Biology subjects

Palanisamy, V.

Publications and source records attributed to Palanisamy, V..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

Loss of CPAP expression promotes sustained EGFR signaling and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in oral cancer cells

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common type of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Altered epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) levels can contribute to tumor metastasis and resistance to therapies. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), by which epithelial cells acquire a mesenchymal and invasive phenotype, contributes significantly to tumor metastasis in OSCC, and EGFR signaling is known to promote this process. Microtubule inhibition therapies cause EGFR inactivation or increase the sensitivity to EGFR targeting drugs in various cancers including OSCC. In this study, using OSCC model, we show that loss of a microtubule/tubulin binding protein, centrosomal protein 4.1-associated protein (CPAP), which is critical for centriole biogenesis and normal functioning of centrosome, caused an increase in the EGFR levels and signaling and, enhanced the EMT features and invasiveness of OSCC cells. Further, depletion of CPAP increased the tumorigenicity of these cells in a xeno-transplant model. Importantly, CPAP loss-associated EMT features and invasiveness of multiple OSCC cells were attenuated upon depletion of EGFR in them. Overall, our novel observations suggest that in addition to its previously known regulatory role in centrosome biogenesis and function, CPAP plays an important role in suppressing EMT and tumorigenesis in OSCC by regulating EGFR homeostasis and signaling.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Centrosomal P4.1-associated protein (CPAP) positively regulates endosome maturation

Centrosomal P4.1-associated protein (CPAP) plays a critical role in restricting the centriole length in human cells. Here, we report a novel, positive regulatory role for CPAP in endocytic vesicular transport (EVT) and lysosome targeting of internalized-cell surface receptor EGFR. We observed that higher CPAP levels cause an increase in the abundance of multi-vesicular body (MVB) and EGFR is detectable in CPAP-overexpression induced puncta. While the surface levels, and total and phosphorylated cellular levels of EGFR are higher under CPAP deficiency, ligandengagement induced internalization of this receptor is not impacted by CPAP levels. Furthermore, routing of EGFR into early endosomes is not influenced by CPAP. However, most importantly, we found that CPAP is required for targeting ligand-activated, internalized EGFR to lysosome. Transport of ligand-bound EGFR from early endosome to late endosome/MVB and lysosome is severely diminished in CPAP-depleted cells. Moreover, CPAP depleted cells showed diminished ability to form MVB structures upon EGFR activation. These observations show a positive regulatory role for CPAP in early endosome to late endosome transport and lysosome targeting of ligand-bound EGFR-like cell surface receptors. Overall, identification of this regulatory role for CPAP in endocytic trafficking of EGFR provides new insights in understanding the cellular functions of CPAP.

cell biology↗