Senescence secreted factors activate Myc and sensitize pre-transformed cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis

Senescent cells secrete a plethora of factors with potent paracrine signaling capacity. Strikingly, senescence, which acts as a defense against cell transformation, exerts pro-tumorigenic activities through its secretome by promoting numerous tumor-specific features, such as cellular proliferation, epithelial-mesenchymal transition and invasiveness. Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) has the unique activity of activating cell death exclusively in tumor cells. Given that the senescence-associated secretome supports cell transformation, we asked whether factor(s) of this secretome would establish a program required for the acquisition of TRAIL sensitivity. We found that conditioned media from several types of senescent cells (CMS) efficiently sensitized pre-transformed cells to TRAIL, while the same was not observed with normal or immortalized cells. Dynamic transcription profiling analysis of CMS-exposed pre-transformed cells revealed paracrine autoregulatory loop of senescence-associated secretome factors and a dominant role of CMS-induced MYC. Sensitization to TRAIL coincided with MYC upregulation and massive changes in gene regulation. CMS-induced MYC silenced its target gene CFLAR, encoding the apoptosis inhibitor FLIPL, thus leading to the acquisition of TRAIL sensitivity. Altogether, our results reveal that senescent cell-secreted factors exert a TRAIL sensitizing effect on pre-transformed cells by modulating the expression of MYC and CFLAR. Notably, CMS dose-dependent sensitization to TRAIL was observed with TRAIL-insensitive cancer cells and confirmed in co-culture experiments. Dissection and characterization of TRAIL-sensitizing CMS factors and the associated signaling pathway(s) may provide a mechanistic insight in the acquisition of TRAIL sensitivity and lead to novel concepts for the apoptogenic therapy of pre-malignant and TRAIL-resistant tumors.

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Vjetrovic J, Shankaranarayanan P, Mendoza-Parra MA, Gronemeyer H