Systemic Par-4 Inhibits Non-Autochthonous Tumor Growth

Abstract

The tumor suppressor protein Par-4 (Prostate apoptosis response-4) is spontaneously secreted by normal and cancer cells. Extracellular Par-4 induces caspase-dependent apoptosis in cancer cell cultures by binding, via its effector SAC domain, to cell surface GRP78 receptor. However, the functional significance of extracellular Par-4/SAC has not been validated in animal models. We show that Par-4/SAC-transgenic mice express systemic Par-4/SAC protein and are resistant to the growth of non-autochthonous tumors. Consistently, secretory Par-4/SAC pro-apoptotic activity can be transferred from these cancer-resistant transgenic mice to cancer-susceptible mice by bone marrow transplantation. Moreover, intravenous injection of recombinant Par-4 or SAC protein inhibits metastasis of cancer cells. Collectively, our findings indicate that extracellular Par-4/SAC is systemically functional in inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis progression, and may merit investigation as a therapy.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-15-2011

Notes/Citation Information

Published in Cancer Biology & Therapy, v. 12, issue 2, p. 152-157.

© 2011 Landes Bioscience

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.4161/cbt.12.2.15734

Funding Information

This study was supported by KLCR grant, NIH/ NCI grants CA060872, CA105453 and CA116658 (to V.M.R.).

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