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Protein disulfide isomerase a4 acts as a novel regulator of cancer growth through the procaspase pathway

Oncogene volume 36, pages 5484–5496 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Protein disulfide isomerase a4 (PDIA4) is implicated in the growth and death of tumor cells; however, its molecular mechanism and therapeutic potential in cancer are unclear. Here, we found that PDIA4 expression was upregulated in a variety of tumor cell lines and human lung adenocarcinoma tissues. Knockdown and overexpression of PDIA4 in tumor cells showed that PDIA4 facilitated cell growth via the reduction of caspases 3 and 7 activity. Consistently, Lewis lung carcinoma cells overexpressing PDIA4 grew faster than did parental cells in tumor-bearing mice, as shown by a reduced survival rate, increased tumor size and metastasis, and decreased cell death and caspases 3 and 7 activity. PDIA4 knockdown resulted in opposite outcomes. Moreover, results obtained in mice with spontaneous hepatoma indicated that PDIA4 deficiency significantly reduced hepatic tumorigenesis and cyst formation and increased mouse survival, tumor death, and caspases 3 and 7 activity. Mechanistic studies illustrated that PDIA4 negatively regulated tumor cell death by inhibiting degradation and activation of procaspases 3 and 7 via their mutual interaction in a CGHC-dependent manner. Finally, we found that 1,2-dihydroxytrideca-5,7,9,11-tetrayne, a PDIA4 inhibitor, reduced tumor development via enhancement of caspase-mediated cell death in TSA tumor-bearing mice. These findings characterize PDIA4 as a negative regulator of cancer cell apoptosis and suggest that PDIA4 is a potential therapeutic target for cancer.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the animal facility and the metabolomics facility of the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, and the mouse clinics of Academia Sinica for their technical assistance. We thank Drs Jim Stauffer (NCI) and Xin Chen (UCSF) for their SB plasmids, and the National RNAi Core Facility (Academia Sinica) for RNAi reagents. We also thank Ms Miranda Loney for editing the manuscript. This work was supported in part by MOST 104-2320-B-037-033-My2, and MOST 104-2314-B-033-002; NHRI-EX103-10109B1, and NHRI-EX106-10416S1, and KMU-TP104G00, KMU-TP104G01, KMU-TP104A04, KMU-TP105E23, KMU-TP105E23, KMU-TP105E00, and KMU-DT105005.

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Author notes

  1. T-F Kuo and T-Y Chen: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    T-F Kuo, T-Y Chen, K-W Chen, Y-M Chiang, Y-J Hsu, Y-J Liu, H-M Chen, Y-R Chen, M-T Yang, C-Y Yang & W-C Yang

  2. Institute of Biotechnology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    T-Y Chen & W-C Yang

  3. National Laboratory Animal Center, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taipei, Taiwan

    S-T Jiang

  4. Graduate Institute of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    K K Yokoyama

  5. National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taipei, Taiwan

    K-C Tsai

  6. Ph.D. Program for Biotechnology in Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    K-C Tsai

  7. Drug Discovery and Development Center, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan

    H-H Yeh

  8. Graduate Institute of Biotechnology, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

    M-T Yang

  9. Molecular and Biological Agricultural Sciences, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan and National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

    M-T Yang

  10. Department of Life Sciences, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

    W-C Yang

  11. Institute of Pharmacology, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    W-C Yang

  12. Department of Aquaculture, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan

    W-C Yang

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  1. T-F Kuo
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Correspondence to W-C Yang.

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Kuo, TF., Chen, TY., Jiang, ST. et al. Protein disulfide isomerase a4 acts as a novel regulator of cancer growth through the procaspase pathway. Oncogene 36, 5484–5496 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2017.156

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