An eEF1A1 truncation encoded by PTI-1 exerts its oncogenic effect inside the nucleus

Aberrant protein synthesis and cancer development: The role of canonical eukaryotic initiation, elongation and termination factors in tumorigenesis

In tumourigenesis, oncogenes or dysregulated tumour suppressor genes alter the canonical translation machinery leading to a reprogramming of the translatome that, in turn, promotes the translation of selected mRNAs encoding proteins involved in proliferation and metastasis. It is therefore unsurprising that abnormal expression levels and activities of eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs), elongation factors (eEFs) or termination factors (eRFs) are associated with poor outcome for patients with a wide range of cancers. In this review we discuss how RNA binding proteins (RBPs) within the canonical translation factor machinery are dysregulated in cancers and how targeting such proteins is leading to new therapeutic avenues.

OUP accepted manuscript

Background

The glioblastoma-amplified sequence (GBAS) is a newly identified gene that is amplified in approximately 40% of glioblastomas. This article probes into the expression, prognostic significance, and possible pathways of GBAS in ovarian cancer (OC).

Method

Immunohistochemical methods were used to evaluate the expression level of GBAS in OC and its relationship with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis. Glioblastoma-amplified sequence shRNA was designed to transfect into OC cell lines to silence GBAS expression, then detect the proliferation, apoptosis, and migration ability of the cell. Furthermore, an in vitro tumor formation experiment in mice was constructed to prove the effect of GBAS expression on the growth of OC in vivo. To further study the regulation mechanism of GBAS, we performed co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) and shotgun LC-MS mass spectrometry identification.

Results

Immunohistochemistry indicated that GBAS was markedly overexpressed in OC compared with normal ovarian tissue and was associated with lymph node metastasis. Inhibition of GBAS expression can significantly reduce OC cell proliferation, colony formation, promote cell apoptosis, and reduce the ability of cell migration and invasion. In vivo tumor formation experiments showed that the size and weight of tumors in mice after GBAS expression knockdown was significantly smaller. Glioblastoma-amplified sequence may be combined with elongation factor 1 alpha 1 (eEF1A1) to achieve its regulation in OC. Bioinformatics analysis data indicate that GBAS may be a key regulator of mitochondria-associated pathways, therefore controlling cancer progression. MicroRNA-27b, MicroRNA-23a, and MicroRNA-590 may directly targeting GBAS affects the biological behavior of OC cells.

Conclusion

The glioblastoma-amplified sequence may regulate the proliferation and metastasis of OC cells by combining with eEF1A1.

Localization and Functional Roles of Components of the Translation Apparatus in the Eukaryotic Cell Nucleus

Components of the translation apparatus, including ribosomal proteins, have been found in cell nuclei in various organisms. Components of the translation apparatus are involved in various nuclear processes, particularly those associated with genome integrity control and the nuclear stages of gene expression, such as transcription, mRNA processing, and mRNA export. Components of the translation apparatus control intranuclear trafficking; the nuclear import and export of RNA and proteins; and regulate the activity, stability, and functional recruitment of nuclear proteins. The nuclear translocation of these components is often involved in the cell response to stimulation and stress, in addition to playing critical roles in oncogenesis and viral infection. Many components of the translation apparatus are moonlighting proteins, involved in integral cell stress response and coupling of gene expression subprocesses. Thus, this phenomenon represents a significant interest for both basic and applied molecular biology. Here, we provide an overview of the current data regarding the molecular functions of translation factors and ribosomal proteins in the cell nucleus.

Improved Identification of Small Open Reading Frames Encoded Peptides by Top-Down Proteomic Approaches and De Novo Sequencing

Small open reading frames (sORFs) have translational potential to produce peptides that play essential roles in various biological processes. Nevertheless, many sORF-encoded peptides (SEPs) are still on the prediction level. Here, we construct a strategy to analyze SEPs by combining top-down and de novo sequencing to improve SEP identification and sequence coverage. With de novo sequencing, we identified 1682 peptides mapping to 2544 human sORFs, which were all first characterized in this work. Two-thirds of these new sORFs have reading frame shifts and use a non-ATG start codon. The top-down approach identified 241 human SEPs, with high sequence coverage. The average length of the peptides from the bottom-up database search was 19 amino acids (AA); from de novo sequencing, it was 9 AA; and from the top-down approach, it was 25 AA. The longer peptide positively boosts the sequence coverage, more efficiently distinguishing SEPs from the known gene coding sequence. Top-down has the advantage of identifying peptides with sequential K/R or high K/R content, which is unfavorable in the bottom-up approach. Our method can explore new coding sORFs and obtain highly accurate sequences of their SEPs, which can also benefit future function research.

CagA orchestrates eEF1A1 and PKCδ to induce interleukin-6 expression in Helicobacter pylori-infected gastric epithelial cells

Background

Helicobacter pylori colonises the stomach of approximately 50% of the global population. Cytotoxin-associated gene A protein (CagA) is one of the important virulent factors responsible for the increased inflammation and increases the risk of developing peptic ulcers and gastric carcinoma. The cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) has particularly important roles in the malignant transformation of gastric and intestinal epithelial cells as it is upregulated in H. pylori-infected gastric mucosa. In this study, we investigated the underlying mechanisms of CagA-induced IL-6 up-regulation during H. pylori infection. AGS cells, a human gastric adenocarcinoma cell line, lacking eEF1A1 were infected with CagA⁺ H. pylori (NCTC11637), CagA^- H. pylori (NCTC11637ΔcagA), or transduced by Ad-cagA/Ad-GFP. The expression and production of IL-6 were measured by quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. The interactions among CagA, eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1-alpha 1 (eEF1A1), protein kinase Cδ (PKCδ), and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) were determined by western blot or co-immunoprecipitation.

Results

During H. pylori infection, CagA-M (residues 256‒871aa) was found to interact with eEF1A1-I (residues 1‒240aa). NCTC11637 increased the expression of IL-6 in AGS cells compared with NCTC11637ΔcagA whereas knockdown of eEF1A1 in AGS cells completely abrogated these effects. Moreover, the CagA-eEF1A1 complex promoted the expression of IL-6 in AGS cells. CagA and eEF1A1 cooperated to mediate the expression of IL-6 by affecting the activity of p-STAT^S727 in the nucleus. Further, CagA-eEF1A1 affected the activity of STAT3 by recruiting PKCδ. However, blocking PKCδ inhibited the phosphorylation of STAT3^S727 and induction of IL-6 by CagA.

Conclusions

CagA promotes the expression of IL-6 in AGS cells by recruiting PKCδ through eEF1A1 in the cytoplasm to increase the phosphorylation of STAT3^S727 in the nucleus. These findings provide new insights into the function of CagA-eEF1A1 interaction in gastric adenocarcinoma.

P21 activated kinase 4 binds translation elongation factor eEF1A1 to promote gastric cancer cell migration and invasion

P21 activated kinase 4 (PAK4), as an effector of Cdc42, playing important roles in regulating the processes of cytoskeleton organization. PAK4 has been considered to be an oncogenic protein, which has strong relationship with gastric cancer metastasis. However, the mechanism of PAK4 in regulating gastric cancer metastasis is still not fully understood. In this study, using yeast two-hybrid system, we identified that the eukaryotic elongation factor 1 α1 (eEF1A1) is a new binding partner of PAK4. The interaction between PAK4 and eEF1A1 was confirmed by GST pull-down and co-immunoprecipitation. PAK4 co-localized with eEF1A1 in the cytoplasm of gastric cancer cells. Overexpression of PAK4 enhanced the expression level of eEF1A1 and vice versa. PAK4 and eEF1A1 could cooperate to promote gastric cancer cell migration and invasion. Furthermore, the expression of PAK4 and eEF1A1 in clinical gastric cancer samples were examined by western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Statistical analysis indicated that there was positive correlation between the expression of PAK4 and eEF1A1. This study demonstrated for the first time that PAK4 interacted with eEF1A1 to promote migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells, thereby providing new insights into the function of PAK4 and eEF1A1 in the progression of gastric cancer.

Improved Identification and Analysis of Small Open Reading Frame Encoded Polypeptides

Computational, genomic, and proteomic approaches have been used to discover nonannotated protein-coding small open reading frames (smORFs). Some novel smORFs have crucial biological roles in cells and organisms, which motivates the search for additional smORFs. Proteomic smORF discovery methods are advantageous because they detect smORF-encoded polypeptides (SEPs) to validate smORF translation and SEP stability. Because SEPs are shorter and less abundant than average proteins, SEP detection using proteomics faces unique challenges. Here, we optimize several steps in the SEP discovery workflow to improve SEP isolation and identification. These changes have led to the detection of several new human SEPs (novel human genes), improved confidence in the SEP assignments, and enabled quantification of SEPs under different cellular conditions. These improvements will allow faster detection and characterization of new SEPs and smORFs.

Tumor-associated and disease-associated autoantibody repertoires in healthy colostrum and maternal and newborn cord sera

In this work, we studied autoantibody repertoires and Ig isotypes in 71 mothers and their 104 healthy newborns (including twins and triplets delivered term or premature). Newborns receive maternal IgG Abs via the placenta before birth, but developing infants must produce their own IgM and IgA Abs. We used an Ag microarray analysis to detect binding to a selection of 295 self-Ags, compared with 27 standard foreign Ags. The magnitude of binding to specific self-Ags was found to be not less than that to the foreign Ags. As expected, each newborn shared with its mother a similar IgG repertoire-manifest as early as the 24th week of gestation. IgM and IgA autoantibody repertoires in cord sera were highly correlated among the newborns and differed from their mothers' repertoires; the latter differed in sera and milk. The autoantibodies bound to self-Ags known to be associated with tumors and to autoimmune diseases. Thus, autoantibody repertoires in healthy humans--the immunological homunculus--arise congenitally, differ in maternal milk and sera, and mark the potential of the immune system to attack tumors, beneficially, or healthy tissues, harmfully; regulation of the tissue site, the dynamics, and the response phenotype of homuncular autoimmunity very likely affects health.