Cancer Research. Published OnlineFirst December 7, 2012; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-12-3538 Trinh et al. (21, 22). Overexpression of SIX1 in ovarian cancers confers American Type Culture Collection and passaged within 6 resistance to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis (23), whereas loss of months of receipt. Parental TOV112D cells (provided by Ju- BARX2 in ovarian cancers is associated with cisplatin resis- Seog Lee, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX) and tance (24). However, only few bona fide transcriptional targets U2OS cells were also tested by STR analysis. The stable þDLX4 of homeoproteins have been identified, and the mechanisms of MDA-MB-468 and U2OS DR-GFP reporter cell lines are these regulatory factors in tumorigenesis remain poorly described in our previous studies (30, 31). Cell lines were understood. cultured in the following media supplemented with 10% FBS The DLX4 gene (also reported as DLX7, BP1) is a member of and penicillin/streptomycin: MDA-MB-468 (RPMI-1640), the DLX family of homeobox genes that controls diverse U2OS (McCoys 5A), XR-V15B [Dulbeccos' Modified Eagles' developmental processes including skeletal patterning and Media (DMEM)], and TOV112D (1:1 mixture of MCDB 105 neurogenesis (25). DLX4 is absent from most normal adult medium and Medium 199). Lipofectamine 2000 reagent (Invi- tissues but is frequently expressed in breast and ovarian trogen) was used for transfecting cell lines. cancers (26, 27) and also in lung cancers and leukemias (28, 29). We previously identified that DLX4 inhibits gene responses Cell viability and cell death assays that are central to the TGF-b cytostatic program (30) and also Cells were plated in 96-well plates (2,000/well) and incubat- À stimulates tumor angiogenesis by inducing expression of ed for 2 days with drugs at concentrations ranging from 10 4 to fibroblast growth factor-2 and VEGF (27). Others have found 104 mmol/L. Cell viability was measured by MTT assay (Roche). – that DLX4 is more highly expressed in a doxorubicin-resistant IC50 values were calculated from the average of dose response subclone of MCF-7 breast cancer cells than in the parental cell curves obtained in 3 independent experiments. Cell death was line (26), raising the possibility that DLX4 also modulates measured by assaying mono- and oligonucleosomes in cell sensitivity to specific chemotherapeutic agents. In this study, lysates by using Cell Death Detection ELISA (Roche). we identified that TOP2A is a transcriptional target of DLX4 but that induction of TOP2A by DLX4 is not associated with Chromatin immunoprecipitation and luciferase increased sensitivity to TOP2 poisons. DLX4 was found to reporter assays interact with Ku proteins, stimulate Ku-dependent repair of Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays were con- DSBs, and reduce levels of DSBs induced by TOP2 poisons. ducted by using the ChIP Assay Kit (Upstate Biotechnology). These apparently opposing activities of DLX4 could explain Sheared chromatin was incubated with DLX4 Ab and DNA why some tumors have elevated TOP2A expression but are not purified from precipitated protein–DNA complexes. A 375-bp sensitive to TOP2 poisons. fragment of the TOP2A promoter was amplified by using the following primers: forward, 50-GAAGCTAAGGCTCCCATTCC- Materials and Methods 30; reverse, 50-CGTCCAGAAGAACCAATCGT-30. As a negative Reagents control, a 166-bp glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase Sourcesofantibodieswereasfollows:DLX4(Abcam, (GAPDH) fragment was amplified using the following primers: Abnova); TOP2a (TopoGEN); Ku70, Ku80 (Thermo Fisher forward, 50-TACTAGCGGTTTTACGGGCG-30; reverse, 50-TCG- Scientific); DNA-PK catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs; Cell AACAGGAGGAGCAGAGAGCGA-30. Cells were cotransfected Signaling Technology); DNA ligase IV, XRCC4, FLAG, actin with pGL2 firefly luciferase reporter plasmids and with pRL- (Sigma-Aldrich); and histone H2A (Millipore). Doxorubicin, CMV Renilla luciferase reporter plasmid (Promega) for nor- etoposide, paclitaxel, 5-fluorouracil, cyclophosphamide, malizing transfection efficiency. Luciferase activities were 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-b-D-galacto-pyranoside (X-gal), assayed using the Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay Kit and isopropyl-L-thio-b-D-galacto-pyranoside (IPTG) were (Promega). purchased from Sigma-Aldrich. Comet assay Plasmids DSBs were measured by neutral comet assay using the All short hairpin RNAs (shRNA) and cDNAs encoding Ku80 Comet Assay Kit (Trevigen). Comet images were captured by and TOP2a–GFP fusion protein were purchased from