Gefitinib resistance of cancer cells correlated with TM4SF5-mediated epithelial–mesenchymal transition

Abstract

Although cancers can be initially treated with the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor, gefitinib, continued gefitinib therapy does not benefit the survival of patients due to acquired resistance through EGFR mutations, c-MET amplification, or epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). It is of further interest to determine whether mesenchymal-like, but not epithelial-like, cancer cells can become resistant to gefitinib by bypassing EGFR signaling and acquiring alternative routes of proliferative and survival signaling. Here we examined whether gefitinib resistance of cancer cells can be caused by transmembrane 4 L six family member 5 (TM4SF5), which has been shown to induce EMT via cytosolic p27Kip1 stabilization. Gefitinib-resistant cells exhibited higher and/or sustained TM4SF5 expression, cytosolic p27Kip1 stabilization, and mesenchymal phenotypes, compared with gefitinib-sensitive cells. Conversion of gefitinib-sensitive to -resistant cells by introduction of the T790M EGFR mutation caused enhanced and sustained expression of TM4SF5, phosphorylation of p27Kip1 Ser10 (responsible for cytosolic location), loss of E-cadherin from cell–cell contacts, and gefitinib-resistant EGFR and survival signaling activities. Additionally, TM4SF5 overexpression lessened the sensitivity of NSCLC cells to gefitinib. Suppression of TM4SF5 or p27Kip1 in gefitinib-resistant cells via the T790M EGFR mutation or TM4SF5 expression rendered them gefitinib-sensitive, displaying more epithelial-like and less mesenchymal-like characteristics. Together, these results indicate that TM4SF5-mediated EMT may have an important function in the gefitinib resistance of cancer cells.