Potent antitumor activity of a glutamyltransferase-derived peptide via an activation of oncosis pathway

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) still presents poor prognosis with high mortality rate, despite of the improvement in the management. The challenge for precision treatment was due to the fact that little targeted therapeutics are available for HCC. Recent studies show that metabolic and circ...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Cheng Fang, Wenhui Li, Ruozhe Yin, Donglie Zhu, Xing Liu, Huihui Wu, Qingqiang Wang, Wenwen Wang, Quan Bai, Biliang Chen, Xuebiao Yao, Yong Chen
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:
R
Q
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/2ff30b6042fd422ea9764d949ca96111
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) still presents poor prognosis with high mortality rate, despite of the improvement in the management. The challenge for precision treatment was due to the fact that little targeted therapeutics are available for HCC. Recent studies show that metabolic and circulating peptides serve as endogenous switches for correcting aberrant cellular plasticity. Here we explored the antitumor activity of low molecular components in human umbilical serum and identified a high abundance peptide VI-13 by peptidome analysis, which was recognized as the part of glutamyltransferase signal peptide. We modified VI-13 by inserting four arginines and obtained an analog peptide VI-17 to improve its solubility. Our analyses showed that the peptide VI-17 induced rapid context-dependent cell death, and exhibited a higher sensitivity on hepatoma cells, which is attenuated by polyethylene glycol but not necrotic inhibitors such as z-VAD-fmk or necrostatin-1. Morphologically, VI-17 induced cell swelling, blebbing and membrane rupture with release of cellular ATP and LDH into extracellular media, which is hallmark of oncotic process. Mechanistically, VI-17 induced cell membrane pore formation, degradation of α-tubulin via influx of calcium ion. These results indicated that the novel peptide VI-17 induced oncosis in HCC cells, which could serve as a promising lead for development of therapeutic intervention of HCC.