MOLECULAR ONCOLOGY 10 (2016) 317e329 available at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect www.elsevier.com/locate/molonc CREB-binding protein regulates lung cancer growth by targeting MAPK and CPSF4 signaling pathway Zhipeng Tanga,1, Wendan Yua,1, Changlin Zhangb,1, Shilei Zhaoa, Zhenlong Yua, Xiangsheng Xiaob, Ranran Tanga, Yang Xuana, Wenjing Yanga, Jiaojiao Haoa, Tingting Xua, Qianyi Zhanga, Wenlin Huangb,c, Wuguo Dengb,c,*, Wei Guoa,* aInstitute of Cancer Stem Cell, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China bSun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center of Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, China cState Key Laboratory of Targeted Drug for Tumors of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou Double Bioproduct Inc., Guangzhou, China ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: CBP (CREB-binding protein) is a transcriptional co-activator which possesses HAT (histone Received 15 September 2015 acetyltransferases) activity and participates in many biological processes, including embry- Accepted 19 October 2015 onic development, growth control and homeostasis. However, its roles and the underlying Available online 5 November 2015 mechanisms in the regulation of carcinogenesis and tumor development remain largely unknown. Here we investigated the molecular mechanisms and potential targets of CBP Keywords: involved in tumor growth and survival in lung cancer cells. Elevated expression of CBP CBP was detected in lung cancer cells and tumor tissues compared to the normal lung cells CPSF4 and tissues. Knockdown of CBP by siRNA or inhibition of its HAT activity using specific hTERT chemical inhibitor effectively suppressed cell proliferation, migration and colony forma- Lung cancer tion and induced apoptosis in lung cancer cells by inhibiting MAPK and activating cyto- chrome C/caspase-dependent signaling pathways. Co-immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence analyses revealed the co-localization and interaction between CBP and CPSF4 (cleavage and polyadenylation specific factor 4) proteins in lung cancer cells. Knockdown of CPSF4 inhibited hTERT transcription and cell growth induced by CBP, and vice versa, demonstrating the synergetic effect of CBP and CPSF4 in the regulation of lung cancer cell growth and survival. Moreover, we found that high expression of both CBP and CPSF4 predicted a poor prognosis in the patients with lung adenocarcinomas. Collectively, our results indicate that CBP regulates lung cancer growth by targeting MAPK and CPSF4 signaling pathways. ª 2015 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding authors. Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, China; Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, China. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (W. Guo), [email protected] (W. Deng). 1 These authors contributed equally to this article. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.molonc.2015.10.015 1574-7891/ª 2015 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 318 MOLECULAR ONCOLOGY 10 (2016) 317e329 1. Introduction than those with CBP-negative tumors (Gao et al., 2014). Furthermore, the high expression of CBP was found in Lung cancer, a malignant lung tumor with uncontrolled cell different lung carcinoma cell lines and was positively corre- growth in lung tissue, remains the most frequent solid tumor lated with the expression of hTERT in lung tumor cells and tis- worldwide and also a leading cause of cancer-related mortal- sues (Guo et al., 2014). Nevertheless, the accurate and in-depth ity in men and women (Allemani et al., 2015; Siegel et al., molecular mechanisms of CBP on lung carcinoma remain not 2014). Although surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy fully understood. are applied as common treatments, the average survival CPSF4, cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor sub- time from the time of diagnosis is still short for patients unit 4, is known to be an essential component responsible for with lung cancer, usually measured in months, and the out- the 30 end processing of cellular pre-mRNAs (Barabino et al., comes are even worse in the developing countries 1997). When cells were infected by influenza virus, the virus (Provencio and Sanchez, 2014; Slavik et al., 2014). Lung carci- NS1 protein was physically associated with CPSF4 to prevent nogenesis and development is a multistep process, involving its binding to the RNA substrate and further inhibited the nu- genetic mutations, epigenetic changes, abnormal events of clear export of cellular mRNAs (Nemeroff et al., 1998). Howev- stem cells, and activation of signaling pathways associated er, its other biological functions have been rarely reported and with metastasis that accumulate to initiate and worsen this even nearly unknown besides mediating the maturation of disease (Kratz et al., 2010; Liu et al., 2015; Lundin and pre-mRNA. We previously have shown that CPSF4 was over- Driscoll, 2013; Mitsudomi, 2014; Van Breda et al., 2014; Wang expressed in lung adenocarcinomas and was participated in et al., 2013b; Yang and Qi, 2012; Zajkowicz et al., 2015). Such lung cancer cell growth (Chen et al., 2013). In addition, we complexity and variation in real time reversely limits thera- demonstrated its new function as transcriptional factor in peutic options, weakens treatment effects, and leads to poor activating hTERT in lung cancer cells (Chen et al., 2014b). prognosis for patients with this tumor. Therefore, the uncov- These evidences, together with the reported correlation be- ering of the accurate molecular mechanisms and the further tween CBP and hTERT in lung tumor and the important role identification of new candidate therapeutic targets are ur- of hTERT in carcinogenesis and development, prompted us gently required to improve lung cancer treatment. to test the possibly potential relationship between CBP and The current research focusing on the identification and CPSF4, and their possible synergistic regulation on hTERT development of new anti-tumor drugs is to explore and reveal expression and lung cancer survival. the particular characteristics or hallmarks involved in cancer In this study, we investigated the exact functions and mo- development. CBP, a CREB-binding protein, has been reported lecular mechanisms of CBP involved in lung adenocarcinoma to be participated in many biological processes, including em- growth and provided the direct evidence from both in vitro ex- bryonic development, growth control, and homeostasis periments and clinical data analyses that CBP actually func- (Goodman and Smolik, 2000; Liu et al., 2014; Stachowiak tionalized as oncoprotein to promote lung cancer et al., 2015; Turnell and Mymryk, 2006; Valor et al., 2013). It progression by modulating MAPK and cytochrome C/caspase shares regions of very high-sequence similarity with protein signaling pathways. More interestingly, we found the cooper- p300 and is involved in the transcriptional coactivation of ation between CBP and CPSF4 and their synergistic regulation many different transcriptional factors by interacting with on lung cancer cell survival, indicating this promoting role of them and increase the expression of their target genes (Gray CBP in lung cancer was at least partially realized through syn- et al., 2005; Jansma et al., 2014; Jia et al., 2014; Kasper et al., ergistic interaction with CPSF4. 2006; Lin et al., 2014; Vo and Goodman, 2001; Wang et al., 2013a; Xiao et al., 2015). Meanwhile, as a histone acetyltrans- ferase, CBP is also involved in gene transactivation or repres- 2. Materials and methods sion by mediating the acetylation of both histone and non- histone proteins (Cai et al., 2014; Cazzalini et al., 2014; Chen 2.1. Cell lines and culture et al., 2014a; Dancy and Cole, 2015; Ferrari et al., 2014; Jin et al., 2011; Kim et al., 2012; Tie et al., 2009). Together with All cell lines were purchased from the American Type Culture p300, gene mutation or chromosomal translocation within Collection (ATCC, Manassas, VA). Normal human bronchial CBP gene or its aberrant recruitment at chromatin structure epithelial cell line (HBE) and human lung fibroblast cell line has been identified to be associated with several types of can- (HLF) were maintained in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium cer, including tumors arising from colon and rectum, stom- supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. Human lung can- ach, breast, pancreas cancers, ovarian and acute myeloid cer cell lines (H1299, A549, H322, H460) were cultured in RPMI leukemia (Mullighan et al., 2011; Pasqualucci et al., 2011). 1640 medium containing 10% fetal calf serum (FCS). All the Moreover, the inhibition of histone acetyltransferase activity cells were maintained in a humidified atmosphere with 5% of CBP/p300 or the inhibition of CBP’s activity as transcrip- CO2 at 37 C. tional co-activator have been found to be able to block cancer cell growth in vitro and in vivo in neuroblastoma, pancreatic 2.2. Plasmid vector cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (Arensman et al., 2014; Gajer et al., 2015; Giotopoulos et al., 2015). In lung cancer, the pa- A fragment of the hTERT promoter (À459 to þ9) was amplified tients with CBP-positive expression had shown significantly by PCR and inserted into the SacI and SmaI sites of the lucif- lower OS (Overall Survival) and DFS (Disease Free Survival) erase reporter vector pGL3-Basic (Promega Corp., Madison, MOLECULAR ONCOLOGY 10 (2016) 317e329 319 WI) to generate the hTERT promoter luciferase plasmid pGL3- AnnexinV-FITC was added,