title: Combined Treatment with Epigenetic, Differentiating, and Chemotherapeutic Agents Cooperatively Targets Tumor-Initiating Cells in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.
abstract: Efforts to induce the differentiation of cancer stem cells through treatment with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) have yielded limited success, partially due to the epigenetic silencing of the retinoic acid receptor (RAR)-β The histone deacetylase inhibitor entinostat is emerging as a promising antitumor agent when added to the standard-of-care treatment for breast cancer. However, the combination of epigenetic, cellular differentiation, and chemotherapeutic approaches against triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has not been investigated. In this study, we found that combined treatment of TNBC xenografts with entinostat, ATRA, and doxorubicin (EAD) resulted in significant tumor regression and restoration of epigenetically silenced RAR-β expression. Entinostat and doxorubicin treatment inhibited topoisomerase II-β (TopoII-β) and relieved TopoII-β-mediated transcriptional silencing of RAR-β Notably, EAD was the most effective combination in inducing differentiation of breast tumor-initiating cells in vivo Furthermore, gene expression analysis revealed that the epithelium-specific ETS transcription factor-1 (ESE-1 or ELF3), known to regulate proliferation and differentiation, enhanced cell differentiation in response to EAD triple therapy. Finally, we demonstrate that patient-derived metastatic cells also responded to treatment with EAD. Collectively, our findings strongly suggest that entinostat potentiates doxorubicin-mediated cytotoxicity and retinoid-driven differentiation to achieve significant tumor regression in TNBC. Cancer Res; 76(7); 2013-24. ©2016 AACR.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Vanessa F
authors.initials: VF
authors.lastname: Merino
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Nguyen
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Kideok
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sadik
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Soonweng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Preethi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Korangath
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Liangfeng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Yolanda M N
authors.initials: YMN
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Xian C
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Roisin M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Connolly
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Vered
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Stearns
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Syed Z
authors.initials: SZ
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Duojia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Huso
authors.affiliation: Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Department of Translational Medicine, Waltham, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ordentlich
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brodie
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Saraswati
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sukumar
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D064726:Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*