Erbin belongs to the LAP (leucine-rich repeat and PDZ domain) family of scaffolding proteins that play important roles in orchestrating cell signaling. Here, we show that Erbin functions as a tumor suppressor in colon cancer. Analysis of Erbin expression in patient specimens reveals that Erbin is downregulated at both mRNA and protein levels in tumor tissues. Functionally, knockdown of Erbin disrupts epithelial cell polarity and increases cell proliferation in 3D culture. In addition, silencing Erbin results in an increase in the amplitude and duration of signaling through Akt and RAS/RAF pathways. Moreover, Erbin-loss induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which coincides with a significant increase in cell migration and invasion. Erbin interacts with KSR1 and displaces it from the RAF/MEK/ERK complex to prevent signaling propagation. Furthermore, genetic deletion of Erbin in Apc knockout mice promotes tumorigenesis and significantly reduces survival. Tumor organoids derived from Erbin/Apc double knockout mice have increased tumor initiation potential along with increased Wnt target gene expression as seen by qPCR. Collectively, the studies within this dissertation identify Erbin as a negative regulator of EMT and tumor progression by directly suppressing Akt and RAS/RAF signaling in vivo.

Imidazolium trans-[tetrachloro (dimethyl sulfoxide)(imidazole)ruthenate(III)], NAMI-A, is an experimental metastasis inhibitor whose specific mechanism of activation and action remains to be elucidated. In the nucleophilic and reducing physiological environment; it is anticipated that the most relevant and available reductants upon introduction of NAMI-A as a therapeutic agent will be the biologically-relevant free thiols. The kinetics and mechanisms of interaction of NAMI-A with biologically-active thiols cysteamine, glutathione, cysteine and a popular chemoprotectant, 2-mercaptoethane sulfonate (MESNA) have been studied spectrophotometrically under physiologically-relevant conditions. The reactions are characterized by initial reduction of NAMI-A with simultaneous formation of dimeric thiol and subsequent ligand exchange with water to various degrees as evidenced by Electospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry. Stoichiometry of reactions shows that one molecule of NAMI-A reacted with one mole of thiol to form corresponding disulfide cystamine, dimeric MESNA, oxidized glutathione and cystine. Observed rate constants, ko, for the reaction of NAMI-A with cysteamine, MESNA, GSH and cysteine were deduced to be 6.85 + 0.3 x 10-1, 9.4 + 0.5 x 10-2 , 7.42 + 0.4 x 10-3 and 3.63 + 0.3 x 10-2 s-1 respectively. Activation parameters determined from Arrhenius plots are indicative of formation of associative intermediates prior to formation of products. A negative correlation was obtained from the Brønsted plot derived from observed rate constants and the pKa of the different thiols demonstrating significant contribution of thiolate species towards the rate. In conclusion, interactions of NAMI-A with biologically-active thiols are kinetically and thermodynamically favored and should play significant roles in in vivo metabolism of NAMI-A.

Eukaryotic gene expression is a complex process and can be controlled at the level of transcription, post-transcription or translation and post-translation. In recent years, there is a growing interest in understanding the role of 3'-untranslated region (UTR) in regulating mRNA turnover and translation. The 3'-UTR harbors the poly(A) signal and post-transcriptional regulatory sequences like miRNA and AU-rich elements (AREs). The presence of multiple poly(A) sites often results in multiple transcripts; shorter transcripts correlating with more protein abundance. Manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) is a nuclear encoded and mitochondrial matrix localized antioxidant enzyme that converts mitochondrial generated superoxide to hydrogen peroxide. Human MnSOD has two poly(A) sites resulting in two transcripts: 1.5 and 4.2 kb. We hypothesize that the 3'-UTR of MnSOD regulates its mRNA and protein levels as well as activity in response to growth states and environmental stress. Results from a Q-RT-PCR assay showed a preferential accumulation of the shorter MnSOD transcript during quiescence, which correlated with an increase in MnSOD activity. The accumulation of the longer MnSOD transcript during proliferation was associated with a decrease in MnSOD activity. Log transformed expression ratio of the longer to shorter transcript was also higher in proliferating epithelial non-cancerous (mammary: MCF-10A) and cancer cells (mammary: MB-231, SUM 159; oral squamous: SQ20B, FaDu, Cal27; and lung: A549, H292), suggesting that the abundance of the longer transcript is independent of cellular transformation status, instead it is dependent on cellular growth state. Interestingly, the abundance of the longer transcript directly correlated with percent S-phase (R2=0.86). The shorter transcript was enriched in irradiated MB-231 cells. MCF-10A cells exposed to 2-(4-chlorophenyl)benzo-1,4-quinone (4-Cl-BQ), a metabolite of the environmental pollutant polychlorinated biphenyl 3, showed a significant decrease in the abundance of the 4.2 kb transcript due to a faster mRNA turnover, 14 h compared to 20 h in untreated control cells. The decrease in the 4.2 kb transcript levels was associated with a corresponding decrease in MnSOD protein levels and activity, which resulted in a significant inhibition of quiescent cells entry into the proliferative cycle. Deletion and reporter assays showed: (a) a significant decrease in reporter activity in constructs carrying multiple AREs that are present in the 3'-UTR of the longer MnSOD transcript; (b) irradiation increased the reporter activity of the constructs carrying the 3'-UTR sequence of the shorter MnSOD transcript and (c) N-acetyl-cysteine increased the reporter activity of constructs carrying multiple AREs. Because the longer transcript carries AREs, our results identified redox sensitive AREs as novel regulators of MnSOD transcript levels. We conclude that MnSOD 3'-UTR is a novel molecular sensor regulating MnSOD mRNA levels in response to different growth states and environmental stress. A better understanding of the 3'-UTR regulating gene expression could lead to the development of new molecular biology-based redox therapy designed to treat proliferative disorders.

IFN-α has been applied in medical treatment of various neuroendocrine (NE) tumors, either alone or combination with somatostatin analogues. They can improve clinical symptoms in 50-70% of patients but a significant tumor reduction is only observed in 5-15% patients. Vasostatin (vaso) is believed to be an angiogenic inhibitor. The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility to use IFN-α and vasostatin gene therapy in NE tumors. We constructed plasmid vectors carrying human IFN-α2 (hIFN-α2) gene and human vasostatin gene, which were transfected into BON I cell to obtain stable gene-expressing cell lines. We found that in animal tumor model and cell experiments gene transfer of vasostatin caused a faster cell growth and tumor development via down-regulation of the tumor suppressor gene and p27. Cell adhesion, spreading, migration and invasion ability were increased in vaso-expressing BON I cells. Transfecting chicken vinculin could reverse the malignant behavior and restored expression of tumor suppressor genes. Moreover, vinculin knockdown could result in a faster cell growth and an increased colony formation. Condition medium taken from hIFN-α2-expressing BON I cells showed significant antiproliferative effects both on the NE tumor cells, BON I and LCC18, and the endothelial cells, PAE. It also suppressed cell adhesion and cell invasion and inhibited angiogenesis on CAM assay. Mice implanted with a mixture of WT BON cells and hIFN-α2-expressing BON cells (1:1) demonstrated significantly lower tumor incidence and longer tumor doubling time. Furthermore, long-acting IFN-α2b (PEGIntron®) demonstrated a better anti-tumor effect in contrast with IFN-α2b (IntronA®). Intratumoral injection of hIFN-α2 plasmids significantly inhibited NE tumor growth and caused tumor regression. We concluded that gene transfer of vasostatin into BON I cells might cause an enhanced malignant tumor behavior. Therefore, vasostatin therapy can not be recommended for patients with NE tumors. Vinculin might play an important role in NE tumor development and growth regulation. Gene therapy by using plasmid DNA carrying hIFN-α2 gene is feasible and promising in NE tumors.

Familial Pancreatic Cancer (FPC) is a cancer syndrome characterized by clustering of pancreatic cancer in families, but most FPC cases do not have a known genetic etiology. Understanding genetic predisposition to pancreatic cancer is important for improving screening as well as treatment. The central aim of this thesis is to identify candidate susceptibility genes for FPC, and I used three approaches of increasing resolution. First, based on a candidate-gene approach, I hypothesized that BRCA1 is inactivated by loss-of-heterozygosity in pancreatic adenocarcinoma of germline mutation carriers. I demonstrated that 5/7 pancreatic tumors from BRCA1-mutation carriers show LOH, compared to only 1/9 sporadic tumors, suggesting that BRCA1 inactivation is involved in tumorigenesis in germline mutation carriers. Second, I hypothesized that the germline genomes of FPC subjects differ in copy-number profile from healthy genomes, and that regions affected by rare deletions or duplications in FPC subjects overlap candidate tumor-suppressors or oncogenes. I found no significant difference in the global copy-number profile of FPC and control genomes, but I identified 93 copy-number variable genomic regions unique to FPC subjects, overlapping 88 genes of which several have functional roles in cancer development. I investigated one duplication to sequence the breakpoints, but I found that this duplication did not segregate with disease in the affected family. Third, I hypothesized that in a family with multiple pancreatic cancer patients, genes containing rare variants shared by the affected members constitute susceptibility genes. Using next-generation sequencing to capture most bases in coding regions of the genome, I interrogated the germline exome of three relatives who died of pancreatic cancer and a relative who is healthy at advanced age. I identified a short-list of nine candidate genes with unreported mutations shared by the three affected relatives and absent in the unaffected relative, of which a few had functional relevance to tumorigenesis. I performed Sanger sequencing to screen an unrelated cohort of approximately 70 FPC patients for mutations in the top two candidate genes, but I found no additional rare variants in those genes. In conclusion, I present a list of candidate FPC susceptibility genes for further validation and investigation in future studies.

Familial Pancreatic Cancer (FPC) is a cancer syndrome characterized by clustering of pancreatic cancer in families, but most FPC cases do not have a known genetic etiology. Understanding genetic predisposition to pancreatic cancer is important for improving screening as well as treatment. The central aim of this thesis is to identify candidate susceptibility genes for FPC, and I used three approaches of increasing resolution. First, based on a candidate-gene approach, I hypothesized that BRCA1 is inactivated by loss-of-heterozygosity in pancreatic adenocarcinoma of germline mutation carriers. I demonstrated that 5/7 pancreatic tumors from BRCA1-mutation carriers show LOH, compared to only 1/9 sporadic tumors, suggesting that BRCA1 inactivation is involved in tumorigenesis in germline mutation carriers. Second, I hypothesized that the germline genomes of FPC subjects differ in copy-number profile from healthy genomes, and that regions affected by rare deletions or duplications in FPC subjects overlap candidate tumor-suppressors or oncogenes. I found no significant difference in the global copy-number profile of FPC and control genomes, but I identified 93 copy-number variable genomic regions unique to FPC subjects, overlapping 88 genes of which several have functional roles in cancer development. I investigated one duplication to sequence the breakpoints, but I found that this duplication did not segregate with disease in the affected family. Third, I hypothesized that in a family with multiple pancreatic cancer patients, genes containing rare variants shared by the affected members constitute susceptibility genes. Using next-generation sequencing to capture most bases in coding regions of the genome, I interrogated the germline exome of three relatives who died of pancreatic cancer and a relative who is healthy at advanced age. I identified a short-list of nine candidate genes with unreported mutations shared by the three affected relatives and absent in the unaffected relative, of which a few had functional relevance to tumorigenesis. I performed Sanger sequencing to screen an unrelated cohort of approximately 70 FPC patients for mutations in the top two candidate genes, but I found no additional rare variants in those genes. In conclusion, I present a list of candidate FPC susceptibility genes for further validation and investigation in future studies.

<p>Breast cancer remains among the most common cancers of the developed world. Despite advances in treatment modalities, deaths due to breast cancer are the second leading cause of cancer death among women. The transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-&beta;) pathway is an important modulator of breast cancer progression, acting in a tumor suppressing fashion in early carcinogenesis but switching in a poorly understood fashion to a promoter of cancer progression in later stages. Mutations and loss of function of TGF-&beta; components are common across a variety of cancers. In particular, the expression of the type III TGF-&beta; receptor (T&beta;RIII) is decreased with cancer grade and clinical progression in prostate, lung, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers. In an effort to enhance our understanding of the biology of TGF-&beta; on carcinogenesis, this dissertation looks at the role of T&beta;RIII in breast cancer progression.</p><p>Through an examination of clinical specimens, loss of T&beta;RIII was seen at both the message and protein levels with increasing tumor grade. Analysis of correlated patient outcomes showed that low T&beta;RIII expression was predictive of a shorter time to recurrence, demonstrating clinical relevance for T&beta;RIII expression. The contribution of T&beta;RIII to tumor progression was further examined by examining known TGF-&beta; functions, including proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion. T&beta;RIII had no effect on proliferation or apoptosis, but had a suppressive effect on metastasis <italic>in vivo</italic>, as mammary cancer cells stably expressing T&beta;RIII that were orthotopically injected exhibited lower metatstatic burden and local invasion. <italic>In vitro</italic>, breast cancer cells exhibited suppression of migration and invasion in transwell assays. Finally, soluble T&beta;RIII (sT&beta;RIII) was shown to recapitulate the suppressive effects on invasion.</p><p>To further explore other potential mechanisms by which T&beta;RIII may be mediating its tumor suppressive effects, I examined the contribution of the cytoplasmic domain of T&beta;RIII, which is known to be critical in the regulation of T&beta;RIII cell surface expression and downstream signaling. <italic>In vitro</italic>, I demonstrated that abrogation of the cytoplasmic domain attenuates the T&beta;RIII-mediated suppression of migration and invasion. T&beta;RIII's suppressive effects are also concomitant with loss of TGF-&beta; signaling, as abrogation of the cytoplasmic domain failed to attenuate TGF-&beta; signaling while the full length receptor was able to do so. <italic>In vivo</italic>, I also showed that in the absence of the cytoplasmic domain, T&beta;RIII is unable to suppress metastasis and local invasion. Finally, a closer dissection of the cytoplasmic domain revealed that abolishing the interaction of T&beta;RIII with the scaffolding protein GIPC also attenuated T&beta;RIII's ability to dampen TGF-&beta; signaling and invasion.</p><p>In sum, T&beta;RIII was established as a prognostic marker for recurrence-free survival of breast cancer patients and as a suppressor of metastasis, migration, and invasion. Furthermore, several mechanisms contribute to T&beta;RIII's tumor suppressive effects, namely the generation of sT&beta;RIII and the interaction of T&beta;RIII with GIPC. Taken together, these studies further demonstrate the importance of TGF-&beta; signaling in cancer biology, elucidate mechanisms by which T&beta;RIII suppresses breast carcinogenesis, and expand upon our understanding of the emerging roles of T&beta;RIII in regulating tumor biology in general.</p> / Dissertation

WW domain-containing oxidoreductase (WWOX) is a novel tumor suppressor gene discovered few years ago. Many researches indicate that expression of WWOX is reduced in a variety of cancers including heptocellular carcinoma (HCC). A recent report suggests that WWOX is implicated in Wnt/£]-catenin pathway which is frequently affected in HCC. In this study, we used immunohistochemical (IHC) staining to analyze the expression of WWOX and Wnt/£]-catenin pathway components in HCC and adjacent non-tumor tissues. Our result showed that WWOX was significantly downregulated in poor differentiated HCC. In addition, downregulation of WWOX was significantly correlated with cytoplasmic £]-catenin expression. We also found that TCF4 was strongly expressed in HCC tissues and the expression was associated with tumor grade and stage. Consequently, our result implied that downregulation of WWOX in HCC might lead to accumulation of £]-catenin in the cytoplasm and the subsequent activation of Wnt/£]-catenin signaling pathway.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2009. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.