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// Guannan Zhao 1, 2, * , Qinghui Wang 3, * , Qingqing Gu 1, 2 , Wenan Qiang 4, 5 , Jian-Jun Wei 4 , Peixin Dong 6, 7 , Hidemichi Watari 6, 7 , Wei Li 3 and Junming Yue 1, 2 1 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, USA 2 Center for Cancer Research, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, USA 3 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, USA 4 Department of Pathology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Northwestern University School of Medicine, Chicago, USA 5 Center for Developmental Therapeutics, Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA 6 Department of Women’s Health Educational System, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan 7 Department of Gynecology, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Junming Yue, email: jyue@uthsc.edu Wei Li, email: wli@uthsc.edu Keywords: BIRC5 (survivin), CRISPR/Cas9 nickase, lentiviral vector, ovarian cancer, epithelial to mesenchymal transition Received: March 29, 2017 Accepted: September 18, 2017 Published: October 17, 2017 ABSTRACT BIRC5 encodes the protein survivin, a member of the inhibitor of apoptosis family. Survivin is highly expressed in a variety of cancers but has very low expression in the corresponding normal tissues, and its expression is often associated with tumor metastasis and chemoresistance. We report that survivin was highly expressed in ovarian cancer and strongly correlated with patient overall poor survival. For the first time, we provide experimental evidence that survivin is involved in epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) in ovarian cancer cells. Lentiviral CRISPR/Cas9 nickase vector mediated BIRC5 gene editing led to the inhibition of EMT by upregulating epithelial cell marker, cytokeratin 7 and downregulating mesenchymal markers: snail2, β-catenin, and vimentin in both ovarian cancer SKOV3 and OVCAR3 cells. Consistent with this molecular approach, pharmacological treatment of ovarian cancer cells using a small molecule survivin inhibitor, YM155 also inhibited EMT in these ovarian cancer cell lines. Overexpression of BIRC5 promoted EMT in SKOV3 cells. Using molecular or pharmacological approaches, we found that cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were significantly inhibited following BIRC5 disruption in both cell lines. Inhibition of BIRC5 expression also sensitized cell responses to paclitaxel treatment. Moreover, loss of BIRC5 expression attenuated TGFβ signaling in both SKOV3 and OVCAR3 cells. Collectively, our studies demonstrated that disruption of BIRC5 expression inhibited EMT by attenuating the TGFβ pathway in ovarian cancer cells.

High grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSC) is a DNA instable tumor and its precursor is commonly found originating from the fimbriated end of the fallopian tube secretory epithelial (FTSE) cells. The local stresses via ovulation and related inflammation are risks for HGSC. In this study, we examined the cellular and molecular responses of FTSE cells to stress. We found that excess intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in normal FTSE cells upregulated a subset of microRNA expression (defined as ROSmiRs). Most ROSmiRs' expression and function were influenced and regulated by p53, and together they drove the cells into stress-induced premature senescence (SIPS). However, ROS-induced miR-182 is regulated by β-catenin, not by p53. In normal FTSE cells, miR-182 overexpression triggers cellular senescence by p53-mediated upregulation of p21. Conversely, in cells with p53 mutations, miR-182 overexpression no longer enhances p21 but functions as an "Onco-miR". p53 dysfunction is a prerequisite for miR-182-mediated tumorigenesis. In addition, we found that human follicular fluid could significantly induce intracellular ROS in normal FTSE cells. These findings suggest that ROS and p53 mutations may trigger a series of events, beginning with overexpressing miR-182 by ROS and β-catenin, impairing the DNA damage response, promoting DNA instability, bypassing senescence and eventually leading to DNA instable tumors in FTSE cells.

High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC), the most common and aggressive subtype of epithelial ovarian cancer, is characterized by TP53 mutations and genetic instability. Using miRNA profiling analysis, we found that miR-145, a p53 regulated miRNA, was frequently down-regulated in HGSOC. miR-145 down-regulation was further validated in a large cohort of HGSOCs by qPCR. Overexpression of miR-145 in ovarian cancer cells significantly suppressed proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro and inhibited tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. Metadherin (MTDH) was subsequently identified as a direct target of miR-145, and was found to be significantly up-regulated in HGSOC. Furthermore, overexpression of MTDH rescued the inhibitory effects of miR-145 in ovarian cancer cells. Finally, we found that high level of MTDH expression correlated with poor prognosis of HGSOC. Therefore, lack of suppression of MTDH by miR-145 when p53 is dysfunctional leads to increased tumor growth and metastasis of HGSOC. Our study established a new link between p53, miR-145 and MTDH in the regulation of tumor growth and metastasis in HGSOC.

The death receptor CD95/Fas can be activated by immune cells to kill cancer cells. shRNAs and siRNAs derived from CD95 or CD95 ligand (CD95L) are highly toxic to most cancer cells. We recently found that these sh/siRNAs kill cancer cells in the absence of the target by targeting the 3’UTRs of critical survival genes through canonical RNAi. We have named this unique form of off-target effect DISE (for death induced by survival gene elimination). DISE preferentially kills transformed cells and cancer stem cells. We demonstrate that DISE induction occurs in cancer cells in vivo after introducing a lentiviral CD95L derived shRNA (shL3) into HeyA8 ovarian cancer cells grown as i.p. xenografts in mice, when compared to a scrambled shRNA. To demonstrate the possibility of therapeutically inducing DISE, we coupled siRNAs to templated lipoprotein nanoparticles (TLP). In vitro, TLPs loaded with a CD95L derived siRNA (siL3) selectively silenced a biosensor comprised of Venus and CD95L ORF and killed ovarian cancer cells. In vivo, two siRNA-TLPs (siL2-TLP and siL3-TLP) reduced tumor growth similarly as observed for cells expressing the shL3 vector. These data suggest that it is possible to kill ovarian cancer cells in vivo via DISE induction using siRNA-TLPs.

// Haiyang Guo 1,* , Xiyu Zhang 1,* , Ruifen Dong 3 , Xiaolin Liu 3 , Yinuo Li 2 , Shan Lu 2 , Limei Xu 2 , Yuqiong Wang 2 , Xiyao Wang 2 , Dong Hou 1 , Jian-Jun Wei 4 , Changshun Shao 1 and Zhaojian Liu 1,2 1 Department of Molecular Medicine and Genetics and Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Experimental Teratology,Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China 2 Department of Cell Biology, Shandong University School of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China 3 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China 4 Department of Pathology, Northwestern University School of Medicine, Chicago, IL,USA * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence: Zhaojian Liu, email: // Changshun Shao, email: // Keywords : lncRNA; protein coding genes; microarray; uterine leiomyoma,CAR Intergenic 10 Received : June 04, 2014 Accepted : August 15, 2014 Published : August 16, 2014 Abstract Global expression profiling studies showed that miRNAs are aberrantly expressed in uterine leiomyomas (ULMs) and are involved in ULM pathogenesis. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are another group of regulatory RNA whose expression and roles in ULMs have not been explored. In this study, we examined the global expressions of lncRNAs and mRNAs in ULMs using microarray and interrogated their interrelationship through co-expression analysis. We found that lncRNAs and mRNAs were dysregulated in ULMs and the degree of dysregulation was positively correlated with tumor size. Further analysis showed that lncRNAs correlate to their cis mRNAs in expression levels depending on genomic locations and orientations. Moreover, we identified several dysregulated pathways that were correlated to dysregulated lncRNAs. We validated several aberrantly expressed lncRNAs in extended samples and confirmed that AK023096 was down-regulated and chromatin-associated RNA (CAR) Intergenic 10 was up-regulated in the majority of leiomyomas. Knockdown of Intergenic 10 inhibited the proliferation of leiomyoma cells in vitro, indicating its functional importance in ULM pathogenesis. The neighboring protein-coding gene ADAM12 was also downregulated in Intergenic 10 knockdown leiomyoma cells. We showed for the first time that lncRNAs were dysregulated in uterine leiomyomas. Aberrantly expressed lncRNAs may contribute to the pathogenesis of uterine leiomyomas.