bims-stacyt 2020-07-12 papers

J Biol Chem. 2020 Jul 07. pii: jbc.RA120.012590. [Epub ahead of print]

Interleukin-6-mediated epigenetic control of the VEGFR2 gene induces disorganized angiogenesis in human breast tumors.

Mangala Hegde, Kanive Parashiva Guruprasad, Lingadakai Ramachandra, Kapaettu Satyamoorthy, Manjunath B Joshi.

Disorganized vessels in the tumor vasculature lead to impaired perfusion, resulting in reduced accessibility to immune cells and chemotherapeutic drugs. In the breast tumor-stroma interplay, paracrine factors such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) often facilitate disordered angiogenesis. We show here that epigenetic mechanisms regulate the cross-talk between IL-6 and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) signaling pathways in myoepithelial (CD10+) and endothelial (CD31+, CD105+, CD146+, and CD133-) cells isolated from malignant and non-malignant tissues of clinically characterized human breast tumors. Tumor endothelial (Endo-T) cells in 3D cultures exhibited higher VEGFR2 expression levels, accelerated migration, invasion, and disorganized sprout formation in response to elevated IL-6 levels secreted by tumor myoepithelial (Epi-T) cells. Constitutively, compared with normal endothelial (Endo-N) cells, Endo-T cells differentially expressed DNA methyltransferase isoforms and had increased levels of IL-6 signaling intermediates such as IL-6R and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3). Upon IL-6 treatment, Endo-N and Endo-T cells displayed altered expression of the DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) isoform. Mechanistic studies revealed that IL-6 induced proteasomal degradation of DNMT1, but not of DNMT3A and DNMT3B and subsequently led to promoter hypomethylation and expression/activation of VEGFR2. IL-6 induced VEGFR2 up-regulation was inhibited by overexpression of DNMT1. Transfection of a dominant-negative STAT3 mutant, but not of STAT1, abrogated VEGFR2 expression. Our results indicate that in the breast tumor microenvironment, IL-6 secreted from myoepithelial cells influences DNMT1 stability, induces the expression of VEGFR2 in endothelial cells via a promoter methylation-dependent mechanism, and leads to disordered angiogenesis.

Keywords: DNA methyltransferase; Tumor microenvironment; VEGFR2; angiogenesis; breast cancer; interleukin 6 (IL-6); signal transduction

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.RA120.012590

Dev Cell. 2020 Jun 30. pii: S1534-5807(20)30497-4. [Epub ahead of print]

Cancer Cells Don't Live Alone: Metabolic Communication within Tumor Microenvironments.

Fuming Li, M Celeste Simon.

Solid tumors reside in harsh tumor microenvironments (TMEs) together with various stromal cell types. During tumor progression and metastasis, both tumor and stromal cells undergo rapid metabolic adaptations. Tumor cells metabolically coordinate or compete with their "neighbors" to maintain biosynthetic and bioenergetic demands while escaping immunosurveillance or therapeutic interventions. Here, we provide an update on metabolic communication between tumor cells and heterogeneous stromal components in primary and metastatic TMEs and discuss emerging strategies to target metabolic communications for improved cancer treatments.

Keywords: antitumor immunity; combination therapy; immunomodulation; metabolic communication; metabolic symbiosis; metabolism; metastasis; nutrient competition; signaling molecule; stromal cells; tumor microenvironment

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2020.06.018

Cancers (Basel). 2020 Jul 02. pii: E1757. [Epub ahead of print]12(7):

Tumor Cell-Intrinsic Immunometabolism and Precision Nutrition in Cancer Immunotherapy.

Elisabet Cuyàs, Sara Verdura, Begoña Martin-Castillo, Tomás Alarcón, Ruth Lupu, Joaquim Bosch-Barrera, Javier A Menendez.

One of the greatest challenges in the cancer immunotherapy field is the need to biologically rationalize and broaden the clinical utility of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). The balance between metabolism and immune response has critical implications for overcoming the major weaknesses of ICIs, including their lack of universality and durability. The last decade has seen tremendous advances in understanding how the immune system's ability to kill tumor cells requires the conspicuous metabolic specialization of T-cells. We have learned that cancer cell-associated metabolic activities trigger shifts in the abundance of some metabolites with immunosuppressory roles in the tumor microenvironment. Yet very little is known about the tumor cell-intrinsic metabolic traits that control the immune checkpoint contexture in cancer cells. Likewise, we lack a comprehensive understanding of how systemic metabolic perturbations in response to dietary interventions can reprogram the immune checkpoint landscape of tumor cells. We here review state-of-the-art molecular- and functional-level interrogation approaches to uncover how cell-autonomous metabolic traits and diet-mediated changes in nutrient availability and utilization might delineate new cancer cell-intrinsic metabolic dependencies of tumor immunogenicity. We propose that clinical monitoring and in-depth molecular evaluation of the cancer cell-intrinsic metabolic traits involved in primary, adaptive, and acquired resistance to cancer immunotherapy can provide the basis for improvements in therapeutic responses to ICIs. Overall, these approaches might guide the use of metabolic therapeutics and dietary approaches as novel strategies to broaden the spectrum of cancer patients and indications that can be effectively treated with ICI-based cancer immunotherapy.

Keywords: diet; immune checkpoint inhibitors; immune checkpoints; metabolism; nutrition

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12071757