A novel HDAC11 inhibitor potentiates the tumoricidal effects of cordycepin against malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor through the Hippo signaling pathway

Po-Yuan Huang; I-An Shih; Ying-Chih Liao; Huey-Ling You; Ming-Jen Lee

A novel HDAC11 inhibitor potentiates the tumoricidal effects of cordycepin against malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor through the Hippo signaling pathway

Am J Cancer Res. 2022 Feb 15;12(2):873-892. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Po-Yuan Huang¹, I-An Shih¹, Ying-Chih Liao¹, Huey-Ling You¹, Ming-Jen Lee¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Neurology, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine Taipei, Taiwan.

PMID: 35261809
PMCID: PMC8899988

Abstract

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal dominant neurocutaneous disorder. Clinically, the hallmarks of NF1 include skin pigmentation and cutaneous neurofibroma. Some NF1 patients develop plexiform neurofibroma (PN) since early childhood. Pathologically, PN contains abundant Schwann cells, blood vessels and connective tissues, which may transform into a malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST). MPNST is a highly invasive sarcoma without any effective therapy. Recently, both in vitro and in vivo studies showed that cordycepin can inhibit the growth of MPNST cells. Cordycepin causes cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase and downregulates the protein levels of α-tubulin, p53 and Sp1. Herein, the present study revealed that the HDAC11 inhibitor, FT895, can synergistically enhance the tumoricidal effect of cordycepin against MPNST cells in vitro. Treatment with the combination of cordycepin and FT895 reduced the size of MPNST in the xenograft mouse model. The combined treatment decreased the protein levels of α-tubulin and KIF18A, which may disrupt the microtubule organization leading to the mis-segregation of chromosomes and aneuploidy. Moreover, the expression levels of TEAD1 and its co-activator TAZ, the candidate proteins in hippo signaling pathway, were suppressed after combined treatment. Sequence analysis found a few binding sites for the transcription factor, TEAD1 in the promoter regions of TUBA1B, KIF18A, TEAD1, TAZ, YAP, TP53 and SP1 genes. ChIP-qPCR assay showed that the combined treatment decreases the binding of TEAD1 to the promoters of TUBA1B, KIF18A, TEAD1, TAZ and YAP genes in STS26T cells. The reduced binding to TP53 and SP1 promoters was also found in S462TY cells, which was further confirmed by immunoblotting. The down-regulation of these important transcriptional factors may contribute to the vulnerability of MPNST. In summary, HDAC11 inhibitor, FT895 can potentiate the tumoricidal effect of cordycepin to suppress the MPNST cell growth, which was probably mediated by the dysfunction of hippo-signaling pathway.

Keywords: ChIP-qPCR; FT895; HDAC11 inhibitor; Hippo pathway; MPNST; cordycepin.