Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Diagnosis and Therapy Center for Precision Medicine of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510060, PR China.
Cell Death Dis. 2024 Feb 6;15(2):112. doi: 10.1038/s41419-024-06496-x.
Despite that the docectaxel-cisplatin-5-fluorouracil (TPF) induction chemotherapy has greatly improved patients' survival and became the first-line treatment for advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), not all patients could benefit from this therapy. The mechanism underlying the TPF chemoresistance remains unclear. Here, by analyzing gene-expression microarray data and survival of patients who received TPF chemotherapy, we identify transcription factor ATMIN as a chemoresistance gene in response to TPF chemotherapy in NPC. Mass spectrometry and Co-IP assays reveal that USP10 deubiquitinates and stabilizes ATMIN protein, resulting the high-ATMIN expression in NPC. Knockdown of ATMIN suppresses the cell proliferation and facilitates the docetaxel-sensitivity of NPC cells both in vitro and in vivo, while overexpression of ATMIN exerts the opposite effect. Mechanistically, ChIP-seq combined with RNA-seq analysis suggests that ATMIN is associated with the cell death signaling and identifies ten candidate target genes of ATMIN. We further confirm that ATMIN transcriptionally activates the downstream target gene LCK and stabilizes it to facilitate cell proliferation and docetaxel resistance. Taken together, our findings broaden the insight into the molecular mechanism of chemoresistance in NPC, and the USP10-ATMIN-LCK axis provides potential therapeutic targets for the management of NPC.
尽管多西紫杉醇-顺铂-5-氟尿嘧啶(TPF)诱导化疗极大地提高了患者的生存率,并成为晚期鼻咽癌(NPC)的一线治疗方法,但并非所有患者都能从中受益。TPF 化疗耐药的机制尚不清楚。在这里,通过分析接受 TPF 化疗的患者的基因表达微阵列数据和生存情况,我们确定转录因子 ATMIN 是 NPC 对 TPF 化疗产生耐药性的基因。质谱和 Co-IP 实验揭示了 USP10 去泛素化并稳定了 ATMIN 蛋白,导致 NPC 中 ATMIN 的高表达。ATMIN 的敲低抑制了 NPC 细胞的体外和体内增殖,并促进了多西紫杉醇的敏感性,而过表达 ATMIN 则产生相反的效果。在机制上,ChIP-seq 结合 RNA-seq 分析表明,ATMIN 与细胞死亡信号有关,并确定了 ATMIN 的十个候选靶基因。我们进一步证实,ATMIN 转录激活下游靶基因 LCK 并稳定它,以促进细胞增殖和多西紫杉醇耐药性。总之,我们的研究结果拓宽了对 NPC 化疗耐药分子机制的认识,USP10-ATMIN-LCK 轴为 NPC 的治疗提供了潜在的治疗靶点。