Anthracyclines suppress pheochromocytoma cell characteristics, including metastasis, through inhibition of the hypoxia signaling pathway

Ying Pang, Chunzhang Yang, Jan Schovanek, Herui Wang, Petra Bullova, Veronika Caisova, Garima Gupta, Katherine I. Wolf, Gregg L. Semenza, Zhengping Zhuang, Karel Pacak

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Pheochromocytomas (PHEOs) and paragangliomas (PGLs) are rare, neuroendocrine tumors derived from adrenal or extra-adrenal chromaffin cells, respectively. Metastases are discovered in 3-36% of patients at the time of diagnosis. Currently, only suboptimal treatment options exist. Therefore, new therapeutic compounds targeting metastatic PHEOs/PGLs are urgently needed. Here, we investigated if anthracyclines were able to suppress the progression of metastatic PHEO. We explored their effects on experimental mouse PHEO tumor cells using in vitro and in vivo models, and demonstrated that anthracyclines, particularly idarubicin (IDA), suppressed hypoxia signaling by preventing the binding of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 and 2 (HIF-1 and HIF-2) to the hypoxia response element (HRE) sites on DNA. This resulted in reduced transcriptional activation of HIF target genes, including erythropoietin (EPO), phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1), endothelin 1 (EDN1), glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1), lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGFA), which consequently inhibited the growth of metastatic PHEO. Additionally, IDA downregulated hypoxia signaling by interfering with the transcriptional activation of HIF1A and HIF2A. Furthermore, our animal model demonstrated the dose-dependent suppressive effect of IDA on metastatic PHEO growth in vivo. Our results indicate that anthracyclines are prospective candidates for inclusion in metastatic PHEO/PGL therapy, especially in patients with gene mutations involved in the hypoxia signaling pathway.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)22313-22324
Number of pages12
JournalOncotarget
Volume8
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017

Keywords

  • Hypoxia-inducible factors
  • Metastatic
  • Paraganglioma
  • Pheochromocytoma
  • anthracyclines

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology

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