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Lesson 9 Cell Signaling:  Curations and Articles of reference as supplemental information for lecture section on WNTs: #TUBiol3373

Stephen J. Wiilliams, Ph.D: Curator

UPDATED 4/23/2019

This has an updated lesson on WNT signaling.  Please click on the following and look at the slides labeled under lesson 10

cell motility 9b lesson_2018_sjw

Remember our lessons on the importance of signal termination.  The CANONICAL WNT signaling (that is the β-catenin dependent signaling)

is terminated by the APC-driven degradation complex.  This leads to the signal messenger  β-catenin being degraded by the proteosome.  Other examples of growth factor signaling that is terminated by a proteosome-directed include the Hedgehog signaling system, which is involved in growth and differentiation as well as WNTs and is implicated in various cancers.

A good article on the Hedgehog signaling pathway is found here:

The Voice of a Pathologist, Cancer Expert: Scientific Interpretation of Images: Cancer Signaling Pathways and Tumor Progression

All images in use for this article are under copyrights with Shutterstock.com

Cancer is expressed through a series of transformations equally involving metabolic enzymes and glucose, fat, and protein metabolism, and gene transcription, as a result of altered gene regulatory and transcription pathways, and also as a result of changes in cell-cell interactions.  These are embodied in the following series of graphics.

Figure 1: Sonic_hedgehog_pathway

The Voice of Dr. Larry

The figure shows a modification of nuclear translocation by Sonic hedgehog pathway. The hedgehog proteins have since been implicated in the development of internal organs, midline neurological structures, and the hematopoietic system in humans. The Hh signaling pathway consists of three main components: the receptor patched 1 (PTCH1), the seven transmembrane G-protein coupled receptor smoothened (SMO), and the intracellular glioma-associated oncogene homolog (GLI) family of transcription factors.⁵The GLI family is composed of three members, including GLI1 (gene activating), GLI2 (gene activating and repressive), and GLI3 (gene repressive).⁶ In the absence of an activating signal from either Shh, Ihh or Dhh, PTCH1 exerts an inhibitory effect on the signal transducer SMO, preventing any downstream signaling from occurring.⁷ When Hh ligands bind and activate PTCH1, the inhibition on SMO is released, allowing the translocation of SMO into the cytoplasm and its subsequent activation of the GLI family of transcription factors.

 

And from the review of  Elaine Y. C. Hsia, Yirui Gui, and Xiaoyan Zheng   Regulation of Hedgehog Signaling by Ubiquitination  Front Biol (Beijing). 2015 Jun; 10(3): 203–220.

the authors state:

Finally, termination of Hh signaling is also important for controlling the duration of pathway activity. Hh induced ubiquitination and degradation of Ci/Gli is the most well-established mechanism for limiting signal duration, and inhibiting this process can lead to cell patterning disruption and excessive cell proliferation (Di Marcotullio et al. 2006; Huntzicker et al. 2006; Kent et al. 2006; Zhang et al. 2006a; Di Marcotullio et al. 2007; Ou et al. 2007). In addition to Ci/Gli, a growing body of evidence suggests that ubiquitination also plays critical roles in regulating other Hh signaling components including Ptc, Smo, and Sufu. Thus, ubiquitination serves as a general mechanism in the dynamic regulation of the Hh pathway.

Overview of Hedgehog signaling showing the signal termination by ubiquitnation and subsequent degradation of the Gli transcriptional factors. obtained from Oncotarget 5(10):2881-911 · May 2014. GSK-3B as a Therapeutic Intervention in Cancer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note that in absence of Hedgehog ligands Ptch inhibits Smo accumulation and activation but upon binding of Hedgehog ligands (by an autocrine or paracrine fashion) Ptch is now unable to inhibit Smo (evidence exists that Ptch is now targeted for degradation) and Smo can now inhibit Sufu-dependent and GSK-3B dependent induced degradation of Gli factors Gli1 and Gli2.  Also note the Gli1 and Gli2 are transcriptional activators while Gli3 is a transcriptional repressor.

UPDATED 4/16/2019

Please click on the following links for the Powerpoint presentation for lesson 9.  In addition click on the mp4 links to download the movies so you can view them in Powerpoint slide 22:

cell motility 9 lesson_SJW 2019

movie file 1:

Tumorigenic but noninvasive MCF-7 cells motility on an extracellular matrix derived from normal (3DCntrol) or tumor associated (TA) fibroblasts.  Note that TA ECM is “soft” and not organized and tumor cells appear to move randomly if  much at all.

Movie 2:

 

Note that these tumorigenic and invasive MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells move in organized patterns on organized ECM derived from Tumor Associated (TA) fibroblasts than from the ‘soft’ or unorganized ECM derived from normal  (3DCntrl) fibroblasts

 

The following contain curations of scientific articles from the site https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com  intended as additional reference material  to supplement material presented in the lecture.

Wnts are a family of lipid-modified secreted glycoproteins which are involved in:

Normal physiological processes including

A. Development:

– Osteogenesis and adipogenesis (Loss of wnt/β‐catenin signaling causes cell fate shift of preosteoblasts from osteoblasts to adipocytes)

  – embryogenesis including body axis patterning, cell fate specification, cell proliferation and cell migration

B. tissue regeneration in adult tissue

read: Wnt signaling in the intestinal epithelium: from endoderm to cancer

And in pathologic processes such as oncogenesis (refer to Wnt/β-catenin Signaling [7.10]) and to your Powerpoint presentation

 

The curation Wnt/β-catenin Signaling is a comprehensive review of canonical and noncanonical Wnt signaling pathways

 

To review:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Activating the canonical Wnt pathway frees B-catenin from the degradation complex, resulting in B-catenin translocating to the nucleus and resultant transcription of B-catenin/TCF/LEF target genes.

Fig. 1 Canonical Wnt/FZD signaling pathway. (A) In the absence of Wnt signaling, soluble β-catenin is phosphorylated by a degradation complex consisting of the kinases GSK3β and CK1α and the scaffolding proteins APC and Axin1. Phosphorylated β-catenin is targeted for proteasomal degradation after ubiquitination by the SCF protein complex. In the nucleus and in the absence of β-catenin, TCF/LEF transcription factor activity is repressed by TLE-1; (B) activation of the canonical Wnt/FZD signaling leads to phosphorylation of Dvl/Dsh, which in turn recruits Axin1 and GSK3β adjacent to the plasma membrane, thus preventing the formation of the degradation complex. As a result, β-catenin accumulates in the cytoplasm and translocates into the nucleus, where it promotes the expression of target genes via interaction with TCF/LEF transcription factors and other proteins such as CBP, Bcl9, and Pygo.

NOTE: In the canonical signaling, the Wnt signal is transmitted via the Frizzled/LRP5/6 activated receptor to INACTIVATE the degradation complex thus allowing free B-catenin to act as the ultimate transducer of the signal.

Remember, as we discussed, the most frequent cancer-related mutations of WNT pathway constituents is in APC.

This shows how important the degradation complex is in controlling canonical WNT signaling.

Other cell signaling systems are controlled by protein degradation:

A.  The Forkhead family of transcription factors

Read: Regulation of FoxO protein stability via ubiquitination and proteasome degradation

B. Tumor necrosis factor α/NF κB signaling

Read: NF-κB, the first quarter-century: remarkable progress and outstanding questions

1.            Question: In cell involving G-proteins, the signal can be terminated by desensitization mechanisms.  How is both the canonical and noncanonical Wnt signal eventually terminated/desensitized?

We also discussed the noncanonical Wnt signaling pathway (independent of B-catenin induced transcriptional activity).  Note that the canonical and noncanonical involve different transducers of the signal.

Noncanonical WNT Signaling

Note: In noncanonical signaling the transducer is a G-protein and second messenger system is IP₃/DAG/Ca++ and/or kinases such as MAPK, JNK.

Depending on the different combinations of WNT ligands and the receptors, WNT signaling activates several different intracellular pathways  (i.e. canonical versus noncanonical)

• Read: A second canon. Functions and mechanisms of beta-catenin-independent Wnt signaling
•  Read: Convergence of Wnt, beta-catenin, and cadherin pathways

 

In addition different Wnt ligands are expressed at different times (temporally) and different cell types in development and in the process of oncogenesis. 

The following paper on Wnt signaling in ovarian oncogenesis shows how certain Wnt ligands are expressed in normal epithelial cells but the Wnt expression pattern changes upon transformation and ovarian oncogenesis. In addition, differential expression of canonical versus noncanonical WNT ligands occur during the process of oncogenesis (for example below the authors describe the noncanonical WNT5a is expressed in normal ovarian  epithelia yet WNT5a expression in ovarian cancer is lower than the underlying normal epithelium. However the canonical WNT10a, overexpressed in ovarian cancer cells, serves as an oncogene, promoting oncogenesis and tumor growth.

Wnt5a Suppresses Epithelial Ovarian Cancer by Promoting Cellular Senescence

Benjamin G. Bitler,¹ Jasmine P. Nicodemus,¹ Hua Li,¹ Qi Cai,² Hong Wu,³ Xiang Hua,⁴ Tianyu Li,⁵ Michael J. Birrer,⁶Andrew K. Godwin,⁷ Paul Cairns,⁸ and Rugang Zhang^1,*

A.           Abstract

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains the most lethal gynecological malignancy in the US. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop novel therapeutics for this disease. Cellular senescence is an important tumor suppression mechanism that has recently been suggested as a novel mechanism to target for developing cancer therapeutics. Wnt5a is a non-canonical Wnt ligand that plays a context-dependent role in human cancers. Here, we investigate the role of Wnt5a in regulating senescence of EOC cells. We demonstrate that Wnt5a is expressed at significantly lower levels in human EOC cell lines and in primary human EOCs (n = 130) compared with either normal ovarian surface epithelium (n = 31; p = 0.039) or fallopian tube epithelium (n = 28; p < 0.001). Notably, a lower level of Wnt5a expression correlates with tumor stage (p = 0.003) and predicts shorter overall survival in EOC patients (p = 0.003). Significantly, restoration of Wnt5a expression inhibits the proliferation of human EOC cells both in vitro and in vivo in an orthotopic EOC mouse model. Mechanistically, Wnt5a antagonizes canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling and induces cellular senescence by activating the histone repressor A (HIRA)/promyelocytic leukemia (PML) senescence pathway. In summary, we show that loss of Wnt5a predicts poor outcome in EOC patients and Wnt5a suppresses the growth of EOC cells by triggering cellular senescence. We suggest that strategies to drive senescence in EOC cells by reconstituting Wnt5a signaling may offer an effective new strategy for EOC therapy.

Oncol Lett. 2017 Dec;14(6):6611-6617. doi: 10.3892/ol.2017.7062. Epub 2017 Sep 26.

Clinical significance and biological role of Wnt10a in ovarian cancer. 

Li P¹, Liu W¹, Xu Q¹, Wang C¹.

Ovarian cancer is one of the five most malignant types of cancer in females, and the only currently effective therapy is surgical resection combined with chemotherapy. Wnt family member 10A (Wnt10a) has previously been identified to serve an oncogenic function in several tumor types, and was revealed to have clinical significance in renal cell carcinoma; however, there is still only limited information regarding the function of Wnt10a in the carcinogenesis of ovarian cancer. The present study identified increased expression levels of Wnt10a in two cell lines, SKOV3 and A2780, using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Functional analysis indicated that the viability rate and migratory ability of SKOV3 cells was significantly inhibited following Wnt10a knockdown using short interfering RNA (siRNA) technology. The viability rate of SKOV3 cells decreased by ~60% compared with the control and the migratory ability was only ~30% of that in the control. Furthermore, the expression levels of β-catenin, transcription factor 4, lymphoid enhancer binding factor 1 and cyclin D1 were significantly downregulated in SKOV3 cells treated with Wnt10a-siRNA3 or LGK-974, a specific inhibitor of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway. However, there were no synergistic effects observed between Wnt10a siRNA3 and LGK-974, which indicated that Wnt10a activated the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in SKOV3 cells. In addition, using quantitative PCR, Wnt10a was overexpressed in the tumor tissue samples obtained from 86 patients with ovarian cancer when compared with matching paratumoral tissues. Clinicopathological association analysis revealed that Wnt10a was significantly associated with high-grade (grade III, P=0.031) and late-stage (T4, P=0.008) ovarian cancer. Furthermore, the estimated 5-year survival rate was 18.4% for patients with low Wnt10a expression levels (n=38), whereas for patients with high Wnt10a expression (n=48) the rate was 6.3%. The results of the present study suggested that Wnt10a serves an oncogenic role during the carcinogenesis and progression of ovarian cancer via the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

Targeting the Wnt Pathway includes curations of articles related to the clinical development of Wnt signaling inhibitors as a therapeutic target in various cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma, colon, breast and potentially ovarian cancer.

 

2.         Question: Given that different Wnt ligands and receptors activate different signaling pathways, AND  WNT ligands  can be deferentially and temporally expressed  in various tumor types and the process of oncogenesis, how would you approach a personalized therapy targeting the WNT signaling pathway?

3.         Question: What are the potential mechanisms of either intrinsic or acquired resistance to Wnt ligand antagonists being developed?

 

Other related articles published in this Open Access Online Scientific Journal include the following:

Targeting the Wnt Pathway [7.11]

Wnt/β-catenin Signaling [7.10]

Cancer Signaling Pathways and Tumor Progression: Images of Biological Processes in the Voice of a Pathologist Cancer Expert

e-Scientific Publishing: The Competitive Advantage of a Powerhouse for Curation of Scientific Findings and Methodology Development for e-Scientific Publishing – LPBI Group, A Case in Point 

Electronic Scientific AGORA: Comment Exchanges by Global Scientists on Articles published in the Open Access Journal @pharmaceuticalintelligence.com – Four Case Studies