Oncogenic PI3K mutations lead to NF-kB-dependent cytokine expression following growth

While growth factor-independent signaling and proliferation are well-established hallmarks of cancer, little is known regarding growth factor-independent changes in gene expression which occur downstream from oncogenes. The PI3K pathway is one of the most commonly misregulated signaling pathways in human cancers. Here, MCF10A cells expressing the two most common PI3K mutations, PIK3CA E545K and H1047R, were used to identify the repertoire of genes altered by oncogenic PI3K mutations following growth factor deprivation. This gene set most closely correlated with gene signatures from claudin-low and basal-like breast tumors, and categorical enrichment analyses suggested that NF-kB target genes were dramatically upregulated by these mutations. An IKKb inhibitor was used to identify the subset of PI3K-driven genes that is NF-kB dependent. Interestingly, virtually all of these NF-kB dependent genes were secreted proteins, suggesting a paracrine role for this gene set. Among these genes was IL-6, a cytokine frequently expressed in tumors which plays a critical role in generating a tumor-promoting microenvironment. Consistent with this, conditioned media from cells expressing the E545K or H1047R mutations led to increased STAT3 activation in recipient THP-1 monocytes or normal epithelial cells in a NF-kB and IL-6-dependent manner. Together, these data describe a PI3K-driven, NF-kB-dependent gene expression profile which may play a critical role in promoting a microenvironment amenable to tumor progression. 39 normal cell lines vs treated cell lines for micorarray analysis