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Adaptor protein CEMIP reduces the chemosensitivity of small cell lung cancer via activation of an SRC-YAP oncogenic module

Abstract

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a recalcitrant malignancy with dismal prognosis due to rapid relapse after an initial treatment response. More effective treatments for SCLC are desperately needed. Our previous studies showed that cell migration-inducing hyaluronan binding protein (CEMIP) functionally promotes SCLC cell proliferation and metastasis. In this study, we investigated whether and how CEMIP regulates the chemosensitivity of SCLC. Through the GDSC database, we found that CEMIP expression levels were positively correlated with the IC50 values of several commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs in SCLC cells (cisplatin, gemcitabine, 5-fluorouracil and cyclophosphamide). We demonstrated that overexpression or knockdown of CEMIP in SCLC cells resulted in a notable increase or reduction in the IC50 value of cisplatin or etoposide, respectively. We further revealed that CEMIP functions as an adaptor protein in SCLC cells to interact with SRC and YAP through the 1-177 aa domain and 820-1361 aa domain, respectively, allowing the autophosphorylation of Y416 and activation of SRC, thus facilitating the interaction between YAP and activated SRC, and resulting in increased phosphorylation of Y357, protein stability, nuclear accumulation and transcriptional activation of YAP. Overexpressing SRC or YAP counteracted the CEMIP knockdown-mediated increase in the sensitivity of SCLC cells to cisplatin and etoposide. The combination of the SRC inhibitor dasatinib or the YAP inhibitor verteporfin and cisplatin/etoposide (EP regimen) displayed excellent synergistic antitumor effects on SCLC both in vitro and in vivo. This study demonstrated that targeted therapy against the CEMIP/SRC/YAP complex is a potential strategy for SCLC and provides a rationale for the development of future clinical trials with translational prospects.

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Fig. 1: High CEMIP expression is correlated with reduced chemotherapy sensitivity in SCLC cells.
Fig. 2: CEMIP reduces chemotherapy sensitivity in SCLC cells.
Fig. 3: CEMIP promotes YAP activation in SCLC cells.
Fig. 4: SRC activation is necessary for CEMIP-mediated YAP activation.
Fig. 5: Overexpressing SRC and YAP counteracted the sensitivity of CEMIP-knockdown SCLC cells treated with cisplatin and etoposide.
Fig. 6: Pharmacological inhibition of SRC or YAP sensitizes CEMIP-overexpressing SCLC cells to chemotherapy with cisplatin and etoposide.
Fig. 7: Pharmacological inhibition of SRC or YAP has synergistic effects with cisplatin and etoposide therapy in vivo.
Fig. 8: Diagram of the proposed mechanisms by which CEMIP reduces the chemotherapy sensitivity of SCLC cells.

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (82374093), Joint Project on Regional High-Incidence Diseases Research of Guangxi Natural Science Foundation under Grant No. 2023GXNSFDA026026, National Natural Science Foundation of China (82160698), Joint Project on Regional High-Incidence Diseases Research of Guangxi Natural Science Foundation under Grant No. 2024GXNSFBA010027, Guangxi Natural Science Foundation (No. 2022GXNSFBA035652). The Science and Technology Planning Project of Nanning Qingxiu District (No: 2021013), the Guangxi Medical University Training Program for Distinguished Young Scholars, and the Guangxi First-class Discipline Project for Pharmaceutical Sciences (No. GXFCDP-PS-2018). We thank the research team of Prof. Hua-xin Hou and Prof. Dan-rong Li, who provided countless years of help during the experimental process.

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XJS performed the major experiments and interpreted the data. HLW and XCM were responsible for establishing the in vivo model. XYW and JCH performed the in vivo sample collection and verification experiments. LL and XXM assisted in some of the experiments. LL and XCM collected the clinical samples. XJQ, ZQC, SPX and ZL provided technical support for some of the experiments. ZL, ZQC and JY revised the manuscript. JY supervised the entire study and designed the study.

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Correspondence to Zhuo Luo, Zhi-quan Chen or Jie Yang.

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Shen, Xj., Wei, Hl., Mo, Xc. et al. Adaptor protein CEMIP reduces the chemosensitivity of small cell lung cancer via activation of an SRC-YAP oncogenic module. Acta Pharmacol Sin 45, 2657–2671 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41401-024-01342-4

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