Theranostics 2019; 9(16):4717-4729. doi:10.7150/thno.33680 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Department of Oncology, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510282, Guangdong, China
2. Department of Pathology, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510282, Guangdong, China
3. Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi, China
4. Department of Oncology, Nanhai Hospital Affiliated to Southern Medical University, Foshan 528200, Guangdong, China
# These authors contributed equally to this study
Rationale: Chemoresistance frequently occurs in patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and leads to a dismal prognosis. However, the mechanisms underlying this process remain largely unclear.
Methods: The effects of chromodomain Y-like (CDYL) on chemoresistance in SCLC were determined using Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, cell counting kit-8 assays, flow cytometry, and tumorigenicity experiments, and the underlying mechanisms were investigated using mRNA sequencing, chromatin immunoprecipitation-qPCR, electrophoretic mobility shift assays, co-immunoprecipitation, GST pull down assays, bisulfite sequencing PCR, ELISA, and bioinformatics analyses.
Results: CDYL is expressed at high levels in chemoresistant SCLC tissues from patients, and elevated CDYL levels correlate with an advanced clinical stage and a poor prognosis. Furthermore, CDYL expression is significantly upregulated in chemoresistant SCLC cells. Using gain- and loss-of-function methods, we show that CDYL promotes chemoresistance in SCLC in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, CDYL promotes SCLC chemoresistance by silencing its downstream mediator cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1C (CDKN1C). Further mechanistic investigations showed that CDYL recruits the enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) to regulate trimethylation of lysine 27 in histone 3 (H3K27me3) at the CDKN1C promoter region and promotes transcriptional silencing. Accordingly, the EZH2 inhibitor GSK126 de-represses CDKN1C and decreases CDYL-induced chemoresistance in SCLC.
Principal conclusions: Based on these results, the CDYL/EZH2/CDKN1C axis promotes chemoresistance in SCLC, and these markers represent promising therapeutic targets for overcoming chemoresistance in patients with SCLC.
Keywords: small cell lung cancer, chemoresistance, CDYL, CDKN1C, H3K27me3