Purpose: B7 homologue 6 (B7-H6) has been found at an up-regulated level in multiple cancer cells and identified to be positively correlated with inferior clinical features. In non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), however, the roles of B7-H6 and the underlying mechanism of action remain unclear. Through in vivo and in vitro experiments, the aim of this study was to explore the regulatory mechanism of B7-H6 in NHL in order to provide new therapeutic strategies that can potentially be applied in clinical practice.
Methods: The expression of B7-H6 in T-lymphoblastic lymphoma (TLBL), diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and lymph node reactive hyperplasia (LRH) tissues were compared by immunohistochemistry. A total of 10 NHL cell lines were screened by Western blot to evaluate the expression of B7-H6. The effects of B7-H6 knockdown on cell proliferation, migration and invasion of NHL cells were studied in vivo using a transplanted tumor mice model, and in vitro by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and Transwell assays. Quantitative phosphoproteomics was performed to identify the changes of protein phosphorylation and related pathways affected by B7-H6. The effects of B7-H6 on NHL were validated via B7-H6 overexpression and pathway inhibitor assays.
Results: The expression levels of B7-H6 in NHL cell lines, and TLBL and DLBCL tissues were significantly increased compared with those in the control groups. Inhibition of cell proliferation, migration and invasion was observed in Jurkat and Raji cells with B7-H6 knockdown. The ability of B7-H6 in promoting tumorigenesis was further validated by in vivo experiments. In addition, Ras and HIF-1 signaling pathways were shown to be significantly affected by B7-H6 through quantitative phosphorylation proteomics analysis. Ras/MEK/ERK pathway was verified to be significantly inhibited after B7-H6 knockdown by Western blot analysis. Strikingly, MEK inhibitor AZD8330 was found to have the ability to sufficiently inhibit Ras/MEK/ERK pathway, partially reverse cell proliferation and completely reverse cell migration and invasion induced by B7-H6.
Conclusion: B7-H6 promotes cell proliferation, migration and invasion in NHL via Ras/MEK/ERK pathway. Hence, B7-H6 or Ras/MEK/ERK pathway targeting may be used as potential therapeutics for treating NHL.
Keywords: B7-H6, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, proliferation, migration, invasion, MEK inhibitor