Yang Xuan1,2, Jingshu Wang1, Liying Ban2, Jian-Jun Lu3, Canhui Yi2, Zhenglin Li2, Wendan Yu2, Mei Li2, Tingting Xu2, Wenjing Yang2, Zhipeng Tang2, Ranran Tang2, Xiangsheng Xiao1, Songshu Meng2, Yiming Chen2, Quentin Liu1,2, Wenlin Huang1,4, Wei Guo2, Xiaonan Cui2, Wuguo Deng1,4
1Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center; State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China; Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, PR China
2The First Affiliated Hospital & Institute of Cancer Stem Cell, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, PR China
3Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, PR China
4State Key Laboratory of Targeted Drug for Tumors of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou Double Bioproduct Inc., Guangzhou, PR China
Tóm tắt
Cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) is highly expressed in tumor cells and has been regarded as a hallmarker for cancers, but the excise regulatory mechanism of COX‐2 in tumorigenesis remains largely unknown. Here, we pulled down and identified a novel COX‐2 regulator, heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A2/B1 (hnRNPA2/B1), which could specifically bind to COX‐2 core promoter and regulate tumor growth in non‐small‐cell lung cancers (NSCLCs). Knockdown of hnRNPA2/B1 by shRNA or siRNA downregulated COX‐2 expression and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production, and suppressed tumor cell growth in NSCLC cells in vitro and in vivo. Conversely, overexpression of hnRNPA2/B1 up‐regulated the levels of COX‐2 and PGE2 and promoted tumor cell growth. We also showed that hnRNPA2/B1 expression was positively correlated with COX‐2 expression in NSCLC cell lines and tumor tissues, and the up‐regulated expression of hnRNPA2/B1 and COX‐2 predicted worse prognosis in NSCLC patients. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the activation of COX‐2 expression by hnRNPA2/B1 was mediated through the cooperation with p300, a transcriptional co‐activator, in NSCLC cells. The hnRNPA2/B1 could interact with p300 directly and be acetylated by p300. Exogenous overexpression of p300, but not its histone acetyltransferase (HAT) domain deletion mutation, augmented the acetylation of hnRNPA2/B1 and enhanced its binding on COX‐2 promoter, thereby promoted COX‐2 expression and lung cancer cell growth. Collectively, our results demonstrate that hnRNPA2/B1 promotes tumor cell growth by activating COX‐2 signaling in NSCLC cells and imply that the hnRNPA2/B1/COX‐2 pathway may be a potential therapeutic target for human lung cancers.