L1CAM promotes vasculogenic mimicry formation by miR-143-3p-induced expression of hexokinase 2 in glioma

In recent decades, antiangiogenic therapy, which blocks the supply of oxygen and nutrition to tumor cells, has become a promising clinical strategy for the treatment of patients with tumors. However, recent studies revealed that vasculogenic mimicry (VM), which is the process by which vascular morphological structures are formed by highly invasive tumor cells, has been considered a potential factor for the failure of antiangiogenic therapy in patients with tumors. Thus, inhibition of VM formation might be a potential target for improving the outcome of antiangiogenic strategies. However, the mechanism underlying VM formation is still incompletely elucidated. Herein, we reported that L1CAM might be a critical regulator of VM formation in glioma, and might be associated with the resistance of glioma to antiangiogenic therapy. We found that the tumor-invasion and tube-formation capabilities of L1CAM-overexpressing cells were significantly enhanced in vitro and in vivo. In addition, the results indicated that miR-143-3p, which might directly target the 3'UTR of the Hexokinase 2 (HK2) gene to regulate its protein expression, was subsequently involved in L1CAM-mediated VM formation by glioma cells. Further study revealed that the regulation of MMP2, MMP9 and VEGFA expression was involved in this process. Moreover, we identified that activation of the downstream PI3K/Akt signaling pathway of the L1CAM/HK2 cascade is critical for VM formation by glioma cells. Furthermore, we found that the combined treatment of anti-L1CAM neutralizing monoclonal antibody and bevacizumab increases efficacy beyond that of bevacizumab alone, and suppresses glioma growth in vivo, indicating that the inhibition of L1CAM-mediated VM formation might efficiently improve the effect of antiangiogenic treatment for glioma patients. Together, our findings demonstrated a critical role of L1CAM in regulating VM formation in glioma, and that L1CAM might be a potential target for ameliorating tumor resistance to antiangiogenic therapy in glioma patients.

HK2; L1CAM; glioma; miR-143-3p; vasculogenic mimicry.