Effect of CCAR2 depletion on the gene expression profile of U2OS cells

CCAR2 is a nuclear protein recently emerged as a pivotal player of the DNA damage response since it has been found involved in both apoptosis induction and DNA repair. Differently, its role in tumorigenesis and cancer progression is still elusive. In our studies we found that CCAR2 depletion impairs the proliferation of human cancer cell lines, but leaves unaffected the growth of normal immortalized cells. To better investigate this point we performed a genome wide gene expression analyses in U2OS and BJ-hTERT depleted of CCAR2 and we found that loss of this protein causes the deregulation of genes implicated in the AKT pathway specifically in U2OS cells, but not in BJ-hTERT. In accordance with these results we found a reduction in AKT activation in all the tested cancer cell lines depleted of CCAR2, but not in the normal ones. The defective activation of AKT is caused by the upregulation of TRB3 gene in cancer cells depleted of CCAR2 and finally results in the reduction of GSK3 phosphorylation, prevention of G1/S transition and inhibition of cancer cell growth.

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Restelli M, Magni M, Ruscica V, Pinciroli P, De Cecco L, Buscemi G, Delia D, Zannini L