OLR1 Promotes Pancreatic Cancer Metastasis Via Increased C-Myc
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Published OnlineFirst February 4, 2020; DOI: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-19-0718 MOLECULAR CANCER RESEARCH | CANCER GENES AND NETWORKS OLR1 Promotes Pancreatic Cancer Metastasis via Increased c-Myc Expression and Transcription of HMGA2 A C Gang Yang1, Guangbing Xiong1,2, Mengyu Feng1, Fangyu Zhao1, Jiangdong Qiu1, Yueze Liu1, Zhe Cao1, Huanyu Wang1, Jinshou Yang1, Lei You1, Lianfang Zheng3, Taiping Zhang1,4, and Yupei Zhao1 ABSTRACT ◥ Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal human malignancies, pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, partly because of its propensity for metastasis. However, the OLR1 increased HMGA2 transcription by upregulating c-Myc mechanisms of metastasis in pancreatic cancer remain unclear. expression to promote the metastasis of pancreatic cancer cells. In Oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor 1 (OLR1), a lectin-like addition, patients with pancreatic cancer with high expression of scavenger receptor that recognizes several ligands, such as oxidized OLR1–c-Myc–HMGA2 axis showed worse prognosis compared low-density lipoprotein, was previously reported in cardiovascular with patients with low expression of OLR1–c-Myc–HMGA2 axis. and metabolic diseases. The role and mechanism of OLR1 in pancreatic cancer is unclear. In this study, we found that OLR1 Implications: Our findings suggested that the OLR1–c-Myc– expression was significantly higher in pancreatic cancer tissues than HMGA2 axis promotes metastasis of pancreatic cancer cells and that in adjacent normal tissues and closely associated with reduced may serve as potential therapeutic targets and prognosis markers for overall survival. OLR1 promoted proliferation and metastasis of patients with pancreatic cancer. Introduction Oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor 1 (OLR1) is a lectin-like scavenger receptor that recognizes several ligands, such as oxidized Pancreatic cancer is the fourth and sixth leading cause of cancer- low-density lipoprotein, polyanionic chemicals, and anionic phospho- related death in the United States and China, respectively, with an lipids (5). OLR1 is mainly distributed in vascular endothelial cells and overall survival (OS) rate of less than 9% in both countries (1, 2). tissues with abundant blood vessels such as renal, pulmonary, and Furthermore, the mortality rate of pancreatic cancer is increasing, and neuronal tissues. Previous studies on OLR1 mainly focused on its role pancreatic cancer is projected to be the second most common cause of in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, such as atherosclerosis, cancer-related death by 2030 in the United States (3). Because of the hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipemia (6–8). Upregulation of atypical clinical symptoms of pancreatic cancer, the majority of ORL1 in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases increased DNA dam- patients already show metastases at diagnosis and thus are unable to age caused by intracellular reactive oxygen species, promoted the be treated by radical operation (4). Despite treatment with surgical release of inflammatory cytokines, and enhanced hypoxia and angio- resection, most patients with pancreatic cancer eventually develop genesis (5, 9). Notably, these processes are also closely related to cancer metastases because of recurrence or chemoresistance. The current development (10). Indeed, upregulation of OLR1 was recently found in understanding of the underlying mechanism of metastasis in pancre- multiple cancers and shown to be involved in tumorigenesis, cancer atic cancer remains limited. Therefore, clarifying the metastasis development, and metastasis (11–14). For example, activation of the mechanisms is important for developing new treatment strategies for TNFa/NF-kB pathway upregulates OLR1 to promote the migration of pancreatic cancer and prolonging patient survival. breast cancer cells (11, 15). In return, upregulated OLR1 also activates NF-kB signaling to induce cellular transformation in breast cancer and 1Department of General Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese trigger epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) to induce metastasis Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China. in prostate cancer (13, 16). OLR1 also facilitates metastasis of gastric 2Department of Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Affiliated Tongji Hospital, Tongji cancer through driving PI3K/Akt/GSK3b activation (17). Recently, Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 3 our group found that OLR1 was upregulated by lncRNA GSTM3TV2 Province, China. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Peking Union Medical Col- through competitively sponging let-7 to promote gemcitabine resis- lege Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China. 4Clinical Immunology Center, Chinese Academy of tance in pancreatic cancer (18). Together these studies suggest that Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China. OLR1 may be a link between metabolic diseases and cancer. However, the role of OLR1 in pancreatic cancer has not been completely Note: Supplementary data for this article are available at Molecular Cancer Research Online (http://mcr.aacrjournals.org/). revealed. The proto-oncogene c-Myc regulates DNA synthesis, cellular pro- Corrected online June 17, 2021. liferation, differentiation, survival, and immortalization through its Corresponding Authors: Yupei Zhao, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, function as a transcription factor that binds canonical DNA-binding Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 1# Shuai Fu Yuan Hu Tong, Beijing motifs (E box 50-CACGTG-30) in the promoters of target genes to 100730, China. Phone: 008-669-156-007; Fax: 008-669-156-007; E-mail: [email protected]; and Taiping Zhang, [email protected] regulate gene expression. c-Myc plays an important role in the initiation and development of cancer by its placement at the crossroads Mol Cancer Res 2020;18:685–97 of many cancer-related signaling pathways (19, 20). c-Myc promotes doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-19-0718 cell metastasis in many cancers and is regulated by many factors (19). Ó2020 American Association for Cancer Research. However, the relationship between OLR1 and c-Myc is unclear. AACRJournals.org | 685 Downloaded from mcr.aacrjournals.org on September 30, 2021. © 2020 American Association for Cancer Research. Published OnlineFirst February 4, 2020; DOI: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-19-0718 Yang et al. High mobility group AT-hook 2 (HMGA2), a member of high Western blot analysis mobility group A, plays a critical role in growth during embryonic Western blot analysis was performed as described previously (28). development but is expressed at low levels in adult tissues (21). Briefly, protein lysates (20 mg) were separated using SDS-PAGE, and However, HMGA2 has been reported to be upregulated in many primary and secondary antibodies were applied to detect target cancers (21–23). HMGA2 mainly functions as a transcription cor- proteins. An enhanced chemiluminescence assay was used to visualize egulator by modifying chromosomal architecture or recruiting other protein bands. Primary antibodies targeting OLR1 and HMGA2 were transcription-associated proteins to regulate the differentiation and purchased from Proteintech Group and c-Myc and b-actin antibodies proliferation of cells (24). HMGA2 was recently shown to promote were obtained from Cell Signaling Technology. metastasis in cancer by regulating EMT and enhancing TGFb signaling (21–23, 25). qRT-PCR In this study, we investigated the role and potential function of TRizol reagent (Invitrogen) was used for the extraction of total OLR1 in pancreatic cancer. We found that OLR1 expression was RNA and cDNA synthesis was performed using the Takara First highly expressed in pancreatic cancer tissues and that OLR1 pro- Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit following the manufacturer's instruc- moted metastasis of pancreatic cancer cells through increasing tions. qRT-PCR assays were performed independently at least three transcription of HMGA2 through c-Myc. Our results identified a times. The PCR primers are listed in the Supplementary Materials novel OLR1-c-Myc-HMGA2 axis and show its potential as a and Methods. combined biomarker of pancreatic cancer patient prognosis. RNA-sequencing and data analysis A RNeasy MINI KIT (Qiagen) was used for the extraction of Materials and Methods total RNA. The directional (stranded) libraries were generated Cell lines and clinical specimens using an Illumina platform for the paired-end sequencing of The human pancreatic cancer cell lines Bxpc-3 and Mia PaCa-2 Bxpc-3 cells. Cuffdiff was used to obtain the sequence count data were purchased from the ATCC and cultured in DMEM or RPMI1640 [fragments per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads with 10% FBS (HyClone) in a 5% CO2 cell culture incubator at 37 C. (FPKM) values] to conduct differential expression analysis. Shang- All cell lines were authenticated using high-resolution small tandem hai Biotechnology Corporation performed the library construction repeats (STR) profiling at Department of General Surgery Laboratory. and sequencing. The mycoplasma of cells was examined by MycoSensor PCR Assay Kit (Catalog No. C0301S; Beyotime). Cells were grown for 15 passages and Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay then replaced with fresh stocks. The 99 clinical pancreatic cancer Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays were performed specimens were obtained from patients who received surgery in the using a ChIP Assay Kit (Millipore, 17-295) according