Overexpression of HOXB7 Protein Reduces Sensitivity of Oral Cancer Cells to Chemo-Radiotherapy
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Cancer Gene Therapy (2016) 23, 419–424 © 2016 Nature America, Inc., part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved 0929-1903/16 www.nature.com/cgt ORIGINAL ARTICLE Overexpression of HOXB7 protein reduces sensitivity of oral cancer cells to chemo-radiotherapy Z Yuan1, D Chen2, X Chen1, H Yang1 and Y Wei1 The upregulation of homeobox-B7 (HOXB7) in cancers has been reported. However, its role in oral cancer progression remains to be investigated. In current study, our data revealed that reconstitution of HOXB7 expression by transient transfection resulted in increased cell growth, migration and invasion in vitro. In addition, apoptosis and clonogenic assay data showed that overexpression of HOXB7 decreased the sensitivity of oral cancer cells to vincristine-induced apoptosis of HSC-4 and KB/VCR cells. Furthermore, overexpression of HOXB7 promoted oral cancer cells' migration and invasion through activation of TGFβ2/SMAD3 signaling pathway. Moreover, forced expression of HOXB7 increased Bcl-2 to Bax ratio, which would promote cell survival and induce drug and radiotherapy resistance. Altogether, our findings support the role of HOXB7 in the progression of oral cancer. Therefore, HOXB7 potentially can be a therapeutic target for oral cancer. Cancer Gene Therapy (2016) 23, 419–424; doi:10.1038/cgt.2016.55; published online 11 November 2016 INTRODUCTION survival analysis showed that patients whose tumors had high Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the sixth most commonly number of HOXB7-positive cells had a shortened overall 11,16,17 diagnosed cancer worldwide, especially in developing countries. survival. Altogether, those studies suggested that HOXB7 Annually, about 300 000 cases encounter this disease, accounting had an important role in the tumorigenesis of oral cancer. for 5.1% of the total new cancer cases. It represents 95% of all Although aberrant expression of HOXB7 has been associated head and neck cancers and with an increasing incidence over the with human oral cancer, studies examining the impact of HOXB7 last decade.1 Although the clinical diagnosis and management of on human oral cancer cell biology and its sensitivity to early-stage oral squamous carcinoma has improved significantly, conventional therapeutics are limited. In current study, we oral squamous carcinoma prognosis is still extremely poor.2 The investigated the effect of overexpression of HOXB7 on oral cancer 5-year survival rate has remained below 50% for patients cell behavior. Our data revealed that HOXB7 increases cell diagnosed with advanced stages.1,3 Therefore, novel insights are migration and invasion, and reduces sensitivity to chemo- required to better understand the mechanisms that contribute to radiotherapy. disease progression, in order to design improved therapies for patients with locally advanced oral cancer. HOXB7, a trihelical 60-amino-acid homeodomain encoded by a MATERIALS AND METHODS 180-bp DNA, is a newly identified member of the HOX gene family. Reagents and antibodies Within the HOX family, there are 39 HOX genes and is organized in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium and fetal bovine serum were four clusters (HOXA–HOXD) in human.4,5 HOX gene is highly obtained from Gibco (Carlsbad, CA, USA). Mouse anti-GPADH polyclonal expressed in embryonic tissues, and aberrant expression of the antibody (Lot#ab37168), rabbit anti-HOXB7 monoclonal antibody HOX genes is involved in carcinogenesis of colorectal, breast, (Lot#ab168466), mouse anti-Bcl-2 monoclonal antibody (Lot#ab694), – β prostate, pancreatic and oral cancers.6 9 Overexpression of HOXB7 mouse anti-Bax monoclonal antibody (Lot#ab75566), mouse anti-TGF 2 in these cancer patients is associated with a poor prognosis.10,11 In monoclonal antibody (Lot#ab36495), mouse anti-p-SMAD monoclonal antibody (Lot#ab118825) and rabbit anti-total SMAD monoclonal antibody addition, enforced HOXB7 expression promotes cell proliferation 12,13 (Lot#ab40854) were obtained from Abcam (Cambridge, UK). Goat anti- and angiogenesis. Furthermore, it has been reported that rabbit IgG IR Dye 800cw (Lot#C30626-03) and goat anti-mouse IgG IR Dye HOXB7 promotes several cancer cells' migration and invasion 800cw (Lot#C40528-02) were from Odyssey (LI-COR, Lincoln, NE, USA). through the activation of the classical TGFβ2/SMAD3 signaling Click-iT Edu imaging kit for microscopy was from Invitrogen (Carlsbad, CA, pathway.10,14,15 USA). Annexin V-FITC Apoptosis Detection was from Becton Dickinson Previous study found that HOXB7 was highly expressed in oral (Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA). cancer tissues (13/19 tissues) at III/IV clinical stages compared with the corresponding normal tissues. Overexpression of the HOXB7 Cell cultures and transfection gene in oral cancer induces proliferation and is associated with 11 Four human oral cancer cell lines KOSC-2, HSC-4, Ca9-22 and KB/VCR were poor prognosis. Oral cancers with high percent of HOXB7- obtained from Nanjing KeyGen Biotech Co, Ltd (Nanjing, China). These cells positive cells tended to be in advanced clinical stage (higher T were cultured in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (Gibco) containing stage, positive lymph node metastasis and late disease stage), and 10% fetal bovine serum in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2 at 37 °C. 1Department of Blood Transfusion, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China and 2Department of Radiology, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China. Correspondence: Dr Y Wei, Department of Blood Transfusion, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510180, China. E-mail: [email protected] Received 24 May 2016; revised 12 September 2016; accepted 19 September 2016; published online 11 November 2016 HOXB7; a therapeutic target for oral cancer Z Yuan et al 420 To generate HOXB7-overexpressing stable cell lines, 293T cells were co- infect different human oral cancer cell lines for 2 days, and then cells were transfected with retroviral constructs of pMSCV-HOXB7 along with the collected for RT-PCR and western blot analysis.9,18 To generate HOXB7- package system plasmids for 2 days. The supernatant was collected to overexpressing HSC-4 and KB/VCR cells, plasmid pBI-HOXB7-eGFP and the Figure 1. Correlation between the HOXB7 level and the proliferation of oral cancer cells. (a) Quantification of HOXB7 by western blot in human normal oral squamous epithelium cell (NOSEC) and four OSCC cell lines including KOSC-2, HSC-4, Ca9-22 and KB/VCR. (b) Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis and Western blot were used to assess the mRNA and protein levels of HOXB7 in HSC-4 and KB/VCR cells with or without forced expression of HOXB7 as described in Materials and methods section. (c) Total cell number assays. Cells were cultured, and cell number was counted every 12 h. Results represent mean ± s.e.m. n=3, **Po 0.01. Figure 2. Forced expression of HOXB7 increases oral cancer cell migration and invasion. Statistical significance was assessed by using an unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test. Columns are the mean of triplicate experiments; bars, ± s.d. **Po0.001. Cancer Gene Therapy (2016), 419 – 424 © 2016 Nature America, Inc., part of Springer Nature. HOXB7; a therapeutic target for oral cancer Z Yuan et al 421 Figure 3. HOXB7 decreased sensitivity of oral cancer cells to vincristine-induced apoptosis of HSC-4 and KB/VCR cells. (a) Total cell number assays of oral cancer cells treated with and without vicristine (25 mol l − 1) for 24 h. (b) Quantification of apoptotic cell by flow cytometry. Statistical significance was assessed by using an unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test. Columns are the mean of triplicate experiments; bars ± s.d. *Po0.05, **Po0.01. empty vector were transfected into HSC-4 and KB/VCR cells. The Total cell number GFP-positive cells were sorted and used in the experiments. HSC-4 or KB/VCR cells (1 × 105) were seeded into 35 mm2 Falcon tissue culture dish in monolayers in 10% serum media in triplicate. On indicated days, cells were trypsinized, and cell number was determined using a RT-PCR and semi-quantitative RT-PCR hemocytometer. Total RNA was isolated using Trizol plus RNA Purification system as 19 previously described. DNase I treatment, total RNA to complementary Transwell assays DNA, PCR and quantitative PCR assays were performed as previously Invasion assays were carried out in Matrigel-based Transwell plates described. Gene expression analysis was performed as previously 21 20 essentially as described previously by Pelletier et al. with modifications. described. 4 Total RNA was isolated using Trizol Plus RNA Purification Kit (Invitrogen, Cells (5 × 10 ) were plated into the Matrigel-coated upper chambers of the Carlsbad, CA) as previously described.19 Semi-quantitative RT-PCR was 24-well Transwell plates (Corning Costar, Cambridge, MA, USA) with a pore μ fi performed using a Super Script One Step RT-PCR kit (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, size of 8 m. The lower compartments were lled with medium CA). Sequences of the nucleotide primers for RT-PCR were: GAPDH, forward supplemented with 20% fetal bovine serum. After 24 h of incubation, nucleotide primers for RT-PCR were 5′- GGCACAGTCAAGGCTGAGAATG-3′, the non-migrated cells on the upper surface of the membranes reverse nucleotide primers were 5′- ATGGTGGTGAAGACGCCAGTA′; were gently scraped with cotton swabs, and the migrated cells that had HOXB7, forward 5′-TACCCCTGGATGCGAAGCTC-3′ and reverse 5′-AATCTT invaded to the lower surface were stained with crystal violet and counted. GATCTGTCTTTCCGTGA-3′ (23 cycles). Amplified RT-PCR products were Cell migration assays were carried out in a similar way but without visualized on a 1.5% agarose gel. Matrigel. Apoptosis assays by flow cytometry Western blot Phosphate-buffered saline–rinsed cells (106 per ml) were suspended in Oral cancer cells' lysates were separated by SDS–PAGE, blotted onto 500 μl binding buffer. After additing Annexin V-FITC (5 μl) and PI (5 μl), the nitrocellulose membranes and probed with specific primary antibodies samples were gently mixed and incubated for 10 min in the dark at room followed by incubating with goat anti-rabbit or mouse IgG IR Dye 800cw temperature.