Myosin VB in intestinal pathogenesis.

Zusammenfassung

Myosin VB is a molecular motor protein that uses the energy of ATP to move along actin filaments. It participates in the recycling endosomes trafficking in the subapical cytoplasmic region of non-polarized and polarized cells. It is highly expressed in the small and large intestine, where its role in the establishment of polarized function in enterocytes is also well known. Inactivating mutations of MYO5B have been associated with microvillus inclusion disease (MVID), a rare congenital disorder of the intestinal epithelial cells that presents with persistent life-threatening watery diarrhea. It is characterized by morphological enterocyte abnormalities such as microvillus atrophy and mislocalization of apical and basolateral protein transporters. The molecular pathology of the disease is not well known mainly due to the lack of animal models. In the present study, we report a versatile murine model with targeted inactivation of Myo5b. This model allowed us to generate and characterized a constitutive Myo5b knockout mice and a tamoxifen-inducible intestinal-epithelium-specific Myo5b knockout. In both cases, the mice closely resemble the phenotype of MVID patients, developing watery diarrhea and dehydration causing the death of the animal. Histological study of the intestine showed all the characteristic enterocyte defects observed in MVID patients, including microvillus atrophy and mislocalization of protein markers. Moreover, the inactivation of MYO5B also originated hyperproliferation of the intestinal crypts. Therefore, our mice constitute a useful model to further investigate the underlying molecular mechanism of this disease and to preclinically assess the efficacy of novel therapeutic approaches. In addition, hyperproliferation as well as loss of cell polarity, differentiation, and tissue architecture are hallmarks of advanced metastatic carcinomas and strongly correlate with poor patient prognosis. Specifically, for colorectal cancer, the third most common type of cancer worldwide, we have previously demonstrated that the loss of brush border MYO1A, also involved in cell polarity, promotes cancer progression and has tumor suppressor activity. Other studies have indicated a relationship between MYO5B inactivation and gastric cancer, promoting invasion and motility, but little is known regarding its role in colorectal cancer. To address this question, we have developed novel doxycycline-inducible in vitro models of MYO5B overexpression and downregulation. Moreover, we have generated MYO5B knockout Caco2-BBE cells using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Our results showed changes in the polarization and differentiation of colon cancer cells, in agreement with previous observations in the normal intestine. Moreover, we have observed a relationship between MYO5B and the motility and invasion capacity of colon cancer cells, indicating a possible role of MYO5B in colon cancer progression. However, the effect of MYO5B loss in cell proliferation observed in our Myo5b knockout mice could not be confirmed in our models in vitro and in vivo, employing cell line-derived xenografts. In addition, using a tissue microarray containing triplicate samples from 155 primary Dukes C colorectal tumors, reduced MYO5B expression was found to be associated with shorter disease-free and overall survival of the patients. Moreover, poorly differentiated tumors showed significantly reduced expression of MYO5B. Collectively, our results indicate that MYO5B plays an important role in the differentiation of the normal intestinal epithelium and colon cancer cells, as well as a possible role in cancer progression promoting cell motility and invasion.