TP53 exon-6 truncating mutations produce separation of function isoforms with pro-tumorigenic functions
Abstract
TP53 truncating mutations are common in human tumors and are thought to give rise to p53-null alleles. Here, we show that TP53 exon-6 truncating mutations occur at higher than expected frequencies and produce proteins that lack canonical p53 tumor suppressor activities but promote cancer cell proliferation, survival, and metastasis. Functionally and molecularly, these p53 mutants resemble the naturally occurring alternative p53 splice variant, p53-psi. Accordingly, these mutants can localize to mitochondria where they promote tumor phenotypes by binding and activating the mitochondria inner pore permeability regulator, Cyclophilin D (CypD). Together, our studies reveal that TP53 exon-6 truncating mutations, contrary to current beliefs, act beyond p53 loss to promote tumorigenesis, and could inform the development of strategies to target cancers driven by these prevalent mutations.
Data availability
-
Genomic and Epigenomic Landscapes of Adult De Novo Acute Myeloid LeukemiaPublicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Comprehensive Molecular Portraits of Invasive Lobular Breast CancerPublicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Comprehensive molecular characterization of human colon and rectal cancer.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Exome and whole-genome sequencing of esophageal adenocarcinoma identifies recurrent driver events and mutational complexity.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Genomic and molecular characterization of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
The somatic genomic landscape of glioblastoma.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Comprehensive genomic characterization of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Comprehensive molecular profiling of lung adenocarcinomaPublicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Comprehensive genomic characterization of squamous cell lung cancers.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Widespread genetic heterogeneity in multiple myeloma: implications for targeted therapy.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Divergent clonal evolution of castration-resistant neuroendocrine prostate cancer.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Integrated genomic analyses of ovarian carcinoma.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
The Molecular Taxonomy of Primary Prostate Cancer.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Comprehensive genomic profiles of small cell lung cancer.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Comprehensive molecular characterization of gastric adenocarcinoma.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
-
Integrated genomic characterization of endometrial carcinoma.Publicly available at the cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org) .
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Cancer Institute (NCI P01 CA129243-06)
- Raffaella Sordella
- Marc Ladanyi
- Scott W Lowe
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All animal experiments were performed in accordance with National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Protocols were approved by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Animal Care and Use Committee (933922-1 Development of mouse models to study human lung cancer - integrated protocols).
Copyright
© 2016, Sordella 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.
Metrics
-
- 5,279
- views
-
- 900
- downloads
-
- 55
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Further reading
-
- Cancer Biology
Most human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) are not infiltrated with cytotoxic T cells and are highly resistant to immunotherapy. Over 90% of PDAC have oncogenic KRAS mutations, and phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) are direct effectors of KRAS. Our previous study demonstrated that ablation of Pik3ca in KPC (KrasG12D; Trp53R172H; Pdx1-Cre) pancreatic cancer cells induced host T cells to infiltrate and completely eliminate the tumors in a syngeneic orthotopic implantation mouse model. Now, we show that implantation of Pik3ca−/− KPC (named αKO) cancer cells induces clonal enrichment of cytotoxic T cells infiltrating the pancreatic tumors. To identify potential molecules that can regulate the activity of these anti-tumor T cells, we conducted an in vivo genome-wide gene-deletion screen using αKO cells implanted in the mouse pancreas. The result shows that deletion of propionyl-CoA carboxylase subunit B gene (Pccb) in αKO cells (named p-αKO) leads to immune evasion, tumor progression, and death of host mice. Surprisingly, p-αKO tumors are still infiltrated with clonally enriched CD8+ T cells but they are inactive against tumor cells. However, blockade of PD-L1/PD1 interaction reactivated these clonally enriched T cells infiltrating p-αKO tumors, leading to slower tumor progression and improve survival of host mice. These results indicate that Pccb can modulate the activity of cytotoxic T cells infiltrating some pancreatic cancers and this understanding may lead to improvement in immunotherapy for this difficult-to-treat cancer.