Mutant p53 induces a hypoxia transcriptional program in gastric and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

JCI Insight
Authors
Abstract

Despite the propensity for gastric and esophageal adenocarcinomas to select for recurrent missense mutations in TP53, the precise functional consequence of these mutations remains unclear. Here we report that endogenous mRNA and protein levels of mutant p53 were elevated in cell lines and patients with gastric and esophageal cancer. Functional studies showed that mutant p53 was sufficient, but not necessary, for enhancing primary tumor growth in vivo. Unbiased genome-wide transcriptome analysis revealed that hypoxia signaling was induced by mutant p53 in 2 gastric cancer cell lines. Using real-time in vivo imaging, we confirmed that hypoxia reporter activity was elevated during the initiation of mutant p53 gastric cancer xenografts. Unlike HIF co-factor ARNT, HIF1α was required for primary tumor growth in mutant p53 gastric cancer. These findings elucidate the contribution of missense p53 mutations in gastroesophageal malignancy and indicate that hypoxia signaling rather than mutant p53 itself may serve as a therapeutic vulnerability in these deadly set of cancers.

Year of Publication
2019
Journal
JCI Insight
Volume
4
Issue
15
Date Published
2019 08 08
ISSN
2379-3708
DOI
10.1172/jci.insight.128439
PubMed ID
31391338
PubMed Central ID
PMC6693823
Links
Grant list
P01 CA098101 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
P30 CA006516 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States