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Hypoxia promotes Rab5 activation, leading to tumor cell migration, invasion and metastasis

2016; Impact Journals LLC; Volume: 7; Issue: 20 Linguagem: Inglês

10.18632/oncotarget.8794

1949-2553

Patricio Silva, Pablo Mendoza, Solange Rivas, Jorge Díaz, Carolina Villagrán Moraga, Andrew F. G. Quest, Vicente A. Torres,

Autophagy in Disease and Therapy

// Patricio Silva 1 , Pablo Mendoza 1 , Solange Rivas 1 , Jorge Díaz 1 , Carolina Moraga 1 , Andrew F.G. Quest 2, 3 , Vicente A. Torres 1, 2 1 Institute for Research in Dental Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile 2 Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases (ACCDiS), Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile 3 Center for Molecular Studies of the Cell (CEMC) and Program of Cell and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile Correspondence to: Vicente A. Torres, e-mail: vatorres@med.uchile.cl Keywords: Rab5, hypoxia, migration, metastasis, tumor Received: November 10, 2015 Accepted: March 28, 2016 Published: April 18, 2016 ABSTRACT Hypoxia, a common condition of the tumor microenvironment, is associated with poor patient prognosis, tumor cell migration, invasion and metastasis. Recent evidence suggests that hypoxia alters endosome dynamics in tumor cells, leading to augmented cell proliferation and migration and this is particularly relevant, because endosomal components have been shown to be deregulated in cancer. The early endosome protein Rab5 is a small GTPase that promotes integrin trafficking, focal adhesion turnover, Rac1 activation, tumor cell migration and invasion. However, the role of Rab5 and downstream events in hypoxia remain unknown. Here, we identify Rab5 as a critical player in hypoxia-driven tumor cell migration, invasion and metastasis. Exposure of A549 human lung carcinoma, ZR-75, MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 human breast cancer and B16-F10 mouse melanoma cells to hypoxia increased Rab5 activation, followed by its re-localization to the leading edge and association with focal adhesions. Importantly, Rab5 was required for hypoxia-driven cell migration, FAK phosphorylation and Rac1 activation, as shown by shRNA-targeting and transfection assays with Rab5 mutants. Intriguingly, the effect of hypoxia on both Rab5 activity and migration was substantially higher in metastatic B16-F10 cells than in poorly invasive B16-F0 cells. Furthermore, exogenous expression of Rab5 in B16-F0 cells predisposed to hypoxia-induced migration, whereas expression of the inactive mutant Rab5/S34N prevented the migration of B16-F10 cells induced by hypoxia. Finally, using an in vivo syngenic C57BL/6 mouse model, Rab5 expression was shown to be required for hypoxia-induced metastasis. In summary, these findings identify Rab5 as a key mediator of hypoxia-induced tumor cell migration, invasion and metastasis.