Rage (Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products) in Melanoma
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RAGE (RECEPTOR FOR ADVANCED GLYCATION END PRODUCTS) IN MELANOMA PROGRESSION A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Science By Varsha Meghnani In Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major Department: Pharmaceutical Sciences May 2014 Fargo, North Dakota North Dakota State University Graduate School Title RAGE (RECEPTOR FOR ADVANCED GLYCATION END PRODUCTS) IN MELANOMA PROGRESSION By VARSHA MEGHNANI The Supervisory Committee certifies that this disquisition complies with North Dakota State University’s regulations and meets the accepted standards for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ESTELLE LECLERC Chair BIN GUO STEPHEN O’ROURKE JANE SCHUH Approved: 5/22/2014 JAGDISH SINGH Date Department Chair ABSTRACT The Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products (RAGE) and its ligands are expressed in multiple cancer types and are implicated in cancer progression. Our lab has previously reported higher transcript levels of RAGE and S100B in advanced staged melanoma patients. The contribution of RAGE in the pathophysiology of melanoma has not been well studied. Based on previous reports, we hypothesized that RAGE, when over-expressed in melanoma cells, promotes melanoma progression. To study the pathogenic role of RAGE in melanoma, a primary melanoma cell line, WM115, was selected and stably transfected with full length RAGE (FL_RAGE) to generate a model cell line over-expressing RAGE (WM115_RAGE). WM266, a sister cell line of WM115, originated from a metastatic tumor of the same patient was used as a metastatic control cell line in the study. After assessing the expression levels of RAGE in the transfected cells, the influence of RAGE on their cellular properties was examined. An enhanced motility but suppressed proliferation of WM115 cells was found after RAGE over-expression, these properties could be reversed upon suppression of RAGE in these cells. We next explored the mechanisms of RAGE induced changes in cell proliferation and migration in WM115_RAGE cells and found a significant upregulation in S100B protein in the WM115_RAGE melanoma cells compared to the MOCK cells. However, S100B suppression produced no effect on WM115_RAGE cells motility. Furthermore, expression of tumor suppressor p53 protein, which is one of the target proteins of S100B, was found to be significantly reduced in WM115 cells after RAGE over-expression. We also investigated the effect of RAGE over-expression on melanoma tumor growth and deciphered the downstream signaling involved. We found a significantly larger tumor iii growth rate of the WM115_RAGE cells compared to the control cells. S100B, S100A4, S100A6 and S100A10 proteins that are relevant in melanoma pathophysiology, were found to be upregulated in WM115_RAGE tumors compared to MOCK tumors. Moreover, enhanced AKT and ERK signal activation was observed in WM115_RAGE tumors as compared to MOCK tumors. Finally, anti-RAGE antibody treatment significantly suppressed tumor growth, which could be further enhanced by combining the antibody with the chemotherapeutic drug dacarbazine. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I sincerely thank my advisor Dr. Estelle Leclerc for guiding me throughout my doctoral studies. She is an excellent teacher, advisor and a nice human being. She always kept patient when things did not work for me. She discussed every single problem with me and came out with possible solution. Her critical comments for my presentations and seminars were always helpful for me. She also provided me career related guidance especially in the last year of my PhD when I was struggling for jobs. I also want to pay my gratitude to Dr. Stefan Vetter. His valuable suggestions were always helpful to me. I sincerely admire his teaching skills. He makes even complicate things easy to understand and grasp. I got to learn a lot from his critical thoughts and arguments in our lab journal club meetings. I am also grateful to all my committee members Dr. Bin Guo, Dr. Stephen O’ Rourke and Dr. Jane Schuh for their valuable comments during my preliminary defense. I am thankful to them for providing me career related guidance. I want to pay my sincere gratitude to Dr. Jagdish Singh for allowing me to work in his department and providing all the instruments and facilities required for my research work. I would like to thank ND-EPSCoR (Doctoral Dissertation Assistantship) and the College of Pharmacy, Nursing and Allied Sciences for funding my research work. I am grateful to the departmental administrative staff Janet and Jean for always being so generous and always ready to help. I am also very thankful to my current and former lab members Mohit Koladia, Tayebeh Marzijarani, Venkata Indurthi and Faidat Jyoti for their cooperation in my research work and lab management. Finally and most importantly I would like to thank my husband Rahul Nahire and my parents and in laws for always being supportive and encouraging me in my tough times. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ v LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................ xi GENERAL INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 Melanoma .................................................................................................................................... 1 Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products (RAGE) .......................................................... 9 HYPOTHESIS, APPROACH AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ............................................... 33 CHAPTER 1. GENERATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF RAGE OVER-EXPRESSING MELANOMA CELL LINES .................................................................. 38 Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 38 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 39 Material and Methods................................................................................................................ 40 Results ....................................................................................................................................... 44 Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 50 CHAPTER 2. EFFECT OF RAGE OVER-EXPRESSION ON MELANOMA CELL PROLIFERATION, MIGRATION AND INVASION ................................................................ 53 Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 53 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 54 Materials and Methods .............................................................................................................. 55 Results ....................................................................................................................................... 60 Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 66 CHAPTER 3. RAGE INDUCED MOLECULAR MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN MELANOMA CELL PROLIFERATION AND MIGRATION .................................................. 69 Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 69 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 70 Materials and Methods .............................................................................................................. 71 vi Results ....................................................................................................................................... 85 Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 95 CHAPTER 4. EFFECT OF RAGE OVER-EXPRESSION ON MELANOMA TUMOR GROWTH IN VIVO ................................................................................................... 100 Abstract ................................................................................................................................... 100 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 101 Materials and Methods ............................................................................................................ 103 Results ..................................................................................................................................... 108 Discussion