TWEAK Activation of the Non-Canonical NF-Κb Signaling Pathway Differentially Regulates Melanoma and Prostate Cancer Cell Invasion

www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget/ Oncotarget, 2016, Vol. 7, (No. 49), pp: 81474-81492 Research Paper TWEAK activation of the non-canonical NF-κB signaling pathway differentially regulates melanoma and prostate cancer cell invasion Cheryl L. Armstrong1,2,3, Rebeca Galisteo1,2,3, Sharron A.N. Brown1,2,3, Jeffrey A. Winkles1,2,3 1Department of Surgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA 2Center for vascular and Inflammatory Diseases, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA 3Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA Correspondence to: Jeffrey A. Winkles, email: [email protected] Keywords: TWEAK, Fn14, invasion, NF-κB, melanoma Received: July 28, 2016 Accepted: October 14, 2016 Published: November 03, 2016 ABSTRACT Tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) is a multifunctional cytokine that binds with high affinity to a plasma membrane-anchored receptor named Fn14. Both TWEAK and Fn14 expression has been detected in human cancer tissue, and studies have shown that TWEAK/Fn14 signaling can promote either “pro-cancer” or “anti-cancer” cellular effects in vitro, depending on the cancer cell line under investigation. In this study, we engineered murine B16 melanoma cells to secrete high levels of soluble TWEAK and examined their properties. TWEAK production by B16 cells preferentially activated the non-canonical NF-κB signaling pathway and increased the expression of several previously described TWEAK-inducible genes, including Fn14. TWEAK overexpression in B16 cells inhibited both cell growth and invasion in vitro. The TWEAK-mediated reduction in B16 cell invasive capacity was dependent on activation of the non-canonical NF-κB signaling pathway. Finally, we found that this same signaling pathway was also important for TWEAK-stimulated human DU145 prostate cancer cell invasion. Therefore, even though TWEAK:Fn14 binding activates non-canonical NF-κB signaling in both melanoma and prostate cancer cells, this shared cellular response can trigger a very different downstream outcome (inhibition or stimulation of cell invasiveness, respectively). INTRODUCTION activated by many extracellular stimuli (e.g., inflammatory cytokines, bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), UV radiation), Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-like weak inducer of the IKK complex protein IKKβ phosphorylates IκBα, which apoptosis (TWEAK), a member of the TNF superfamily triggers IκBα polyubiquitination and degradation, thereby of multifunctional cytokines, acts on cells via binding to a enabling NF-κB dimers (e.g., RelA (p65)/p50) to translocate small cell surface receptor named fibroblast growth factor- to the nucleus and regulate gene expression. In the non- inducible 14 (Fn14) [1, 2]. TWEAK is initially synthesized canonical pathway, which is primarily activated by certain as a type II transmembrane protein, but it can undergo TNF family members, the kinase NIK phosphorylates IKKα, intracellular furin cleavage, which releases a soluble which in turn phosphorylates NF-κB2 (also known as p100), cytokine that can act on cells in an autocrine or paracrine leading to p100 ubiquitination and partial degradation by manner [3, 4]. Membrane or soluble TWEAK binding the proteasome to generate p52. RelB/p52 heterodimers to Fn14 promotes receptor trimerization, TNF receptor then translocate to the nucleus and regulate gene expression associated factor (TRAF) association, and activation of [12–14]. various downstream signaling pathways, including the TWEAK:Fn14 engagement in vivo is thought to canonical (classical) and non-canonical (alternative) NF-κB play an important role in tissue repair and regeneration pathways [5–11]. Briefly, in the canonical pathway, which is following acute injury, and numerous studies have www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget 81474 Oncotarget indicated that sustained Fn14 activation can promote the were detected in conditioned media. Also, TWEAK pathological tissue remodeling associated with chronic overexpression in B16 cells (i) inhibited cell growth inflammatory, autoimmune, and neurodegenerative in vitro but not in vivo, (ii) had no significant effect on diseases [1, 2, 15]. Accordingly, a number of TWEAK- cell migration, (iii) significantly reduced cell invasion. targeted therapeutic agents are in pre-clinical or clinical Furthermore, this latter effect depended, at least in part, development for these conditions [2, 16]. on activation of the non-canonical NF-κB signaling TWEAK/Fn14 axis signaling has also been pathway. Finally, in studies using human DU145 prostate implicated in cancer, the second leading cause of death in cancer cells, we found that non-canonical NF-κB signaling the USA [17]. While TWEAK and Fn14 gene expression pathway activation was also important for TWEAK- is low in normal healthy tissues, increased expression stimulated cell invasion. These findings demonstrate of one or both of these genes has been detected in many that TWEAK/Fn14 axis-triggered non-canonical NF-κB solid primary tumor types and tumor metastases [1, 18– signaling pathway activation in cancer cells can positively 20]. For example, TWEAK is highly expressed in kidney or negatively regulate cellular invasive activity, depending [21, 22], liver [23], colon [21, 24, 25], ovarian [26], on the particular cancer cell line under investigation. esophageal [27], and pancreatic [27] cancer. TWEAK is a pro-angiogenic [21, 28, 29] and pro-inflammatory RESULTS [30–33] factor in vivo, so it could promote tumor vascularization and inflammation. Additionally, studies Constitutive sTWEAK overexpression in have shown that TWEAK-triggered Fn14 activation murine B16 melanoma cells increases Fn14 and in cancer cells themselves can stimulate either “pro- chemokine expression tumorigenic/metastatic” or “anti-tumorigenic/metastatic” cellular responses in vitro, depending on the cell line We chose to study the effects of human sTWEAK under investigation. In regard to the “pro-tumorigenic/ overexpression in melanoma cells in consideration of data metastatic” responses, TWEAK has been shown to induce indicating that TWEAK/Fn14 pathway activation may cancer cell growth [23], migration [34–38], invasion play a role in human metastatic melanoma [19, 44, 55]. [11, 35, 39], and chemotherapy drug resistance [40–43]. However, since most human melanoma cells in culture In consideration of these findings, an anti-TWEAK express high levels of Fn14 [55], which could initiate neutralizing monoclonal antibody (mAb) named RG7212 TWEAK-independent Fn14 signaling [56], we selected was developed for potential use in cancer patients. This murine B16-BL6 melanoma cells for our experiments. agent inhibited tumor growth in preclinical xenograft These cells express low basal levels of both TWEAK and models [44] and in a phase I clinical trial it was able to Fn14 [44]. Also, B16 cells are syngeneic with C57BL/6 induce prolonged stable disease in 15 patients (28%) with mice [57, 58], so their growth following subcutaneous one malignant melanoma patient showing evidence of implantation can be evaluated in an immunocompetent tumor regression [19]. However, this therapeutic strategy, host. Finally, murine cells can be used to study the effects as well as others designed to inhibit the TWEAK:Fn14 of human TWEAK overexpression since our group and interaction [27, 45, 46], may need to be re-considered others have demonstrated that human TWEAK can bind since, as mentioned above, TWEAK:Fn14 engagement with high affinity to the murine Fn14 protein [59–61]. in certain cancer cell lines can induce beneficial “anti- Parental B16-BL6 cells were transfected with two tumorigenic/metastatic” cellular responses. For example, different mammalian expression vectors (pSecTag, pcDNA6) TWEAK is a pro-apoptotic factor for some cancer cell and their corresponding TWEAK expression constructs and lines [3, 24, 47, 48] and TWEAK treatment of HCT116 individual clonal cell lines were isolated by drug selection. colorectal cancer cells inhibits invasive capacity [25]. The sTWEAK protein contained an N-terminal myc tag in Accordingly, several groups have developed agonistic order to facilitate its detection in cells and conditioned media Fn14 mAbs for cancer therapy [18, 49–53] and one by Western blot analysis. One pair of vector (V)-transfected antibody, named PDL192, has been evaluated for safety and TWEAK (T)-overexpressing clonal cell lines were in a phase I clinical trial [54]. In summary, although the selected from each expression construct type for further TWEAK/Fn14 signaling axis appears to be a promising characterization (denoted V1, T1 and V2, T2). TWEAK therapeutic target for multiple cancer types, more studies expression and secretion by the T1 and T2 cell lines was are warranted in order to understand the full spectrum of confirmed by Western blot analysis using cell lysates and TWEAK-mediated pro- and anti-cancer cell effects. conditioned media samples, respectively (Figure 1A). Also, In the current study, we engineered murine B16 the amount of TWEAK in conditioned media collected melanoma cell lines that overexpressed the soluble from the four cell lines was determined using a solid-phase, TWEAK (sTWEAK) isoform and compared their sandwich ELISA that only detects human TWEAK. We biological properties to matched control cell lines with found that the T1 and T2 culture media samples contained low levels of endogenous TWEAK expression. The high levels of sTWEAK (Figure 1B).

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