Human colon cancers often start as benign adenomas through loss of APC, leading to enhanced βCATENIN (βCAT)/TCF function. These early lesions are efficiently managed but often progress to invasive carcinomas and incurable metastases through additional changes, the nature of which is unclear. We find that epithelial cells of human colon carcinomas (CCs) and their stem cells of all stages harbour an active HH-GLI pathway. Unexpectedly, they acquire a high HEDGEHOG-GLI (HH-GLI) signature coincident with the development of metastases. We show that the growth of CC xenografts, their recurrence and metastases require HH-GLI function, which induces a robust epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Moreover, using a novel tumour cell competition assay we show that the self-renewal of CC stem cells in vivo relies on HH-GLI activity. Our results indicate a key and essential role of the HH-GLI1 pathway in promoting CC growth, stem cell self-renewal and metastatic behavior in advanced cancers. Targeting HH-GLI1, directly or indirectly, is thus predicted to decrease tumour bulk and eradicate CC stem cells and metastases.

Previous studies demonstrate the initiation of colon cancers through deregulation of WNT-TCF signalling. An accepted but untested extension of this finding is that incurable metastatic colon carcinomas (CCs) universally remain WNT-TCF-dependent, prompting the search for WNT-TCF inhibitors. CCs and their stem cells also require Hedgehog (HH)-GLI1 activity, but how these pathways interact is unclear. Here we define coincident high-to-low WNT-TCF and low-to-high HH-GLI transitions in patient CCs, most strikingly in their CD133+ stem cells, that mark the development of metastases. We find that enhanced HH-GLI mimics this transition, driving also an embryonic stem (ES)-like stemness signature and that GLI1 can be regulated by multiple CC oncogenes. The data support a model in which the metastatic transition involves the acquisition or enhancement of a more primitive ES-like phenotype, and the downregulation of the early WNT-TCF programme, driven by oncogene-regulated high GLI1 activity. Consistently, TCF blockade does not generally inhibit tumour growth; instead, it, like enhanced HH-GLI, promotes metastatic growth in vivo. Treatments for metastatic disease should therefore block HH-GLI1 but not WNT-TCF activities.

Mutations in the XPD subunit of the DNA repair/transcription factor TFIIH yield the rare genetic disorder trichothiodystrophy (TTD). Although this syndrome was initially associated with a DNA repair defect, individuals with TTD develop neurological features, such as microcephaly and hypomyelination that could be connected to transcriptional defects. Here we show that an XPD mutation in TTD mice results in a spatial and selective deregulation of thyroid hormone target genes in the brain. Molecular analyses performed on the mice brain tissue demonstrate that TFIIH is required for the stabilization of thyroid hormone receptors (TR) to their DNA-responsive elements. The limiting amounts of TFIIH found in individuals with TTD thus contribute to the deregulation of TR-responsive genes. The discovery of an unexpected stabilizing function for TFIIH deepens our understanding of the pathogenesis and neurological manifestations observed in TTD individuals.

The progression of tumors to the metastatic state involves the loss of metastatic suppressor functions. Finding these, however, is difficult as in vitro assays do not fully predict metastatic behavior, and the majority of studies have used cloned cell lines, which do not reflect primary tumor heterogeneity. Here, we have designed a novel genome-wide screen to identify metastatic suppressors using primary human tumor cells in mice, which allows saturation screens. Using this unbiased approach, we have tested the hypothesis that endogenous colon cancer metastatic suppressors affect WNT-TCF signaling. Our screen has identified two novel metastatic suppressors: TMED3 and SOX12, the knockdown of which increases metastatic growth after direct seeding. Moreover, both modify the type of self-renewing spheroids, but only knockdown of TMED3 also induces spheroid cell spreading and lung metastases from a subcutaneous xenograft. Importantly, whereas TMED3 and SOX12 belong to different families involved in protein secretion and transcriptional regulation, both promote endogenous WNT-TCF activity. Treatments for advanced or metastatic colon cancer may thus not benefit from WNT blockers, and these may promote a worse outcome.