TP53 drives invasion through expression of its Δ133p53β variant
Abstract
TP53 is conventionally thought to prevent cancer formation and progression to metastasis, while mutant TP53 has transforming activities. However, in the clinic, TP53 mutation status does not accurately predict cancer progression. Here we report, based on clinical analysis corroborated with experimental data, that the p53 isoform Δ133p53β promotes cancer cell invasion, regardless of TP53 mutation status. Δ133p53β increases risk of cancer recurrence and death in breast cancer patients. Furthermore Δ133p53β is critical to define invasiveness in a panel of breast and colon cell lines, expressing WT or mutant TP53. Endogenous mutant Δ133p53β depletion prevents invasiveness without affecting mutant full-length p53 protein expression. Mechanistically WT and mutant Δ133p53β induces EMT. Our findings provide explanations to 2 long-lasting and important clinical conundrums: how WT TP53 can promote cancer cell invasion and reciprocally why mutant TP53 gene does not systematically induce cancer progression.
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Author details
Funding
Breast Cancer Campaign (2012MaySF127)
- Jean-Christophe Bourdon
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: Samples were examined following Local Research EthicsCommittee approval under delegated authority by the Tayside Tissue Bank(www.taysidetissuebank.org).
Copyright
© 2016, Gadea et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Further reading
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- Genetics and Genomics
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Missense ‘hotspot’ mutations localized in six p53 codons account for 20% of TP53 mutations in human cancers. Hotspot p53 mutants have lost the tumor suppressive functions of the wildtype protein, but whether and how they may gain additional functions promoting tumorigenesis remain controversial. Here, we generated Trp53Y217C, a mouse model of the human hotspot mutant TP53Y220C. DNA damage responses were lost in Trp53Y217C/Y217C (Trp53YC/YC) cells, and Trp53YC/YC fibroblasts exhibited increased chromosome instability compared to Trp53-/- cells. Furthermore, Trp53YC/YC male mice died earlier than Trp53-/- males, with more aggressive thymic lymphomas. This correlated with an increased expression of inflammation-related genes in Trp53YC/YC thymic cells compared to Trp53-/- cells. Surprisingly, we recovered only one Trp53YC/YC female for 22 Trp53YC/YC males at weaning, a skewed distribution explained by a high frequency of Trp53YC/YC female embryos with exencephaly and the death of most Trp53YC/YC female neonates. Strikingly, however, when we treated pregnant females with the anti-inflammatory drug supformin (LCC-12), we observed a fivefold increase in the proportion of viable Trp53YC/YC weaned females in their progeny. Together, these data suggest that the p53Y217C mutation not only abrogates wildtype p53 functions but also promotes inflammation, with oncogenic effects in males and teratogenic effects in females.