Thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1), also known as NKX2-1, plays a role as a lineage-survival oncogene in lung adenocarcinoma that possesses double-edged sword characteristics. Although evidence from previous studies has steadily accumulated regarding the roles of TTF-1 in transcriptional regulation of protein-coding genes, little is known about its regulatory relationship with microRNAs. Here, we utilized an integrative approach designed to extract maximal information from expression profiles of both patient tumors in vivo and TTF-1-inducible cell lines in vitro, which identified microRNA (miR)-532-5p as a novel transcriptional target of TTF-1. We found that miR-532-5p is directly regulated by TTF-1 through its binding to a genomic region located 8 kb upstream of miR-532-5p, which appears to impose transcriptional regulation independent of that of CLCN5, a protein-coding gene harboring miR-532-5p in its intron 3. Furthermore, our results identified KRAS and MKL2 as novel direct targets of miR-532-5p. Introduction of miR-532-5p mimics markedly induced apoptosis in KRAS-mutant as well as KRAS wild-type lung adenocarcinoma cell lines. Interestingly, miR-532-5p showed effects on MEK-ERK pathway signaling, specifically in cell lines sensitive to siKRAS treatment, whereas those miR-532-5p-mediated effects were clearly rendered as phenocopies by repressing expression or inhibiting the function of MKL2 regardless of KRAS mutation status. In summary, our findings show that miR-532-5p is a novel transcriptional target of TTF-1 that plays a tumor suppressive role by targeting KRAS and MKL2 in lung adenocarcinoma.

We previously reported that ROR1 is a crucial downstream gene for the TTF-1/NKX2-1 lineage-survival oncogene in lung adenocarcinoma, while others have found altered expression of ROR1 in multiple cancer types. Accumulated evidence therefore indicates ROR1 as an attractive molecular target, though it has yet to be determined whether targeting Ror1 can inhibit tumor development and growth in vivo. To this end, genetically engineered mice carrying homozygously floxed Ror1 alleles and an SP-C promoter-driven human mutant EGFR transgene were generated. Ror1 ablation resulted in marked retardation of tumor development and progression in association with reduced malignant characteristics and significantly better survival. Interestingly, gene set enrichment analysis identified a hypoxia-induced gene set (HALLMARK_HYPOXIA) as most significantly downregulated by Ror1 ablation in vivo, which led to findings showing that ROR1 knockdown diminished HIF-1α expression under normoxia and clearly hampered HIF-1α induction in response to hypoxia in human lung adenocarcinoma cell lines. The present results directly demonstrate the importance of Ror1 for in vivo development and progression of lung adenocarcinoma, and also identify Ror1 as a novel regulator of Hif-1α. Thus, a future study aimed at the development of a novel therapeutic targeting ROR1 for treatment of solid tumors such as seen in lung cancer, which are frequently accompanied with a hypoxic tumor microenvironment, is warranted.

Ceramide synthase 6 (CERS6) promotes lung cancer metastasis by stimulating cancer cell migration. To examine the underlying mechanisms, we performed luciferase analysis of the CERS6 promoter region and identified the Y-box as a cis-acting element. As a parallel analysis of database records for 149 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cancer patients, we screened for trans-acting factors with an expression level showing a correlation with CERS6 expression. Among the candidates noted, silencing of either CCAAT enhancer-binding protein γ (CEBPγ) or Y-box binding protein 1 (YBX1) reduced the CERS6 expression level. Following knockdown, CEBPγ and YBX1 were found to be independently associated with reductions in ceramide-dependent lamellipodia formation as well as migration activity, while only CEBPγ may have induced CERS6 expression through specific binding to the Y-box. The mRNA expression levels of CERS6, CEBPγ, and YBX1 were positively correlated with adenocarcinoma invasiveness. YBX1 expression was observed in all 20 examined clinical lung cancer specimens, while 6 of those showed a staining pattern similar to that of CERS6. The present findings suggest promotion of lung cancer migration by possible involvement of the transcription factors CEBPγ and YBX1.

We previously identified receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1) as a transcriptional target of the NKX2-1/TTF-1 lineage-survival oncogene in lung adenocarcinoma. ROR1 consequently sustains a favorable balance between pro-survival phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-protein kinase B and pro-apoptotic apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1)-p38MAPK signaling. In contrast to recent advances in understanding how ROR1 sustains pro-survival signaling, the mechanism of ROR1 repression of pro-apoptotic signaling remains rather elusive. In the present study, we investigated the underlying mechanism of ROR1-mediated inhibition of the ASK1-p38MAPK signaling pathway. Growth inhibition mediated by siROR1 was partially but significantly alleviated by ASK1 co-knockdown in lung adenocarcinoma cell lines. Also, ASK1 phosphorylation at Thr845, which reflects its activated state, was clearly inhibited by ROR1 overexpression in both steady state and oxidative stress-elicited conditions in MSTO-211H cells. In addition, we found that ROR1 was physically associated with ASK1 at the C-terminal serine threonine-rich domain of ROR1. Furthermore, ROR1 kinase activity was shown to be required to repress the ASK1-p38 axis and oxidative stress-induced cell death. The present findings thus support our notion that ROR1 sustains lung adenocarcinoma survival, at least in part, through direct physical interaction with ASK1 and consequential repression of the pro-apoptotic ASK1-p38 axis in a ROR1 kinase activity-dependent manner.

We have previously identified receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1) as a direct transcriptional target of TTF-1/NKX2-1, a lineage-survival oncogene in lung adenocarcinoma. ROR1 sustains prosurvival signaling from multiple receptor tyrosine kinases including epidermal growth factor receptor, MET, and insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor in part by maintaining the caveolae structure as a scaffold protein of cavin-1 and caveolin-1. In this study, a high throughput screening of the natural product library containing 2560 compounds was undertaken using a cell-based FluoPPI assay detecting ROR1-cavin-1 interaction. As a result, geldanamycin (GA), a known inhibitor of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90), was identified as a potential inhibitor of ROR1. Geldanamycin, as well as two GA derivatives tested in the clinic, 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG) and 17-dimethylaminoethylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-DMAG), decreased ROR1 protein expression. We found that ROR1 physically interacted with HSP90α, but not with other HSP90 paralogs, HSP90β or GRP94. Geldanamycin in turn destabilized and degraded ROR1 protein in a dose- and time-dependent manner through the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway, resulting in a significant suppression of cell proliferation in lung adenocarcinoma cell lines, for which the kinase domain of ROR1, but not its kinase activity or N-glycosylation, was required. Our findings indicate that HSP90 is required to sustain expression of ROR1 crucial for lung adenosarcoma survival, suggesting that inhibition of HSP90 could be a promising therapeutic strategy in ROR1-positive lung adenocarcinoma.