Department of Molecular Oncology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
School of Medicine, Al-Faisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Cell Death Dis. 2024 Apr 4;15(4):247. doi: 10.1038/s41419-024-06512-0.
The primary site of metastasis for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the peritoneum, and it occurs through a multistep process that begins with adhesive contacts between cancer cells and mesothelial cells. Despite evidence that Notch signaling has a role in ovarian cancer, it is unclear how exactly it contributes to ovarian cancer omental metastasis, as well as the cellular dynamics and intrinsic pathways that drive this tropism. Here we show that tumor cells produced the Notch ligand Jagged2 is a clinically and functionally critical mediator of ovarian cancer omental metastasis by activating the Notch signaling in single-layered omental mesothelial cells. In turn, Jagged2 promotes tumor growth and therapeutic resistance by stimulating IL-6 release from mesothelial cells. Additionally, Jagged2 is a potent downstream mediator of the omental metastasis cytokine TGF-β that is released during omental destruction. Importantly, therapeutic inhibition of Jagged2-mediated omental metastasis was significantly improved by directly disrupting the Notch pathway in omental mesothelial cells. These findings highlight the key role of Jagged2 to the functional interplay between the TGF-β and the Notch signaling pathways during the metastatic process of ovarian cancer cells to the omentum and identify the Notch signaling molecule as a precision therapeutic target for ovarian cancer metastasis.
上皮性卵巢癌(EOC)的主要转移部位是腹膜,它通过一个多步骤的过程发生,该过程始于癌细胞与间皮细胞之间的黏附接触。尽管有证据表明 Notch 信号在卵巢癌中起作用,但它如何确切地促进卵巢癌网膜转移,以及驱动这种趋向性的细胞动力学和内在途径尚不清楚。在这里,我们表明肿瘤细胞产生的 Notch 配体 Jagged2 通过激活单层网膜间皮细胞中的 Notch 信号,是卵巢癌网膜转移的临床和功能关键介质。反过来,Jagged2 通过刺激间皮细胞释放 IL-6 来促进肿瘤生长和治疗耐药性。此外,Jagged2 是 TGF-β的一种有效的下游介质,TGF-β在网膜破坏期间释放。重要的是,通过直接破坏网膜间皮细胞中的 Notch 途径,Jagged2 介导的网膜转移的治疗抑制作用得到显著改善。这些发现强调了 Jagged2 在卵巢癌细胞转移到网膜的过程中 TGF-β和 Notch 信号通路之间的功能相互作用中的关键作用,并将 Notch 信号分子鉴定为卵巢癌转移的精确治疗靶点。