<p>Loss of polarity is a hallmark of cancer, and the related epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotype impacts prognosis and therapy outcomes, particularly in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the mechanisms and drugs that impact EMT-related morphological changes are understudied, due to the complete failure of typical live/dead 2D high-throughput screens to capture morphology or the lack of robustness of 3D screens. We designed a high-throughput screen using 3D type I collagen cultures of CRC cells to assess morphological changes in colonies and identified several FDA-approved drugs that re-epithelialize CRC colonies. One of these drugs, azithromycin, increased colony circularity, enhanced E-cadherin membrane localization and ZO-1 localization to tight junctions, caused transcriptomic changes consistent with downregulation of EMT, and elevated sensitivity to the chemotherapeutic, irinotecan. A retrospective analysis of patient data demonstrated that the use of azithromycin in patients undergoing treatment for CRC with irinotecan had improved the 5 year survival compared to the chemotherapy alone. These results highlight the importance of morphological screens to identify novel drug candidates and synergistic mechanisms.</p>

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3D collagen high-throughput screen identifies drugs that induce epithelial polarity and enhance chemotherapy response in colorectal cancer

  • Sarah J. Harmych,
  • Thomas P. Hasaka,
  • Chelsie K. Sievers,
  • Seung Woo Kang,
  • Marisol A. Ramirez,
  • Vivian Truong Jones,
  • Zhiguo Zhao,
  • Oleg Kovtun,
  • Claudia C. Wahoski,
  • Qi Liu,
  • Ken S. Lau,
  • Robert J. Coffey,
  • Joshua A. Bauer,
  • Bhuminder Singh

摘要

Loss of polarity is a hallmark of cancer, and the related epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotype impacts prognosis and therapy outcomes, particularly in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the mechanisms and drugs that impact EMT-related morphological changes are understudied, due to the complete failure of typical live/dead 2D high-throughput screens to capture morphology or the lack of robustness of 3D screens. We designed a high-throughput screen using 3D type I collagen cultures of CRC cells to assess morphological changes in colonies and identified several FDA-approved drugs that re-epithelialize CRC colonies. One of these drugs, azithromycin, increased colony circularity, enhanced E-cadherin membrane localization and ZO-1 localization to tight junctions, caused transcriptomic changes consistent with downregulation of EMT, and elevated sensitivity to the chemotherapeutic, irinotecan. A retrospective analysis of patient data demonstrated that the use of azithromycin in patients undergoing treatment for CRC with irinotecan had improved the 5 year survival compared to the chemotherapy alone. These results highlight the importance of morphological screens to identify novel drug candidates and synergistic mechanisms.