BCL6 is regulated by the MAPK/ELK1 axis and promotes KRAS-driven lung cancer

Autor: Kun Li, Yanan Liu, Yi Ding, Zhengwei Zhang, Juanjuan Feng, Jiaxin Hu, Jiwei Chen, Zhengke Lian, Yiliang Chen, Kewen Hu, Zhi Chen, Zhenyu Cai, Mingyao Liu, Xiufeng Pang
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Vol 132, Iss 22 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1558-8238
DOI: 10.1172/JCI161308
Popis: Mutational activation of KRAS is a common oncogenic event in lung cancer, yet effective therapies are still lacking. Here, we identify B cell lymphoma 6 (BCL6) as a lynchpin in KRAS-driven lung cancer. BCL6 expression was increased upon KRAS activation in lung tumor tissue in mice and was positively correlated with the expression of KRAS-GTP, the active form of KRAS, in various human cancer cell lines. Moreover, BCL6 was highly expressed in human KRAS-mutant lung adenocarcinomas and was associated with poor patient survival. Mechanistically, the MAPK/ERK/ELK1 signaling axis downstream of mutant KRAS directly regulated BCL6 expression. BCL6 maintained the global expression of prereplication complex components; therefore, BCL6 inhibition induced stalling of the replication fork, leading to DNA damage and growth arrest in KRAS-mutant lung cancer cells. Importantly, BCL6-specific knockout in lungs significantly reduced the tumor burden and mortality in the LSL-KrasG12D/+ lung cancer mouse model. Likewise, pharmacological inhibition of BCL6 significantly impeded the growth of KRAS-mutant lung cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. In summary, our findings reveal a crucial role of BCL6 in promoting KRAS-addicted lung cancer and suggest BCL6 as a therapeutic target for the treatment of this intractable disease.
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