bims-tuchim 2021-12-19 papers

Issue of 2021‒12‒19
four papers selected by
Philipp Albrecht
Friedrich Schiller University

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 ;9 787485

Targeting Tumor-Stromal Interactions in Pancreatic Cancer: Impact of Collagens and Mechanical Traits.

Parniyan Maneshi, James Mason, Mitesh Dongre, Daniel Öhlund.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has one of the worst outcomes among cancers with a 5-years survival rate of below 10%. This is a result of late diagnosis and the lack of effective treatments. The tumor is characterized by a highly fibrotic stroma containing distinct cellular components, embedded within an extracellular matrix (ECM). This ECM-abundant tumor microenvironment (TME) in PDAC plays a pivotal role in tumor progression and resistance to treatment. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), being a dominant cell type of the stroma, are in fact functionally heterogeneous populations of cells within the TME. Certain subtypes of CAFs are the main producer of the ECM components of the stroma, with the most abundant one being the collagen family of proteins. Collagens are large macromolecules that upon deposition into the ECM form supramolecular fibrillar structures which provide a mechanical framework to the TME. They not only bring structure to the tissue by being the main structural proteins but also contain binding domains that interact with surface receptors on the cancer cells. These interactions can induce various responses in the cancer cells and activate signaling pathways leading to epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and ultimately metastasis. In addition, collagens are one of the main contributors to building up mechanical forces in the tumor. These forces influence the signaling pathways that are involved in cell motility and tumor progression and affect tumor microstructure and tissue stiffness by exerting solid stress and interstitial fluid pressure on the cells. Taken together, the TME is subjected to various types of mechanical forces and interactions that affect tumor progression, metastasis, and drug response. In this review article, we aim to summarize and contextualize the recent knowledge of components of the PDAC stroma, especially the role of different collagens and mechanical traits on tumor progression. We furthermore discuss different experimental models available for studying tumor-stromal interactions and finally discuss potential therapeutic targets within the stroma.

Keywords: PDAC—pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; collagen; extracellular matrix; mechanical traits; pancreatic cancer; stroma

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2021.787485

Nat Commun. 2021 Dec 17. 12(1): 7336

Heterocellular OSM-OSMR signalling reprograms fibroblasts to promote pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis.

Brian Y Lee, Elizabeth K J Hogg, Christopher R Below, Alexander Kononov, Adrian Blanco-Gomez, Felix Heider, Jingshu Xu, Colin Hutton, Xiaohong Zhang, Tamara Scheidt, Kenneth Beattie, Angela Lamarca, Mairéad McNamara, Juan W Valle, Claus Jørgensen.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is a lethal malignancy with a complex microenvironment. Dichotomous tumour-promoting and -restrictive roles have been ascribed to the tumour microenvironment, however the effects of individual stromal subsets remain incompletely characterised. Here, we describe how heterocellular Oncostatin M (OSM) - Oncostatin M Receptor (OSMR) signalling reprograms fibroblasts, regulates tumour growth and metastasis. Macrophage-secreted OSM stimulates inflammatory gene expression in cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), which in turn induce a pro-tumourigenic environment and engage tumour cell survival and migratory signalling pathways. Tumour cells implanted in Osm-deficient (Osm-/-) mice display an epithelial-dominated morphology, reduced tumour growth and do not metastasise. Moreover, the tumour microenvironment of Osm-/- animals exhibit increased abundance of α smooth muscle actin positive myofibroblasts and a shift in myeloid and T cell phenotypes, consistent with a more immunogenic environment. Taken together, these data demonstrate how OSM-OSMR signalling coordinates heterocellular interactions to drive a pro-tumourigenic environment in PDA.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27607-8

Gut. 2021 Dec 17. pii: gutjnl-2021-325180. [Epub ahead of print]

Reversal of pancreatic desmoplasia by a tumour stroma-targeted nitric oxide nanogel overcomes TRAIL resistance in pancreatic tumours.

Hsi-Chien Huang, Yun-Chieh Sung, Chung-Pin Li, Dehui Wan, Po-Han Chao, Yu-Ting Tseng, Bo-Wen Liao, Hui-Teng Cheng, Fu-Fei Hsu, Chieh-Cheng Huang, Yi-Ting Chen, Yu-Hui Liao, Hsin Tzu Hsieh, Yu-Chuan Shih, I-Ju Liu, Han-Chung Wu, Tsai-Te Lu, Jane Wang, Yunching Chen.

OBJECTIVE: Stromal barriers, such as the abundant desmoplastic stroma that is characteristic of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), can block the delivery and decrease the tumour-penetrating ability of therapeutics such as tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), which can selectively induce cancer cell apoptosis. This study aimed to develop a TRAIL-based nanotherapy that not only eliminated the extracellular matrix barrier to increase TRAIL delivery into tumours but also blocked antiapoptotic mechanisms to overcome TRAIL resistance in PDAC.DESIGN: Nitric oxide (NO) plays a role in preventing tissue desmoplasia and could thus be delivered to disrupt the stromal barrier and improve TRAIL delivery in PDAC. We applied an in vitro-in vivo combinatorial phage display technique to identify novel peptide ligands to target the desmoplastic stroma in both murine and human orthotopic PDAC. We then constructed a stroma-targeted nanogel modified with phage display-identified tumour stroma-targeting peptides to co-deliver NO and TRAIL to PDAC and examined the anticancer effect in three-dimensional spheroid cultures in vitro and in orthotopic PDAC models in vivo.
RESULTS: The delivery of NO to the PDAC tumour stroma resulted in reprogramming of activated pancreatic stellate cells, alleviation of tumour desmoplasia and downregulation of antiapoptotic BCL-2 protein expression, thereby facilitating tumour penetration by TRAIL and substantially enhancing the antitumour efficacy of TRAIL therapy.
CONCLUSION: The co-delivery of TRAIL and NO by a stroma-targeted nanogel that remodels the fibrotic tumour microenvironment and suppresses tumour growth has the potential to be translated into a safe and promising treatment for PDAC.

Keywords: drug resistance; fibrosis; pancreatic cancer

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2021-325180

Cancer Res. 2021 Dec 13. pii: canres.3209.2020. [Epub ahead of print]

HDAC2 facilitates pancreatic cancer metastasis.

The mortality of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is strongly associated with metastasis, a multi-step process that is incompletely understood in this disease. Although genetic drivers of PDAC metastasis have not been defined, transcriptional and epigenetic rewiring can contribute to the metastatic process. The epigenetic eraser histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) has been connected to less differentiated PDAC, but the function of HDAC2 in PDAC has not been comprehensively evaluated. Using genetically defined models, we show that HDAC2 is a cellular fitness factor that controls cell cycle in vitro and metastasis in vivo, particularly in undifferentiated, mesenchymal PDAC cells. Unbiased expression profiling detected a core set of HDAC2-regulated genes. HDAC2 controlled expression of several pro-survival receptor tyrosine kinases connected to mesenchymal PDAC, including PDGFRα, PDGFRβ, and EGFR. The HDAC2-maintained program disabled the tumor-suppressive arm of the TGFβ-pathway, explaining impaired metastasis formation of HDAC2-deficient PDAC. This data identifies HDAC2 as a tractable player in the PDAC metastatic cascade. The complexity of the function of epigenetic regulators like HDAC2 implicates that an increased understanding of these proteins is needed for implementation of effective epigenetic therapies.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-20-3209