Abstract. Thyroid hormone receptor interactor 13 (TRIP13) is a member of the ATPases associated with various cellular activities family of proteins and is highly conserved in a wide range of species. Recent studies have demonstrated that TRIP13 is critical for the inactivation of the spindle assembly checkpoint and is associated with the progression of certain cancers. In the present study, the role of TRIP13 in colorectal cancer (CRC) was examined. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that TRIP13 messenger RNA was highly expressed in multiple CRC tissues. The depletion of TRIP13 in CRC cells suppressed cell proliferation, migration and invasion. To determine whether the catalytic activity of TRIP13 was critical for cancer progression, an inactive mutant of TRIP13 was expressed in CRC cells. The invasion of cancer cells that expressed the mutant TRIP13 was significantly reduced compared with that of the wild type TRIP13-expressing cancer cells. These results indicate that TRIP13 could be a potential target for CRC treatment.
IntroductionThe ATPases associated with various cellular activities (AAA+) family of proteins comprises a functionally different group of enzymes that are involved in an array of cellular processes, including protein degradation, protein-complex disassembly and DNA replication (1). The AAA+ proteins are present in all kingdoms, and are characterized by the presence of conserved AAA+ domains that contain Walker A and Walker B motifs, followed by a conserved region called second region of homology (2). The majority of AAA+ proteins form hexamers to exert their biological functions. The chemical energy generated by adenosine triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis by this family of proteins induces conformational changes in the substrate proteins to modulate their functions (3,4).A previous study reported that certain AAA+ enzymes are associated with tumor progression (5). For example, reptin [also known as RuvB-like (RUVBL) 2] and pontin (RUVBL1) have been demonstrated to be overexpressed in several tumors (5). These proteins interact with c-Myc or β-catenin, thus modulating their transcriptional activities to promote tumor progression (6). AAA+ proteins hydrolyze ATP, and thus, chemical inhibitors that disrupt the activities of cancer-associated AAA+ proteins may represent promising anti-cancer drugs.Thyroid hormone receptor interactor 13 (TRIP13, also known as 16E1BP and pachytene checkpoint 2) is a member of the AAA+ family proteins and is conserved in a wide range of species (7). It was first identified as a protein that interacts with human papilloma virus E1 proteins by a yeast two-hybrid analysis, but the physiological function of the interaction remains unknown (7). Accumulating studies have demonstrated that TRIP13 plays pivotal roles in meiotic recombination and DNA repair in plants, yeast, worms and mice (8-12). TRIP13 forms a stable hexameric ring, and ATP binding, as well as ATP hydrolysis, are critical for the function of the protein (13). Previous...