2. Academic Validation
  3. WD repeat-containing protein 1 maintains β-Catenin activity to promote pancreatic cancer aggressiveness

WD repeat-containing protein 1 maintains β-Catenin activity to promote pancreatic cancer aggressiveness

  • Br J Cancer. 2020 Sep;123(6):1012-1023. doi: 10.1038/s41416-020-0929-0.
Hengchao Li  # 1,  Xiaohui Liu  # 2,  Shuheng Jiang 3,  Xinwen Zhou 2,  Lie Yao 1,  Yang Di 1,  Yongjian Jiang 1,  Jichun Gu 1,  Yishen Mao 1,  Ji Li 1,  Chen Jin 1,  Pengyuan Yang 4,  Deliang Fu 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Pancreatic surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200040, P. R. China.
  • 2 Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, P. R. China.
  • 3 State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, P. R. China.
  • 4 Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, P. R. China. [email protected].
  • 5 Department of Pancreatic surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200040, P. R. China. [email protected].
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 32601462 DOI: 10.1038/s41416-020-0929-0
Abstract

Background: The molecular signature underlying pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) progression may include key proteins affecting the malignant phenotypes. Here, we aimed to identify the proteins implicated in PDAC with different tumour-node-metastasis (TNM) stages.

Methods: Eight-plex isobaric tags coupled with two-dimensional liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry were used to analyse the proteome of PDAC tissues with different TNM stages. A loss-of-function study was performed to evaluate the oncogenic roles of WD repeat-containing protein 1 (WDR1) in PDAC. The molecular mechanism by which WDR1 promotes PDAC progression was studied by real-time qPCR, Western blotting, proximity ligation assay and co-immunoprecipitation.

Results: A total of 5036 proteins were identified, and 4708 proteins were quantified with high confidence. Compared with normal pancreatic tissues, 37 proteins were changed significantly in PDAC tissues of different stages. Moreover, 64 proteins were upregulated or downregulated in a stepwise manner as the TNM stages of PDAC increased, and 10 proteins were related to tumorigenesis. The functionally uncharacterised protein, WDR1, was highly expressed in PDAC and predicted a poor prognosis. WDR1 knockdown suppressed PDAC tumour growth and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, WDR1 knockdown repressed the activity of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway; ectopic expression of a stabilised form of β-catenin restored the suppressive effects of WDR1 knockdown. Mechanistically, WDR1 interacted with USP7 to prevent ubiquitination-mediated degradation of β-catenin.

Conclusion: Our study identifies several previous functional unknown proteins implicated in the progression of PDAC, and provides new insight into the oncogenic roles of WDR1 in PDAC development.

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