Targeting Taurine Transporter (TauT) for Cancer Immunotherapy of p53 Mutation Mediated Cancers - Molecular Basis and Preclinical Implication.

Taurine transporter (TauT) has been identified as a target gene of p53 tumor suppressor. TauT is also found to be overexpressed in variety type of human cancers, such as leukemia. This study showed that expression of TauT was upregulated by c-Myc and c-Jun oncogenes. To explore whether blocking of TauT inhibits tumor development, the RNA interference (RNAi) and immune targeting approaches were tested in tumor cells in vitro and in p53 mutant mice in vivo. Knockdown of TauT expression by RNAi resulted in cell cycle G2 arrest and suppressed human breast cancer MCF-7 cells proliferation determined by colonies production and cell migration assays. Knockdown of TauT also rendered MCF-7 cells more susceptible to chemotherapeutic drug-induced apoptosis. An antibody specifically against TauT blocked taurine uptake and induced cell cycle G2 arrest leading to cell death of variety type of tumor cells without affecting the viability of normal mammalian cells. TauT peptide vaccination significantly increased median lifespan (1.5-fold) of the p53 null mice and rescued p53+/- mice by extending the median lifespan from 315 days to 621 days. Furthermore, single dose treatment of tumor-bearing (thymic lymphoma) p53 null mice with TauT peptide reduced tumor size by about 50% and significantly prolonged survival of these mice from average 7 days (after observing the thymic lymphoma) to 21 days. This finding demonstrates that a novel TauT peptide vaccine can delay, inhibit, and/or treat p53 mutation related spontaneous tumorigenesis in vivo. Therefore, TauT peptide may be used as a universal cancer vaccine to prevent and/or treat patients with p53 mutation-mediated cancers.