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USP22 Acts as an Oncogene by the Activation of BMI-1-Mediated INK4a/ARF Pathway and Akt Pathway

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Abstract

Recent studies provided strong support for the view that ubiquitin-specific protease 22 (USP22) plays a central role in cell-cycle progression and also in pathological processes such as oncogenesis. We have recently shown that USP22 levels are elevated in colorectal carcinoma with associated increase in the expression of several cell-cycle-related genes. However, the precise mechanism for these functions of USP22 at molecular level has not been fully elucidated. Currently, we investigated the role of USP22 in human colorectal cancer (CRC). We observed that USP22 expression was statistically significantly correlated positively with that of BMI-1, c-Myc and both, pAkt (Ser473), and pAkt (Thr308), in primary tumor tissues from 43 CRC patients. Down-regulation of USP22 expression in HCT116 colorectal cancer cells by siRNA resulted in the accumulation of cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. RNAi-knockdown of USP22 in HCT16 cells also led to the repression of BMI-1 and was accompanied by the up-regulation of p16INK4a and p14ARF, with a consequent decrease in E2F1 and p53 levels. In addition, down-regulation of c-Myc-targeted cyclin D2 was also noticed in cells treated with USP22-siRNA. Furthermore, our results showed that USP22 deletion also caused down-regulation of Akt/GSK3β activity, which can also contribute to the reduction of cyclin D2. Collectively, our current results suggest that USP22 may act as an oncogene in CRC as it positively regulates cell cycle via both BMI-1-mediated INK4a/ARF pathway and Akt signaling pathway.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Doctoral Program Foundation of Institutions of Higher Education of China (Grant #20102307110011) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Affiliated 3rd Hospital, Harbin Medical University, Haping Road 150, Harbin, 150081, China

    Yan-Long Liu, Shi-Xiong Jiang, Hui Xu & Xi-Shan Wang

  2. Cancer Research Center, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, China

    Yan-Mei Yang

  3. Department of Medical Oncology, The Affiliated 3rd Hospital, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, China

    Jing-Lei Liu

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  1. Yan-Long Liu
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  2. Shi-Xiong Jiang
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  3. Yan-Mei Yang
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  4. Hui Xu
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Correspondence to Xi-Shan Wang.

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Yan-Long Liu and Shi-Xiong Jiang contributed equally to this study.

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Liu, YL., Jiang, SX., Yang, YM. et al. USP22 Acts as an Oncogene by the Activation of BMI-1-Mediated INK4a/ARF Pathway and Akt Pathway. Cell Biochem Biophys 62, 229–235 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-011-9287-0

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