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NFκB activation demarcates a subset of hepatocellular carcinoma patients for targeted therapy

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Abstract

Background

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide. It is a heterogeneous disorder and >80 % of the tumors develop in patients with liver cirrhosis, resulting from chronic inflammation and/or fibrosis. Here, we set out to identify novel targets for HCC therapy and to define a subgroup of patients that might benefit most from it.

Methods

Cellular pathway activation profiling of 45 transcription factors in a HCC-derived cell line (HEP3B), in vitro analysis of NFκB reporter activity in additional HCC-derived cell lines and pathway-focused integrative analyses of publicly available primary HCC-derived expression profiling data (GSE6764, GSE9843, E-TABM-36 and E-TABM-292) were employed to reveal a role of NFκB in HCC development. In order to identify potential targeting agents, a luciferase-based NFκB reporter screening assay was established in HEP3B cells. After screening of a drug library through this assay, a potent NFκB pathway inhibitor was identified and characterized using an array of additional in vitro assays.

Results

Using cellular pathway activation profiling, we found a high activation of NFκB-mediated signaling in HCC-derived cell lines and in primary HCC tumors. Through NFκB inhibitor screening we observed a highly efficacious NFκB pathway inhibitory potential of ornithogalum in HCC-derived HEP3B cells. Although its active component still remains to be defined, ornithogalum has been found to inhibit endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and oxidative stress responses. ER stress, oxidative stress and NFκB signaling were found to be enhanced in a subset of HCCs, as well as in (precancerous) liver cirrhosis tissues.

Conclusion

From our data we conclude that NFκB signaling is activated in precancerous cirrhosis tissues and in a subset of HCCs. We found that ornithogalum exhibits NFκB targeting and stress relieving activities. NFκB inhibitors, including the active component of ornithogalum, may serve as putative preventive and targeted therapeutic agents for at least a subset of HCCs in which the NFκB pathway is activated. These latter notions require further investigation in a translational context.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, through research grant No. 6/6/2008/R&D-II-230R and the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India through research grant BT/PR4500/PID/6/676/2012 to Dr. Kumaresan Ganesan, Madurai Kamaraj University. We acknowledge the award of CSIR-NET fellowship to Vignesh Ramesh. Instrumentation support of the UGC-CEGS, UGC-CAS, DBT-IPLS, DST-PURSE and UGC-NRCBS program and the central facilities of the School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University, are also acknowledged. The authors thank Dr. Piyush Trivedi for providing the drug screening library and Mrs. Jaishree, Publication Division, IIT-Madras, for editorial assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Excellence in Cancer Genetics, Department of Genetics, Centre for Excellence in Genomic Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, 625 021, India

    Vignesh Ramesh, Karthikeyan Selvarasu, Jaishree Pandian, Soundarajan Myilsamy, Chidambaranathan Shanmugasundaram & Kumaresan Ganesan

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  1. Vignesh Ramesh
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  2. Karthikeyan Selvarasu
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  3. Jaishree Pandian
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Correspondence to Kumaresan Ganesan.

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Ramesh, V., Selvarasu, K., Pandian, J. et al. NFκB activation demarcates a subset of hepatocellular carcinoma patients for targeted therapy. Cell Oncol. 39, 523–536 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13402-016-0294-4

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