5. CD271 in Migration, Metastasis, and Cellular Plasticity

The systemic dissemination of tumor cells throughout the body presents a hallmark of tumor progression and is still the leading cause of cancer-related death. Particularly the sequential formation of metastases at distant organs is associated with the loss of disease control and poor prognosis, as reviewed by Ackermann et al. [54]. Brain metastases (BM) are most challenging [55] and develop in 20–40% of melanoma cases during the course of disease, with unclear subtype specificity, as reviewed by Redmer [56]. The efficient systemic dissemination of melanoma cells relies on the maintenance of a migratory phenotype, which is likely inherited from NC cells [57,58]. Likely, the metastatic niche plays an important role for the maintenance of the migratory phenotype. In 1995, Marchetti et al. demonstrated that the ligands for neurotrophin receptors CD271 and tropomyosin-related kinases (TRKs, see Section 6), nerve growth factor (NGF), and neurotrophin 3 (NTF3) were expressed by niche cells within the brain but not brain metastatic melanoma cells [59]. On the contrary, the latter expressed CD271 and TRKC and featured migration at the invasion front likely in a paracrine response. The relevance of this dependency was demonstrated by Truzzi et al., who observed increased migration of metastatic melanoma cells after stimulation with NGF, NTF3, and NTF4 [60]. Although the in vitro situation might not directly reflect mechanisms of tumor cell migration within the brain, these studies suggest a role of neurotrophins in cell migration. More than a decade later, studies by Boiko et al. evidenced that the expression of CD271 mediates the stemness of melanoma cells and serves as a regulator of metastasis [8]. Later functional studies established that CD271 acts as a key regulator of the NCSC-like state in melanoma that, in turn, programs the migratory phenotype [40,50]. The expression profiling and gene-set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of melanoma cells with forced expression of CD271 revealed the association with genes conferring metastasis and relapse. Concordantly, live-cell imaging-based scratch-wound assays revealed that melanoma cells with a high endogenous level or forced expression of CD271 featured a significantly enhanced migration into the scratch wound than cells with a low expression and, consistently, the knockdown of CD271 decreased the migratory capacity [43,50]. Among the genes predicting either melanoma metastasis or relapse were hyaluronan mediated motility receptor (HMMR), NIMA related kinase 2 (NEK2), and DNA-repair genes. HMMR and NEK2 were associated with increased migration, metastasis, and poor survival in cancer [43,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68], and Kauffmann et al. associated metastasis of melanoma with a high expression of DNA-repair genes and pathways [69]. We observed increased levels of DNA-repair genes RAD21, MSH6, and RAD51 in CD271⁺ but not CD271⁻ MACSed cells [43] hence, the DNA-repair capacity is potentially regulated in a CD271-dependent manner [43]. Mutant BRAF^V600 serves as yet another driver of metastasis as mutant melanoma cells featured a higher endogenous migration capacity in vitro than wild type (wt) cells [43,70]. Although the level of CD271 in tumors is likely unstable [47], several processes raising the expression of CD271 have been identified in vitro. Particularly, cellular stress induced by therapeutic interventions [43,44,71], hypoxia [72,73], or inflammation [74,75,76,77] increased the expression of CD271. Chemotherapeutics have been used for more than 40 years in the first-line treatment of melanoma and are still in clinical use, particularly applied to patients lacking druggable mutations or patients who became refractory to immune checkpoint inhibitors [78]. However, DNA-damage inducing chemotherapeutic drugs increased the cell surface and total levels of CD271 after 24 hours of treatment in drug-sensitive (parental, Par) MeWo cells (Figure S4a). The significant increase in the DNA-damage and p53-pathways (Figure S4b,c) likely suggest a role of both regulating the levels of CD271 in vitro and in vivo. Besides mediators of the DNA-damage response, NGF and BDNF were up regulated in a short-term (24h) response to cisplatin (Figure S4d), potentially triggering autocrine signaling processes e.g., migration. In addition, increased expression of CD271 and NGF was observed in chemo-resistant MeWo cells featuring increased migration [43]. Concordantly, the selective inhibitor of oncogenic BRAF^V600E/K vemurafenib mediated resistance via increased expression of CD271 [44]. In summary, therapeutic interventions select for highly migratory and metastatic melanoma cells, likely via the modification of levels of CD271. This statement is underpinned by the intriguing finding that the injection of a neutralizing antibody raised against CD271 blocks melanoma metastasis in a mouse model system [79]. Recently, the expression of CD271 was recognized as a regulator of phenotype switching, a process that enables the rapid and reversible conversion of non-stem-like into stem-like or proliferative into invasive states. The latter was associated with the AXL^high/MITF^low program [53,54,55,56,57,58]. In addition, Hoek et al. specified the proliferative/low-migratory phenotype by (1) the levels of MITF-targets (TYR, DCT, PMEL, MLANA), (2) NC-related genes (SOX10, TFAP1A, EDNRB), and (3) the sensitivity toward the growth-inhibitory effect of TGF-β and the proportion of Ki67-positive cells [80,81]. Contrary, the migratory/low-proliferative phenotype was specified by EMT-inducers ZEB1, TWIST1, and c-JUN as well as CD271 and AXL [53,82]. The conditional overexpression of CD271 in melanoma cell lines impaired the proliferation in vitro and in vivo but enhanced metastasis formation at distant organs. Furthermore, Restivo et al. demonstrated that the manipulation of levels of CD271 was sufficient to control the switch between proliferation (“growing”) and invasion (“going”) of melanoma cells. Furthermore, Restivo et al. suggested that the interaction of CD271 with TRKA and the release of the CD271 intracellular domain (ICD) serve as responsible mechanisms, leading to the loss of adhesion via up regulation of cholesterol production and impaired proliferation [53]. The mechanism regulating the switch of CD271^high into MITF^high cells and vice versa is likely found in all organ-metastases and proceeds via a transient CD271⁺/MITF⁺ cell state. Consistently, the analysis of melanoma BM (MBM) revealed that CD271^high cells exhibit a lack of expression of MITF and MITF-targets [50] but feature a high enrichment of CD271-target/associated genes (study GSE50493 [83]) and genes associated with an NCSC-like phenotype and cell migration (Figure S5a–d). Several mechanisms, which trigger and control cellular plasticity and phenotype switching, are plausible, besides CD271-ICD-regulated processes. Tumor hypoxia is induced by low oxygen levels triggering not only the formation of new blood vessels but also metastasis, as reviewed by Rankin et al. [84]. Hypoxia-induced metastasis is a complex process driven by several mediators. Widmer et al. demonstrated that the modulation of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) was sufficient to induce the dedifferentiation and phenotype switching of proliferative into invasive melanoma cells, referring to the AXL/MITF axis [85]. The stabilization of HIF1α under hypoxic conditions favored the invasive AXL^high state and the absence or low levels of HIF1α promoted the proliferative MITF^high phenotype. Changes in the growth factor environment yet present another mechanism, triggering the rapid interconversion of stem-like states, marked by CD271, CD133 [86] or CD271/CD133 [40]. We observed that cells with a double positive (CD271⁺/CD133⁺) as well as a double negative (CD271⁻/CD133⁻) phenotype were capable of re-establishing the cellular heterogeneity of the initial cell culture within three days. Moreover, a phenotype switch of CD271⁺/CD133⁻ to CD271⁺/CD133⁺ cells was induced in the absence of serum and FGF2, which was prevented in cells with a stable knockdown of CD271. Whether CD133⁺ stem-like cells indeed directly evolved from CD271⁺ cells or presented a differentiated progeny of yet another stem-like state is unknown. The shRNA-mediated down regulation of CD133 or CD271 in melanoma cells revealed that both markers are inversely correlated, suggesting that CD133 suppresses genes associated with CD271, e.g., AXL and FOXD3 and vice versa [40,86]. Although methods enabling the tracing of melanoma cell phenotypes in vitro exist, the monitoring of cues inducing phenotype switching within tumors, particularly in response to certain in vivo conditions, e.g., therapeutic interventions or hypoxia, remains challenging. Reporter systems may enable the in vivo tracing of phenotype switching of stem-like cells and their participation in tumor formation and metastasis. The combination of gene-specific 3′-UTR sequences fused to GFP provide insight into mechanisms maintaining stem-like cells (Figure 3a), e.g., regulated by microRNA binding. The FACS-enrichment (Figure 3b) of melanoma cells with a stable genomic integration of a 3´-UTR-CD271-GFP reporter yields in a pure GFP⁺ subset (Figure 3c, upper panels). However, only a minority of GFP⁺ cells is maintained upon culturing in two dimensional (2D) (Figure 3c, lower panels) or three dimensional (3D) systems (Figure 3d). Hence, the content of putative CD271⁺ stem-like cells within cell culture systems is tightly controlled by mechanisms balancing differentiation and dedifferentiation.  

In summary, these data suggest that CD271 likely controls melanoma cell migration and metastasis via phenotype switching which includes the suppression of MITF-targets. The comparison of MITF expression levels reveal that metastases and primary tumors featuring proliferative and invasive cell states (Figure S6a) with no organ-specific prevalence (Figure S6a,b). Hence, the expression of MITF/targets is suppressed during metastasis and rises during the formation of secondary tumors. In contrast, the expression of CD271 increases to facilitate metastasis, invasiveness and decreases once the disseminated cells arrived at distant organ sites. Moreover, a subset of metastases may permanently exist in a CD271^high/MITF^low state featuring a high aggressiveness and metastatic capacity. The persistence of the CD271^high/MITF^low state in vivo is unknown; however, therapeutic interventions potentially influencing the equilibrium of invasiveness and proliferation might select for the most favorable state (Figure S6c) and consequentially foster specific metastatic routes, e.g., metastasis to the brain [87].

6. Signaling Mechanisms of CD271 in the Central Nervous System

CD271 is widely expressed in different cell types of the central nervous system (CNS), e.g., neurons and schwann cells, regulating a plethora of processes like survival and apoptosis, myelination and axonal regeneration in response to specific ligands like the neurotrophins (NGF, BDNF, NTF3, and NTF4). In addition, CD271 is expressed in several cellular compartments, is localized in the nucleus following neurotrophin-induced cleavage, the nuclear pore and shows membrane localization [76,88,89,90].

In the subventricular zone, the place of adult neurogenesis, CD271 labels a subset of progenitor cells, which are maintained in response to BDNF [91,92]. Consistently, the expression of CD271 is down regulated upon neuronal differentiation of progenitor cells in a rodent model system [92]. In addition, astrocytes gain expression of CD271 in response to injury and neuroinflammation that in turn is triggered in response to injury, seizure, toxic metabolites and tumor cells, as reviewed by Meeker et al. [93]. The activation of astrocytes, known as astrogliosis strongly determines the maintenance of tumor cells within the brain as reactive astrocytes secrete chemokines, cytokines and growth factors supporting tumor cell growth and migration, comprehensively reviewed by Sofroniew et al. [94]. The exact role of CD271 in astrogliosis is not well understood, although it might affect astrocyte proliferation [75]. CD271 lacks in a kinase-domain and regulates signaling processes in conjunction with co-receptors and/or the recruitment of signaling mediators that bind to the death domain of CD271 homodimers (Figure 4), as reviewed by Meeker et al. [93].

Signaling via CD271 (p75^NTR) homodimers mediates the activation of NFĸB signaling, driving the expression of pro-survival genes via the recruitment of receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 2 (RIP2). In the absence of the latter that competes with TRAF6 for binding to CD271, neurotrophins trigger the activation of c-jun-n-terminal kinase (JNK) to drive apoptosis in neurons [95] (Figure 4, first panel). In addition, the association of CD271 with tropomyosin-related kinases (TRKs) results in the generation of high-affinity neurotrophin binding sites and mediates cell survival in a mitogen-activated kinase (MAPK)-dependent manner via adaptor proteins SHC, GRB2, and SOS (Figure 4, second panel). Besides MAPK signaling, the CD271/TRK heterodimers signal trough PI3K and PLCγ [14]. Sortilin (SORT1), belongs to the vacuolar protein sorting 10 family (Vps10) and is mainly found within late endosomes derived from the trans-golgi network, controlling the anterograde trafficking of neurotrophin receptors and secretion of pro-BDNF [96]. The binding of neurotrophin precursors like pro-NGF or pro-BDNF to the CD271/SORT1 complex triggers apoptosis via adaptor proteins TRAF6, NRAGE and NRIF in neurons [97] (Figure 4, third panel), reviewed in references [16,98]. Moreover, CD271 forms a complex with Nogo receptor (RTN4R), MAG, and LINGO1 (not shown), inducing the release of RhoA from Rho GDP-dissociation inhibitor (RhoGDI) and subsequently activates the RhoA/ROCK signaling pathway. The latter in turn regulates the dynamic of the actin cytoskeleton (reviewed by Fujita et al. [99]), determining cell shape and motility via phosphorylation and activation of the Ser/Thr kinase LIM. Activated LIM in turn phosphorylates and inactivates the actin de-polymerization factor cofilin and mediates the inhibition of neurite outgrowth, reviewed in [93,99]. Furthermore, LIM activates the ERM proteins radixin (RDX), ezrin (EZR), and moesin (MSN) (Figure 4, fourth panel), which are important regulators of microvilli formation, cell adhesion, and membrane ruffling (reviewed by Tsukita et al. [100]) and potential drivers of cancer progression (reviewed by Clucas et al. [101]).

However, CD271 signaling mechanisms show high context dependence, hence facilitate cellular properties in relation to the abundance of co-receptors, ligands, and recruited adaptor proteins that mediate signaling. Yet-identified signaling mechanisms in the CNS are more comprehensively discussed by Roux and Barker [102].

7. Signaling of CD271 in Melanoma and Other Cancer Types

During central nervous system (CNS) development, the NC gives rise to several differentiated progeny, besides melanocytes like glia cells, which in turn give rise to astrocytes. Several lines of evidence suggest that particular cancer entities have adopted molecular features used by NC cells (reviewed by Maguire et al. [103]; Table S1 in Supplementary Materials).

The first evidence that CD271 consequentially determines melanoma cell behavior was provided by Shonukan et al. who demonstrated the specific interaction of CD271 with the actin cytoskeleton via the actin-bundling protein fascin (FSCN1). This interaction facilitates the migration of melanoma cells in a NGF and pro-NGF dependent manner [104]. Moreover, Marchetti et al. observed the activation of heparanase (HPSE1) expression in melanoma triggered by NGF and CD271 in a dose-dependent manner and even in the absence of TRKA [6,105,106]. HPSE1 promoted melanoma cell invasion and in turn was reported to induce PI3K/AKT signaling and probably promote tumor cell migration modulated by PLEKHA5, which specifically interacts with phosphoinositides [107]. Furthermore, Restivo et al. suggested that the binding of NGF to the complex of CD271 and TRKA triggered cell detachment and cleavage of CD271, yielding in the CD271-ICD that, in turn, induced the “growing” to “going” switch [53]. Moreover, the cleavage of CD271 by ADAM10 or ADAM17 controls the formation of the intracellular domain fragment (ICD) or carboxyterminal fragment (CTF), respectively. Both fragments mediate resistance to apoptosis mediated by TRAIL (CTF) or triggered by anoikis (ICD) in breast cancer and/or HNSCC [108,109] (Figure 5b, Table S1). The malignant transformation of glia cells causes the development of astrocytoma including glioblastoma, the major forms of primary brain tumors in adulthood. Although astrocytes lack expression of CD271, several processes within the CNS like astrogliosis increase the level of CD271 on astrocytes. Like for melanoma, the contribution of CD271 to the malignant transformation of astrocytes is completely unknown. Subsets of glioblastoma and astrocytoma (Figure 5a, not shown) as well as primary tumors and BM of melanoma (Figure 5a, left panels, and Figure 1d) and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) (Figure 5a, right panels and Figure S7a,b) feature a high expression of CD271 [110,111], as reviewed by Wrensch et al. [112]. Concordantly, high levels of CD271 drive migration and invasion of glioblastoma cells, mediated via the PDZ and LIM-domain protein PDLIM1 [111,113], (Figure 5b, Table S1). The phosphorylation of CD271 at S303/S304 by protein kinase a (PKA) in turn promoted glioblastoma invasiveness and the translocation of CD271 to lipid rafts in neurons and potentially in glioblastoma [113,114].

In addition, the expression of CD271 was associated with increased migration/invasion and metastasis of head and neck cancer, hypopharyngeal cancer, and oral squamous cell carcinoma [115,116,117] and was associated with poor prognosis of LSCC [118] and urothelial carcinoma (TCGA, human protein atlas, Figure S7b). Strikingly, the tumor formation of engrafted hypopharyngeal cancer and melanoma cells was blocked by a humanized anti-CD271 antibody [119]. In contrast, a high expression of CD271 in medulloblastoma, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, gastric cancer (Table S1), and prostate cancer [120] was associated with a favorable tumor state.

In summary, CD271 defines properties of tumor cells of several cancer entities, often associated with a poor outcome. Additional studies are needed to uncover molecular mechanisms that are common and distinct to specific cancer entities.

8. Therapeutic Targeting of CD271

Signaling mechanisms of CD271 in melanoma and other tumor entities are still not well understood, making the specific targeting challenging. As CD271 regulates survival and apoptosis of neurons in conjunction with co-receptors and in dependence of the availability of ligands within the CNS, the direct targeting of either CD271 or neurotrophins seems impossible. Nevertheless, commercially available small molecule drugs like non-peptide inhibitors preventing NGF from binding to CD271; PD90780, Ro 08-2750, and peptide inhibitor NTR368 have not yet been tested in vivo. However, a non-peptide ligand of CD271, LM11A-31 was administered to patients suffering from mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease in a clinical trial (NCT03069014). The inhibitor potentially inhibits CD271-mediated apoptosis of neurons.

Yet, the most intriguing finding by Ngo et al. suggests that the blocking of CD271 by neutralizing antibodies prevents melanoma metastasis in vivo [79]. Recently, Morita et al. reported that a humanized anti-CD271 antibody was sufficiently blocking the tumor growth of MeWo graft models [119]. However, the systemic application of CD271 neutralizing antibodies like inhibitors might negatively interfere with processes within the CNS. The targeting of CD271 is a promising route potentially preventing melanoma from metastasis. Two clinical pilot studies investigating whether T cells genetically engineered to express NGFR/CD271 improve the recognition and eradication of melanoma cells in patients with stage III–IV melanoma, started in 2012 and 2013 (NCT01955460, NCT01740557). It is likely that the adoptive transfer of autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) is superior to other therapeutic interventions due to higher selectivity [121].

9. Conclusions and Remarks

The nerve growth factor receptor CD271 regulates the survival and apoptosis of neurons within the CNS and basic properties of melanoma cells like tumorigenicity, plasticity, and self-renewal. Moreover, the molecular programs determining the migratory capacity of NCSCs likely drive the migration and metastasis of melanoma cells. The expression of CD271 increases in response to therapeutic drugs, inflammation, and stress and mediates drug resistance. Hence, CD271 likely acts as a key mediator of therapy-induced invasion and metastasis in melanoma and other cancer types. Although the molecular programs controlling the survival, apoptosis, and migration of cells in the CNS are well understood, the signaling mechanisms of CD271 in cancer remain elusive due to the high diversity of modes of signaling. The latter is strongly determined by the levels of co-receptors, ligands adaptor proteins that are recruited to the cytoplasmic domain of CD271. CD271-expressing brain-metastatic cells exhibit a more aggressive phenotype and likely benefit from close proximity to reactive astrocytes. All these findings strongly motivate the therapeutic targeting; however, the understanding of the signaling mechanisms that are directly controlled by CD271 is a prerequisite for the development of therapeutic drugs.