LYPD3 (LY6/PLAUR domain containing 3)

2008-10-01   Benedikte Jacobsen , Michael Ploug 

Finsen Laboratory 3735, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen Biocenter, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark

Identity

HGNC
LOCATION
19q13.31
LOCUSID
ALIAS
C4.4A,MIG-C4
FUSION GENES

DNA/RNA

Note

The gene for human C4.4A is located on chromosome 19q13, only 180 kb apart from the urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) gene, in a cluster encompassing all presently known glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored, multi-domain proteins of the Ly6/uPAR/alpha-neurotoxin (LU) domain family.
Atlas Image
Figure 1: Position of the C4.4A gene in the uPAR-like gene cluster on chromosome 19q13. The intron-exon organisation of the C4.4A gene reveals that separate exons encode the two LU domains of C4.4A, each of them with an internal phase-1 intron at loop 2, which in the three-finger LU fold is surface-exposed.

Description

4870 bp; 5 exons (Figure 1).

Transcription

Transcription of the C4.4A gene is regulated by the transcription factor C/EBPbeta (Fries et al., 2007).

Proteins

Note

C4.4A is a GPI-anchored, multi-domain member of the Ly6/uPAR/alpha-neurotoxin (LU) protein domain family. C4.4A was identified by two independent groups seeking to identify cancer-related genes, the first observing that C4.4A was expressed in a metastasizing rat pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell line, but not on its non-metastasizing counterpart (Matzku et al., 1989), and the second showing the upregulation of C4.4A in an in vitro model system for wound healing in the urothelium, mimicking the progression of urothelial cancer (Smith et al., 2001). These findings suggested a putative role of C4.4A in cancer invasion and metastasis.

Description

C4.4A consists of 346 amino acid residues, including a 30 residues signal peptide at the N-terminal and a C-terminal signal sequence for GPI anchorage (38 residues) that are cleaved post-translationally, yielding a mature protein of 278 residues, anchored to the cell membrane via GPI (Figure 2A). It contains two LU domains (domains I and II), each of about 90 amino acids, and a serine-, threonine-, proline-rich (STP-rich) region. LU domains adopt a "three-fingered" folding topology, that is characterized by 4 consensus disulfide bonds and an invariant C-terminal asparagine (Figure 2B). Intriguingly, domain I of C4.4A lacks one consensus cysteine bond, which is crucial to the proper folding of the single domain LU proteins. The STP-rich region is highly O-glycosylated, with 17 potential O-glycosylation sites. None of the 6 potential N-glycosylation sites of C4.4A are, however, located in this region. Differential degrees of glycosylation can probably explain the large variation in molecular weight observed in C4.4A from different sources (Hansen et al., 2004), deviating from the theoretical value of 36 kDa.
Atlas Image
Figure 2: Protein structure of C4.4A.
A - Structural representation of the two LU domains and the STP-rich region of C4.4A (modified from Hansen et al., 2004). Insert: Ribbon diagram of the three-finger fold of a single LU domain (made in PyMOL™(DeLano Scientific), using PDB coordinates 1NEA).
B - Disulfide connectivity in C4.4A, with LU consensus cysteine bonds highlighted in yellow.

Expression

C4.4A is expressed in the suprabasal cells of squamous epithelia found in e.g. esophagus and skin, the basal layer being devoid of C4.4A (Figure 3A), and in the amnion membrane in human term placenta (Figure 3C) (Hansen et al., 2004). In mouse skin wound healing, which is a tissue remodelling process often used as a surrogate model for cancer invasion, C4.4A is upregulated by the migrating keratinocytes. C4.4A expression is also increased in phorbolester-induced hyperplasia of murine skin (Hansen et al., 2004), in the progression to melanoma (Seiter et al., 2001) and in urothelial transitional cell carcinomas (Smith et al., 2001).
The preferential expression of C4.4A in normal epithelia of the squamous type is paralleled in cancer, where it is expressed in the tumour component of primarily squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and only to a lesser extent in adenocarcinomas (AC) (Wang et al., 2006), as demonstrated in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Figure 3D) (Hansen et al., 2007).
In esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCC), C4.4A expression as present in the normal mucosa is lost upon transition to dysplasia and carcinoma in situ, but reappears at the invasive front of the tumour and in lymph node metastases (Figure 3B) (Hansen et al., 2008).
Atlas Image
Figure 3: Expression of C4.4A in normal and malignant human tissue.
Staining of human tissue sections with a polyclonal rabbit anti-C4.4A antibody produced at the Finsen Laboratory (Copenhagen, Denmark). C4.4A-negative basal cells are indicated by an arrow in panels A and B. (A and B, reproduced from Hansen et al., 2008; C and D, from Jacobsen, unpublished).

Localisation

C4.4A is tethered to the cell membrane via a GPI-anchor, but can under certain conditions also be found intracellularly. A soluble fragment of C4.4A, termed C4.4A, resulting from cleavage in the protease-sensitive region between domain II and the STP-rich region, releasing the two N-terminal LU domains, has been described in esophageal tissue (Hansen et al., 2008).

Function

Structural homology of C4.4A to the urokinase receptor, uPAR, is not reflected at the functional level, the function of C4.4A still being unknown. Circumstancial evidence, nevertheless, points to a role of C4.4A in the modulation of cell/cell and/or cell/matrix interactions:
1) The carbohydrate-binding protein galectin-3, which has been reported to be involved in cell/cell interactions, cell adhesion, migration, invasion and metastasis, has been identified as a ligand for C4.4A (Paret et al., 2005).
2) C4.4A and the cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin are co-expressed in the normal esophageal mucosa, and both are down-regulated in the progression to dysplasia (Hansen et al., 2008).
3) C4.4A-positive and not C4.4A-negative tumour cells are capable of penetrating a matrigel, and this process can be inhibited by a monoclonal anti-C4.4A antibody (Rosel et al., 1998).
4) Encapsulation of lung metastases in rats, arising after an intrafootpad injection with pancreatic tumour cells, disappears, when these tumour cells are transfected with C4.4A (Rosel et al., 1998).
5) C4.4A has recently been reported to be a novel substrate for the extracellular matrix-degrading metalloproteases ADAM10 and ADAM17 (A Disintegrin And Metalloprotease domain), which have been implicated in cell migration and proliferation, with a bearing on tumour invasion and metastasis (Esselens et al., 2008).

Homology

C4.4A shows homology to uPAR and other multi-domain proteins of the Ly6/uPAR/alpha-neurotoxin protein domain family (PRV-1/CD177, TEX101, PRO4356, GPQH2552).

Implicated in

Entity name
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
Disease
In an immunohistochemical study encompassing 104 patients with NSCLC, high levels of C4.4A were found in 77% of SCC and in 24% of AC (Hansen et al., 2007). Preliminary data on the expression of C4.4A in premalignant lesions of NSCLC indicate that C4.4A is present already at very early stages of lung cancer progression.
Prognosis
A high level of C4.4A in NSCLC tissue correlates to a poorer survival of the patients (Figure 4). In the above-mentioned study, it was shown that this correlation primarily could be ascribed to a dramatic effect on the patients with AC and C4.4A levels above the median, all dying within 2 years (Hansen et al., 2007).
Atlas Image
Figure 4: Impact of C4.4A on the prognosis of NSCLC patients.
Kaplan-Meier survival curves for 104 patients with NSCLC (A) and the histological subgroup with adenocarcinomas (B), stratified by expression levels of C4.4A (modified from Hansen et al., 2007, with permission).
Entity name
Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC)
Note
C4.4A is absent in dysplastic esophageal epithelium as well as in early invasive ESCC, but shows a pronounced expression at the invasive front of the tumour deeper in the esophageal wall and in lymph node metastases, making C4.4A a possible new histological marker of invasion and metastasis in human ESCC (Hansen et al., 2008).

Bibliography

Pubmed IDLast YearTitleAuthors

Other Information

Locus ID:

NCBI: 27076
MIM: 609484
HGNC: 24880
Ensembl: ENSG00000124466

Variants:

dbSNP: 27076
ClinVar: 27076
TCGA: ENSG00000124466
COSMIC: LYPD3

RNA/Proteins

Gene IDTranscript IDUniprot
ENSG00000124466ENST00000244333O95274
ENSG00000124466ENST00000244333B2RBR3

Expression (GTEx)

0
500
1000
1500

Pathways

PathwaySourceExternal ID
Metabolism of proteinsREACTOMER-HSA-392499
Post-translational protein modificationREACTOMER-HSA-597592
Post-translational modification: synthesis of GPI-anchored proteinsREACTOMER-HSA-163125

Protein levels (Protein atlas)

Not detected
Low
Medium
High

References

Pubmed IDYearTitleCitations
125923732003hAG-2 and hAG-3, human homologues of genes involved in differentiation, are associated with oestrogen receptor-positive breast tumours and interact with metastasis gene C4.4a and dystroglycan.52
224319182012Membrane-bound and exosomal metastasis-associated C4.4A promotes migration by associating with the α(6)β(4) integrin and MT1-MMP.28
177063202007Tumour cell expression of C4.4A, a structural homologue of the urokinase receptor, correlates with poor prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer.18
179122442007C4.4A as a candidate marker in the diagnosis of colorectal cancer.17
178494752008Altered expression of the urokinase receptor homologue, C4.4A, in invasive areas of human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.16
208254142010Expression of C4.4A at the invasive front is a novel prognostic marker for disease recurrence of colorectal cancer.12
224047182012C4.4A is associated with tumor budding and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of colorectal cancer.10
189796312008Metastasis-associated C4.4A, a GPI-anchored protein cleaved by ADAM10 and ADAM17.9
302747752018Long non-coding RNA OGFRP1 regulates LYPD3 expression by sponging miR-124-3p and promotes non-small cell lung cancer progression.9
254142742015Expression of the Ly6/uPAR-domain proteins C4.4A and Haldisin in non-invasive and invasive skin lesions.8

Citation

Benedikte Jacobsen ; Michael Ploug

LYPD3 (LY6/PLAUR domain containing 3)

Atlas Genet Cytogenet Oncol Haematol. 2008-10-01

Online version: http://atlasgeneticsoncology.org/gene/44245/lypd3