CD95/Fas Increases Stemness in Cancer Cells by Inducing a STAT1-Dependent Type I Interferon Response

Publication date: 7 March 2017
Source:Cell Reports, Volume 18, Issue 10
Author(s): Abdul S. Qadir, Paolo Ceppi, Sonia Brockway, Calvin Law, Liang Mu, Nikolai N. Khodarev, Jung Kim, Jonathan C. Zhao, William Putzbach, Andrea E. Murmann, Zhuo Chen, Wenjing Chen, Xia Liu, Arthur R. Salomon, Huiping Liu, Ralph R. Weichselbaum, Jindan Yu, Marcus E. Peter
Stimulation of CD95/Fas drives and maintains cancer stem cells (CSCs). We now report that this involves activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) and induction of STAT1-regulated genes and that this process is inhibited by active caspases. STAT1 is enriched in CSCs in cancer cell lines, patient-derived human breast cancer, and CD95^high-expressing glioblastoma neurospheres. CD95 stimulation of cancer cells induced secretion of type I interferons (IFNs) that bind to type I IFN receptors, resulting in activation of Janus-activated kinases, activation of STAT1, and induction of a number of STAT1-regulated genes that are part of a gene signature recently linked to therapy resistance in five primary human cancers. Consequently, we identified type I IFNs as drivers of cancer stemness. Knockdown or knockout of STAT1 resulted in a strongly reduced ability of CD95L or type I IFN to increase cancer stemness. This identifies STAT1 as a key regulator of the CSC-inducing activity of CD95.

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Teaser

Chronic stimulation of the death receptor CD95/Fas by CD95 ligand induces cancer stemness. Qadir et al. report that this activity involves induction of type I interferons followed by activation of STAT1 and Janus kinases downstream of the type I interferon receptors.


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