Transcriptional super-enhancers control cancer stemness and metastasis genes in squamous cell carcinoma.
Nat Commun, 2021/06/25;12(1):3974.
Dong J[1, 2], Li J[3, 4], Li Y[1, 2], Ma Z[5, 6], Yu Y[1, 2], Wang CY[7, 8, 9]
Affiliations
PMID: 34172737DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24137-1
Impact factor: 17.694
Abstract
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play a critical role in invasive growth and metastasis of human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Although significant progress has been made in understanding the self-renewal and pro-tumorigenic potentials of CSCs, a key challenge remains on how to eliminate CSCs and halt metastasis effectively. Here we show that super-enhancers (SEs) play a critical role in the transcription of cancer stemness genes as well as pro-metastatic genes, thereby controlling their tumorigenic potential and metastasis. Mechanistically, we find that bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4) recruits Mediators and NF-κB p65 to form SEs at cancer stemness genes such as TP63, MET and FOSL1, in addition to oncogenic transcripts. In vivo lineage tracing reveals that disrupting SEs by BET inhibitors potently inhibited CSC self-renewal and eliminated CSCs in addition to elimination of proliferating non-stem tumor cells in a mouse model of HNSCC. Moreover, disrupting SEs also inhibits the invasive growth and lymph node metastasis of human CSCs isolated from human HNSCC. Taken together, our results suggest that targeting SEs may serve as an effective therapy for HNSCC by eliminating CSCs.
MeSH terms
Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Azepines; Cell Cycle Proteins; Cell Line, Tumor; Enhancer Elements, Genetic; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Head and Neck Neoplasms; Humans; Lymphatic Metastasis; Mediator Complex Subunit 1; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, SCID; NF-kappa B; Neoplastic Stem Cells; Polycomb Repressive Complex 1; Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck; Transcription Factors; Triazoles; Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays; Mice
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