Cheng Jiamin, Liu Chungang, Liu Limei, Chen Xuejiao, Shan Juanjuan, Shen Junjie, Zhu Wei, Qian Cheng
Institute of Pathology and Southwest Cancer Center, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, China.
Oncotarget. 2016 Apr 12;7(15):20597-611. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.7972.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer death. This high mortality has been commonly attributed to the presence of residual cancer stem cells (CSCs). Meanwhile, MEK1 signaling is regarded as a key molecular in HCC maintenance and development. However, nobody has figured out the particular mechanisms that how MEK1 signaling regulates liver CSCs self-renewal. In this study, we show that inhibition or depletion of MEK1 can significantly decrease liver CSCs self-renewal and tumor growth both in vitro and vivo conditions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that MEK1 signaling promotes liver CSCs self-renewal and tumorigenicity by maintaining SIRT1 level. Mechanistically, MEK1 signaling keeps SIRT1 protein stabilization through activating SIRT1 ubiquitination, which inhibits proteasomal degradation. Clinical analysis shows that patients co-expression of MEK1 and SIRT1 are associated with poor survival. Our finding indicates that MEK1-SIRT1 can act as a novel diagnostic biomarker and inhibition of MEK1 may be a viable therapeutic option for targeting liver CSCs treatment.
肝细胞癌(HCC)是癌症死亡的第三大主要原因。这种高死亡率通常归因于残留癌症干细胞(CSC)的存在。同时,MEK1信号通路被认为是HCC维持和发展的关键分子。然而,没有人弄清楚MEK1信号通路调节肝脏CSC自我更新的具体机制。在本研究中,我们表明抑制或敲除MEK1可在体外和体内条件下显著降低肝脏CSC的自我更新和肿瘤生长。此外,我们证明MEK1信号通路通过维持SIRT1水平促进肝脏CSC的自我更新和致瘤性。机制上,MEK1信号通路通过激活SIRT1泛素化来保持SIRT1蛋白的稳定性,从而抑制蛋白酶体降解。临床分析表明,MEK1和SIRT1共表达的患者生存预后较差。我们的研究结果表明,MEK1-SIRT1可作为一种新型诊断生物标志物,抑制MEK1可能是针对肝脏CSC治疗的一种可行治疗选择。
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