KIAA1522 potentiates TNFα-NFκB signaling to antagonize platinum-based chemotherapy in lung adenocarcinoma

Background: The platinum-based chemotherapy is the first-line regimen for the treatment of Non-small cell lung Cancer (NSCLC). However, the therapeutic efficiency is largely limited by tenacious chemo-insensitivity that results in inferior prognosis in a cohort of patients. It has been known that KIAA1522 is aberrantly expressed and implicated in several types of solid tumors including NSCLC. Nowadays, knowledge about this gene is quite limited. Here, we aimed to identify the role of KIAA1522 in lung adenocarcinomas, and the molecular events that underlie KIAA1522-mediated chemoresistance to the platinum.

Methods: Immunohistochemistry were used to detect KIAA1522 expression in clinical NSCLC samples. Then, the survival analyses were performed to assess the link between KIAA1522 expression and overall survival or therapeutic outcome. In vivo depletion of KIAA1522 in adenocarcinoma cells were achieved by adeno-associated virus-mediated sgRNA/Cre delivery into the conditional Kras^G12D/Cas9 expressed mice, which were designated to identify the roles of KIAA1522 in tumorigenesis and/or chemotherapy responses. The effects of KIAA1522 and downstream molecular events were studied by pharmacology in mice model and assays using in vitro cultured cells. The clinical relevance of our findings was examined by data-mining of online datasets from multiple cohorts.

Results: The clinical evidences reveal that KIAA1522 independently predicts both the overall survival and the outcome of platinum-based chemotherapy in lung adenocarcinomas. By using a Kras^G12D-driven murine lung adenocarcinoma model and performing in vitro assays, we demonstrated that KIAA1522 is a critical positive regulator of lung adenocarcinoma and a modulator of cisplatin response. KIAA1522 potentiates the TNFα-TNFR2-NFκB signaling which in turn intensifies recalcitrance to cisplatin treatment. These results were further manifested by integrative bioinformatic analyses of independent datasets, in which KIAA1522 is tightly associated with the activity of TNFα-NFκB pathway and the cisplatin-resistant gene signatures. More strikingly, overexpression of KIAA1522 counteracts the cisplatin-induced tumor growth arrest in vivo, and this effect can be remarkably diminished by the disruption of NFκB activity.

Conclusion: High expression of KIAA1522 is turned out to be an indicator of dismal effectiveness of platinum-based therapy in lung adenocarcinomas. KIAA1522 hyperactivates TNFα-NFκB signaling to facilitate resistance to platinum reagents. Targeting NFκB signaling through small molecule inhibitors may be a rational strategy to conquer chemoresistance and synergize platinum-based chemotherapy in KIAA1522 overexpressed lung adenocarcinomas.