Background
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still one of the most prevalent malignancies, with a high rate of occurrence and death worldwide [
1,
2] despite tremendous development in diagnosis and therapy. Surgical resection and liver transplantation provide a curable opportunity for HCC, but unfortunately, they are unsuitable for a large number of patients with advanced-stage HCC [
3,
4]. These patients with advanced-stage HCC can benefit to some extent from alternative treatments, including transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), molecularly targeted therapy and transitional chemotherapy [
5,
6].
However, these palliative treatments are often limited by the occurrence of chemoresistance, especially multi-drug resistance (MDR), in HCC [
7]. Cancer cells with MDR are characterized by resistance to one chemotherapy agent along with cross-resistance to other agents with different structures and mechanisms [
8,
9]. A variety of mechanisms are involved in MDR, including the overexpression of the ABC transporter family [
10], epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) [
11], cancer cell regulation [
12], apoptosis induction, DNA damage and repair, and autophagy induction [
13]. Overcoming MDR during chemotherapeutic interventions for cancers is a great challenge [
13]. Thus, it is urgent to uncover the exact molecular mechanisms of MDR.
The Hippo signalling pathway is crucial for diverse cellular processes, including proliferation, organ development, stem cell biology, cell survival and tumourigenesis [
14‐
16]. This pathway is implicated in transcriptional activity by the regulation of its core downstream effector, yes-associated protein (YAP), which can be directly phosphorylated and inactivated by large tumour suppressor 1/2 (LATS1/2), resulting in the retention of YAP in the cytoplasm [
17]. The attenuation of the Hippo pathway could induce YAP interacting with DNA-binding transcriptional factors and TEA domain family members (TEADs) and, subsequently, its translocation to the nucleus and activation of gene expression [
18,
19]. Previous evidence has shown that high expression of YAP is closely related to the poor clinical outcome of malignancies [
20,
21]. In addition, YAP has been determined to modulate cancer stem cell-like behaviours and EMT, both of which are crucial for MDR [
22,
23]. These findings imply that YAP is a critical contributor to the progression of cancers and has a potential role in the development of MDR.
Here, we demonstrated that the upregulation of YAP promoted MDR by repressing autophagy-related cell death via modulating the RAC1-reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mTOR pathway and that targeting YAP might be an alternative to improving the sensitivity of HCC to chemotherapy.
Discussion
Chemotherapy is widely accepted as one of the most common clinical treatments for advanced cancers. However, patients exposed to long-term chemotherapy are inclined to be unresponsive to chemo-drugs. MDR remains the major obstacle to successful and effective clinical treatment for cancer due to consequent metastasis and recurrence, both of which contribute to poor outcomes [
24,
34]. Therefore, uncovering the potential mechanisms of MDR would provide a great opportunity to improve cancer chemotherapy. Here, we found that the upregulation of YAP through the inhibition of ROS-mediated autophagy-related cell death promotes MDR in HCC. Moreover, the blockade of YAP endowed HCC with sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents.
More recent evidence has indicated that the accumulation of the YAP protein level is a substantial factor for micrometastases and resistance during chemotherapy in various types of cancer [
34‐
36]. In line with these results, our data showed a high expression of YAP in BEL/FU cells, a well-known HCC cell line with resistance to chemotherapy. These observations were further supported by the reversal of MDR in BEL/FU cells after the administration of the YAP antagonist verteporfin in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, the exogenous overexpression of YAP reduced the percentage of apoptotic cells and elevated IC
50 values in BEL-7402 cells under 5-Fu or DOX treatment. In addition, targeting YAP was also able to sensitize various types of cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents [
37‐
39], reflecting that YAP can be recognized as an antitumour target, especially for refractory malignancies, including HCC.
Moreover, YAP is robustly able to sustain the antioxidant potential, cell survival and chemoresistance of bladder cancer [
40], relying on the vulnerability of cancer cells to ROS [
41]. The suppression of antioxidants or restoration of intracellular ROS levels are increasingly being accepted as useful strategies against malignancies with chemoresistance. This viewpoint is supported by the application of treatment with anthracyclines and paclitaxel, which could promote anticancer responses to some extent by increasing intracellular ROS levels [
42]. However, such chemotherapy is prone to failure with drug-resistant malignancies due to their intensive capability of scavenging intracellular ROS [
43]. Therefore, targeting YAP might be an ideal option for overcoming drug resistance in cancers, including HCC. Indeed, YAP knockdown exhibited a strong ability to raise intracellular ROS production and resensitized BEL/FU cells to 5-Fu or DOX in the current study. This result was further substantiated by the negative relation of YAP expression with ROS levels in HCC tissues and the restored proliferation of BEL/FU cells with YAP silencing after treatment with the ROS scavenger NAC in the context of 5-Fu. The process of YAP-mediated ROS reduction and chemoresistance is dependent on RAC1 suppression, a critical regulator implicated in oxidation and ROS production [
31]. In addition, this work further validated that the combination of the YAP inhibitor verteporfin and 5-Fu could lead to ROS production and the inhibition of tumour growth in vivo. Thus, the YAP-inhibited induction of ROS accumulation would be a promising mechanism to overcome chemoresistance or improve the treatment of refractory cancers.
Intracellular ROS accumulation could negatively regulate multiple survival signalling pathways and enhance the autophagic flux of cancer cells [
44]. The mTOR protein, which plays a key role in suppressing autophagy and sustaining cell growth, is easily inactivated by exogenous H
2O
2 [
42]. Considering these findings, mTOR and the autophagy process are thought to be involved in the YAP-mediated chemoresistance of BEL/FU cells. Noticeably, our data revealed that the activation of mTOR protein was markedly suppressed by YAP knockdown and subsequently restored by the ROS scavenger NAC. Furthermore, YAP silencing caused an increase in the LC3B-I/II transition (representing the formation of autophagosomes) and the number of autophagosomes, as indicated by yellow dots using the tandem LC3B-mRFP-GFP fluorescence assay. Although autophagy has been reported as a protective factor for the initiation, progression and chemoresistance of cancers, increasing evidence has revealed that elevated and prolonged autophagic flux facilitates cell death and serves as a novel mechanism of tumour suppression during antitumour therapy [
45‐
47]. The blockade of autophagy has been determined to enhance the resistance of cancer cells to antitumour agents, including imatinib, gefitinib and erlotinib, by promoting cell death [
48,
49]. In accordance, our study demonstrated that the apoptotic cell ratio of BEL/FU cells was significantly reduced by the autophagy inhibitors CQ and 3-MA or the siRNA against BECN1 or ATG5 in the context of YAP silencing and 5-Fu treatment. Moreover, the cell death of BEL/FU cells was facilitated by a rapamycin-induced activation of autophagy, which is in agreement with the findings of a previous study in which the combination of rapamycin and temozolomide could overcome temozolomide resistance in human gliomas [
50].
Despite the “two faces” role of autophagy, consisting of pro- and antitumour activities in tumourigenesis and the development of chemoresistance [
48,
49], numerous studies have attempted to improve the sensitivity of breast cancer to tamoxifen or overcome chemoresistance by combining therapy with the enhancement of autophagic flux [
48]. Increasing evidence suggests that capecitabine and gemcitabine, two agents widely used for colon, breast and pancreatic cancers, are able to suppress tumour progression by trigging excessive autophagic flux and autophagy-related cell death [
51]. Considering that autophagy is a context-dependent process that is regulated by various factors, including the microenvironment and cell type and status, more knowledge is needed to clarify the role of autophagy in chemoresistance and cell death as well as in the survival of patients and efficacy of a combination of autophagy antagonists and chemotherapeutic agents for malignancies in the future.
Materials and methods
Cell lines and reagents
The human HCC cell line BEL/FU and the parent cell line BEL-7402 were obtained from KeyGen Biotech Co., Ltd. (Nanjing, China). The BEL/FU cells and BEL-7402 cells were cultured in RPMI-1640 (Biological Industries, Israel) containing 10% foetal bovine serum (Biological Industries, Israel). The HCC-LM3 cell line was provided by the Cell Bank of the Shanghai Institutes of Biological Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences and cultured in DMEM high glucose medium (Biological Industries, Israel) with 10% foetal bovine serum (Biological Industries, Israel). SK-Hep-1 cells were provided by the China Center for Type Culture Collection and cultured in DMEM containing 10% foetal bovine serum at 5% CO2 and 37 °C. EBSS (Gibco) was used to provide starvation conditions. CQ (Selleck, USA) and 3-MA (Selleck, USA) were used to block autophagy. Verteporfin, 5-Fu, and DOX were purchased from MedChemExpress (MCE, USA).
A colony formation assay was performed by seeding BEL/FU cells in 6-well plates. After treatment with 5-Fu, DOX and verteporfin for 48 h, the cells were cultured in fresh medium for 14 days. Then, the colonies were stained with crystal violet for counting.
In vitro drug cytotoxic and cell proliferation assay
The drug cytotoxic assay was performed similar to a previous research method [
24]. IC
50 values were calculated by probit regression using SPSS software. To assess cell proliferation, BEL/FU cells (1 × 10
3 cells/well) were placed into 96-well plates and measured at 0, 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 h by CCK-8 (DOJINDO Laboratories, Japan) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Clinical specimens
All HCC specimens contained in the tissue microarray were obtained from the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, China. The tissues were fixed in formalin and embedded with paraffin.
Immunohistochemistry
The sections of tissue microarrays and xenograft tumour tissues were deparaffinized in xylene. The primary antibodies against YAP (Abcam, USA), RAC1 (Proteintech, China), 8-OHdG (Abcam, USA), p-mTOR (Abcam, USA) and p-S6 (Abcam, USA) were used at suitable concentrations and incubated overnight at 4 °C. The intensity of staining was calculated according to the immunoreactive score system (IRS) [
52].
Western blot
Total protein was extracted from cells by using RIPA lysis buffer (Thermo, USA) with protease and phosphatase inhibitors (Thermo Scientific™, USA) on ice. The cell lysates from each sample were separated by 4–20% gradient sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (GenScript, Nanjing, China) and then transferred onto 0.45 µm PVDF membranes (Millipore, USA). All membranes were blocked with Tris-buffered saline with 5% non-fat milk and 0.1% Tween-20 and then incubated with primary antibodies at 4 °C overnight. The secondary antibody was added and incubated for 1 h at room temperature at a concentration of 1:5000. The immunoblot bands were visualized using ECL kits (Proteintech, China). The protein amount was quantified by analysis of density of band using Image Lab software.
Xenograft model assay
To determine the function of YAP in MDR in vivo, 4-week-old Balb/c nude mice were purchased from Shanghai X-B Animal Ltd., China. A total of 3 × 106 BEL/FU cells were inoculated subcutaneously into the right flank of each mouse. After the appearance of a tumour mass, all mice were treated with 5-Fu (20 mg/kg, i.p., every 3 days) and/or verteporfin (10 mg/kg, i.p., every 3 days). Tumour size was monitored regularly, and tumour volume was calculated according to the formula (volume = length × width2)/2. All mice were sacrificed after 3 weeks of measurement. This xenograft assay was approved by the Ethics Committee for Laboratory Animals of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang, Hangzhou, China.
Lentivirus transfection
To generate HCC cells with a stable YAP knockdown, lentiviral particles with YAP-specific shRNA (shYAP-1# and shYAP-2#, GeneCopeia, Guangzhou, China) lentiviral particles were transfected into SK-Hep-1 and BEL/FU cell lines. The sequences of shRNAs targeting YAP were 5′-GGAATTGAGAACAATGACGAC-3′ (shYAP-1#) and 5′-GGATACAGGTGATACTATCAA-3′ (shYAP-2#). For the overexpression of YAP, lentivirus-Flag-YAP-expressing vectors (Genechem Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China) were transfected into BEL-7402 and HCC-LM3 cells. All transfected cells were treated with puromycin (5 µg/ml).
ROS detection
BEL/FU cells were cultured in RPMI-1640 with 5-Fu (0.3 mg/ml, 48 h) and then harvested and washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Afterwards, the cells were resuspended in PBS and incubated with 2 µl of CellROX Green Reagent (Thermo Scientific, USA) for 30 min. The amount of intracellular ROS, indicated as fluorescence intensity, was measured by flow cytometry.
Statistical analysis
All experiments were independently conducted in triplicate. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 17.0 software (Chicago, USA). Student’s t test was carried out to compare the differences between the two groups. The correlation among the expression of YAP, p-mTOR, p-S6, 8-OHdG and RAC1 was evaluated by calculating the Pearson’s correlation. P < 0.05 was identified as statistically significant, * indicates p < 0.05, and ** indicates p < 0.01.
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