Vimentin regulates lung cancer cell adhesion through a VAV2-Rac1 pathway to control focal adhesion kinase activity.

ABSTRACT: Vimentin is an intermediate filament protein whose expression correlates with increased metastatic disease, reduced patient survival and poor prognosis across multiple tumor types. Despite these well-characterized correlations, the molecular role of vimentin in cancer cell motility remains undefined. To approach this, we used an unbiased phosphoproteomics screen in lung cancer cell lines to discover cell motility proteins that show significant changes in phosphorylation upon vimentin depletion. We identified the guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF), VAV2, as having the greatest loss of phosphorylation owing to vimentin depletion. Since VAV2 serves as a GEF for the small Rho GTPase Rac1, a key player in cell motility and adhesion, we explored the vimentin-VAV2 pathway as a potential nov

SUBMITTER: Havel LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4245398 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature