Stem cell pathways and Notch signaling an emerging role in the development of acquired Drug Resistance in Neuroblastoma

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2471355/v1

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Stem cell pathways and Notch signaling an emerging role in the development of acquired Drug Resistance in Neuroblastoma

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2471355/v1

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Purpose: Neuroblastoma is a paediatric tumour that develops from embryonal neural crest cells that give rise to the sympathetic nervous system. Aggressive high-risk disease remains a clinical challenge and despite multi-modal therapy, survival rates are poor. Most neuroblastomas initially respond well to induction chemotherapy however, 50-60% of patients with high-risk disease will relapse with aggressive disease. A major obstacle in the successful treatment of this disease is the development of acquired resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. We hypothesize that aggressive neuroblastomas acquire a more immature phenotype in addition to increased expression of genes linked to stem cell pathways.

Methods: In this study we investigated the role of stem cell related genes in the development of acquired drug resistance using Q- Real Time PCR and bioinformatics analysis on three-paired vincristine sensitive and resistant cell lines.

Results: The study outlines 11 differentially expressed genes with several targets involved primarily in notch signalling, and stem cell development.

Conclusions: The findings implicated in this study, which include comparative analysis against patient microarray data, warrants further study on the functional effects of these genes/pathways to elucidate their role in acquired drug resistance.

neuroblastoma

stem-cells

drug resistance

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bioinformatics

Notch

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a childhood cancer which arises in the developing sympathetic nervous system, specifically the neuronal ganglia which derives from embryonic neural crest cells (Louis and Shohet 2015). In the United Kingdom around 98 new cases children under the age of 15 are diagnosed annually (Public Health England 2021). High risk patients, categorised by the presence of MYCN amplification or in children over 18 months with metastatic disease, have less than 40% chance of long term survival (Speleman et al. 2016). Tumour heterogeneity and clonal evolution are now established as characteristic hallmarks of NB, with emerging evidence suggesting that solid tumour cancer cells may not follow the hierarchical organisation of other cancer cells; instead, following clonal evolution from one subtype to another and generating distinctly recognisable tumours. This may explain the variation in clinical manifestations and the unpredictable nature in response to treatment (Ngan 2015). Whilst most high-risk patients do initially respond to induction multi-modal chemotherapy, unfortunately over 50% relapse, and in many cases the returning tumour cells possess a drug resistant phenotype (Keshelava et al. 2001; Owens et al. 2016).

VCR is currently included in Rapid COJEC induction chemotherapy which comprises a combination of five agents (cisplatin, vincristine, carboplatin, etoposide and cyclophosphamide) and is currently used to treat NB patients in Europe (Smith and Foster 2018). Vincristine (VCR) targets cell microtubule formation (Kotchetkov et al. 2003; Piskareva et al. 2015), which exert integral roles in cell scaffolding as well as being regulated during cell cycle. Thus, microtubule inhibition leads to cell cycle arrest and eventual cell death by apoptosis (Kothari et al. 2016).

A major obstacle in the successful treatment of neuroblastoma is the acquisition of resistance to chemotherapeutic agents and hence, is the most pressing factor leading to therapy failure and relapse. Drug resistance is a problem for many cancers including neuroblastoma, with a variety of potential mechanisms driving this resistance including cancer stem cells, epigenetics and genetic alterations(Hanahan and Weinberg 2011).

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), is a reversible process whereby cells undergo a functional change from a fixed epithelial cell to that of a more mobile nonspecialised cell which has the capacity to differentiate into other specialised cells or self-renew, has been highlighted as an early mechanism in the development of metastasis. Furthermore, emerging evidence in literature demonstrating EMT as a causative factor in drug resistance in most cancer types (Shibue and Weinberg 2017; Tanabe et al. 2020).

Notch signalling is an evolutionarily conserved pathway which plays an essential role in embryo development and cell regulation, including proliferation, survival and self-renewal of stem cells. Recent research has implicated Notch signalling in promoting therapeutic resistance via cancer stem cells (CSCs)(Moore et al. 2020; Kumar et al. 2021). This small subset of the tumour population are nascent cells with innate therapeutic resistance and the capacity to restore the tumour population with resistant cells.

From this concept comes the theory that the CSCs hold not only the key to drug resistance, but also tumour spread by metastases. Like their stem cell counterpart, CSCs enhance the stemness and dedifferentiation of the tumour and promote the transition between epithelial and mesenchymal phenotype (Venkatesh et al. 2018). In preclinical research across several cancer types, notch signalling activity is upregulated in brain(Cenciarelli et al. 2017; Sun et al. 2020), breast (McGowan et al. 2011; Miao et al. 2020) and pancreatic cancer(Yao and Qian 2010; Cui et al. 2019; Feng et al. 2020), conversely in colorectal cancers it is largely downregulated (Chu et al. 2011; Meisel et al. 2020).

Many paediatric cancers have dysregulated signalling pathways which are involved in the development of their cells of origin, particularly notch, wnt and hedgehog (Filbin and Monje 2019).

Identification of biological drivers that contribute towards drug resistance is important in order to develop more effective targeted therapeutics and essential to improving high risk patient survival (Housman et al. 2014)

In this study we investigated the potential role of stem cell related genes and pathways, in the development of acquired drug resistance in three paired neuroblastoma cell line models of drug resistance.

Methods

Cell culture

Three paired parental and drug-adapted neuroblastoma cell lines; SHSY5Y, IMR5 and IMR32 were obtained from the Resistant Cancer Cell Line (RCCL) collection (www.kent.ac.uk/stms/cmp/RCCL/RCCLabout.html). Cell lines were treated with 10ng/ml of VCR to generate resistant cells; SHSY5YrVCR, IMR5rVCR, IMR32rVCR. Cells were cultured using Iscove’s Dulbeco’s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM) (Sigma, UK) with 10% fetal calf serum (FCS), L- glutamine and1% primocin. All cell lines were incubated at 37°C, 5% CO₂. Cells were passaged once they reached 70–80% confluency level.

RNA extraction

RNA (Ribose Nucleic Acid) extraction was performed using the RNeasy mini kit (Qiagen, uk) according to manufacturer’s instructions. RNA quality and quantification were assessed using the Nanodrop Lite Spectrophotometer (Thermo Scientific, UK) and first strand DNA synthesized using the iScript™ cDNA synthesis kit (Bio-Rad, UK).

Rt2 Profiler Array

The Human Cancer Stem Cell RT2 profiler Array analysis (Qiagen, UK) which contains primers for 96 genes related to human cancer stem cells, was performed according to protocol format R in the manufacturer’s instructions on three paired parental and acquired drug resistant cell lines. IMR32 & IMR32-VCR, IMR5 & IMR5-VCR and SHSY5Y & SHSY5Y-VCR. Analysis of mRNA expression levels was performed by Real Time-QPCR (Qiagen Rotorgene 100) of 96 genes related to human cancer stem cells, against a panel of three paired parental and acquired drug resistant cell lines with an acquired drug resistance to the microtubule-inhibitor; Vincristine. Fold change was assessed using the 2^ΔΔct method, using GAPDH and β-actin as the respective housekeeping genes.

Bioinformatics analysis

The CtData for each cell line was further tested using Limma package from R Bioconductor for differential expression of genes by making linear contrast matrices for control and case cell lines. Linear models were then fitted for identification of dysregulation genes using lm() function from the package. Subsequent p-values were further tested for multiple testing method of false discovery rate. All genes showing p-values < 0.05 and log2FC > 1 and < -1 were picked for overexpression and down regulation. Significant genes from three contrasts were compared for identification of common genes among the cell lines.

Functional analysis

Functional enrichment analysis were performed on 11 genes using combination of different methods available. Curated gene sets from Molecular Signature Database (MSigDB), DAVID Bioinformatics Resource 6.8, GeneMania and STRING were extracted for the construction of metagene. Fgsea package of Bioconductor was used for the prediction of potential involvement of 11 genes in regulatory processes, functions and pathways. All the pathways with FDR < 0.05 were considered significant.

In Silico Analysis

All data was collected from the R2: Genomics Analysis and Visualization Platform ³⁵, using publicly available neuroblastoma patient data. Expression cut-off was determined by a log rank test, which determined an optimum cut off, rather than using an average value. R2: Genomics Analysis and Visualization Platform (http://r2.amc.nl)

Kaplan-Meir plots were constructed to compare high and low expression of the 11 differentially expressed target genes with important clinical parameters stage, overall survival and event free survival. Statistical analysis was shown using a two-tailed, unpaired student t-test with a confidence interval of 95% ) (Appendix One)

This study has generated novel data and identified several genes that are up-regulated in drug resistant cell lines; SHSY5YrVCR, IMR5rVCR and IMR32rVCR, compared with the paired parental cell line. In addition, we have also identified an important subset of genes that are down-regulated in drug resistant cell lines. Many of these candidate genes have been shown to exert a role in aggressive disease in other common cancers such as breast, prostate and small cell lung cancers.

Elevation of stem cell and EMT related genes in chemo-resistant cell lines

Comparative gene expression analysis was undertaken following Real Time-qPCR on each parental and drug resistant cell line and showed deregulation of 11 genes across the three cell lines, ATP-binding cassette sub-family B member 5 (ABCB5), ATP-binding cassette super-family G member 2 (ABCG2), Delta like ligand 1 (DLL1), Erb-B2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinase 2 (ERBB2), Integrin alpha 2 (ITGA2), LIN 28 homolog A (LIN28A), LIN 28 homolog B (LIN28B), MYC, Zinc finger protein SNAI1 (SNAI1), SRY (sex determining region Y)-box 2 (SOX2) and WEE1 G2 Checkpoint Kinase (WEE1) (Fig. 1A.).

Subsequent unsupervised hierarchical clustering was conducted (Fig. 1B.) which observed upregulation of LIN28A, ABCG5, LIN28B and DLL1 in IMR32, with downregulation of ERBB2, ABCG2, WEE1 and MYC. IMR5 displayed upregulation of ITGA2, MYC, SNAI1, WEE1 and ABCG2, with downregulation of LIN28B, ABCB5, LIN28A and SOX2. SHSY5Y highlighted upregulation of SOX2, ERBB2, ABCG2 and WEE1, downregulation of SNAI1, DLL1, ITGA2 and MYC (Fig. 1B).

Bioinformatics analysis shows a regulatory network highlighting EMT and stemness genes

In addition to the pathway analysis, we also created a regulatory network composed of 8 of the genes highlighted within our study. This regulatory network developed from connections with previous literature illustrates a core role for MYC, showing direct interactions with WEE1 and SOX2, links through one other gene to ABCG2, ERRBB2, DLL1, ITGA2 and SNAI1 (Fig. 2A). In further detail you can see how many genes are influenced by the genes within our network (Fig. 2B).

Gene enrichment analysis highlights NOTCH signalling related pathways

Gene set enrichment analysis on the target genes; highlighted DLL1, MYC and NOTCH1 in particular, all with a highly significant false discovery rate. The Top regulatory pathways extracted from the gene set enrichment analysis were correlated with Significance FDR < 0.05 and this confirmed involvement of the NOTCH signalling pathway in acquired drug resistance (Table 1).

In-silico classification further outlines roles of genes in drug resistance in established studies in other malignancies.

In-silico analysis was performed to determine whether our 11 differentially expressed target genes correlated with important clinical outcomes using four large neuroblastoma patient data sets including disease stage, overall survival (OVR) and event free survival (EFS). Kaplan-Meier plots revealed that low expression of ABCB5, ABCG2, and MYC was associated with lower overall survival in patients with stage 4 disease (INSS). Furthermore, elevated expression of ERBB2, ITGA2, LIN28A, LIN28B, SNAI1, SOX2, DLL1 and WEE1 were associated with decreased overall survival in neuroblastoma patients with stage 4 disease (Supplementary Fig. 1 and Table 1).

Neuroblastoma is a paediatric tumour that develops from embryonic neural crest cells that give rise to the sympathetic nervous system. Whilst most neuroblastomas initially respond well to induction chemotherapy, 50–60% of patients with high-risk disease relapse with aggressive disease. Acquired drug resistance is a major therapeutic challenge in the treatment of such patients.

Using an array of 96 genes related to cancer stem cells in three-paired parental and Vincristine drug resistant neuroblastoma cell lines, this study outlines 11 prominent genes across all cell lines; ABCG2, ERBB2, LIN28A, SOX2, WEE1 MYC, SNAI1, LIN28B, ABCB5, DLL1 and ITAG2 (Fig. 1B). Differing expressions of the same genes across the cell lines, highlights the hallmark heterogeneity of disease.

Using complex bioinformatics analysis, we created a regulatory network composed of 12 genes, 8 of which were highlighted within our study and relating genes discovered from the database (Fig. 2A&B). The network displayed a core role for MYC directly influencing genes associated with oncogenic proteins (ERBB2), self-renewal (SOX2) and cell cycle (WEE1). Indirectly, repression of MYC appears to cause over expression of hallmark drug-resistance genes such as SNAI1 and ABCG2, whilst decreasing expression of NOTCH signalling protein DLL1 and integrin protein ITGA2 (Kang et al. 2009; Chen et al. 2012; Ongaratti et al. 2016). Interestingly MYC (C-MYC) was associated with lower overall survival across four data sets, in contrast to MYCN amplification which is strongly correlated to poor overall and event free survival in high risk neuroblastoma patients (Somasundaram et al. 2019) suggestive of a potential inverse correlation (Westermann et al. 2008).

Whilst most other cancers display a positive correlation between C-MYC overexpression and a number of the genes highlighted in our study, a number of studies have implicated that c- and MYCN can compensate for loss of expression by one another in normal embryonic stem cells(ESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells(IPSCs) and neuroblastoma(Cotterman and Knoepfler 2009; Varlakhanova et al. 2010; Nakagawa et al. 2010). This may explain the findings we have discovered.

Similar to our findings, a study in triple negative breast cancer, showed elevated SOX2 expression alongside overexpression of ABCG2 and the EMT marker Twist-related protein 1 (TWIST1) in drug resistant cells. However, when paclitaxel was administered to SOX2 inhibited mammospheres, ABCG2 and TWIST1 were downregulated, alongside decreased expression of other EMT markers (SNAI1) which induced arrested migration and reduced formation of spheres, indicative of loss of self-renewal (Mukherjee et al. 2017). This study highlights the potential of the EMT-Stemness axis in therapeutic resistance, where SOX2-dependent TWIST1 overexpression maintains stemness in addition to enabling migration. Subsequent inhibition of the axis causes regained sensitivity.

Here we’ve highlighted deregulation of notch signalling pathway genes in drug resistance cell lines, recent research from clinical samples showed 60% (28/46) of clinical samples from neuroblastoma patients with overexpression of NOTCH1 linked to recurrence and lower overall survival (Metovic et al. 2022).

EMT is a complex process, recent data has shown that Notch signalling directly influences overexpression of Snail and decreased expression of E-cadherin (Timmerman et al. 2004; Saad et al. 2010). Snai1 expression and loss of E-Cadherin are associated with several cancers and causing increased migration and invasion (Chen et al. 2010; Zhang et al. 2017), interestingly a recent study in osteosarcoma found that sub-lethal doxorubicin (Dox) treatments showed significant correlation between EMT and Notch signalling in doxorubicin resistant cell lines (Yang et al. 2017) which supports our findings within the context acquired drug resistance. Delta like 1 (DLL1) has also been associated with disease recurrence in other cancer types, including hepatocellular carcinoma (Ma et al. 2016) and with poor prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer (Pancewicz-Wojtkiewicz et al. 2017). A recent study in Neuroblastoma cell lines, showed that DLL1 was highly expressed in MYCN amplified cells, and could be inhibited by miRNAs(Bettinsoli et al. 2017). In aggressive medulloblastoma, NOTCH signalling pathway has shown to regulate self-renewal and metastasis, with TWIST1 and Polycomb complex protein BMI-1 (BMI1) influential in NOTCH1 induced metastases (Kahn et al. 2018).

Two genes, SOX2 and LIN28A are involved with stem cell pluripotency. Interestingly, Yamanaka’s seminal study on the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) utilised both SOX2 and LIN28A to reprogram adult somatic cells to an undifferentiated state (Takahashi and Yamanaka 2006). Since then there has been an emerging interest in genes linked to stem cells and pluripotency and their role in tumorigenesis (Müller et al. 2016), however whether that role is extended to therapeutic resistance is understudied. The up-regulation of both SOX2 and LIN28A across all VCR-resistant cell lines may suggest that the acquisition of a stem cell phenotype is important for the acquisition of drug resistance, which occurs in 50% of patients with high risk tumours.

This trend is not limited to VCR resistance alone however, in doxorubicin resistant gastric cancer stem cells, Sox2 and ABCG2 overexpression was associated with the dox-resistant phenotype (Tian et al. 2012) in addition to elevated LIN28B overexpression in gastric cancer cells with dox-resistance (Teng et al. 2015). DLL1 exerts a role in development of drug resistance in dox-resistant cell lines and biopsies in osteosarcoma (Pu et al. 2017). Interestingly, conflicting studies regarding Snai1 expression in breast adenocarcinoma cell lines in dox-resistant settings,(Lim et al. 2013; Tsou et al. 2015), however Lim et al. ‘s study highlights the importance of EMT-stemness interaction in drug resistance. Highlighting heterogeneity within the ‘same’ cancer. A recent study conducted into whether inhibition of autophagy paired with very intense chemotherapeutic treatments can prevent development of drug resistance in NB, the initial results seem positive (Chen et al. 2022). This is where the balance between vanquishing the tumour without the consequences of aggressive treatment on the patient.

A recent study has highlighted an axis between BMP4-wnt-notch, whereby BMP has a tumour suppressor role, this same work showed that induction of notch proteins halted growth of NB in IMR32 and SH-SY5Y (Szemes et al. 2020). Low BMP4 and notch expression leads to an aggressive NB phenotype, perhaps there is a complexity within the signalling pathways that mean upregulation in notch signalling still leads to the aggressive phenotype. The research landscape has also associated wnt signalling in the development of therapeutic resistance across different cancer types(Forgham et al. 2015; Vieira et al. 2015; He et al. 2018; Fu et al. 2019; Yang et al. 2019; Clark-Corrigall et al. 2022). This underlines the necessity of a global transcriptome of the cell lines in our study in order to further understand the molecular changes in therapeutic resistance.

There have been some studies investigating the relationship between CSC phenotype and EMT (Prieto-Vila et al. 2017), where activation of stem cell related pathways directly promote the transition to a mesenchymal profile. Previously, Notch signalling was widely understood as a regulator of cell fate decisions, self – renewal, maintenance of tissue stem cells and tissue wound healing but more recently as a regulator of survival and regeneration of CSCs (Capaccione and Pine 2013).

However, a definitive molecular mechanism behind the CSC-EMT relationship still remains elusive (Shibue and Weinberg 2017).

Data from in-silico analysis (Supplementary Fig. 1 &Table 1) showed that the worst probabilities for event free survival in late stage (INSS Stage 4) neuroblastoma were ERBB2 overexpression (10% after 3 years in the Versteeg data set – 88, 15% reach 5 year survival in the Kocak dataset (649)), ITGA2 overexpression (0% were predicted to reach 2 year follow up in both the primary NRC dataset – 283 and Versteeg dataset − 88), SOX2 overexpression (10% at 2 year follow up in the Versteeg dataset, 0% reached 4 year follow up Kocak dataset (649) and DLL1 overexpression (predicts 20% reach 2 year follow up in the Versteeg (88) and NRC (283). Confirmation of the link with important clinical parameters in four patient data sets further supports the potential role of these genes in the development of acquired therapeutic resistance in patients with neuroblastoma and potentially other childhood cancers.

Furthermore, in support of our data a landmark study by van Groningen et al investigating the role of super-enhancers on intra-tumoral heterogeneity identified two distinct lineages; adrenergic (ADRN) and mesenchymal (MES) differentiation with the Notch pathway as a key driver of dedifferentiated mesenchymal identity. In both in vivo and in vitro studies MES cells were shown to have enhanced migration, be more resistant to common neuroblastoma treatments and increased prevalence of relapse disease, which reinforces the idea that treatment exerts selective pressure much like the cancer stem cell hypothesis postulates (Groningen et al. 2017). Since then it has been shown that Notch 3 signalling is a key driver in the reprogramming of ADRN cells to a more mesenchymal state (Groningen et al. 2019) and that MES cells are now known to utilise retinoic acid, an agent used in a maintenance dose to prevent relapse, to proliferate and mobilise (Groningen et al. 2021). A recent study from Newcastle has found that TOP2B expression was needed to maintain the ADRN state, and also lowered notch signalling factors like Notch 1–3 (Khazeem et al. 2022).These studies show that ADRN cells can reprogram themselves and become a more dedifferentiated cell type using NOTCH signalling.

To further support this mouse models, have implicated Notch signaling in the maintenance of neural stem cells maintenance in the fetal brain. Such observations from developmental biology have shown that Notch exerts similar roles which are vital to the tumourigenicity of cancer stem cells particularly in solid tumors including glioblastoma, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer (Aster et al. 2017; Yi et al. 2019; Miao et al. 2020; Yang et al. 2021). Unfortunately, due to the complexity of NB there is no perfect mouse model but even with the advent of iPSC based practices researchers still trying to elucidate this in neuroblastoma(Gonzalez Malagon and Liu 2022).

Our research data warrants further study into this panel of genes in acquired drug resistance in neuroblastoma.

Our study highlights a core role for MYC and NOTCH signalling associated genes in the development of acquired Vincristine drug resistance in our cell line models. Alterations to individuals within these groups of genes may have further reaching consequences to the stem cell – EMT axis which drive a drug resistant phenotype.

Our panel of three paired Vincristine resistant cell lines provide a unique in-vitro platform to perform studies to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of drug resistance. With the addition of powerful large patient tumour data sets and bioinformatics analyses, we’ve further highlighted potential for a specific network of genes between niches which have a negative impact on survival and require further research. This could subsequently lead to the discovery of new therapeutic targets that improve the survival of those with the aggressive disease. The findings implicated in this study, which include comparative analysis against microarray data, warrants further studies on the functional effects of the genes and pathways identified in this study in childhood cancers.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, Jane Carr-Wilkinson and Shafiq Ahmed.; methodology, Jane Carr-Wilkinson, Martin Michaelis. Jindrich Cinatl, jr Masood Zaka.; software, Masood Zaka.; validation, Svetlana Myssina, Martin Michaelis and John Clark-Corrigall.; formal analysis, Masood Zaka and Svetlana Myssina .; investigation, Masood Zaka and Svetlana Myssina.; resources, , Jane Carr-Wilkinson, Martin Michaelis. Jindrich Cinatl, jr Masood Zaka.; data curation, Masood Zaka.; writing—original draft preparation, Svetlana Myssina, John Clark-Corrigall.; writing—review and editing, Jane Carr-Wilkinson, Shafiq Ahmed.; visualization, Svetlana Myssina, John Clark-Corrigall.; supervision, Jane Carr-Wilkinson, Shafiq Ahmed.; project administration, Jane Carr-Wilkinson.; funding acquisition, Jane Carr-Wilkinson, Shafiq Ahmed.

All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding:

Acknowledgments: We would like to thank Florian Rothweiler for the administration and shipping of the cell lines used in this study.

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Table 1 is available in the Supplementary Files section.

No competing interests reported.

SupplementaryFiguresmergedJan2023.pdf
Supplementary Materials: The following are available online at www.mdpi.com/xxx/s1, Figure S1: Expression profiling of gene identified in three stem cells. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering heat map. Expression level is colour coded: red for over-expressed and green for under-expressed genes. (OVR – Overall survival and EFS – event free survival). Table S1: Supplementary Table 1: Table showing in-silico analysis of four relevant data sets from the R2: Genomics Analysis and Visualization Platform ( href="http://r2.amc.nl/">http://r2.amc.nl) confirmed that deregulated expression of our gene panel was associated with decreased overall survival in neuroblastoma patients with stage 4 disease.
Table1.png
Table 1: Top regulatory pathways of gene set enrichment analysis. Significance FDR < 0.05

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Stem cell pathways and Notch signaling an emerging role in the development of acquired Drug Resistance in Neuroblastoma

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