Eung-Ji Lee

Lys-63-specific Deubiquitination of SDS3 by USP17 Regulates HDAC Activity

SDS3 is a key component of the histone deacetylase (HDAC)-dependent Sin3A co-repressor complex, serving to maintain its HDAC activity. Here, we report both exogenous and endogenous functional interaction between deubiquitinating enzyme USP17 and human SDS3 by MALDI-TOF-MS, co-immunoprecipitation assay, and GST pull-down assay. In this study, we demonstrated that SDS3 readily undergoes endogenous polyubiquitination, which is associated specifically with Lys-63-branched polyubiquitin chains and not with Lys-48-branched polyubiquitin chains. Further, we also demonstrated that USP17 specifically deubiquitinates Lys-63-linked ubiquitin chains from SDS3 and regulates its biological functions. The deubiquitinating activity of USP17 on SDS3 negatively regulates SDS3-associated HDAC activity. The constitutive expression of USP17 and its substrate SDS3 was involved in the inhibition of anchorage-independent tumor growth and blocks cell proliferation, leading to apoptosis in cervical carcinoma cells. Furthermore, we showed that USP17 and SDS3 mutually interact with each other to regulate cancer cell viability. These data support the possibility that SDS3, being a substrate of USP17, may play an important role in developing a novel therapeutic means to inhibit specific HDAC activities in cancer.

Oleic acid-embedded nanoliposome as a selective tumoricidal agent

HAMLET (Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made LEthal to Tumor cell), a molecular complex of human α-lactalbumin and oleic acid, is known to have selective cytotoxic activity against certain types of tumors. This cytotoxicity is known to stem from water-insoluble oleic acid. In this study, we manufactured an alternative complex using liposome as an oleic acid delivery vesicle. We named this nanolipoplex LIMLET (LIposome Made LEthal to Tumor cell). The LIMLET vesicle contained approximately 90,200 oleic acid molecules inserted into its lipophilic phospholipid bilayer and had a nominal mean diameter of 127nm. Using a WST-1 assay, its cytotoxicity against two cancer cell lines, MDA-MB-231 (human breast cancer) and A549 (human lung cancer), were tested. The results were compared with that of a normal cell line, Vero (from monkey kidney). We found that (1) LIMLET showed distinctive cytotoxicity against A549 and MDA-MB-231 cells, whereas bare liposomes (containing no oleic acid) had no toxicity, even at high concentrations, and (2) LIMLET demonstrated selective, concentration-dependent toxicity against the cancer cells: the LD50 values of MDA-MB-231 and A549 cells were 1.3 and 2.2nM LIMLET, respectively, whereas the LD50 of Vero was 5.7nM. The strength of the tumoricidal effect appeared to stem from the number of oleic acid molecules present. Our result suggests that LIMLET, like HAMLET, is an interesting nanolipoplex that can potentially be developed into tumor treatments.

Ubiquitin specific protease 19 involved in transcriptional repression of retinoic acid receptor by stabilizing CORO2A

Deubiquitination via deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) has been emerged as one of the important post-translational modifications, resulting in the regulation of numerous target proteins. In this study, we screened new protein biomarkers for adipogenesis, and related studies showed that ubiquitin specific protease 19 (USP19) as a DUB is gradually decreased during adipogenesis and it regulates coronin 2A (CORO2A) as one of the components for the nuclear receptor co-repressor (NCoR) complex in some studies. The regulation of CORO2A through the deubiquitinating activity of USP19 affected the transcriptional repression activity of the retinoic acid receptor (RAR), suggesting that USP19 may be involved in the regulation of RAR-mediated adipogenesis.