Browsing by Author "Maitra, Anirban"
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Item A Blood-based Metabolite Signature for Personalized Risk Assessment of Pancreatic Cancer(Scientific Archives, 2024) León-Letelier, Ricardo A.; Chen, Yihui; Ballaro, Riccardo; Irajizad, Ehsan; Do, Kim-An; Maitra, Anirban; Zhang, Jianjun; Schmidt, C. Max; Fahrmann, Johannes F.; Surgery, School of MedicineItem APE1/Ref-1 Regulates STAT3 Transcriptional Activity and APE1/Ref-1–STAT3 Dual-Targeting Effectively Inhibits Pancreatic Cancer Cell Survival(2012-10) Cardoso, Angelo A.; Jiang, Yanlin; Luo, Meihua; Reed, April M.; Shahda, Safi; He, Ying; Maitra, Anirban; Kelley, Mark R.; Fishel, Melissa L.Pancreatic cancer is a largely incurable disease, and increasing evidence supports strategies targeting multiple molecular mediators of critical functions of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells. Intracellular redox state modulates the activity of various signal transduction pathways and biological processes, including cell survival, drug resistance and responsiveness to microenvironmental factors. Recently, it has been shown that the transcription factor STAT3 is under redox control, but the mechanisms involved in its regulation are unknown. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that STAT3 DNA binding and transcriptional activity is directly regulated by the redox function of the APE1/Ref-1 endonuclease, using overexpression and redox-specific mutational strategies, and gene knockdown. Also, pharmacological blockade of APE1/Ref-1 by the redox-selective inhibitor E3330 abrogates STAT3 DNA binding. Since APE1/Ref-1 also exerts redox control on other cancer-associated transcription factors, we assessed the impact of dual-targeting of STAT3 signaling and APE1/Ref-1 redox on pancreatic cancer cell functions. We observed that disruption of APE1/Ref-1 redox activity synergizes with STAT3 blockade to potently inhibit the proliferation and viability of human PDAC cells. Mechanistically, we show that STAT3–APE1/Ref-1 dual targeting promotes marked tumor cell apoptosis, with engagement of caspase-3 signaling, which are significantly increased in comparison to the effects triggered by single target blockade. Also, we show that STAT3–APE1/Ref-1 dual blockade results in significant inhibition of tumor cell migration. Overall, this work demonstrates that the transcriptional activity of STAT3 is directly regulated by the redox function of APE1/Ref-1, and that concurrent blockade of STAT3 and APE1/Ref-1 redox synergize effectively inhibit critical PDAC cell functions.Item Apurinic/Apyrimidinic Endonuclease/Redox Factor-1 (APE1/Ref-1) redox function negatively regulates NRF2(2015-01) Fishel, Melissa L.; Wu, Xue; Devlin, Cecilia M.; Logsdon, Derek P.; Jiang, Yanlin; Luo, Meihua; He, Ying; Yu, Zhangsheng; Tong, Yan; Lipking, Kelsey P.; Maitra, Anirban; Rajeshkumar, N. V.; Scandura, Glenda; Kelley, Mark R.; Ivan, Mircea; Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of MedicineApurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease/redox factor-1 (APE1/Ref-1) (henceforth referred to as Ref-1) is a multifunctional protein that in addition to its base excision DNA repair activity exerts redox control of multiple transcription factors, including nuclear factor κ-light chain enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB), STAT3, activator protein-1 (AP-1), hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), and tumor protein 53 (p53). In recent years, Ref-1 has emerged as a promising therapeutic target in cancer, particularly in pancreatic ductal carcinoma. Although a significant amount of research has centered on Ref-1, no wide-ranging approach had been performed on the effects of Ref-1 inhibition and transcription factor activity perturbation. Starting with a broader approach, we identified a previously unsuspected effect on the nuclear factor erythroid-related factor 2 (NRF2), a critical regulator of cellular defenses against oxidative stress. Based on genetic and small molecule inhibitor-based methodologies, we demonstrated that repression of Ref-1 potently activates NRF2 and its downstream targets in a dose-dependent fashion, and that the redox, rather than the DNA repair function of Ref-1 is critical for this effect. Intriguingly, our results also indicate that this pathway does not involve reactive oxygen species. The link between Ref-1 and NRF2 appears to be present in all cells tested in vitro, noncancerous and cancerous, including patient-derived tumor samples. In particular, we focused on understanding the implications of the novel interaction between these two pathways in primary pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tumor cells and provide the first evidence that this mechanism has implications for overcoming the resistance against experimental drugs targeting Ref-1 activity, with clear translational implications.Item Cancer-associated rs6983267 SNP and its accompanying long noncoding RNA CCAT2 induce myeloid malignancies via unique SNP-specific RNA mutations(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2018-04) Shah, Maitri Y.; Ferracin, Manuela; Pileczki, Valentina; Chen, Baoqing; Redis, Roxana; Fabris, Linda; Zhang, Xinna; Ivan, Cristina; Shimizu, Masayoshi; Rodriguez-Aguayo, Cristian; Dragomir, Mihnea; Van Roosbroeck, Katrien; Almeida, Maria Ines; Ciccone, Maria; Nedelcu, Daniela; Cortez, Maria Angelica; Manshouri, Taghi; Calin, Steliana; Muftuoglu, Muharrem; Banerjee, Pinaki P.; Badiwi, Mustafa H.; Parker-Thornburg, Jan; Multani, Asha; Welsh, James William; Estecio, Marcos Roberto; Ling, Hui; Tomuleasa, Ciprian; Dima, Delia; Yang, Hui; Alvarez, Hector; You, M. James; Radovich, Milan; Shpall, Elizabeth; Fabbri, Muller; Rezvani, Katy; Girnita, Leonard; Berindan-Neagoe, Ioana; Maitra, Anirban; Verstovsek, Srdan; Foddle, Riccardo; Bueso-Ramos, Carlos; Gagea, Mihai; Manero, Guillermo Garcia; Calin, Goerge A.; BioHealth Informatics, School of Informatics and ComputingThe cancer-risk-associated rs6983267 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and the accompanying long noncoding RNA CCAT2 in the highly amplified 8q24.21 region have been implicated in cancer predisposition, although causality has not been established. Here, using allele-specific CCAT2 transgenic mice, we demonstrate that CCAT2 overexpression leads to spontaneous myeloid malignancies. We further identified that CCAT2 is overexpressed in bone marrow and peripheral blood of myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms (MDS/MPN) patients. CCAT2 induces global deregulation of gene expression by down-regulating EZH2 in vitro and in vivo in an allele-specific manner. We also identified a novel non-APOBEC, non-ADAR, RNA editing at the SNP locus in MDS/MPN patients and CCAT2-transgenic mice. The RNA transcribed from the SNP locus in malignant hematopoietic cells have different allelic composition from the corresponding genomic DNA, a phenomenon rarely observed in normal cells. Our findings provide fundamental insights into the functional role of rs6983267 SNP and CCAT2 in myeloid malignancies.Item Contributions of the Microbiome-Derived Metabolome for Risk Assessment and Prognostication of Pancreatic Cancer(Oxford University Press, 2024) León-Letelier, Ricardo A.; Dou, Rongzhang; Vykoukal, Jody; Yip-Schneider, Michele T.; Maitra, Anirban; Irajizad, Ehsan; Wu, Ranran; Dennison, Jennifer B.; Do, Kim-An; Zhang, Jianjun; Schmidt, C. Max; Hanash, Samir; Fahrmann, Johannes F.; Epidemiology, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public HealthBackground: Increasing evidence implicates microbiome involvement in the development and progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Studies suggest that reflux of gut or oral microbiota can lead to colonization in the pancreas, resulting in dysbiosis that culminates in release of microbial toxins and metabolites that potentiate an inflammatory response and increase susceptibility to PDAC. Moreover, microbe-derived metabolites can exert direct effector functions on precursors and cancer cells, as well as other cell types, to either promote or attenuate tumor development and modulate treatment response. Content: The occurrence of microbial metabolites in biofluids thereby enables risk assessment and prognostication of PDAC, as well as having potential for design of interception strategies. In this review, we first highlight the relevance of the microbiome for progression of precancerous lesions in the pancreas and, using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, provide supporting evidence that microbe-derived metabolites manifest in pancreatic cystic fluid and are associated with malignant progression of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm(s). We secondly summarize the biomarker potential of microbe-derived metabolite signatures for (a) identifying individuals at high risk of developing or harboring PDAC and (b) predicting response to treatment and disease outcomes. Summary: The microbiome-derived metabolome holds considerable promise for risk assessment and prognostication of PDAC.Item Diminished Immune Surveillance during Histologic Progression of Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasms Offers a Therapeutic Opportunity for Cancer Interception(American Association for Cancer Research, 2022) Hernandez, Sharia; Parra, Edwin Roger; Uraoka, Naohiro; Tang, Ximing; Shen, Yu; Qiao, Wei; Jiang, Mei; Zhang, Shanyu; Mino, Barbara; Lu, Wei; Pandurengan, Renganayaki; Haymaker, Cara; Affolter, Kajsa; Scaife, Courtney L.; Yip-Schneider, Michele; Schmidt, C. Max; Firpo, Matthew A.; Mulvihill, Sean J.; Koay, Eugene J.; Wang, Huamin; Wistuba, Ignacio I.; Maitra, Anirban; Solis, Luisa M.; Sen, Subrata; Surgery, School of MedicinePurpose: Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN) are bona fide precursors to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). While genomic alterations during multistep IPMN progression have been well cataloged, the accompanying changes within the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) have not been comprehensively studied. Herein, we investigated TIME-related alterations during IPMN progression, using multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) coupled with high-resolution image analyses. Experimental design: Two sets of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples from surgically resected IPMNs were analyzed. The training set of 30 samples consisted of 11 low-grade IPMN (LG-IPMN), 17 high-grade IPMN (HG-IPMN), and 2 IPMN with PDAC, while a validation set of 93 samples comprised of 55 LG-IPMN and 38 HG-IPMN. The training set was analyzed with two panels of immuno-oncology-related biomarkers, while the validation set was analyzed with a subset of markers found significantly altered in the training set. Results: Cell types indicative of enhanced immune surveillance, including cytotoxic and memory T cells, and antigen-experienced T cells and B cells, were all found at higher densities within isolated LG-IPMNs compared with HG-IPMNs. Notably, the TIME of LG-IPMNs that had progressed at the time of surgical resection (progressor LGD) resembled that of the synchronous HG-IPMNs, underscoring that attenuated immune surveillance occurs even in LG-IPMNs destined for progression. Conclusions: Our findings provide a basis for interception of cystic neoplasia to PDAC, through maintenance of sustained immune surveillance using vaccines and other prevention approaches.Item Impact of APE1/Ref-1 Redox Inhibition on Pancreatic Tumor Growth(2011-09) Fishel, Melissa L.; Jiang, Yanlin; Rajeshkumar, NV.; Scandura, Glenda; Sinn, Anthony L.; He, Ying; Shen, Changyu; Jones, David R.; Pollok, Karen E.; Ivan, Mircea; Maitra, Anirban; Kelley, Mark R.Pancreatic cancer is especially a deadly form of cancer with a survival rate less than 2%. Pancreatic cancers respond poorly to existing chemotherapeutic agents and radiation, and progress for the treatment of pancreatic cancer remains elusive. To address this unmet medical need, a better understanding of critical pathways and molecular mechanisms involved in pancreatic tumor development, progression, and resistance to traditional therapy is therefore critical. Reduction–oxidation (redox) signaling systems are emerging as important targets in pancreatic cancer. AP endonuclease1/Redox effector factor 1 (APE1/Ref-1) is upregulated in human pancreatic cancer cells and modulation of its redox activity blocks the proliferation and migration of pancreatic cancer cells and pancreatic cancer-associated endothelial cells in vitro. Modulation of APE1/Ref-1 using a specific inhibitor of APE1/Ref-1′s redox function, E3330, leads to a decrease in transcription factor activity for NFκB, AP-1, and HIF1α in vitro. This study aims to further establish the redox signaling protein APE1/Ref-1 as a molecular target in pancreatic cancer. Here, we show that inhibition of APE1/Ref-1 via E3330 results in tumor growth inhibition in cell lines and pancreatic cancer xenograft models in mice. Pharmacokinetic studies also show that E3330 attains more than10 μmol/L blood concentrations and is detectable in tumor xenografts. Through inhibition of APE1/Ref-1, the activity of NFκB, AP-1, and HIF1α that are key transcriptional regulators involved in survival, invasion, and metastasis is blocked. These data indicate that E3330, inhibitor of APE1/Ref-1, has potential in pancreatic cancer and clinical investigation of APE1/Ref-1 molecular target is warranted. Mol Cancer Ther; 10(9); 1698–708. ©2011 AACR.Item Integrated Molecular Characterization of Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasms: An NCI Cancer Moonshot Precancer Atlas Pilot Project(American Association for Cancer Research, 2023) Semaan, Alexander; Bernard, Vincent; Wong, Justin; Makino, Yuki; Swartzlander, Daniel B.; Rajapakshe, Kimal I.; Lee, Jaewon J.; Officer, Adam; Schmidt, Christian Max; Wu, Howard H.; Scaife, Courtney L.; Affolter, Kajsa E.; Nachmanson, Daniela; Firpo, Matthew A.; Yip-Schneider, Michele; Lowy, Andrew M.; Harismendy, Olivier; Sen, Subrata; Maitra, Anirban; Jakubek, Yasminka A.; Guerrero, Paola A.; Surgery, School of MedicineIntraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN) are cystic precursor lesions to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). IPMNs undergo multistep progression from low-grade (LG) to high-grade (HG) dysplasia, culminating in invasive neoplasia. While patterns of IPMN progression have been analyzed using multiregion sequencing for somatic mutations, there is no integrated assessment of molecular events, including copy-number alterations (CNA) and transcriptional changes that accompany IPMN progression. We performed laser capture microdissection on surgically resected IPMNs of varying grades of histologic dysplasia obtained from 23 patients, followed by whole-exome and whole-transcriptome sequencing. Overall, HG IPMNs displayed a significantly greater aneuploidy score than LG lesions, with chromosome 1q amplification being associated with HG progression and with cases that harbored co-occurring PDAC. Furthermore, the combined assessment of single-nucleotide variants (SNV) and CNAs identified both linear and branched evolutionary trajectories, underscoring the heterogeneity in the progression of LG lesions to HG and PDAC. At the transcriptome level, upregulation of MYC-regulated targets and downregulation of transcripts associated with the MHC class I antigen presentation machinery as well as pathways related to glycosylation were a common feature of progression to HG. In addition, the established PDAC transcriptional subtypes (basal-like and classical) were readily apparent within IPMNs. Taken together, this work emphasizes the role of 1q copy-number amplification as a putative biomarker of high-risk IPMNs, underscores the importance of immune evasion even in noninvasive precursor lesions, and reinforces that evolutionary pathways in IPMNs are heterogenous, comprised of both SNV and CNA-driven events. Significance: Integrated molecular analysis of genomic and transcriptomic alterations in the multistep progression of IPMNs, which are bona fide precursors of pancreatic cancer, identifies features associated with progression of low-risk lesions to high-risk lesions and cancer, which might enable patient stratification and cancer interception strategies.Item Lead-Time Trajectory of CA19-9 as an Anchor Marker for Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection(Elsevier, 2021) Fahrmann, Johannes F.; Schmidt, C. Max; Mao, Xiangying; Irajizad, Ehsan; Loftus, Maureen; Zhang, Jinming; Patel, Nikul; Vykoukal, Jody; Dennison, Jennifer B.; Long, James P.; Do, Kim-Anh; Zhang, Jianjun; Chabot, John A.; Kluger, Michael D.; Kastrinos, Fay; Brais, Lauren; Babic, Ana; Jajoo, Kunal; Lee, Linda S.; Clancy, Thomas E.; Ng, Kimmie; Bullock, Andrea; Genkinger, Jeanine; Yip-Schneider, Michele T.; Maitra, Anirban; Wolpin, Brian M.; Hanash, Samir; Surgery, School of MedicineBackground & Aims There is substantial interest in liquid biopsy approaches for cancer early detection among subjects at risk, using multi-marker panels. CA19-9 is an established circulating biomarker for pancreatic cancer; however, its relevance for pancreatic cancer early detection or for monitoring subjects at risk has not been established. Methods CA19-9 levels were assessed in blinded sera from 175 subjects collected up to 5 years before diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and from 875 matched controls from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial. For comparison of performance, CA19-9 was assayed in blinded independent sets of samples collected at diagnosis from 129 subjects with resectable pancreatic cancer and 275 controls (100 healthy subjects; 50 with chronic pancreatitis; and 125 with noncancerous pancreatic cysts). The complementary value of 2 additional protein markers, TIMP1 and LRG1, was determined. Results In the PLCO cohort, levels of CA19-9 increased exponentially starting at 2 years before diagnosis with sensitivities reaching 60% at 99% specificity within 0 to 6 months before diagnosis for all cases and 50% at 99% specificity for cases diagnosed with early-stage disease. Performance was comparable for distinguishing newly diagnosed cases with resectable pancreatic cancer from healthy controls (64% sensitivity at 99% specificity). Comparison of resectable pancreatic cancer cases to subjects with chronic pancreatitis yielded 46% sensitivity at 99% specificity and for subjects with noncancerous cysts, 30% sensitivity at 99% specificity. For prediagnostic cases below cutoff value for CA19-9, the combination with LRG1 and TIMP1 yielded an increment of 13.2% in sensitivity at 99% specificity ( P = .031) in identifying cases diagnosed within 1 year of blood collection. Conclusion CA19-9 can serve as an anchor marker for pancreatic cancer early detection applications.Item A Plasma-Derived Protein-Metabolite Multiplexed Panel for Early-Stage Pancreatic Cancer(Oxford University Press, 2019-04-01) Fahrmann, Johannes F.; Bantis, Leonidas E.; Capello, Michela; Scelo, Ghislaine; Dennison, Jennifer B.; Patel, Nikul; Murage, Eunice; Vykoukal, Jody; Kundnani, Deepali L.; Foretova, Lenka; Fabianova, Eleonora; Holcatova, Ivana; Janout, Vladimir; Feng, Ziding; Yip-Schneider, Michele; Zhang, Jianjun; Brand, Randall; Taguchi, Ayumu; Maitra, Anirban; Brennan, Paul; Max Schmidt, C.; Hanash, Samir; Surgery, School of MedicineBACKGROUND: We applied a training and testing approach to develop and validate a plasma metabolite panel for the detection of early-stage pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) alone and in combination with a previously validated protein panel for early-stage PDAC. METHODS: A comprehensive metabolomics platform was initially applied to plasmas collected from 20 PDAC cases and 80 controls. Candidate markers were filtered based on a second independent cohort that included nine invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm cases and 51 benign pancreatic cysts. Blinded validation of the resulting metabolite panel was performed in an independent test cohort consisting of 39 resectable PDAC cases and 82 matched healthy controls. The additive value of combining the metabolite panel with a previously validated protein panel was evaluated. RESULTS: Five metabolites (acetylspermidine, diacetylspermine, an indole-derivative, and two lysophosphatidylcholines) were selected as a panel based on filtering criteria. A combination rule was developed for distinguishing between PDAC and healthy controls using the Training Set. In the blinded validation study with early-stage PDAC samples and controls, the five metabolites yielded areas under the curve (AUCs) ranging from 0.726 to 0.842, and the combined metabolite model yielded an AUC of 0.892 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.828 to 0.956). Performance was further statistically significantly improved by combining the metabolite panel with a previously validated protein marker panel consisting of CA 19-9, LRG1, and TIMP1 (AUC = 0.924, 95% CI = 0.864 to 0.983, comparison DeLong test one-sided P= .02). CONCLUSIONS: A metabolite panel in combination with CA19-9, TIMP1, and LRG1 exhibited substantially improved performance in the detection of early-stage PDAC compared with a protein panel alone.