ZNF32 contributes to the induction of multidrug resistance by regulating TGF-β receptor 2 signaling in lung adenocarcinoma

作者：Jun Li, Jie Ao, Kai Li, Jie Zhang, Yanyan Li, Le Zhang, Yuyan Wei, Di Gong, Junping Gao, Weiwei Tan, Lugang Huang, Lunxu Liu, Ping Lin, Yuquan Wei · 发表于：Cell Death and Disease · 年份：2016 · DOI：10.1038/cddis.2016.328 · 被引用次数：21 · 研究领域：Lung Cancer Treatments and Mutations、Cancer, Hypoxia, and Metabolism、RNA modifications and cancer

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is one of the most important contributors to the high mortality of cancer and remains a major concern. We previously found that zinc finger protein 32 (ZNF32), an important transcription factor associated with cancer in Homo sapiens, protects tumor cells against cell death induced by oxidative stress and other stimuli. We thus hypothesized that ZNF32 might enable the tolerance of cancer cells to anti-tumor drugs because higher ZNF32 expression has been found in cancer tissues and in drug-resistant lung adenocarcinoma (AC) cells. In this study, we found that ZNF32 is upregulated by Sp1 (specificity protein 1) in response to drug treatment and that ZNF32 promotes drug resistance and protects AC cells against cisplatin or gefitinib treatment. ZNF32 overexpression in AC cells conferred resistance to EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) inhibitors by enhancing MEK/ERK activation. Moreover, ZNF32 was found to directly bind to the TGF-βR2 (transforming growth factor-beta receptor 2) promoter to promote its expression, and ZNF32-induced resistance was mediated by enhancing TGF-βR2 expression and activating the TGF-βR2/SMAD2 pathway. In both a mouse model and ex vivo cultured patient samples, a high level of ZNF32 expression was closely associated with worse overall survival and cisplatin resistance. ZNF32 appears to be a potential inducer of drug resistance that could increase the expression of the drug resistance-associated gene TGF-βR2 and subsequently...