Mortalin (mot-2) induces inactivation of the tumor suppressor p53's transcriptional and apoptotic functions by cytoplasmic sequestration of p53 in select cancers. The mot-2-dependent cytoprotective function enables cancer cells to support malignant transformation. Abrogating the p53-mot-2 interaction can control or slow down the growth of cancer cells. In this study, we report the discovery of a ubiquitin-like (UBX)-domain-containing protein, UBXN2A, which binds to mot-2 and consequently inhibits the binding between mot-2 and p53. Genetic analysis showed that UBXN2A binds to mot-2's substrate binding domain, and it partly overlaps p53's binding site indicating UBXN2A and p53 likely bind to mot-2 competitively. By binding to mot-2, UBXN2A releases p53 from cytosolic sequestration, rescuing the tumor suppressor functions of p53. Biochemical analysis and functional assays showed that the overexpression of UBXN2A and the functional consequences of unsequestered p53 trigger p53-dependent apoptosis. Cells expressing shRNA against UBXN2A showed the opposite effect of that seen with UBXN2A overexpression. The expression of UBXN2A and its apoptotic effects were not observed in normal colonic epithelial cells and p53−/− colon cancer cells. Finally, significant reduction in tumor volume in a xenograft mouse model in response to UBXN2A expression was verified in vivo. Our results introduce UBXN2A as a home defense response protein, which can reconstitute inactive p53-dependent apoptotic pathways. Inhibition of mot-2-p53 interaction by UBXN2A is an attractive therapeutic strategy in mot-2-elevated tumors.

The ubiquitination pathway and proteasomal degradation machinery dominantly regulate p53 tumor suppressor protein stability, localization, and functions in both normal and cancerous cells. Selective E3 ubiquitin ligases dominantly regulate protein levels and activities of p53 in a large range of physiological conditions and in response to cellular changes induced by exogenous and endogenous stresses. The regulation of p53’s functions by E3 ubiquitin ligases is a complex process that can lead to positive or negative regulation of p53 protein in a context- and cell type-dependent manner. Accessory proteins bind and modulate E3 ubiquitin ligases, adding yet another layer of regulatory control for p53 and its downstream functions. This review provides a comprehensive understanding of p53 regulation by selective E3 ubiquitin ligases and their potential to be considered as a new class of biomarkers and therapeutic targets in diverse types of cancers.

Veratridine (VTD), an alkaloid derived from the Liliaceae plant shows anti-tumor effects; however, its molecular targets have not been thoroughly studied. Using a high-throughput drug screen, we found that VTD enhances transactivation of UBXN2A, resulting in upregulation of UBXN2A in the cytoplasm, where UBXN2A binds and inhibits the oncoprotein mortalin-2 (mot-2). VTD-treated cancer cells undergo cell death in UBXN2A- and mot-2-dependent manners. The cytotoxic function of VTD is grade-dependent, and the combined treatment with a sub-optimal dose of the standard chemotherapy, 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) and etoposide, demonstrated a synergistic effect, resulting in higher therapeutic efficacy. VTD influences the CD44+ stem cells, possibly through UBXN2A-dependent inhibition of mot-2. The VTD-dependent expression of UBXN2A is a potential candidate for designing novel strategies for colon cancer treatment because: 1) In 50% of colon cancer patients, UBXN2A protein levels in tumor tissues are significantly lower than those in the adjacent normal tissues. 2) Cytoplasmic expression of the mot-2 protein is very low in non-cancerous cells; thus, VTD can produce tumor-specific toxicity while normal cells remain intact. 3) Finally, VTD or its modified analogs offer a valuable adjuvant chemotherapy strategy to improve the efficacy of 5-FU-based chemotherapy for colon cancer patients harboring WT-p53.

Overexpression of oncoproteins is a major cause of treatment failure using current chemotherapeutic drugs. Drug‐induced degradation of oncoproteins is feasible and can improve clinical outcomes in diverse types of cancers. Mortalin‐2 (mot‐2) is a dominant oncoprotein in several tumors, including colorectal cancer (CRC). In addition to inactivating the p53 tumor suppressor protein, mot‐2 enhances tumor cell invasion and migration. Thus, mot‐2 is considered a potential therapeutic target in several cancer types. The current study investigated the biological role of a ubiquitin‐like protein called UBXN2A in the regulation of mot‐2 turnover. An orthogonal ubiquitin transfer technology followed by immunoprecipitation, in vitro ubiquitination, and Magnetic Beads TUBE2 pull‐down experiments revealed that UBXN2A promotes carboxyl terminus of the HSP70‐interacting protein (CHIP)‐dependent ubiquitination of mot‐2. We subsequently showed that UBXN2A increases proteasomal degradation of mot‐2. A subcellular compartmentalization experiment revealed that induced UBXN2A decreases the level of mot‐2 and its chaperone partner, HSP60. Pharmacological upregulation of UBXN2A using a small molecule, veratridine (VTD), decreases the level of mot‐2 in cancer cells. Consistent with the in vitro results, UBXN2A+/− mice exhibited selective elevation of mot‐2 in colon tissues. An in vitro Anti‐K48 TUBE isolation approach showed that recombinant UBXN2A enhances proteasomal degradation of mot‐2 in mouse colon tissues. Finally, we observed enhanced association of CHIP with the UBXN2A‐mot‐2 complex in tumors in an azoxymethane/dextran sulfate sodium‐induced mouse CRC model. The existence of a multiprotein complex containing UBXN2A, CHIP, and mot‐2 suggests a synergistic tumor suppressor activity of UBXN2A and CHIP in mot‐2‐enriched tumors. This finding validates the UBXN2A‐CHIP axis as a novel and potential therapeutic target in CRC.

Overexpression of the oncoprotein mortalin in cancer cells and its protein partners enables mortalin to promote multiple oncogenic signaling pathways and effectively antagonize chemotherapy-induced cell death. A UBX-domaincontaining protein, UBXN2A, acts as a potential mortalin inhibitor. This current study determines whether UBXN2A effectively binds to and occupies mortalin's binding pocket, resulting in a direct improvement in the tumor's sensitivity to chemotherapy. Molecular modeling of human mortalin's binding pocket and its binding to the SEP domain of UBXN2A followed by yeast two-hybrid and His-tag pulldown assays revealed that three amino acids (PRO442, ILE558, and LYS555) within the substrate-binding domain of mortalin are crucial for UBXN2A binding to mortalin. As revealed by chase experiments in the presence of cycloheximide, overexpression of UBXN2A seems to interfere with the mortalin-CHIP E3 ubiquitin ligase and consequently suppresses the C-terminus of the HSC70-interacting protein (CHIP)-mediated destabilization of p53, resulting in its stabilization in the cytoplasm and upregulation in the nucleus. Overexpression of UBXN2A causes a significant inhibition of cell proliferation and the migration of colon cancer cells. We silenced UBXN2A in the human osteosarcoma U2OS cell line, an enriched mortalin cancer cell, followed by a clinical dosage of the chemotherapeutic agent 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). The UBXN2A knockout U2OS cells revealed that UBXNA is essential for the cytotoxic effect achieved by 5-FU. UBXN2A overexpression markedly increased the apoptotic response of U2OS cells to the 5-FU. In addition, silencing of UBXN2A protein suppresses apoptosis enhanced by UBXN2A overexpression in U2OS. The knowledge gained from this study provides insights into the mechanistic role of UBXN2A as a potent mortalin inhibitor and as a potential chemotherapy sensitizer for clinical application.

The subcellular localization, expression level, and activity of anti-cancer proteins alter in response to intrinsic and extrinsic cellular stresses to reverse tumor progression. The purpose of this study is to determine whether UBXN2A, an activator of the p53 tumor suppressor protein, has different subcellular compartmentalization in response to the stress of DNA damage. We measured trafficking of the UBXN2A protein in response to two different DNA damage stresses, UVB irradiation and the genotoxic agent Etoposide, in colon cancer cell lines. Using a cytosol-nuclear fractionation technique followed by western blot and immunofluorescence staining, we monitored and quantitated UBXN2A and p53 proteins as well as p53's downstream apoptotic pathway.We showed that the anti-cancer protein UBXN2A acts in the early phase of cell response to two different DNA damage stresses, being induced to translocate into the cytoplasm in a dose- and time-dependent manner. UVB-induced cytoplasmic UBXN2A binds to mortalin-2 (mot-2), a known oncoprotein in colon tumors. UVB-dependent upregulation of UBXN2A in the cytoplasm decreases p53 binding to mot-2 and activates apoptotic events in colon cancer cells. In contrast, the shRNA-mediated depletion of UBXN2A leads to significant reduction in apoptosis in colon cancer cells exposed to UVB and Etoposide. Leptomycin B (LMB), which was able to block UBXN2A nuclear export following Etoposide treatment, sustained p53-mot-2 interaction and had partially antagonistic effects with Etoposide on cell apoptosis. The present study shows that nucleocytoplasmic translocation of UBXN2A in response to stresses is necessary for its anti-cancer function in the cytoplasm. In addition, LMB-dependent suppression of UBXN2A's translocation to the cytoplasm upon stress allows the presence of an active mot-2 oncoprotein in the cytoplasm, resulting in p53 sequestration as well as activation of other mot-2-dependent growth promoting pathways.

This study is focused on the selective delivery and release of the plant-based anticancer compound eugenol (EUG) in colorectal cancer cells (CRC). EUG is an apoptotic and anti-growth compound in diverse malignant tumors, including CRC. However, EUG’s rapid metabolization, excretion, and side effects on normal cells at higher dosages are major limitations of its therapeutic potential. To address this problem, we developed a “smart” enzyme-responsive nanoparticle (eNP) loaded with EUG that exposes tumors to a high level of the drug while keeping its concentration low among healthy cells. We demonstrated that EUG induces apoptosis in CRC cells irrespective of their grades in a dose- and time-dependent manner. EUG significantly decreases cancer cell migration, invasion, and the population of colon cancer stem cells, which are key players in tumor metastasis and drug resistance. The “smart” eNPs–EUG show a high affinity to cancer cells with rapid internalization with no affinity toward normal colon epithelial cells. NPs–EUG enhanced the therapeutic efficacy of EUG measured by a cell viability assay and showed no toxicity effect on normal cells. The development of eNPs–EUG is a promising strategy for innovative anti-metastatic therapeutics.

The mTORC2 pathway plays a critical role in promoting tumor progression in human colorectal cancer (CRC). The regulatory mechanisms for this signaling pathway are only partially understood. We previously identi ed UBXN2A as a novel tumor suppressor protein in CRCs and hypothesized that UBXN2A suppresses the mTORC2 pathway, thereby inhibiting CRC growth and metastasis. We rst used murine models to show that haploinsu ciency of UBXN2A signi cantly increases colon tumorigenesis.Induction of UBXN2A reduces AKT phosphorylation downstream of the mTORC2 pathway, which is essential for a plethora of cellular processes, including cell migration. Meanwhile, mTORC1 activities remain unchanged in the presence of UBXN2A. Mechanistic studies revealed that UBXN2A targets Rictor protein, a key component of the mTORC2 complex, for 26S proteasomal degradation. A set of genetic and pharmacological studies showed that UBXN2A regulates cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and colon cancer stem cells (CSCs) in CRC. CRC patients with a high level of UBXN2A have signi cantly better survival, and high-grade CRC tissues exhibit decreased UBXN2A protein expression. UBXN2A induction in tumor organoids suppresses the mTORC2 pathway. These ndings provide new insights into the functions of an ubiquitin-like protein by inhibiting a dominant oncogenic pathway in CRC.