Mithramycin Represses Basal and Cigarette Smoke–Induced Expression of ABCG2 and Inhibits Stem Cell Signaling in Lung and Esophageal Cancer Cells
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Cancer Therapeutics, Targets, and Chemical Biology Research Mithramycin Represses Basal and Cigarette Smoke–Induced Expression of ABCG2 and Inhibits Stem Cell Signaling in Lung and Esophageal Cancer Cells Mary Zhang1, Aarti Mathur1, Yuwei Zhang1, Sichuan Xi1, Scott Atay1, Julie A. Hong1, Nicole Datrice1, Trevor Upham1, Clinton D. Kemp1, R. Taylor Ripley1, Gordon Wiegand2, Itzak Avital2, Patricia Fetsch3, Haresh Mani6, Daniel Zlott4, Robert Robey5, Susan E. Bates5, Xinmin Li7, Mahadev Rao1, and David S. Schrump1 Abstract Cigarette smoking at diagnosis or during therapy correlates with poor outcome in patients with lung and esophageal cancers, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. In this study, we observed that exposure of esophageal cancer cells to cigarette smoke condensate (CSC) led to upregulation of the xenobiotic pump ABCG2, which is expressed in cancer stem cells and confers treatment resistance in lung and esophageal carcinomas. Furthermore, CSC increased the side population of lung cancer cells containing cancer stem cells. Upregulation of ABCG2 coincided with increased occupancy of aryl hydrocarbon receptor, Sp1, and Nrf2 within the ABCG2 promoter, and deletion of xenobiotic response elements and/or Sp1 sites markedly attenuated ABCG2 induction. Under conditions potentially achievable in clinical settings, mithramycin diminished basal as well as CSC- mediated increases in AhR, Sp1, and Nrf2 levels within the ABCG2 promoter, markedly downregulated ABCG2, and inhibited proliferation and tumorigenicity of lung and esophageal cancer cells. Microarray analyses revealed that mithramycin targeted multiple stem cell–related pathways in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, our findings provide a potential mechanistic link between smoking status and outcome of patients with lung and esophageal cancers, and support clinical use of mithramycin for repressing ABCG2 and inhibiting stem cell signaling in thoracic malignancies. Cancer Res; 72(16); 4178–92. Ó2012 AACR. Introduction In addition to being a significant risk factor for major Lung and esophageal cancers are leading causes of cancer- morbidity and mortality in individuals undergoing potentially related deaths worldwide (1). In 2011, these malignancies curative resections (6, 7), cigarette smoking diminishes accounted for an estimated 1.8 million deaths globally; in responses to chemo- and radiation therapy, enhances systemic the United States, nearly 160,000 deaths were attributed to metastases, and decreases survival of patients with locally – lung cancer, whereas 15,000 deaths were due to esophageal advanced or disseminated lung and esophageal cancers (8 carcinoma (2). Presently, 80% of lung cancers and 50% of 11); the mechanisms underlying these phenomena have not esophageal carcinomas are directly attributable to cigarette been fully established. Previously, we reported that under smoke (3, 4). Currently, more than 1.3 billion people smoke; clinically relevant exposure conditions, cigarette smoke hence, the global burden of tobacco-associated thoracic malig- enhances tumorigenicity of lung cancer cells via polycomb- Dickkopf-1 Dkk1 nancies will continue to increase, with particularly devastating mediated repression of ( ), which encodes an consequences in developing countries (5). antagonist of Wnt signaling (12). In unpublished studies, we observed a similar phenomenon in esophageal adenocarcino- ma cells following cigarette smoke exposure. In addition, we Authors' Affiliations: 1Thoracic Oncology Section, 2Gastrointestinal and have observed that cigarette smoke activates miR-31, targeting 3 Hepatobiliary Malignancies Section, Surgery Branch, Laboratory of Dkk1 as well as several other Wnt antagonists in lung cancer Pathology, 4Clinical Pharmacy Department, 5Experimental Therapeutics Section, Medical Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National cells; constitutive expression of this miRNA significantly Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland; 6Department of Pathology, Penn enhanced proliferation of lung cancer cells in vitro and in vivo State Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania; and 7Clinical Micro- array Core, University of California, Los Angeles, California (13). In more recent studies, we observed that cigarette smoke mediates epigenetic repression of miR-487b in lung cancer Note: Supplementary data for this article are available at Cancer Research Online (http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/). cells, resulting in overexpression of polycomb group proteins BMI1 and SUZ12, as well as Wnt5a, k-ras, and C-myc, all of Corresponding Author: David S. Schrump, Thoracic Oncology Section, Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute, Building 10; 4-3942, 10 Center which have been implicated in modulating stem cell pluripo- Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892. Phone: 301-496-2128; Fax: 301-451-6934; tency (14–18); consistent with these observations, knockdown E-mail: [email protected] of miR-487b increases proliferation and tumorigenicity of lung doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-11-3983 cancer cells (Xi and colleagues; submitted). This study was Ó2012 American Association for Cancer Research. undertaken to examine if cigarette smoke activates additional 4178 Cancer Res; 72(16) August 15, 2012 Mithramycin and ABCG2 stem cell–associated genes, which enhance the malignant Murine xenograft experiments phenotype of lung and esophageal cancers in an effort to Athymic nude mice were injected in bilateral flanks with develop novel pharmacologic strategies for treatment of these 1 Â 106 parental A549 cells. Approximately 10 days later when neoplasms. palpable tumors were present, mice were randomly assigned to receive mithramycin at 1 or 2 mg/kg body weight or saline administered as intraperitoneal injections on Monday, Wed- Materials and Methods nesday, and Friday for 3 weeks. Tumor dimensions and mouse Cell lines and treatment conditions weights were measured twice weekly. When control tumors Unless otherwise specified, all cancer lines were obtained approached maximum allowable size, all mice were eutha- from American Type Culture Collection. Cells were validated nized, and tumors were excised, weighed, and processed for by periodic HLA typing of laboratory cultures relative to new additional studies. All mouse experiments were approved by cell aliquots from the repository. NCI-SB-EsC1 and NCI-SB- the National Cancer Institute Animal Care and Use Committee EsC2 (EsC1 and EsC2, respectively) were established in our and were in accordance with the NIH Guide for the Care and laboratory from 2 patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma Use of Laboratory Animals. who developed disease recurrence after undergoing induc- tion chemo/XRT and surgery on Institutional Review Board Chromatin immunoprecipitation approval protocols; these cell lines exhibit HLA as well as Quantitative chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) was cytokeratin expression profiles identical to the respective carried out as described (20), with minor modifications. Full primary tumors. All cancer lines were maintained in RPMI methods are described in Supplementary Methods. Antibodies media supplemented with 10% FBS and 1% penicillin/strep- and primers for ChIP are listed in Supplementary Table S1. tomycin (normal media). Primary normal human small airway epithelial cells (SAEC) were obtained from Lonza, Luciferase promoter–reporter transient transfection Inc. and cultured per vendor instructions. Cigarette smoke experiments condensates (CSC) were generated as described (19). For Submitted as Supplementary Methods. smoke exposure experiments, cells were cultured in appro- priate normal media with or without varying concentrations Flow cytometry of CSC. Media and CSC were changed daily. Cells were Flow cytometry for ABCG2 surface expression and side subcultured as necessary and harvested at appropriate times population was carried out as described (21), with minor for further analysis. modifications. Full methods submitted as Supplementary Mithramycin was obtained from either Sigma or the Methods. Developmental Therapeutics Program (National Cancer Institute). For drug exposure treatments, cells were cultured Statistical analysis in normal media with or without CSC. Media was changed SEM is indicated by bars on figures and was calculated using and mithramycin was added at various concentrations for Microsoft Office Excel 2007. All experiments were conducted 24 hours; cells were harvested at indicated time points for with at a minimum of triplicate samples, and all P values were further analysis. calculated with 2-tailed t tests. RNA isolation, real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR, and microarray analysis Results Total RNA was isolated and real-time quantitative reverse CSC induces ABCG2 expression in cultured cancer cells transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) was done as described (19), Affymetrix microarrays were used to identify gene expres- using primers and probes listed in Supplementary Table S1. sion profiles in cultured lung and esophageal cancer cells Full details are submitted as Supplementary Methods. mediated by CSC under clinically relevant exposure condi- tions. ABCG2 [also known as breast cancer resistance Immunoblotting and immunofluorescence protein (BCRP)], which encodes a xenobiotic pump protein Submitted as Supplementary Methods. highly expressed in cancer stem cells (22), was one of the most highly upregulated genes in Calu-6, A549, EsC1, and Generation of stable cells expressing shRNA constructs EsC2 cells exposed to CSC (data not shown). Subsequent A549 and EsC2 cells were transfected with validated short