Open AccessLovastatin Inhibits RhoA to Suppress Canonical Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling and Alternative Wnt-YAP/TAZ Signaling in Colon Cancer
Author(s) -
Yi Xiao,
Qin Liu,
Nanyin Peng,
Yuzhang Li,
Danyang Qiu,
Tianlun Yang,
Richard Kang,
Ahsan Usmani,
Efosa Amadasu,
Cesar V. Borlongan,
Guopan Yu
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
cell transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.043
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1555-3892
pISSN - 0963-6897
DOI - 10.1177/09636897221075749
Subject(s) - wnt signaling pathway , rhoa , lrp6 , frizzled , lrp5 , cancer research , lovastatin , signal transduction , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , catenin , beta catenin , chemistry , biochemistry , cholesterol
Statins are first-line drugs used to control patient lipid levels, but there is recent evidence that statin treatment can lower colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence by 50% and prolong CRC patient survival through mechanisms that are poorly understood. In this study, we found that the treatment of APC min mice by the mevalonate pathway inhibitor lovastatin significantly reduced the number of colonic masses and improved hypersplenism and peripheral anemia. Furthermore, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of colonic mass tissues showed a potent inhibitory effect in both Wnt/β-catenin signaling and YAP/TAZ signaling in the lovastatin treatment group. The results of our transcriptomic analyses in RKO indicated that lovastatin regulated several proliferation-related signaling pathways. Moreover, lovastatin suppressed important genes and proteins related to the canonical Wnt/β-catenin and alternative Wnt-YAP/TAZ signaling pathways in RKO and SW480 cells, and these effects were rescued by mevalonic acid (MVA), as confirmed through a series of Western blotting, RT-PCR, and reporter assays. Given that statins suppress oncogenic processes primarily through the inhibition of Rho GTPase in the mevalonate pathway, we speculate that lovastatin can inhibit certain Rho GTPases to suppress both canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling and alternative Wnt-YAP/TAZ signaling. In RKO cells, lovastatin showed similar inhibitory properties as the RhoA inhibitor CCG1423, being able to inhibit β-catenin, TAZ, and p-LATS1 protein activity. Our results revealed that lovastatin inhibited RhoA activity, thereby suppressing the downstream canonical Wnt/β-catenin and alternative Wnt-YAP/TAZ pathways in colon cancer cells. These inhibitory properties suggest the promise of statins as a treatment for CRC. Altogether, the present findings support the potential clinical use of statins in non-cardiovascular contexts and highlight novel targets for anticancer treatments.