Browsing by Author "Saikkala, Minea"

Lung cancer is one of the most common and deadliest cancers worldwide, but the mechanisms behind different types of lung cancer are still poorly understood. Non-small cell lung cancer makes up 80% of lung cancers, and some epigenetic mechanisms have been proposed for it. Epigenetic modifications are a way of influencing the expression of genes by inhibition or activation. PRC2 is an epigenetic modulator that catalyses the formation of methyl groups on histone 3 lysine 27, which is an epigenetic mark with repressive nature. PRC2 has been proposed to be downstream of AMPK, an energy sensor of the cell, which is phosphorylated by LKB1 under energy stress conditions. Inactivating mutations in LKB1 are known to cause and worsen non-small cell lung cancer, and the overexpression of EZH2, the catalytic subunit of PRC2, has similar effects. Therefore, establishing a novel downstream mechanism linking LKB1, AMPK, and PRC2 together could explain one mechanism for NSCLC tumorigenesis. Changes in metabolism are a feature of cancer cells, and this pathway could also link energy stress and cancer together. Mouse embryonic fibroblast and H358 cell lines overexpressing wild type EZH2, mutant EZH2 and GFP were generated and treated with the glycolysis inhibitor 2-deoxyglucose to study the effects of energy stress. Levels of histone methylation and phosphorylation statuses of AMPK and its downstream target ACC were assessed with Western blotting, and expression levels of potential PRC2 target genes with RT-qPCR. The study setting proved to be functional for the response of AMPK to energy stress conditions, as both AMPK and ACC were phosphorylated in the presence of 2-DG. In mouse embryonic fibroblasts, PIM1 showed different gene expression with wild type and mutant EZH2, suggesting that its activation would be regulated through the phosphorylation of the T311 site of EZH2 during energy stress. The results from histone methylation statuses did not follow the hypothesis, possibly because of the lack of specificity of detecting global H3K27me3. Other target genes besides PIM1 in MEFs did not show significant changes in expression level. Considering that the incorporation of the mutant EZH2 into PRC2 complexes was not validated, additional research would be needed to confirm or deny the explained mechanism between PRC2 and AMPK.