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Therapeutic targeting of initiating oncogenes is the mainstay of precision medicine. Considerable efforts have been expended toward silencing MYC, which drives many human cancers including Burkitt lymphomas (BL). Yet, the effects of MYC silencing on standard-of-care therapies are poorly understood. Here we found that inhibition of MYC transcription renders B-lymphoblastoid cells refractory to chemotherapeutic agents. This suggested that in the context of chemotherapy, stabilization of Myc protein could be more beneficial than its inactivation. We tested this hypothesis by pharmacologically inhibiting glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β), which normally targets Myc for proteasomal degradation. We discovered that chemorefractory BL cell lines responded better to doxorubicin and other anti-cancer drugs when Myc was transiently stabilized. In vivo, GSK3 inhibitors (GSK3i) enhanced doxorubicin-induced apoptosis in BL patient-derived xenografts (BL-PDX), as well as in murine MYC-driven lymphoma allografts. This enhancement was accompanied by and required deregulation of several key genes acting in the extrinsic, death-receptor-mediated apoptotic pathway. Consistent with this mechanism of action, GSK3i also facilitated lymphoma cell killing by a death ligand TRAIL and by a death receptor agonist mapatumumab. Thus, GSK3i synergizes with both standard chemotherapeutics and direct engagers of death receptors and could improve outcomes in patients with refractory lymphomas.

Aberrant MYC expression is a common oncogenic event in human cancer. Paradoxically, MYC can either drive cell cycle progression or induce apoptosis. The latent ability of MYC to induce apoptosis has been termed "intrinsic tumor suppressor activity," and reactivating this apoptotic function in tumors is widely considered a valuable therapeutic goal. As a transcription factor, MYC controls the expression of many downstream targets, and for the majority of these, it remains unclear whether or not they play direct roles in MYC function. To identify the subset of genes specifically required for biological activity, we conducted a screen for functionally important MYC targets and identified BAG1, which encodes a prosurvival chaperone protein. Expression of BAG1 is regulated by MYC in both a mouse model of breast cancer and transformed human cells. Remarkably, BAG1 induction is essential for protecting cells from MYC-induced apoptosis. Ultimately, the synthetic lethality we have identified between MYC overexpression and BAG1 inhibition establishes a new pathway that might be exploited to reactivate the latent apoptotic potential of MYC as a cancer therapy.

AIM: To investigate the role of Ywhab in the growth of mouse B-cell lymphoma, and to explore the potential underlying mechanisms. METHODS : The correlation between Ywhab and human diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) was investigated by bioinformatics analysis. Infection with retroviral vector was performed to establish stable mouse B-cell lymphoma 38B9 cell line with overexpression of Ywhab gene, which was verified by RT-qPCR and Western blot. The impact of Ywhab overexpression on 38B9 cell growth both in vitro and in vivo was detected by cell counting, CCK-8 assay, and subcutaneous tumor loading experiments. The expression of apoptosis-related proteins was detected by RT-qPCR and Western blot. Co-immunoprecipitation combined with mass spectrometry (CoIP-MS) was employed to search for proteins specifically binding to Ywhab gene product 14-3-3β, which was confirmed by Western blot and molecular docking analysis. RESULTS: The Ywhab gene exhibited low expression in DLBCL, which was correlated with poor clinical prognosis of DLBCL patients. Compared with normal mouse bone marrow B cells, Ywhab expression was low in 38B9 cells. Overexpression of Ywhab induced apoptosis of 38B9 cells both in vitro and in vivo, promoted the expression of pro-apoptotic proteins Puma, Noxa and Bax at both mRNA and protein levels, and inhibited the mRNA and protein expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl2 (P<0. 05). The 14-3-3β protein specifically bound to Hsp90aa1 and reduced Hsp90aa1 protein levels, thereby suppressing the growth of 38B9 cells. CONCLUSION: Ywhab promotes the apoptosis of B-cell lymphoma cells by binding to Hsp90aa1 and thereby inhibiting the function of Hsp90aa1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a member of the TNF-α family of death receptor ligands and holds great therapeutic potential as a tumor cell-specific cytotoxic agent. Using a panel of established tumor cell lines and normal cells, we found a significant difference between the number of TRAIL-sensitive cells expressing high levels of c-myc and TRAIL-resistant cells expressing low levels of c-myc (P < 0.05, n = 19). We also found a direct linear correlation between c-myc levels and TRAIL sensitivity in TRAIL-sensitive cell lines (r = 0.94, n = 6). Overexpression of c-myc or activation of a myc-estrogen receptor (ER) fusion sensitized TRAIL-resistant cells to TRAIL. Conversely, small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated knockdown of c-myc significantly reduced both c-myc expression and TRAIL-induced apoptosis. The gene encoding the inhibitor of caspase activation, FLICE inhibitory protein (FLIP), appears to be a direct target of c-myc-mediated transcriptional repression. Overexpression of c-myc or activation of myc-estrogen receptor (ER) decreased FLIP levels both in cell culture and in mouse models of c-myc-induced tumorigenesis, while knocking down c-myc using siRNA increased FLIP expression. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and luciferase reporter analyses showed that c-myc binds and represses the human FLIP promoter. c-myc expression enhanced TRAIL-induced caspase 8 cleavage and FLIP cleavage at the death-inducing signaling complex. Combined siRNA-mediated knockdown of FLIP and c-myc resensitized cells to TRAIL. Therefore, c-myc down-regulation of FLIP expression provides a universal mechanism to explain the ability of c-myc to sensitize cells to death receptor stimuli. In addition, identification of c-myc as a major determinant of TRAIL sensitivity provides a potentially important screening tool for identification of TRAIL-sensitive tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autophagy is a lysosome-dependent degradative pathway frequently activated in tumor cells treated with chemotherapy or radiation. Whether autophagy observed in treated cancer cells represents a mechanism that allows tumor cells to survive therapy or a mechanism for initiating a nonapoptotic form of programmed cell death remains controversial. To address this issue, the role of autophagy in a Myc-induced model of lymphoma generated from cells derived from p53ER(TAM)/p53ER(TAM) mice (with ER denoting estrogen receptor) was examined. Such tumors are resistant to apoptosis due to a lack of nuclear p53. Systemic administration of tamoxifen led to p53 activation and tumor regression followed by tumor recurrence. Activation of p53 was associated with the rapid appearance of apoptotic cells and the induction of autophagy in surviving cells. Inhibition of autophagy with either chloroquine or ATG5 short hairpin RNA (shRNA) enhanced the ability of either p53 activation or alkylating drug therapy to induce tumor cell death. These studies provide evidence that autophagy serves as a survival pathway in tumor cells treated with apoptosis activators and a rationale for the use of autophagy inhibitors such as chloroquine in combination with therapies designed to induce apoptosis in human cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]