RECENT PUBLICATIONS: E-cadherin-defective Gastric Cancer Cells Depend on Laminin to Survive and Invade

INEB researchers recently published an article in the Human Molecular Genetics, available since 2015 Aug 5 [Epub ahead of print]. The article is entitled "E-cadherin-defective Gastric Cancer Cells Depend on Laminin to Survive and Invade" and is authored by Joana Caldeira*, Joana Figueiredo*, Catarina Brás-Pereira, Patrícia Carneiro, Ana M Moreira, Marta T Pinto, João B Relvas, Fátima Carneiro, Mário Barbosa, Fernando Casares, Florence Janody, Raquel Seruca (* In co-authorship).

Epithelial-cadherin (Ecad) deregulation affects cell-cell adhesion and results in increased invasiveness of human carcinomas, namely gastric cancer (GC). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this invasive process are far from understood.
Using the Drosophila model, we found that Ecad knockdown induced apoptosis, nonetheless, at the invasive front, cells ectopically expressed Laminin A and βPS integrin.
In vitro, we demonstrated that, Ecad-defective gastric cancer cells overexpressed Laminin γ2 (LM-γ2), β1 and β4 integrin. We showed that LM-γ2 silencing impaired invasion and enhanced cell death, via pSrc and pAkt reduction, and JNK activation.
In human gastric carcinomas, we found a concomitant decrease in Ecad and increase in LM-γ2, suggesting that targeting LM-γ2 signaling regulators can impair GC progression.