Background
Despite recent advances in breast cancer (BC) treatment, women frequently develop resistance to endocrine and chemotherapies and die of metastasis [
1] so that, for these patients, new treatment strategies are mandatory. The reversion of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) through re-differentiation of cancer cells represents a potential therapeutic challenge to ameliorate patients’ prognosis [
2,
3]. The EMT is a well-defined developmental program adopted by tumor cells during the metastatic cascade to gain migratory ability and reach distant organs, losing epithelial cell adhesion and cell-cell contacts, while undergoing cell shape remodeling and cytoskeleton rearrangement [
4]. Concurrently, the expression of epithelial markers is inhibited, in favor of an increase in the expression of the mesenchymal genes [
5]. The epithelial and mesenchymal states represent two opposite cellular phenotypes that the cells reach going through several intermediary phases [
6]. During EMT, changes in gene expression are crucial for this process to occur.
The transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) signaling pathway is involved in a plethora of events regulating EMT. TGFβ1 is secreted by tumor cells as well as by cells of the surrounding stroma, and is crucial in the regulation of distinct processes, as cytoskeleton organization, survival, cell migration, and invasion [
7]. TGFβ1 signaling may control EMT and metastasis by sustaining the epigenetic machinery through the DNA binding activity of DNMT1 [
8] or the histone methylation-coupled transcriptional activation or repression of PRMT5-MEP50 axis [
9]. Furthermore, numerous epigenetic modifiers (i.e., HDACs, LSD1, SET8, PRC1/2, PRMT7, and BRG1) seem to give a great contribution to such a modulation since histone modifications (acetylation/deacetylation and methylation/demethylation) are implicated in either inducing or repressing specific sets of EMT-related genes (SNAI1/2, TWIST1/2 and ZEB1/2) [
10,
11].
WDR5 is a WD40 repeat protein that recognizes the histone H3 amino-terminal tail and is essential for lysine 4 (H3K4) methylation [
12]. A large body of evidence supports the pivotal role of WDR5 in tumor growth and proliferation [
13‐
18], differentiation [
19,
20], and metastasis [
21‐
23], and suggests that its expression is prognostic in different tumor types [
13,
15,
24‐
27]. Moreover, WDR5 binds the mesenchymal gene promoter and transcriptionally regulates N-cadherin in BC upon hypoxia treatment [
28], ZNF407 in colorectal cancer [
23], HOXA9 in prostate cancer [
22], and SNAIL1 and VIMENTIN in lung tumor cells [
9], leading to EMT. Despite its proven involvement in EMT, a direct interplay of WDR5 and TGFβ1 in activating this process in BC remains elusive.
Here, we demonstrate that WDR5 is involved in EMT and metastasis in BC and that its inhibition, by reducing the migratory and mesenchymal phenotype, drives the cells toward an epithelial-like status. Our data indicate a direct regulation of WDR5 on the TGFβ1 pathway. Moreover, we suggest that WDR5 inhibition could be used as a therapeutic approach in Triple Negative (TN) and Luminal B (LB) metastatic breast cancer and that its combination with chemotherapy may be advantageous for treatment of chemo-resistant patients.
Materials and methods
PDX tissue bank generation
Patients enrolled in the study were selected on the basis of highly aggressive metastatic disease diagnoses (Luminal B and Triple Negative subtypes) and resistance to different lines of therapy. Biopsies from liver and lung were transplanted in Matrigel (Corning #356231) orthotopically in the fourth mammary gland of female NSG mice, as previously described [
29]. Tumors were monitored weekly and serially passaged in NSG after tissue digestion (see “PDX culture”). Tumors were characterized by IHC on the basis of the prognostic clinical markers, i.e., estrogen, progesterone, HER2, and Ki67, by pathologists and compared to patient tumors. Positive staining is expressed as percentage.
Animals
Non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency (NOD/SCID) mice were purchased from Harlan Laboratories. NOD.Cg-Prkdcscid Il2rgtm1Wjl/SzJ (NSG) mice were purchased from Charles River. Only female mice 6–12 weeks old (15–20 g weight) were used for experimental procedures.
Ethic statements
Investigations have been conducted in accordance with the ethical standards and according to National and International guidelines. In vivo studies were performed after approval from our fully authorized animal facility, notification of the experiments to the Ministry of Health (as required by the Italian Law) (IACUCs N° 757/2015, 1246/2015 and 327/2016) and in accordance to EU directive 2010/63. Human tissue biopsies were collected from patients whose informed consent was obtained in writing according to the policies of the Ethics Committee of the European Institute of Oncology and regulations of Italian Ministry of Health. The studies were conducted in full compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
PDX culture
PDX tumors were dissociated by enzymatic and mechanical digestion (Miltenyi Biotec), and cells were plated to obtain short-term cultures. PDX cells were maintained in DMEM/F12 (1:1, Lonza/Gibco) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) (HyClone, GE Healthcare Life Science), 10 mM HEPES (Sigma), 5 μg/mL insulin (Roche), 0.5 μg/mL hydrocortisone (Sigma), 10 ng/mL epidermal growth factor (EGF; Tebu-Bio), and 50 ng/mL Cholera Toxin (Sigma).
Cell lines
Experiments were performed in MCF10DCIS.com (from Wayne State University, 5057 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan), SUM149PT (from Asterand), HCC1428 (from ATCC), MDAMB468 (from CLS), ZR751 (from ATCC), and MDA-MB-231 and MCF10A (both from NIH Institute). Cell lines were maintained in their respective media as recommended by suppliers. Cell line authentication was performed in house by Gene Print 10 System every 6 months (Promega). All cell lines were tested for mycoplasma and resulted negative.
In vivo study
PDXs, MCF10DCIS.com, SUM149PT, HCC1428, MDAMB468, and ZR751 were infected with control shRNA (shLuc) and two pooled shWDR5. 2 × 105 infected cells were orthotopically injected into the fourth mammary gland of three to nine mice (PDXs cells, SUM149PT, HCC1428, MDAMB468, ZR751 in NSG mice; MCF10DCIS.com in NOD/SCID), according to the experimental setting. Tumor volume was calculated using this formula: V = L × l2/2 (L length; l width). MDA-MB-231 cells were double transfected to express luciferase (Addgene 17477) and to silence a neutral control (SCR) or WDR5. Then 2 × 105 cells were transplanted in the fourth mammary gland of 12 NSG mice per group. The mice were monitored for primary tumor growth. For metastasis experiments, when a volume of about 0.5 cm3 was reached, tumors were excised and mice monitored weekly for metastasis formation. Luciferase expression was assessed by bioluminescence imaging (IVIS Lumina Imaging System - PerkinElmer) and mice were sacrificed when lungs or axillary lymph nodes resulted positive to luminescence. Luminescence was quantified by using Living Image software and expressed as radiance in photons of the region of interest.
In vitro study
Proliferation, FBS-directed migration on Boyden chamber, wound healing, and time-lapse live cell random migration assays were performed as described in Additional file 3: Supplementary Methods.
Immunofluorescence
MCF10DCIS.com or MDA-MB-231 cells, infected to silence WDR5 or treated by drugs, were plated on slides and allowed to attach overnight. Next day, cells were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde for 10 min, permeabilized with 0.01% Triton-X, and blocked for 1 h with 2% bovine serum albumin. The antibodies against the following protein were used: FITC-labeled Phalloidin (P5282), Vimentin [V9] (ab8069), CDH2 [5D5] (ab98952), CDH1 (24E10), SNAI2 (C19G7) and SNAI1 (C15D3), and α-Tubulin (T9026). Slides were then counterstained with 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) for nuclei labelling and mounted on glass slides with Mowiol. Images were collected by motorized Olympus fluorescence microscope at × 40 magnification.
Adhesion assay
For adhesion assay, 2 × 104 shLuc and shWDR5 MCF10DCIS.com cells were plated onto different extracellular matrices (collagen—CL, laminin—LM, fibronectin—FN, matrigel—MG). After 1.5 h, cells were fixed and stained with 0.5% Crystal Violet. Three images per well were acquired, and cell number and area were quantified by using ImageJ software by manually delineating the edges of selected cells (a total of 30 measurements per group) and recording the circularity value.
Western blot
PDX cells and other BC cell lines were lysed in RIPA buffer and processed, as previously described [
30]. Membranes were probed with antibodies reported in Additional file
3: Supplementary Method. Images were cropped at specific protein band of interest to improve the clarity of data presentation.
Survival and expression analysis
Association between WDR5 expression and metastasis-free survival (MFS) in 295 breast cancer patients was calculated using PROGgene V2 software on NKI publicly available data sets [
31]. MFS were represented by Kaplan-Meier functions, and cohorts were divided at the median of gene expression. Statistic comparison between high and low expression groups was performed using log-rank test. Association between WDR5 silencing and survival in mice was calculated by using GraphPad Prism 5.0, and significative differences among groups were calculated by using log-rank test. Differences were considered significant at
P < 0.05. Analysis on TCGA data set of breast cancer patients was performed by using publicly available data in cBioportal for Cancer Genomics by considering expression values of genes from RNA-seq. Overexpression was considered for
z-score ≥ + 2. Co-occurrence of expression of each gene and WDR5 was represented by
P values, calculated by the Fisher exact test.
Drug treatment
MDA-MB-231 and MCF10DCIS.com cells were treated with a single exposure for 3 days of OICR-9429 (MD Anderson Cancer Center - Texas) at a final concentration of 1 μM–5 μM–10 μM or 20 μM for 3 days and then plated for migration assay. LY2157299 (galunisertib) (MCE, HY-13226) was added by a single administration for 3 days at final concentration of 10 μM. Short-term in vitro growth inhibition by drugs in PDXs and MDA-MB-231 cells was assessed by Cell Titer Glo (Promega). Briefly, PDX cells (obtained from third passage in mice) were thawed, plated in 2D cultures in 96 wells (5000 cells per well), and treated for 3 days by a single exposure to vehicle or concentrations of the following drugs: paclitaxel (1 nM–5 μM–10 nM), OICR-9429 20 μM, or galunisertib 10 μM alone or in combination. MDA-MB-231 cells (2000 cells per well) were treated for 3 days with paclitaxel (10 nM), OICR-9429 (20 μM), or galunisertib (10 μM) alone or in combination. The inhibition of viability is indicated as a percent over control cell viability of the aforementioned drugs (calculated using GraphPad Prism software).
RNA sequencing
Total RNA was extracted from shLuc and shWDR5 MCF10DCIS.com or PDX cells by using the Maxwell 16LEV simply RNA tissue kit. mRNA purification and NGS libraries were obtained following Illumina instruction (TruSeq RNA Sample Preparation). Bioinformatic analysis is fully described in Additional file
3: Supplementary Methods.
ChIP sequencing
ChIP lysates were generated from 10–15 × 10
6 cells as reported previously [
32]. ChIP DNA was prepared for HiSeq 2000 Illumina sequencing. Samples were aligned to human genome, and bioinformatic analysis is fully described in Additional file
3: Supplementary Methods.
Data access
Data sets are available in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database under accession number GSE113289.
Quantitative RT-PCR
Total RNA was extracted from PDXs, MCF10DCIS.com, and MDA-MB-231 and reverse transcribed using OneScript Plus Reverse Transcriptase and cDNA Synthesis kit (abm). Quantitative RT-PCR analyses were done on Biorad CFX Real-Time PCR System with the fast-SYBR Green PCR kit as instructed by the manufacturer (Applied Biosystems). The transcription level of the RPLP0 housekeeper gene was used as a normalizer. Complete primer sequences are reported in Additional file
2: Table S4.
Statistical analysis
Data are represented as mean ± SD of biological triplicates (if not diversely indicated in the text). Comparisons between two or more groups were assessed by using two-tailed Student’s
t test, one-way or two-way ANOVA followed by the Dunnett post test, or the Bonferroni post test, as indicated in figure legend.
P < 0.05 and lower were considered significant. For RNA-seq and ChIP-seq analysis, statistical parameters are indicated in Additional file
3: Supplementary Methods.
Discussion
It is largely recognized that the dysregulation of chromatin remodelers is often associated with, or drives the development of, human cancers [
10]. Despite this notion, the molecular basis of such connection is still a matter of debate. Moreover, epigenetic modifications may underlie cancer-specific phenotypes and represent molecular vulnerabilities that can be targeted in cancer therapy.
In this study, we report that WDR5, the core subunit of methyltransferase complex, is an essential gene for breast cancer progression since its inhibition is associated with reduction of tumorigenesis and metastasis. We demonstrate that loss of WDR5 transcriptionally represses its target genes and uncouple TGFβ1 pathway and EMT, thus inducing a switch from a mesenchymal-like phenotype toward an epithelial status (Fig.
7d) in BC cells. Then, we suggest WDR5 inhibition as a therapeutic strategy to hit the EMT network, reduce metastasis, and sensitize breast cancer cells to chemotherapy.
Consistent with the prognostic role of WDR5 [
24‐
27], we associated its expression with breast cancer progression and aggressiveness, by making use of a panel of cell lines and PDX models of metastatic tumors, the latter representing patients resistant to different lines of therapy. In agreement with this observation, we showed that WDR5 inhibition was effective in reducing tumor growth in all LB and TN breast cancers samples, independently by ER status or therapies. In addition, WDR5 loss reduced metastasis dissemination of BC cells in vivo. The ability of tumor cells to metastasize has been frequently correlated with the EMT, since the transition from a well-differentiated epithelial phenotype to an invasive mesenchymal state, whose regulation is under transcriptional and post-transcriptional control, may enhance cell motility and invasiveness [
4,
7]. Previous works also suggest that WDR5 plays a critical role in the regulation of tumor cell migration, as well as of invasion in a zebrafish transplantation model [
9,
28,
42,
53], and in the control of metastasis formation by inducing EMT in various cancers [
21‐
23]. We speculated that WDR5 could induce EMT in breast cancer and that its inhibition could reverse the mesenchymal phenotype, consistent with known plasticity of this cellular program whereby cells switch from the mesenchymal to the epithelial states and back [
2]. By employing gene expression profiling upon WDR5 inhibition in breast cancer, we found that WDR5 transcriptionally regulates gene signatures, typically involved either in proliferation and cell cycle, or in metastasis, EMT, and their correlated functions. Thus, this governance can also be ascribed to epigenetic regulation, since active histone mark (H3K4me3) was found significantly modified at the promoter of differentially expressed genes. We have demonstrated that, beyond the effects on proliferation, WDR5 inhibition drives cells to a partial epithelial status by reducing expression of the main mesenchymal genes and cell motility and migration, and partly restoring the typical features of epithelial-like cells (i.e., polarization and cell-cell adhesion). Our genome-wide binding site analysis showed that WDR5 binds to the TGFβ1 promoter. TGFβ1 signaling and EMT are strictly interconnected in cancer since TGFβ1 controls cell motility and the mesenchymal properties of the cells [
7,
54]. We speculated that a similar mechanism is in place in breast cancer and is due to WDR5 regulation, which has a prominent role per se in EMT and metastasis [
17,
18,
23], as well as through TGFβ1. We demonstrated that WDR5 inhibition reduced TGFβ1 levels and that TGFβ1 silencing, in turn, is capable of abrogating WDR5-dependent migration, thus confirming that TGFβ1 is crucial (at least in part) in leading WDR5-dependent mesenchymal phenotype. This observation takes into consideration endogenous activation of TGFβ1 and can complement that one reported by Chen and colleagues contemplating TGFβ1 exogenous stimulation [
9]. Moreover, the role of TGFβ1 in driving EMT has been predominantly reported for basal-like cells, largely superimposable to the cells of the TN subtype [
55]. Our observations suggest that also luminal-like breast cancer is poised to respond to EMT signals and that, concordantly, its inhibition can be a useful method to suppress mesenchymal properties associated to metastasis of cancer cells.
Recently, therapeutic investigations have shown increased interest in the EMT estimation. In fact, diverse clinical trials have included the evaluation of biomarkers of EMT as translational endpoint and diagnostic tool for the detection of circulating tumor cells for advanced breast cancer (
Clinicaltrials.gov). Considering the existence of the EMT gradients, evidences indicate that the efficacy of mesenchymal reversal may be cancer type dependent and should be based on a specific therapeutic window to abolish metastasis and enhance drug sensitivity, thus disadvantaging colonization [
2]. Although cell differentiation is considered an attractive therapeutic approach to reverse the mesenchymal phenotype, drug discovery platform for EMT switch is still limited. Here, we provide evidences that the WDR5 inhibitor OICR-9429 is able to sensitize breast cancer cells to chemotherapy by reversing the mesenchymal phenotype, overcoming drug resistance, as similarly reported for other epigenetic inhibitors undergoing clinical trials (i.e., Mocetinostat) [
3]. Indeed, WDR5 inhibitor sensitizes cells to paclitaxel, revealing a promising combination to eradicate tumor cells in chemo-resistant breast cancer patients.
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