Abstract
Approximately 40% of patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) often develop bone metastases during the course of their disease. However, scarcely any in vivo model of LUAD bone metastasis has been established, leading to a poor understanding of the mechanisms underlying LUAD bone metastasis. Here, we established a multiorgan metastasis model via the left ventricular injection of luciferase-labeled LUAD cells into nude mice and then screened out lung metastasis (LuM) and bone metastasis (BoM) cell subpopulations. BoM cells exhibited greater stemness and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plasticity than LuM cells and initially colonized the bone and subsequently disseminated to distant organs after being reinjected into mice. Moreover, a CD74-ROS1 fusion mutation (C6; R34) was detected in BoM cells but not in LuM cells. Mechanistically, BoM cells bearing the CD74-ROS1 fusion highly secrete the C-C motif chemokine ligand 5 (CCL5) protein by activating STAT3 signaling, recruiting macrophages in tumor microenvironment and strongly inducing M2 polarization of macrophages. BoM cell-activated macrophages produce a high level of TGF-β1, thereby facilitating EMT and invasion of LUAD cells via TGF-β/SMAD2/3 signaling. Targeting the CD74-ROS1/CCL5 axis with Crizotinib (a ROS1 inhibitor) and Maraviroc (a CCL5 receptor inhibitor) in vivo strongly impeded bone metastasis and secondary metastasis of BoM cells. Our findings reveal the critical role of the CD74-ROS1/STAT3/CCL5 axis in the interaction between LUAD bone metastasis cells and macrophages for controlling LUAD cell dissemination, highlighting the significance of the bone microenvironment in LUAD bone metastasis and multiorgan secondary metastasis, and suggesting that targeting CD74-ROS1 and CCL5 is a promising therapeutic strategy for LUAD bone metastasis.
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Data availability
The RNA-seq data generated in Table S1 have been deposited in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database under the accession code GSE249364.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful for the participation and cooperation from NSCLC patients. This work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (82273372, 82073198), and Suzhou Key Laboratory for Molecular Cancer Genetics (SZS201209), and Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX22_3214, and KYCX23_3261), Collaborative Innovation Center of Molecular Medicine between Soochow University and Donghai County People’s Hospital (H230470), Clinical Medicine Research Institute of Soochow University and Suzhou BenQ Medical Center (H230467), and A Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).
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ZW, RS, and H-TZ contributed to study concept and design. ZW, ZL, YW, and SW performed all the experiments. J-PW, EJ, and XL provided technical support. EJ, ZL, RS, and H-TZ analyzed the data, wrote the manuscript, and contributed to the interpretation of data and critical revision of the manuscript. H-TZ supervised the study.
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Human NSCLC tissues were collected after informed consent was obtained from all patients. The study protocol was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University.
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Wang, Z., Lei, Z., Wang, Y. et al. Bone-metastatic lung adenocarcinoma cells bearing CD74-ROS1 fusion interact with macrophages to promote their dissemination. Oncogene 43, 2215–2227 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-024-03072-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-024-03072-7