Background
Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors and the leading cause of human cancer deaths worldwide [
1,
2]. Despite improvements in early detection, diagnosis, surgery and drug therapy, the 5-year survival rate of lung cancer patients is still low [
3‐
5]. Notably, tumor metastasis, associated with poor prognosis, has been shown to occur in 60–70% of cancer patients [
6]. Metastasis is a complex process that cancer cells spread from the tumor origin site to distant parts of the body and is the most common cause of cancer death in the world [
6,
7]. Therefore, it is urgent to understand the molecular mechanisms of lung cancer metastasis in order to make an efficient diagnosis and therapeutic strategy and improve the survival rate of lung cancer patients.
N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant internal modification of RNA in eukaryotic cells and has gained increasing attention in recent years [
8‐
10]. This modification mainly affects protein expression at the posttranscriptional level through “writers”, “erasers” and “readers” and has been shown to play different biological roles by regulating RNA splicing, stability, degradation and translation [
9,
11‐
15]. The m6A “writers” are m6A methyltransferases that add the methyl group to the m6A modification sites and include methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3), methyltransferase-like 14 (METTL14), methyltransferase-like 16 (METTL16), and Wilms’ tumor 1-associated protein (WTAP) among others [
16‐
19]. The m6A “erasers” are m6A demethylases that remove the methyl group from the m6A modification sites and include fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO) and α-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase homolog 5 (ALKBH5) [
20,
21]. The m6A “readers” recognize m6A-modified sites and include YTHDF1/2/3, YTHDC1/2, and IGF2BP1/2/3 among others [
12,
15,
22]. Recently, increasing evidence has indicated that m6A methylation plays important roles in various diseases, such as hematopoietic diseases, central nervous diseases, reproductive system diseases, and human cancer [
8,
15]. In human cancer, abnormal m6A modification has been reported to affect tumor proliferation, migration and invasion [
8,
23]. ALKBH5, a demethylated enzyme, has been shown to participate in various biological processes of human cancer, such as growth and metastasis [
23,
24]. In recent years, ALKBH5 has been shown to play oncogenic roles in lung cancer [
25‐
27], but the mechanism still needs to be studied further.
Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels form from preexisting vessels and plays important roles in normal growth, development, tissue regeneration and wound healing [
28‐
31]. As one of the pivotal hallmarks in human cancer progression, angiogenesis has been reported to participate in tumorigenesis, especially metastasis [
32‐
34]. Similar to normal tissues, tumor tissues need nutrients and oxygen to grow, which induces tumor-associated neovessels to sprout from the existing blood vessels and form the neovasculature toward the tumor to address these needs [
34‐
36]. Under physiological conditions, angiogenesis is well regulated through an angiogenic switch. In tumor progression, the angiogenic switch is activated due to the disrupted balance between proangiogenic and antiangiogenic regulators [
37‐
40]. Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) is a well-known factor that plays critical roles in angiogenesis, and it is mainly released by tumor cells during the development of tumors [
41,
42]. Recently, a few studies have indicated that m6A modification is involved in tumor angiogenesis. In colon cancer, the m6A reader IGF2BP3 can regulate angiogenesis [
43]. In gastric cancer, METTL3 promotes angiogenesis by regulating the m6A modification of HDGF mRNA [
44]. However, the role of ALKBH5 in tumor angiogenesis is still unclear.
In this study, we analyzed m6A modification-related genes in the TCGA database and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) database and found that the expression levels of these genes were changed in lung cancers. Here we chose ALKBH5 for this study. Bioinformatics analysis showed that ALKBH5 was upregulated in lung cancer tissues, and high expression levels of ALKBH5 were associated with poor prognosis in lung cancer patients. We observed that ALKBH5 promoted the proliferation and metastasis of lung cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. We also found that ALKBH5 regulated the angiogenesis of lung cancer in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, the expression and stability of lncRNA PVT1 (long noncoding RNA plasmacytoma variant translocation 1) were regulated by ALKBH5, and PVT1 overexpression partially restored the proliferation, migration and angiogenesis of lung cancer cells, which was suppressed by ALKBH5 knockdown. Our results demonstrate that ALKBH5 contributes to proliferation, migration and angiogenesis through PVT1 in lung cancer, thus providing a potential antitumor therapeutic target for lung cancer patients.
Materials and methods
We used the TCGA database and GTEx database to analyze the expression levels of the m6A modification-related genes in lung cancer tissues compared to normal tissues. The TNM plot website was used to analyze differential gene expression in various tumors (
https://tnmplot.com/analysis/). The correlations were analyzed using Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA;
http://gepia.cancer-pku.cn/). Kaplan‒Meier analysis (
https://kmplot.com/analysis/) and lnCAR software (
https://lncar.renlab.org/) were used to analyze the overall survival (OS) of lung cancer patients. The SRAMP predictor was used to predict the potential m6A modification sites.
Cell culture
The human lung cancer cell lines A549, H1299, H1975, and PC9 and the human bronchial epithelial cell 16HBE were obtained from the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology of Chinese Academy of Science (Shanghai, China). The A549, H1975 and 16HBE cell lines were incubated in 1640 medium, and the PC9 and H1299 cell lines were maintained in DMEM. Both media were supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), 100 U/mL penicillin and 100 mg/mL streptomycin, and all cells were incubated in a humidified atmosphere with 5% CO2 at 37 °C.
RNA extraction and qRT‒PCR
Total RNA was extracted from cultured cells using TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen, CA, USA). Then, reverse transcription to cDNA of the total RNA was performed using random primers according to the instructions of the PrimeScript RT kit (Takara, Dalian, China). The products were detected by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT‒PCR) using SYBR Green Master Mix according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Takara, Dalian, China). Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was used as an endogenous control, and the 2
−∆∆Ct method was used to analyze all data. The primer sequences for qRT‒PCR are listed in Table
1.
Table 1
Primer sequences for qRT‒PCR
GAPDH | GGGAGCCAAAAGGGTCAT | GAGTCCTTCCACGATACCAA |
PVT1 | TTGGCACATACAGCCATCAT | CAGTAAAAGGGGAACACCA |
VEGFA | CTGTCTTGGGTGCATTGGAG | ACCAGGGTCTCGATTGGATG |
ALKBH5 | CGGCGAAGGCTACACTTACG | CCACCAGCTTTTGGATCACCA |
CCND1 | CCCTCGGTGTCCTACTTCAAATGT | GGAAGCGGTCCAGGTAGTTCAT |
CDK1 | TTTTCAGAGCTTTGGGCACT | CCATTTTGCCAGAAATTCGT |
MMP2 | CTGCGGTTTTCTCGAATCCATG | GTCCTTACCGTCAAAGGGGTATCC |
MMP9 | GAGGCGCTCATGTACCCTATGTAC | GTTCAGGGCGAGGACCATAGAG |
Vimantin | AAGTTTGCTGACCTCTCTGAGGCT | CTTCCATTTCACGCATCTGGCGTT |
RNA interference
Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targeting ALKBH5 (si1 5′-CTGCAAGTTCCAGTTCAA-3′ and si2 5′-GGGCCAAGCGCAAGTATCA-3′), negative control (NC) siRNA (5′-TTCTCCGAACGTGTCACGT-3′), and siRNA targeting PVT1 (5′-CAGCCATCATGATGGTACT-3′) were purchased from General Biosystems (Anhui, China). The control plasmid pcDNA3.1 and overexpression plasmid pcDNA3.1-PVT1 were obtained from General Biosystems. The cells were cultured in six-well plates, and the siRNAs or plasmids were transfected using Lipofectamine 2000 reagents (Invitrogen, USA) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. At 24 h after transfection, the efficiency of silencing or overexpression was tested by qRT‒PCR.
CCK-8 assay
CCK-8 (Cell Counting Kit-8, DOJINDO, Japan) assays were performed to evaluate cell proliferation. At 24 h after transfection, the transfected cells were harvested and seeded at a density of 2000 cells/well in 96-well plates. Ten microliters of CCK-8 reagent was added to each well, which contained 100 μL of medium, and cultured for 2 h. Then, the reaction was measured for the optical density at 450 nm by a microplate reader (BioTek Elx800, USA) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The optical density was measured every 24 h from 0 to 72 h.
The transfected cells were seeded into six-well plates at 600 cells/well and cultured with media containing 10% FBS, 100 U/ml penicillin and 100 µg/ml streptomycin. The media were replaced every three days. After 14 days, the colonies were washed twice with PBS, fixed with methanol for 20 min and stained with 0.1% crystal violet for 20 min. Then, the stained colonies were photographed and counted.
Transwell assay
The transwell assay was performed using 24-well plates with 8 μm pore size chamber inserts (Millipore, USA) to evaluate cell migration. Transfected cells (3 × 104 or 5 × 104) diluted with 200 μL serum-free medium were seeded into the upper chambers of transwell plates. Then, the upper chambers were placed into the lower chambers in 24-well plates, which contained 800 μL medium with 10% FBS. After culturing for 24 h, the cells were fixed using methanol for 20 min and stained using 0.1% crystal violet for 20 min. Then, the cells were imaged under a microscope with 10 × objective lens. The number of migrated cells of each image was counted manually for assessing the ability of cell migration.
Fifty microliters of precooled Matrigel (Corning, USA) was added to 96-well plates and incubated for 30 min at 37 °C for hardening. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs; 2 × 104 cells) and the supernatant of transfected cells were added to each well and incubated at 37 °C for 6–12 h. The tube-like structures were imaged under a microscope and quantified with ImageJ software.
Western blotting
Total protein was extracted from the transfected cells that were lysed with radioimmunoprecipitation assay (RIPA, Beyotime, China) lysis buffer. Sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS‒PAGE) was used to separate protein samples and electrotransferred to polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes (Millipore, Schwalbach, Germany), which were blocked with 5% skim milk. Then, the membranes were incubated with a primary antibody (BOSTER, China) against ALKBH5 (ALKBH5, 1:1000) or GAPDH (1:10,000) at 4 ℃ overnight. Subsequently, the membranes were incubated with the secondary antibody (1:5000, BOSTER, China) for 1 h at room temperature. The protein bands were visualized with a BeyoECL plus kit (Beyotime, China) after washing.
Zebrafish husbandry
The adult zebrafish were maintained at 28 °C and a 14 h–10 h light–dark cycle in a fish auto culture system (Haisheng, China). Zebrafish embryos were harvested and cultured in 10% Hank’s solution composed of 140 mM NaCl, 5.4 mM KCl, 0.25 mM Na
2HPO
4, 0.44 mM KH
2PO
4, 1.3 mM CaCl
2, 1.0 mM MgSO
4 and 4.2 mM NaHCO
3 (pH 7.2). At 48 h postfertilization (hpf), wild-type AB or Tg(fli1a: EGFP) zebrafish larvae were used for tumor xenograft models in our study [
45]. Zebrafish handling procedures were approved by Kangda College of Nanjing Medical University.
Zebrafish xenograft model
Before injection, the transfected cells were labeled with CM-DiI (Invitrogen, USA) [
46]. Cultured cells were collected and washed with PBS for three times, then the cells were stained with CM-DiI (1 μg/μL in PBS) at 37 °C for 5 min, following by 15 min at 4 °C. The stained cells were rinsed three times with PBS and then examined by fluorescence microscopy. The 48-hpf zebrafish larvae were fixed with 1.2% low-melting gel (Promega, USA), and approximately 400 labeled cells were injected into the perivitelline space (PVS) of zebrafish larvae under a microinjector (Picosprizer III, USA). Then, the zebrafish larvae were cultured at 34 ℃ after injection. At 1 day post injection (dpi), similar sizes of fluorescence areas were selected by stereotype microscopy (MVX10, Olympus, Japan) for further research and cultured at 34 °C until the end of the experiment.
At 4 dpi, the zebrafish larvae were fixed with 1.2% low-melting gel, and the yolk and trunk were imaged by a stereotype microscope (MVX10, Olympus, Japan) or confocal microscope using a 20X water-immersion objective (Fluoview 3000, Olympus, Japan). The resolution of the images was 1600 × 1200 (MVX10) or 1024 × 1024 pixels. The fluorescence area of the yolk of zebrafish larvae was quantified to assess cell proliferation, and the fluorescence area of the trunk of zebrafish larvae was quantified to evaluate cell migration after knockdown of ALKBH5 or PVT1 in lung cancer cells.
For angiogenesis studies, approximately 1000 CM-DiI-labeled cells were injected into the perivitelline space (PVS) of zebrafish larvae. At 2 dpi, the zebrafish larvae were fixed with 1.2% low-melting gel, and the additional branches and sprouts of subintestinal vessels (SIVs) of zebrafish larvae were imaged by confocal microscopy using a 20X water-immersion objective (Fluoview 1000, Olympus, Japan) [
47,
48].
RNA stability assay
The cells were cultured in medium containing 5 μg/mL actinomycin D (Sigma, USA). RNA was extracted with TRIzol reagent, and mRNA expression was detected using qRT‒PCR at 0 h, 2 h and 4 h. Then, expression was measured by qRT‒PCR and calculated using the 2−∆∆Ct method.
RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP)
The Magna RIP™ RNA-Binding Protein Immunoprecipitation Kit (Millipore, USA) is used for RNA immunoprecipitation. According to the manufacturer's instructions, RIP lysis buffer was prepared to treat 2X107 A549 cells. The cell lysates were incubated with containing ALKBH5 antibody or normal rabbit IgG-coupled magnetic beads overnight at 4 °C, and the RNA protein/antibody complexes were then immunoprecipitated by magnetic beads. RNA is extracted from the precipitated complex for qRT‒PCR.
Statistical analysis
All statistical data were analyzed using unpaired Student’s t tests or Tukey’s multiple comparisons tests after one-way ANOVA, and figures were generated using GraphPad Prism 8.0 software. The fluorescent area of zebrafish larvae was quantified using ImageJ software. Values of P < 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. All results are presented as the mean ± SEM.
Discussion
In this study, we identified the m6A demethylase ALKBH5 using a public database of lung cancer tissues, and found that it was highly associated with poor overall survival of lung cancer patients. Angiogenesis is an important event for tumor growth and metastasis. Our study revealed for the first time that ALKBH5 is required for the angiogenesis of lung cancer. Furthermore, we identified that the mechanism by which ALKBH5 regulates proliferation, migration and angiogenesis includes the regulation of the stability of PVT1 in lung cancer cells. These results suggest that ALKBH5 and PVT1 could be indicators of prognosis and potential therapeutic targets for lung cancer patients. However, these findings still require the verification in clinical samples of lung cancer.
The m6A modification has been identified as the most common, highly abundant internal modification of RNA in higher eukaryotes and has been shown to participate in the progression of various tumors [
8,
13,
57]. As a demethylase, ALKBH5 has been reported to have oncogenic roles in the progression of lung cancer, osteosarcoma, gastric cancer, colon cancer, and ovarian cancer [
25,
26,
51,
58‐
61]. Here, we investigated the functional roles of ALKBH5 in lung cancer and found that knockdown of ALKBH5 inhibited proliferation and metastasis in lung cancer cells in vitro and in vivo, which is consistent with the results of previous studies [
25,
26], indicating that ALKBH5 plays oncogenic roles in lung cancer.
It has also been reported that lncRNAs, acting as regulators, play important roles in the development and progression of various tumors [
6,
62]. However, the function of lncRNA m6A modification in cancers needs to be explored further. There are very few studies on ALKBH5-mediated modification of lncRNAs in cancers. Zhang et al. reported that ALKBH5 decreased the methylation of lncRNA NEAT1 to promote gastric cancer progression [
58]. Another study showed that ALKBH5-mediated m6A demethylation of the lncRNA RMRP plays an oncogenic role in lung adenocarcinoma [
25]. It has also been shown that ALKBH5-mediated m6A modification of lncRNA KCNQ1OT1 regulates the development of LSCC [
63], and that ALKBH5-mediated m6A modification of PVT1 promotes the progression of OS [
51]. The two studies also showed YTHDF2 could recognize m6A-modified sites of lncRNA KCNQ1OT1 or PVT1 and regulate their stability [
51,
63], but whether ALKBH5 regulates the stability of PVT1 via YTHDF2 in lung cancer cells remains to be examined further. Further, we also showed that a serious tumor-related genes could be regulated by ALKBH5-PVT1 axis, but the functional evidence is still lacking. Here, our data indicate that ALKBH5 increased the expression of PVT1 by enhancing its stability and that ALKBH5 can regulate the proliferation, migration and angiogenesis of lung cancer partially through PVT1 in lung cancer cells. These results indicate that the ALKBH5-PVT1 axis plays important roles in lung cancer progression.
In our study, zebrafish xenografts were used as the in vivo model for research. In a previous study, knockdown of ALKBH5 and PVT1 in lung cancer cells inhibited tumor growth in mouse models [
64,
65]. Our results showed that silencing ALKBH5 and PVT1 suppressed the proliferation of lung cancer cells in zebrafish xenografts, which is consistent with the results of mouse models, indicating that zebrafish xenografts could be a reliable model for human cancer research. However, a mouse model for studying the metastatic roles of ALKBH5 and PVT1 in lung cancer is lacking. Compared with mouse xenograft models, zebrafish xenografts have many advantages. First, the progression of lung cancer cells in a zebrafish xenograft model can be assessed 96 h postinjection, while 3–5 weeks is required in mouse xenograft models in which shRNA plasmids for gene silencing must be constructed instead of siRNA [
66]. Second, cell proliferation and metastasis can be evaluated simultaneously in the same transplanted samples in zebrafish xenografts but not in mouse models. Third, based on the transparent nature of zebrafish larvae with immature immune systems, the behavior of tumor cells at early stages can be monitored in vivo, which is difficult in mouse models.
In addition, a zebrafish xenograft model can also be used to investigate angiogenesis in vivo. In a mouse model, Matrigel plug assays are generally used for the assessment of angiogenesis in vivo, which requires seven days [
67]. For zebrafish xenografts, we used EGFP-labeled vascular endothelial cell transgenic lines for transplantation, and it is easy to observe the changes in blood vessels in vivo by fluorescence microscopy [
48]. In our study, 48 h after injection of lung cancer cells, the changes in additional blood vessel sprouts of zebrafish SIVs could be observed and quantified. These findings suggest that the zebrafish xenograft model is an effective in vivo model for tumor proliferation, metastasis and angiogenesis, and can be gradually applied in human cancer research.
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