Tudor staphylococcal nuclease drives chemoresistance of non-small cell lung carcinoma cells by regulating S100A11

// Anna Zagryazhskaya 1 , Olga Surova 1, 2 , Nadeem S. Akbar 1 , Giulia Allavena 1, 3 , Katarina Gyuraszova 1, 4 , Irina B. Zborovskaya 5, 6 , Elena M. Tchevkina 5, 6 , Boris Zhivotovsky 1, 6 1 Institute of Environmental Medicine, Division of Toxicology, Stockholm, Sweden 2 Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Ltd, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden 3 Department of Molecular and Developmental Medicine, University of Siena, Siena, Italy 4 Institute of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, Kosice, Slovakia 5 NN Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center, Moscow, Russia 6 Faculty of Fundamental Medicine, ML Lomonosov State University, Moscow, Russia Correspondence to: Boris Zhivotovsky, e-mail: Boris.Zhivotovsky@ki.se Keywords: tudor staphylococcal nuclease, S100A11, phospholipase A 2 , non-small cell lung cancer, apoptosis Received: December 19, 2014 Accepted: March 07, 2015 Published: March 26, 2015 ABSTRACT Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the major lung cancer subtype, is characterized by high resistance to chemotherapy. Here we demonstrate that Tudor staphylococcal nuclease (SND1 or TSN) is overexpressed in NSCLC cell lines and tissues, and is important for maintaining NSCLC chemoresistance. Downregulation of TSN by RNAi in NSCLC cells led to strong potentiation of cell death in response to cisplatin. Silencing of TSN was accompanied by a significant decrease in S100A11 expression at both mRNA and protein level. Downregulation of S100A11 by RNAi resulted in enhanced sensitivity of NSCLC cells to cisplatin, oxaliplatin and 5-fluouracil. AACOCF 3 , a phospholipase A 2 (PLA 2 ) inhibitor, strongly abrogated chemosensitization upon silencing of S100A11 suggesting that PLA 2 inhibition by S100A11 governs the chemoresistance of NSCLC. Moreover, silencing of S100A11 stimulated mitochondrial superoxide production, which was decreased by AACOCF 3 , as well as N -acetyl- L -cysteine, which also mimicked the effect of PLA 2 inhibitor on NSCLC chemosensitization upon S100A11 silencing. Thus, we present the novel TSN-S100A11-PLA 2 axis regulating superoxide-dependent apoptosis, triggered by platinum-based chemotherapeutic agents in NSCLC that may be targeted by innovative cancer therapies.