Pishas Kathleen I, Cowley Karla J, Pandey Ahwan, Hoang Therese, Beach Jessica A, Luu Jennii, Vary Robert, Smith Lorey K, Shembrey Carolyn E, Rashoo Nineveh, White Madelynne O, Simpson Kaylene J, Bild Andrea, Griffiths Jason I, Cheasley Dane, Campbell Ian, Bowtell David D L, Christie Elizabeth L
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia.
The Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
Cancers (Basel). 2021 Nov 11;13(22):5644. doi: 10.3390/cancers13225644.
Despite high response rates to initial chemotherapy, the majority of women diagnosed with High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer (HGSOC) ultimately develop drug resistance within 1-2 years of treatment. We previously identified the most common mechanism of acquired resistance in HGSOC to date, transcriptional fusions involving the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter , which has well established roles in multidrug resistance. However, the underlying biology of fusion-positive cells, as well as how clonal interactions between fusion-negative and positive populations influences proliferative fitness and therapeutic response remains unknown. Using a panel of fusion-negative and positive HGSOC single-cell clones, we demonstrate that in addition to mediating drug resistance, fusion-positive cells display impaired proliferative capacity, elevated oxidative metabolism, altered actin cellular morphology and an extracellular matrix/inflammatory enriched transcriptional profile. The co-culture of fusion-negative and positive populations had no effect on cellular proliferation but markedly altered drug sensitivity to doxorubicin, paclitaxel and cisplatin. Finally, high-throughput screening of 2907 FDA-approved compounds revealed 36 agents that induce equal cytotoxicity in both pure and mixed fusion populations. Collectively, our findings have unraveled the underlying biology of fusion-positive cells beyond drug resistance and identified novel therapeutic agents that may significantly improve the prognosis of relapsed HGSOC patients.
尽管对初始化疗的反应率很高,但大多数被诊断为高级别浆液性卵巢癌(HGSOC)的女性在治疗的1 - 2年内最终会产生耐药性。我们之前确定了迄今为止HGSOC中获得性耐药最常见的机制,即涉及ATP结合盒(ABC)转运蛋白的转录融合,该转运蛋白在多药耐药中具有既定作用。然而,融合阳性细胞的潜在生物学特性,以及融合阴性和阳性群体之间的克隆相互作用如何影响增殖适应性和治疗反应仍然未知。使用一组融合阴性和阳性的HGSOC单细胞克隆,我们证明,除了介导耐药性外,融合阳性细胞还表现出增殖能力受损、氧化代谢升高、肌动蛋白细胞形态改变以及细胞外基质/炎症富集的转录谱。融合阴性和阳性群体的共培养对细胞增殖没有影响,但显著改变了对阿霉素、紫杉醇和顺铂的药物敏感性。最后,对2907种FDA批准的化合物进行高通量筛选,发现了36种在纯融合群体和混合融合群体中均能诱导同等细胞毒性的药物。总的来说,我们的研究结果揭示了融合阳性细胞除耐药性之外的潜在生物学特性,并确定了可能显著改善复发性HGSOC患者预后的新型治疗药物。