Werner Syndrome Helicase Is Required for the Survival of Cancer Cells with Microsatellite Instability

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorn Kategaya ◽  
Senthil K. Perumal ◽  
Jeffrey H. Hager ◽  
Lisa D. Belmont
eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Lieb ◽  
Silvia Blaha-Ostermann ◽  
Elisabeth Kamper ◽  
Janine Rippka ◽  
Cornelia Schwarz ◽  
...  

Targeted cancer therapy is based on exploiting selective dependencies of tumor cells. By leveraging recent functional screening data of cancer cell lines we identify Werner syndrome helicase (WRN) as a novel specific vulnerability of microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) cancer cells. MSI, caused by defective mismatch repair (MMR), occurs frequently in colorectal, endometrial and gastric cancers. We demonstrate that WRN inactivation selectively impairs the viability of MSI-H but not microsatellite stable (MSS) colorectal and endometrial cancer cell lines. In MSI-H cells, WRN loss results in severe genome integrity defects. ATP-binding deficient variants of WRN fail to rescue the viability phenotype of WRN-depleted MSI-H cancer cells. Reconstitution and depletion studies indicate that WRN dependence is not attributable to acute loss of MMR gene function but might arise during sustained MMR-deficiency. Our study suggests that pharmacological inhibition of WRN helicase function represents an opportunity to develop a novel targeted therapy for MSI-H cancers.


iScience ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 488-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorn Kategaya ◽  
Senthil K. Perumal ◽  
Jeffrey H. Hager ◽  
Lisa D. Belmont

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Manuel Iglesias-Pedraz ◽  
Diego Matia Fossatti Jara ◽  
Valeria Del Carmen Valle-Riestra Felice ◽  
Sergio Rafael Cruz Visalaya ◽  
Jose Antonio Ayala Felix ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The Werner syndrome protein (WRN) belongs to the RecQ family of helicases and its loss of function results in the premature aging disease Werner syndrome (WS). We previously demonstrated that an early cellular change induced by WRN depletion is a posttranscriptional decrease in the levels of enzymes involved in metabolic pathways that control macromolecular synthesis and protect from oxidative stress. This metabolic shift is tolerated by normal cells but causes mitochondria dysfunction and acute oxidative stress in rapidly growing cancer cells, thereby suppressing their proliferation.Results To identify the mechanism underlying this metabolic shift, we examined global protein synthesis and mRNA nucleocytoplasmic distribution after WRN knockdown. We determined that WRN depletion in HeLa cells attenuates global protein synthesis without affecting the level of key components of the mRNA export machinery. We further observed that WRN depletion affects the nuclear export of mRNAs and demonstrated that WRN directly interacts with mRNA and the mRNA export receptor Nuclear Export Factor 1 (NXF1).Conclusions Our findings suggest that WRN influences the export of mRNAs from the nucleus through its interaction with the NXF1 export receptor thereby affecting cellular proteostasis. In summary, we identified a new partner and a novel function of WRN, which is especially important for the proliferation of cancer cells.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Manuel Iglesias-Pedraz ◽  
Diego Matia Fossatti Jara ◽  
Valeria Del Carmen Valle-Riestra Felice ◽  
Sergio Rafael Cruz Visalaya ◽  
Jose Antonio Ayala Felix ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundThe Werner syndrome protein (WRN) belongs to the RecQ family of helicases and its loss of function results in the premature aging disease Werner syndrome (WS). We previously demonstrated that an early cellular change induced by WRN depletion is a posttranscriptional decrease in the levels of enzymes involved in metabolic pathways that control macromolecular synthesis and protect from oxidative stress. This metabolic shift is tolerated by normal cells but causes mitochondria dysfunction and acute oxidative stress in rapidly growing cancer cells, thereby suppressing their proliferation.Results To identify the mechanism underlying this metabolic shift, we examined global protein synthesis and mRNA nucleocytoplasmic distribution after WRN knockdown. We determined that WRN depletion in HeLa cells attenuates global protein synthesis without affecting the level of key components of the mRNA export machinery. We further observed that WRN depletion affects the nuclear export of mRNAs and demonstrated that WRN directly interacts with mRNA and the mRNA export receptor Nuclear Export Factor 1 (NXF1).Conclusions Our findings suggest that WRN influences the export of mRNAs from the nucleus through its interaction with the NXF1 export receptor thereby affecting cellular proteostasis. In summary, we identified a new partner and a novel function of WRN, which is especially important for the proliferation of cancer cells.


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