bims-meluca 2020-07-19 papers

Toxicol Res (Camb). 2020 Jun;9(3): 191-201

β-Escin alleviates cobalt chloride-induced hypoxia-mediated apoptotic resistance and invasion via ROS-dependent HIF-1α/TGF-β/MMPs in A549 cells.

Chermakani Paneerselvam, Sudhandiran Ganapasam.

Hypoxia is contributed in various pathophysiological conditions including obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. In cancer, hypoxia is a salient phenomenon and has been correlated with tumor progression, metastasis, and provoke resistance to therapies in cancer patients, which exert with stabilization of main effector, hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α). Therefore, therapeutic targeting of hypoxic responses in cancer is the potential approach to improve the better treatment efficacy. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of β-Escin (β-Es) on hypoxia-induced resistance to apoptosis and metastasis in human non-small-cell lung cancer cells. The MTT assay revealed that β-Es treatment decreased the A549 cells viability under cobalt chloride-induced hypoxia. Apoptotic proteins were analyzed by western blot that showed cancer cells treated with β-Es induced cell death in hypoxia condition as proteins compared with normoxia. Moreover, we observed that cobalt chloride induced hypoxia through the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species and stabilized the transcriptional factor HIF-1α, which leads to cancer metastasis. This notion was supported by the migration, invasion, and adhesion assays. Furthermore, hypoxia increased the expression of transforming growth factor-β, and the activation of matrix metalloproteinases were suppressed by the treatment of β-Es as well as pretreatment with N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Therefore, we demonstrate that a concurrent activation of HIF-1α, transforming growth factor-β, and matrix metalloproteinases participate in hypoxia-induced metastasis and that β-Es prevent A549 cells metastasis by inhibition of reactive oxygen species.

Keywords: MMPs; ROS; TGF-β; hypoxia; lung cancer; β-escin

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/toxres/tfaa019

Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2020 Jul 15.

TGF-β Promotes Metabolic Reprogramming in Lung Fibroblasts via mTORC1-dependent ATF4 Activation.

Erin M O'Leary, Yufeng Tian, Recep Nigdelioglu, Leah J Witt, Rengul Cetin-Atalay, Angelo Y Meliton, Parker S Woods, Lucas M Kimmig, Kaitlyn A Sun, Gizem A Gökalp, Gökhan M Mutlu, Robert B Hamanaka.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a fatal disease characterized by the TGF-β-dependent differentiation of lung fibroblasts into myofibroblasts, leading to excessive deposition of collagen proteins and progressive scarring. We have previously shown that synthesis of collagen by myofibroblasts requires de novo synthesis of glycine, the most abundant amino acid found in collagen protein. TGF-β upregulates the expression of the enzymes of the de novo serine/glycine synthesis pathway in lung fibroblasts; however, the transcriptional and signaling regulators of this pathway remain incompletely understood. Here we demonstrate that TGF-β promotes accumulation of Activating Transcription Factor 4 (ATF4) which is required for increased expression of the serine/glycine synthesis pathway enzymes in response to TGF-β. We found that induction of the Integrated Stress Response (ISR) contributes to TGF-β-induced ATF4 activity; however, the primary driver of ATF4 downstream of TGF-β is activation of the Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 (mTORC1). TGF-β activates the PI3-kinase-Akt-mTOR pathway, and inhibition of PI3-kinase prevents activation of downstream signaling and induction of ATF4. Using a panel of mTOR inhibitors, we found that ATF4 activation is dependent on mTORC1, independent of mTORC2. Rapamycin, which incompletely and allosterically inhibits mTORC1 had no effect on TGF-β-mediated induction of ATF4; however, Rapalink-1, which specifically targets the kinase domain of mTORC1 completely inhibited ATF4 induction and metabolic reprogramming downstream of TGF-β. Our results provide insight into the mechanisms of metabolic reprogramming in myofibroblasts and clarify contradictory published findings on the role of mTOR inhibition in myofibroblast differentiation.

Keywords: Fibrosis; Glycolysis; Metabolism; Mitochondria

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1165/rcmb.2020-0143OC

Front Genet. 2020 ;11 647

Identification of a Hypoxia-Associated Signature for Lung Adenocarcinoma.

Zhuomao Mo, Ling Yu, Zhirui Cao, Hao Hu, Shaoju Luo, Shijun Zhang.

Background: A hypoxia microenvironment plays a role in the initiation and progression of many cancer types, but its involvement in lung adenocarcinoma is still unclear. This study aimed to explore the potential correlation between hypoxia and lung adenocarcinoma and establish the hypoxia-associated gene signature in lung adenocarcinoma.
Methods: Lung adenocarcinoma cases were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. The genes to be included in the hypoxia-associated signature were selected by performing univariate Cox regression analysis and lasso regression analysis. Then, the gene signature was verified by performing a survival analysis and constructing the multiple receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The CIBERSORT tool was then used to investigate the potential correlation between the gene signature and immune cells. Moreover, a nomogram was constructed and evaluated by calculating the C-index.
Results: Four genes (XPNPEP1, ANGPTL4, SLC2A1, and PFKP) were included in the final signature. The results showed that patients in the high-risk group showed worse survival than those in the low-risk group. Moreover, we found two types of immune cells (memory activated CD4+ T cell and M0 macrophages) which showed a significant infiltration in the tissues of the high-risk group patients.
Conclusion: The hypoxia-associated gene signature established and validated in this study could be used as a potential prognostic factor in lung adenocarcinoma and may guide the immunotherapy choice.

Keywords: TCGA; hypoxia; lung adenocarcinoma; prognostic factor; signature

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2020.00647