Inhibition of mutant EGFR in lung cancer cells triggers SOX2-FOXO6-dependent survival pathways

Autor: S Michael Rothenberg, Kyle Concannon, Sarah Cullen, Gaylor Boulay, Alexa B Turke, Anthony C Faber, Elizabeth L Lockerman, Miguel N Rivera, Jeffrey A Engelman, Shyamala Maheswaran, Daniel A Haber
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Zdroj: eLife, Vol 4 (2015)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2050-084X
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.06132
Popis: Treatment of EGFR-mutant lung cancer with erlotinib results in dramatic tumor regression but it is invariably followed by drug resistance. In characterizing early transcriptional changes following drug treatment of mutant EGFR-addicted cells, we identified the stem cell transcriptional regulator SOX2 as being rapidly and specifically induced, both in vitro and in vivo. Suppression of SOX2 sensitizes cells to erlotinib-mediated apoptosis, ultimately decreasing the emergence of acquired resistance, whereas its ectopic expression reduces drug-induced cell death. We show that erlotinib relieves EGFR-dependent suppression of FOXO6, leading to its induction of SOX2, which in turn represses the pro-apoptotic BH3-only genes BIM and BMF. Together, these observations point to a physiological feedback mechanism that attenuates oncogene addiction-mediated cell death associated with the withdrawal of growth factor signaling and may therefore contribute to the development of resistance.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals