BCL-3 expression promotes colorectal tumorigenesis through activation of AKT signalling. Issue 7 (1st June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Urban, Bettina C; Collard, Tracey J; Eagle, Catherine J; Southern, Samantha L; Greenhough, Alexander; Hamdollah-Zadeh, Maryam; Ghosh, Anil; Poulsom, Richard; Paraskeva, Christos; Silver, Andrew; Williams, Ann C
• Is Part Of: Gut. Volume 65:Issue 7(2016)
• Page Start: 1151
• Page End: 1164
• Publication Date: 2015-06-01
• Subjects: NUCLEAR FACTOR KAPPA B -- COLORECTAL CANCER -- CANCER PREVENTION -- APOPTOSIS -- INFLAMMATION; Gastroenterology -- Periodicals; 616.33
• DOI: 10.1136/gutjnl-2014-308270
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0017-5749

Abstract

Abstract : Objective: Colorectal cancer remains the fourth most common cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Here we investigate the role of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) co-factor B-cell CLL/lymphoma 3 (BCL-3) in promoting colorectal tumour cell survival. Design: Immunohistochemistry was carried out on 47 tumour samples and normal tissue from resection margins. The role of BCL-3/NF-κB complexes on cell growth was studied in vivo and in vitro using an siRNA approach and exogenous BCL-3 expression in colorectal adenoma and carcinoma cells. The question whether BCL-3 activated the AKT/protein kinase B (PKB) pathway in colorectal tumour cells was addressed by western blotting and confocal microscopy, and the ability of 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) to suppress BCL-3 expression was also investigated. Results: We report increased BCL-3 expression in human colorectal cancers and demonstrate that BCL-3 expression promotes tumour cell survival in vitro and tumour growth in mouse xenografts in vivo, dependent on interaction with NF-κB p50 or p52 homodimers. We show that BCL-3 promotes cell survival under conditions relevant to the tumour microenvironment, protecting both colorectal adenoma and carcinoma cells from apoptosis via activation of the AKT survival pathway: AKT activation is mediated via both PI3K and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathways, leading to phosphorylation of downstream targets GSK-3β and FoxO1/3a. Treatment with 5-ASA suppressed BCL-3 expression in colorectal cancer cells. Conclusions: Our study helps to unravel the mechanism by which BCL-3 is linked to poor prognosis in colorectal cancer; we suggest that targeting BCL-3 activity represents an exciting therapeutic opportunity potentially increasing the sensitivity of tumour cells to conventional therapy.