Abstract
Many p53 missense mutations possess dominant-negative activity and oncogenic gain of function. We report that for structurally destabilized p53 mutants, these effects result from mutant-induced coaggregation of wild-type p53 and its paralogs p63 and p73, thereby also inducing a heat-shock response. Aggregation of mutant p53 resulted from self-assembly of a conserved aggregation-nucleating sequence within the hydrophobic core of the DNA-binding domain, which becomes exposed after mutation. Suppressing the aggregation propensity of this sequence by mutagenesis abrogated gain of function and restored activity of wild-type p53 and its paralogs. In the p53 germline mutation database, tumors carrying aggregation-prone p53 mutations have a significantly lower frequency of wild-type allele loss as compared to tumors harboring nonaggregating mutations, suggesting a difference in clonal selection of aggregating mutants. Overall, our study reveals a novel disease mechanism for mutant p53 gain of function and suggests that, at least in some respects, cancer could be considered an aggregation-associated disease.
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Acknowledgements
The VIB Switch Laboratory was supported by the Research Foundation Flanders and the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology Flanders. J.X. and A.Z. were supported by Linking Sino-European Universities through Mobility and National Natural Science Foundation of China (81000861) and the Research Foundation Flanders, respectively. D.L. was supported by the Research Council Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Center of Excellence (KUL PFV/10/016 SymBioSys) and the Stichting Tegen Kanker. We thank G. Peuteman, D. Smeets and T. Van Brussel for technical assistance. We thank G. Lozano for access to tumor tissues from transgenic mice and G. Melino for plasmids.
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J.X. performed BN-PAGE, immunofluorescence, immunoprecipitation, qPCR and analyzed clinical data; J. Reumers analyzed stability of p53 mutants by FoldX; J.R.C. studied peptide aggregation and analyzed tumor tissues with J.X.; R.G. purified p53 and performed electron microscopy and FTIR; J. Rozenski performed ESI-MS study; A.C. provided clinical tissue samples; F.D.S., S.R., A.Z. and J.-C.M. did cellular experiments; D.L. sequenced TP53 in tumors; Y.-A.S. prepared tissue sections from mice; J.X., F.R., J.S. and F.D.S. wrote the manuscript; F.R. and J.S. formulated the project.
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Xu, J., Reumers, J., Couceiro, J. et al. Gain of function of mutant p53 by coaggregation with multiple tumor suppressors. Nat Chem Biol 7, 285–295 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.546
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.546
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