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miR-151a-3p-rich small extracellular vesicles derived from gastric cancer accelerate liver metastasis via initiating a hepatic stemness-enhancing niche

Oncogene volume 40, pages 6180–6194 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Liver metastasis (LM) severely affects gastric cancer (GC) patients’ prognosis. Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) play key roles in intercellular communication. Specific sEV-miRNAs from several types of cancer were found to induce a premetastatic niche in target organs before tumor cell arrive. However, whether the primary GC affects hepatic microenvironment or the role of sEV-miRNAs in GC-LM is yet unclear. We report that GC-derived sEVs are primarily absorbed by Kupffer cells (KCs). sEV-miR-151a-3p is highly expressed in GC-LM patients’ plasma and presents poor prognosis. Treating mice with sEVs-enriched in miR-151a-3p promotes GC-LM, whereas has no influence on the proliferation of GC cells in situ. Mechanistically, sEV-miR-151a-3p inhibits SP3 in KCs. Simultaneously, sEV-miR-151a-3p targets YTHDF3 to decrease the transcriptional inhibitory activity of SP3 by reducing SUMO1 translation in a N6-methyladenosine-dependent manner. These factors contribute to TGF-β1 transactivation in KCs, subsequently activating the SMAD2/3 pathway and enhancing the stem cell-like properties of incoming GC cells. Furthermore, sEV-miR-151a-3p induces miR-151a-3p transcription in KCs to form a positive feedback loop. In summary, our results reveal a previously unidentified regulatory axis initiated by sEV-miR-151a-3p that establishes a hepatic stemness-permissive niche to support GC-LM. sEV-miR-151a-3p could be a promising diagnostic biomarker and preventive treatment candidate for GC-LM.

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Fig. 1: GC-derived sEVs are absorbed by KCs.
Fig. 2: sEV-miR-151a-3p is significantly upregulated in the plasma of GC patients with LM.
Fig. 3: sEV-miR-151a-3p promotes liver metastasis and the stem cell-like properties of metastatic GC cells in liver.
Fig. 4: sEV-miR-151a-3p transcriptionally inhibits TGF-β1 expression by directly targeting SP3.
Fig. 5: sEV-miR-151a-3p induces endogenous miR-151a-3p expression by inhibiting SP3 in KCs.
Fig. 6: sEV-miR-151a-3p relieves the SUMOylation and inhibitory effect of SP3 by restraining YTHDF3-mediated SUMO1 translation.
Fig. 7: sEV-miR-151a-3p enhances stem cell-like properties of hepatic metastatic GC cells by activating the SMAD2/3 pathway.
Fig. 8: sEV-miR-151a-3p promotes hepatic carcinomatosis of GC in vivo by inhibiting SP3 in KCs.

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Data availability

The sEV-miRNA-seq and mRNA-seq data that support the findings of this study have been deposited in the SRA database from NCBI with the accession code PRJNA648286. The YTHDF3-CLIP-seq and YTHDF3-RIP-seq and meRIP-seq were downloaded from GEO database with the dataset ID: GSE86214; GSE130171; GSE130172. All other data are available in the article and its additional files or from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81871946, 82002558, 82072708); Special Foundation for National Science and Technology Basic Research Program of China (2019FY101104); the Primary Research & Development Plan of Jiangsu Province (BE2016786); the Program for Development of Innovative Research Team in the First Affiliated Hospital of NJMU; the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD, JX10231801); Jiangsu Key Medical Discipline (General Surgery) (ZDXKA2016005); Jiangsu Key Lab of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Personalized Medicine, Nanjing Medical University. We would like to express our gratitude to Dr Xiaofei Zhi and Dr Zheng Chen for their valuable advice on our study. We also thank Prof. Xinyu Xu for her help on FACS experiments.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Bowen Li, Yiwen Xia, Jialun Lv, Weizhi Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, Jiangsu Province, China

    Bowen Li, Yiwen Xia, Jialun Lv, Weizhi Wang, Zhe Xuan, Tianlu Jiang, Lang Fang, Linjun Wang, Zheng Li, Zhongyuan He, Qingya Li, Li Xie, Shengkui Qiu, Lu Zhang, Diancai Zhang, Hao Xu & Zekuan Xu

  2. Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Jinling Hospital, the First School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Nanjing, 210002, Jiangsu Province, China

    Cen Chen

  3. Department of General Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu Province, China

    Shengkui Qiu

  4. Jiangsu Key Lab of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Personalized Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 211166, Jiangsu Province, China

    Zekuan Xu

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Contributions

Z Xu planned and supervised this study, as well as provided most of the funding support. BL, YX, JL, and WW performed all the experiments. Z Xuan, CC, and TJ analyzed and interpreted the data. LF and LW drew the diagrams. ZL, ZH, and QL drafted the manuscript. LX, SQ, and LZ collected and sorted the clinical data of patients. DZ and HX provided clinical tissue samples and information.

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Correspondence to Zekuan Xu.

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Li, B., Xia, Y., Lv, J. et al. miR-151a-3p-rich small extracellular vesicles derived from gastric cancer accelerate liver metastasis via initiating a hepatic stemness-enhancing niche. Oncogene 40, 6180–6194 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-021-02011-0

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