The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology

The Korean Society of Pharmacology (대한약리학회)
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Inhibition of the interaction between Hippo/YAP and Akt signaling with ursolic acid and 3'3-diindolylmethane suppresses esophageal cancer tumorigenesis

  • Ruo Yu Meng (Department of Physiology, Institute for Medical Sciences, Jeonbuk National University Medical School) ;
  • Cong Shan Li (Department of Physiology, Institute for Medical Sciences, Jeonbuk National University Medical School) ;
  • Dan Hu (Department of Physiology, Institute for Medical Sciences, Jeonbuk National University Medical School) ;
  • Soon-Gu Kwon (Department of Oral Physiology, School of Dentistry, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Hua Jin (School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tsinghua University) ;
  • Ok Hee Chai (Department of Anatomy, Institute for Medical Sciences, Jeonbuk National University Medical School) ;
  • Ju-Seog Lee (Department of Systems Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center) ;
  • Soo Mi Kim (Department of Physiology, Institute for Medical Sciences, Jeonbuk National University Medical School)
  • Received : 2023.06.06
  • Accepted : 2023.08.10
  • Published : 2023.09.01
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Abstract

Hippo/YAP signaling hinders cancer progression. Inactivation of this pathway contributes to the development of esophageal cancer by activation of Akt. However, the possible interaction between Akt and Hippo/YAP pathways in esophageal cancer progression is unclear. In this study, we found that ursolic acid (UA) plus 3'3-diindolylmethane (DIM) efficiently suppressed the oncogenic Akt/Gsk-3β signaling pathway while activating the Hippo tumor suppressor pathway in esophageal cancer cells. Moreover, the addition of the Akt inhibitor LY294002 and the PI3K inhibitor 3-methyladenine enhanced the inhibitory effects of UA plus DIM on Akt pathway activation and further stimulated the Hippo pathway, including the suppression of YAP nuclear translocation in esophageal cancer cells. Silencing YAP under UA plus DIM conditions significantly increased the activation of the tumor suppressor PTEN in esophageal cancer cells, while decreasing p-Akt activation, indicating that the Akt signaling pathway could be down-regulated in esophageal cancer cells by targeting PTEN. Furthermore, in a xenograft nude mice model, UA plus DIM treatment effectively diminished esophageal tumors by inactivating the Akt pathway and stimulating the Hippo signaling pathway. Thus, our study highlights a feedback loop between the PI3K/Akt and Hippo signaling pathways in esophageal cancer cells, implying that a low dose of UA plus DIM could serve as a promising chemotherapeutic combination strategy in the treatment of esophageal cancer.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This paper was supported by the Basic Science Research Program (2021R1A2C2013505) and by grants from the Medical Research Center Program (NRF-2017R1A5A2015061) through the National Research Foundation (NRF), which is funded by the Korean government (MSIP).

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