TY - JOUR
T1 - Verteporfin-induced proteotoxicity impairs cell homeostasis and survival in neuroblastoma subtypes independent of YAP/TAZ expression
AU - Condurat, Alexandra-Larisa
AU - Aminzadeh-Gohari, Sepideh
AU - Malnar, Mirjana
AU - Schider, Nicole
AU - Opitz, Leonie
AU - Thomas, Ria
AU - Menon, Vishal
AU - Kofler, Barbara
AU - Pruszak, Jan
N1 - Funding Information: This project was supported in part by the Excellence Initiative of the German Research Foundation (GSC-4, Spemann Graduate School; A.-L.C, RT, VM), Faculty of Medicine—University of Freiburg (“Fill-in-the-gap” stipend; A.-L.C), the Austrian Science Fund (P31228-B33, B.K.), the "Österreichische Krebshilfe Salzburg" (J.P.) and the German Research Foundation Emmy Noether-grant PR1132/3–1 (J.P.). Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/12/1
Y1 - 2023/12/1
N2 - Neuroblastoma (NB) is a highly aggressive extracranial solid tumor in children. Due to its heterogeneity, NB remains a therapeutic challenge. Several oncogenic factors, including the Hippo effectors YAP/TAZ, are associated with NB tumorigenesis. Verteporfin (VPF) is an FDA-approved drug shown to directly inhibit YAP/TAZ activity. Our study aimed to investigate VPF’s potential as a therapeutic agent in NB. We show that VPF selectively and efficiently impairs the viability of YAP/TAZ-expressing NB GI-ME-N and SK-N-AS cells, but not of non-malignant fibroblasts. To investigate whether VPF-mediated NB cell killing is YAP-dependent, we tested VPF potency in CRISPR-mediated YAP/TAZ knock-out GI-ME-N cells, and BE(2)-M17 NB cells (a MYCN-amplified, predominantly YAP-negative NB subtype). Our data shows that VPF-mediated NB cell killing is not dependent on YAP expression. Moreover, we determined that the formation of higher molecular weight (HMW) complexes is an early and shared VPF-induced cytotoxic mechanism in both YAP-positive and YAP-negative NB models. The accumulation of HMW complexes, involving STAT3, GM130 and COX IV proteins, impaired cell homeostasis and triggered cell stress and cell death mechanisms. Altogether, our study shows significant in vitro and in vivo VPF-induced suppression of NB growth, making VPF a potential therapeutic candidate against NB.
AB - Neuroblastoma (NB) is a highly aggressive extracranial solid tumor in children. Due to its heterogeneity, NB remains a therapeutic challenge. Several oncogenic factors, including the Hippo effectors YAP/TAZ, are associated with NB tumorigenesis. Verteporfin (VPF) is an FDA-approved drug shown to directly inhibit YAP/TAZ activity. Our study aimed to investigate VPF’s potential as a therapeutic agent in NB. We show that VPF selectively and efficiently impairs the viability of YAP/TAZ-expressing NB GI-ME-N and SK-N-AS cells, but not of non-malignant fibroblasts. To investigate whether VPF-mediated NB cell killing is YAP-dependent, we tested VPF potency in CRISPR-mediated YAP/TAZ knock-out GI-ME-N cells, and BE(2)-M17 NB cells (a MYCN-amplified, predominantly YAP-negative NB subtype). Our data shows that VPF-mediated NB cell killing is not dependent on YAP expression. Moreover, we determined that the formation of higher molecular weight (HMW) complexes is an early and shared VPF-induced cytotoxic mechanism in both YAP-positive and YAP-negative NB models. The accumulation of HMW complexes, involving STAT3, GM130 and COX IV proteins, impaired cell homeostasis and triggered cell stress and cell death mechanisms. Altogether, our study shows significant in vitro and in vivo VPF-induced suppression of NB growth, making VPF a potential therapeutic candidate against NB.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85149493531&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29796-2
DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29796-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 36882436
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 13
JO - Scientific reports
JF - Scientific reports
IS - 1
M1 - 3760
ER -