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  2. Membrane-bound TNF mediates microtubule-targeting chemotherapeutics-induced cancer cytolysis via juxtacrine inter-cancer-cell death signaling

Membrane-bound TNF mediates microtubule-targeting chemotherapeutics-induced cancer cytolysis via juxtacrine inter-cancer-cell death signaling

  • Cell Death Differ. 2020 May;27(5):1569-1587. doi: 10.1038/s41418-019-0441-3.
Jing Zhang 1 Yu Yang 1 Shen'ao Zhou 1 Xueyan He 2 Xuan Cao 3 Chenlu Wu 1 Hong Hu 4 Jie Qin 1 Gang Wei 3 Huayi Wang 4 Suling Liu 5 Liming Sun 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yueyang Road, 200031, Shanghai, China.
  • 2 Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center & Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Shanghai Medical College, Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer in Shanghai, Innovation Center for Cell Signaling Network, Cancer Institutes, Fudan University, 200032, Shanghai, China.
  • 3 CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, Collaborative Innovation Center for Genetics and Developmental Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 200031, Shanghai, China.
  • 4 School of Life Science and Technology, Shanghai Tech University, 201210, Shanghai, China.
  • 5 Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center & Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Shanghai Medical College, Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer in Shanghai, Innovation Center for Cell Signaling Network, Cancer Institutes, Fudan University, 200032, Shanghai, China. suling@fudan.edu.cn.
  • 6 State Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yueyang Road, 200031, Shanghai, China. liming.sun@sibcb.ac.cn.
Abstract

Microtubule-targeting agents (MTAs) are a class of most widely used chemotherapeutics and their mechanism of action has long been assumed to be mitotic arrest of rapidly dividing tumor cells. In contrast to such notion, here we show-in many Cancer cell types-MTAs function by triggering membrane TNF (memTNF)-mediated cancer-cell-to-cancer-cell killing, which differs greatly from other non-MTA cell-cycle-arresting agents. The killing is through programmed cell death (PCD), either in way of Necroptosis when RIP3 kinase is expressed, or of Apoptosis in its absence. Mechanistically, MTAs induce memTNF transcription via the JNK-cJun signaling pathway. With respect to chemotherapy regimens, our results establish that memTNF-mediated killing is significantly augmented by IAP antagonists (Smac mimetics) in a broad spectrum of Cancer types, and with their effects most prominently manifested in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models in which cell-cell contacts are highly reminiscent of human tumors. Therefore, our finding indicates that memTNF can serve as a marker for patient responsiveness, and Smac mimetics will be effective adjuvants for MTA chemotherapeutics. The present study reframes our fundamental biochemical understanding of how MTAs take advantage of the natural tight contact of tumor cells and utilize memTNF-mediated death signaling to induce the entire tumor regression.

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