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Targeting colorectal cancer via its microenvironment by inhibiting IGF-1 receptor-insulin receptor substrate and STAT3 signaling

Oncogene volume 35, pages 2634–2644 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

The tumor microenvironment (TME) exerts critical pro-tumorigenic effects through cytokines and growth factors that support cancer cell proliferation, survival, motility and invasion. Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) stimulate colorectal cancer development and progression via cell autonomous and microenvironmental effects. Using a unique inhibitor, NT157, which targets both IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R) and STAT3, we show that these pathways regulate many TME functions associated with sporadic colonic tumorigenesis in CPC-APC mice, in which cancer development is driven by loss of the Apc tumor suppressor gene. NT157 causes a substantial reduction in tumor burden by affecting cancer cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) and myeloid cells. Decreased cancer cell proliferation and increased apoptosis were accompanied by inhibition of CAF activation and decreased inflammation. Furthermore, NT157 inhibited expression of pro-tumorigenic cytokines, chemokines and growth factors, including IL-6, IL-11 and IL-23 as well as CCL2, CCL5, CXCL7, CXCL5, ICAM1 and TGFβ; decreased cancer cell migratory activity and reduced their proliferation in the liver. NT157 represents a new class of anti-cancer drugs that affect both the malignant cell and its supportive microenvironment.

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Acknowledgements

ESL was supported by Sara Borrell fellowship ISCIII/MICINN program. SS and ZZ are CRI Irvington postdoctoral fellows. KT is Uehara Memorial Foundation Fellow. AL and EFA were supported by ERC Advanced Grant (249898) to AL. Research was supported by NIH grants (AI043477 and CA118165) to MK, who is an American Cancer Society Research Professor and holds the Ben and Wanda Hildyard Chair for Mitochondrial and Metabolic Diseases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Pharmacology and Pathology, Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    E Sanchez-Lopez, S Shalapour, Z Zhong, K Taniguchi & M Karin

  2. Department of Biological Chemistry, Unit of Cellular Signaling, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    E Flashner-Abramson & A Levitzki

  3. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Keio University School of Medicine, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    K Taniguchi

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  1. E Sanchez-Lopez
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Correspondence to M Karin.

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Sanchez-Lopez, E., Flashner-Abramson, E., Shalapour, S. et al. Targeting colorectal cancer via its microenvironment by inhibiting IGF-1 receptor-insulin receptor substrate and STAT3 signaling. Oncogene 35, 2634–2644 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2015.326

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