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MUC1-C inhibitor is synergistic with chemotherapeutic and targeted drugs
Mol Cancer Ther ; 16(10):2304-2314; Jain S, Washington A, Leaf RK, Bhargava P, Clark RA, Kupper TS, Stroopinsky D, Pyzer A, Cole L, Nahas M, Apel A, Rosenblatt J, Arnason J, Kufe D, and Avigan D.
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Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) is a heterogeneous neoplasm and patients with relapsed/refractory disease exhibit resistance to standard therapies. We have previously demonstrated that the Mucin 1 C-terminal subunit (MUC1-C) plays a critical role in protection from oxidative stress in CTCL cells. Targeting of MUC1-C with a pharmacologic inhibitor, GO-203, was associated with apoptosis in CTCL. However, disease responses were incomplete underscoring the need for combinatorial strategies that could exploit the vulnerability of CTCL cells to oxidative signals. Cell lines, primary samples, and xenograft models of CTCL were used to assess synergy of GO-203 with decitabine, a hypomethylating agent. Present studies demonstrate that exposure of CTCL cells to decitabine in combination with GO-203, increased the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and decreased levels of scavenger molecules, NADP, NADPH, glutathione, and TIGAR, critical to intracellular redox homeostasis. Dual exposure to GO-203 and decitabine resulted in marked downregulation of DNA methyl transferases demonstrating significant synergy of these agents in inducing global and gene specific hypomethylation. Accordingly, treatment with decitabine and GO-203 upregulated the ROS generating enzymes, NADPH oxidase 4 and dual oxidase 2 potentially due to their effect on epigenomic regulation of these proteins. In concert with these findings, exposure to decitabine and GO-203 resulted in heightened apoptotic death in CTCL cell lines, patient-derived primary samples and in a murine xenograft model. These findings indicate that decitabine intensifies MUC1-C inhibition induced redox imbalance and provides a novel combination of targeted and epigenetic agents for patients with CTCL. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(10); 2304-14. (c)2017 AACR.
Bone marrow stroma protects myeloma cells from cytotoxic damage via induction of the oncoprotein MUC1
Br J Haematol , 2017; 176(6):929-936; Bar-Natan M, Stroopinsky D, Luptakova K, Coll MD, Apel A, Rajabi H, Pyzer AR, Palmer K, Reagan MR, Nahas MR, Karp Leaf R, Jain S, Arnason J, Ghobrial IM, Anderson KC, Kufe D, Rosenblatt J, and Avigan D.
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Multiple myeloma (MM) is a lethal haematological malignancy that arises in the context of a tumour microenvironment that promotes resistance to apoptosis and immune escape. In the present study, we demonstrate that co-culture of MM cells with stromal cells results in increased resistance to cytotoxic and biological agents as manifested by decreased rates of cell death following exposure to alkylating agents and the proteosome inhibitor, bortezomib. To identify the mechanism of increased resistance, we examined the effect of the co-culture of MM cells with stroma cells, on expression of the MUC1 oncogene, known to confer tumour cells with resistance to apoptosis and necrosis. Co-culture of stroma with MM cells resulted in increased MUC1 expression by tumour cells. The effect of stromal cell co-culture on MUC1 expression was not dependent on cell contact and was therefore thought to be due to soluble factors secreted by the stromal cells into the microenvironment. We demonstrated that MUC1 expression was mediated by interleukin-6 and subsequent up-regulation of the JAK-STAT pathway. Interestingly, the effect of stromal cell co-culture on tumour resistance was partially reversed by silencing of MUC1 in MM cells, consistent with the potential role of MUC1 in mediating resistance to cytotoxic-based therapies.
Targeting the MUC1-C oncoprotein downregulates HER2 activation and abrogates trastuzumab resistance in breast cancer cells
Oncogene , 2014; 33(26):3422-3431; Raina D, Uchida Y, Kharbanda A, Rajabi H, Panchamoorthy G, Jin C, Kharbanda S, Scaltriti M, Baselga J, and Kufe D.
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Patients with HER2-positive breast cancer often exhibit intrinsic or acquired resistance to trastuzumab treatment. The transmembrane mucin 1 (MUC1) oncoprotein is aberrantly overexpressed in breast cancer cells and associates with HER2. The present studies demonstrate that silencing MUC1 C-terminal subunit (MUC1-C) in HER2-overexpressing SKBR3 and BT474 breast cancer cells results in the downregulation of constitutive HER2 activation. Moreover, treatment with the MUC1-C inhibitor, GO-203, was associated with disruption of MUC1-C/HER2 complexes and decreases in tyrosine-phosphorylated HER2 (p-HER2) levels. In studies of trastuzumab-resistant SKBR3R and BT474R cells, we found that the association between MUC1-C and HER2 is markedly increased (∼20-fold) as compared with that in sensitive cells. In addition, silencing MUC1-C in the trastuzumab-resistant cells or treatment with GO-203 decreased p-HER2 and AKT activation. Moreover, targeting MUC1-C was associated with the downregulation of phospho-p27 and cyclin E, which confer trastuzumab resistance. Consistent with these results, targeting MUC1-C inhibited the growth and clonogenic survival of both trastuzumab-resistant cells. Our results further demonstrate that silencing MUC1-C reverses resistance to trastuzumab and that the combination of GO-203 and trastuzumab is highly synergistic. These findings indicate that MUC1-C contributes to constitutive activation of the HER2 pathway and that targeting MUC1-C represents a potential approach to abrogate trastuzumab resistance.
Targeting MUC1-C is synergistic with bortezomib in downregulating TIGAR and inducing ROS-mediated myeloma cell death
Blood , 2014; 123(19):2997-3006; Yin L, Kufe T, Avigan D, and Kufe D.
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The proteosome inhibitor bortezomib (BTZ) induces endoplasmic reticulum and oxidative stress in multiple myeloma (MM) cells. The mucin 1 C-terminal subunit (MUC1-C) oncoprotein is aberrantly expressed in most MM cells, and targeting MUC1-C with GO-203, a cell-penetrating peptide inhibitor of MUC1-C homodimerization, is effective in inducing reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated MM cell death. The present results demonstrate that GO-203 and BTZ synergistically downregulate expression of the p53-inducible regulator of glycolysis and apoptosis (TIGAR), which promotes shunting of glucose-6-phosphate into the pentose phosphate pathway to generate reduced glutathione (GSH). In turn, GO-203 blocks BTZ-induced increases in GSH and results in synergistic increases in ROS and MM cell death. The results also demonstrate that GO-203 is effective against BTZ-resistant MM cells. We show that BTZ resistance is associated with BTZ-induced increases in TIGAR and GSH levels, and that GO-203 resensitizes BTZ-resistant cells to BTZ treatment by synergistically downregulating TIGAR and GSH. The GO-203/BTZ combination is thus highly effective in killing BTZ-resistant MM cells. These findings support a model in which targeting MUC1-C is synergistic with BTZ in suppressing TIGAR-mediated regulation of ROS levels and provide an experimental rationale for combining GO-203 with BTZ in certain settings of BTZ resistance.
Oncogenic MUC1-C promotes tamoxifen resistance in human breast cancer
Clinical Cancer Research , 2013; 11(7):714-723; Kharbanda A, Rajabi H, Jin C, Raina D, and Kufe D.
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Tamoxifen resistance of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer cells has been linked in part to activation of receptor tyrosine kinases, such as HER2, and the PI3K-AKT pathway. Mucin 1 (MUC1) is aberrantly overexpressed in about 90% of human breast cancers, and the oncogenic MUC1-C subunit is associated with ERα. The present studies using HER2 overexpressing BT-474 breast cancer cells, which are constitutively resistant to tamoxifen, demonstrate that silencing MUC1-C is associated with (i) downregulation of p-HER2 and (ii) sensitivity to tamoxifen-induced growth inhibition and loss of clonogenic survival. In contrast, overexpression of MUC1-C in tamoxifen-sensitive MCF-7 breast cancer cells resulted in upregulation of p-AKT and tamoxifen resistance. We show that MUC1-C forms complexes with ERα on the estrogen-responsive promoter of Rab31 and that MUC1-C blocks tamoxifen-induced decreases in ERα occupancy. MUC1-C also attenuated tamoxifen-induced decreases in (i) recruitment of the coactivator CREB binding protein, (ii) Rab31 promoter activation, and (iii) Rab31 mRNA and protein levels. The importance of MUC1-C is further supported by the demonstration that targeting MUC1-C with the cell-penetrating peptide inhibitor, GO-203, sensitized tamoxifen-resistant cells to tamoxifen treatment. Moreover, we show that targeting MUC1-C in combination with tamoxifen is highly synergistic in the treatment of tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer cells. Combined, these findings indicate that MUC1-C contributes to tamoxifen resistance.
Inhibition of the MUC1-C oncoprotein is synergistic with cytotoxic agents in the treatment of breast cancer cells
Cancer Biology & Therapy , 2013; 14(2):127-134; Uchida Y, Raina D, Kharbanda S, and Kufe D.
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Mucin 1 (MUC1) is a heterodimeric glycoprotein that is aberrantly overexpressed in most human breast cancers. The oncogenic MUC1-C subunit promotes survival and blocks the apoptotic response to genotoxic anticancer agents. In the present studies, human MCF-7 and ZR-75-1 breast cancer cells were treated with the MUC1-C inhibitor, GO-203, a cell-penetrating peptide that blocks MUC1-C homodimerization and thereby its oncogenic function. Treatment with GO-203 was found to promote the apoptotic response of MCF-7 and ZR-75-1 cells to the therapeutic drugs taxol and doxorubicin (DOX). This effect was (1) attenuated by a pan-caspase inhibitor, and (2) mediated, at least in part, by activation of the effector caspase-7 and cleavage of the downstream substrate PARP. Further analysis of the interaction between GO-203 and taxol using isobolograms, which evaluate the nature of the interaction of two drugs, demonstrated that the combination is highly synergistic. These results were supported by combination index (CI) analysis with values of less than 1. GO-203 was also highly synergistic with DOX in studies of both MCF-7 and ZR-75-1 breast cancer cells. These findings indicate that blocking MUC1-C function could be effective in combination with taxol and DOX for the treatment of breast cancer.