Proteomic and phosphoproteomic reprogramming in epithelial ovarian cancer metastasis

Mol Cell Proteomics. 2023 Oct 9:100660. doi: 10.1016/j.mcpro.2023.100660. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTEpithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a high-risk cancer presenting with heterogeneous tumors. The high incidence of EOC metastasis from primary tumors to nearby tissues and organs is a major driver of EOC lethality. We used cellular models of spheroid formation and re-adherence to investigate cellular signaling dynamics in each step toward EOC metastasis. In our system, adherent cells model primary tumors, spheroids formation represents the initiation of metastatic spread, while re-adherent spheroid cells represent secondary tumors. Proteomic and phosphoproteomic analyses show that spheroid cells are hypoxic and show markers for cell cycle arrest. Aurora kinase B (AURKB) abundance and downstream substrate phosphorylation are significantly reduced in spheroids and re-adherent cells, explaining their cell cycle arrest phenotype. The proteome of re-adherent cells is most similar to spheroids, yet greater changes in the phosphoproteome show that spheroid cells stimulate Rho-associated kinase 1 (ROCK1) mediated signaling, which controls cytoskeletal organization. In spheroids, we found significant phosphorylation of ROCK1 substrates that were reduced in both adherent and re-adherent cells. Application of the ROCK1-specific inhibitor Y-27632 to spheroids increased the rate of re-adherence and spheroid density. The data suggest ROCK1 inhibition increases EOC metastatic potential. We...
Source: Molecular and Cellular Proteomics : MCP - Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Source Type: research