Abnormalities in intestinal stem cell programs underlie the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC), a disease that affected over 130,000 individuals in 2015. Therefore, further defining programs that regulate fundamental stem cell processes may lead to novel therapeutic targets. Accordingly, the Wnt signaling pathway plays a fundamental role in maintaining intestinal homeostasis and disruptions in this pathway are inextricably linked to the development of colon cancer. ?-catenin is the key effector of Wnt signaling, transducing signals to the nucleus or acting as a component of the cadherin complex at the cell membrane. The preponderance of Wnt mutations in CRC ultimately increase levels of ?-catenin within the cell. However, targeting this pathway has, as of yet, not yielded therapeutic efficacy. Blood vessel epicardial substance (BVES) is a tight junction-associated protein discovered in a cDNA screen of the developing heart. BVES is downregulated in CRC and overexpression of BVES impairs tumor growth, identifying a tumor suppressive role for BVES in carcinogenesis. BVES has also been shown to affect Wnt activity. BVES expression reduces Wnt reporter activity and in mouse models of inflammatory carcinogenesis, Bves-/- tumors have increased levels of ?-catenin. As Wnt signaling is critical in maintenance of the intestinal stem cell niche, Bves-/- mice also have activated stem cell programs. Taken together, it is hypothesized that BVES modulates Wnt signaling, principally through an effect on ?-catenin. This hypothesis will be tested via two focused, mechanistic, and hypothesis driven specific aims that will expand our understanding of how BVES regulates Wnt signaling. First, the mechanism by which BVES alters ?-catenin levels will be determined. BVES interacts with PR61?, a protein phosphatase 2A regulatory subunit, and it is hypothesized that through this interaction BVES modulates ?-catenin. Alternatively, as BVES can localize to the membrane, ?-catenin activity may be controlled through membrane sequestration. Second, a BVES conditional knockout mouse model will be employed to determine if loss of BVES in intestinal stem cells and subsequent alterations in Wnt signaling affect intestinal crypt dynamics. Novel 3D enteroid cultures will be employed to expand these studies and further characterize the functional domain of BVES responsible for modulating Wnt dependent phenotypes. These studies will then be translated into human derived tumoroid cultures to determine if restoring BVES function can modulate tumor growth. Our proposed studies will define the role of BVES in Wnt signaling, intestinal stem cell biology, and colorectal cancer. Importantly, clarifying the role of BVES may elucidate novel mechanisms to target this pro-tumorigenic pathway.
Alterations in intestinal stem cell populations influence colorectal cancer development, a disease that affects over 130,000 individuals each year and accounts for 1 in 10 new cancer diagnoses. BVES, a protein involved in forming cell-to-cell interactions, may regulate key signaling pathways involved in maintaining normal stem cell function. We propose to thoroughly investigate the role of BVES in modifying these stem cell populations and cancer growth using basic cellular experiments and animal models with the ultimate goal of identifying novel ways of targeting this deadly disease.
| Saito-Diaz, Kenyi; Benchabane, Hassina; Tiwari, Ajit et al. (2018) APC Inhibits Ligand-Independent Wnt Signaling by the Clathrin Endocytic Pathway. Dev Cell 44:566-581.e8 |
| Thompson, Joshua J; Williams, Christopher S (2018) Protein Phosphatase 2A in the Regulation of Wnt Signaling, Stem Cells, and Cancer. Genes (Basel) 9: |
