Role of Cyclooxygenase-2 Pathway in Creating an Immunosuppressive Microenvironment and in Initiation and Progression of Wilms' Tumor.

Abstract

Wilms' tumors (WT), which accountfor 6% of all childhood cancers, arise from dysregulated differentiation of nephrogenic progenitor cells from embryonic kidneys. Though there is an improvement in the prognosis of WT, still 10% of patients with WT die due to recurrence. Thus more effective treatment approaches are necessary. We previously characterized the inflammatory microenvironment in human WT and observed the robust expression of COX-2. The aim of this study was to extend our studies to analyze the role of COX-2 pathway components in WT progression using a mouse model of WT. Herein, COX-2 pathway components such as COX-2, HIF1-α, p-ERK1/2, and p-STAT3 were upregulated in mouse and human tumor tissues. In our RPPA analysis, COX-2 was up-regulated in M15 cells after Wt1 gene was knocked down. Flow cytometry analysis showed the increased infiltration of immune suppressive inflammatory cells such as pDC's and Treg cells in tumors. The chemotactic chemokines responsible for the infiltration of these cells were also induced in CCR5 and CXCR4 dependent manner respectively. The immunosuppressive cytokines IL-10, TGF-β, and TNF-α were also up-regulated. Furthermore, more pronounced Th2 and Treg induced cytokine response was observed than Th1 response in tumors. Basing on all these evidences it is speculated that COX-2 pathway may be a beneficial target for the treatment of WT. It may be most effective as an adjuvant therapy together with other inhibitors. Thus, our current study provides a good rationale for initiating animal studies to confirm the efficacy of COX-2 inhibitors in decreasing tumor cell growth in vivo.

• Authors: Paramahamsa Maturu, Devin Jones, E Cristy Ruteshouser, Qianghua Hu, Joseph M Reynolds, John Hicks, Nagireddy Putluri, Suhendan Ekmekcioglu, Elizabeth A Grimm, Chen Dong, Willem W Overwijk
• Journal: Neoplasia (New York, N.Y.) (Neoplasia) Vol. 19 Issue 3 Pg. 237-249 (03 2017) ISSN: 1476-5586 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 28254151 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Cytokines
• Inflammation Mediators
• WT1 Proteins
• Insulin-Like Growth Factor II
• Cyclooxygenase 2

Topics

• Animals
• Cell Line, Tumor
• Cell Transformation, Neoplastic (genetics, immunology, metabolism)
• Cluster Analysis
• Cyclooxygenase 2 (metabolism)
• Cytokines (metabolism)
• Disease Models, Animal
• Disease Progression
• Gene Expression Profiling
• Humans
• Immune Tolerance
• Inflammation Mediators (metabolism)
• Insulin-Like Growth Factor II (genetics, metabolism)
• Mice
• Mice, Knockout
• Models, Biological
• Mutation
• Phenotype
• Signal Transduction
• Tumor Microenvironment (genetics, immunology)
• WT1 Proteins (metabolism)
• Wilms Tumor (genetics, immunology, metabolism, pathology)
• Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays