Functional differences between wild-type and mutant-type BAP1 tumor suppressor against malignant mesothelioma cells

Cancer Science 2015 May 23 [Epub ahead of print] [Link]

Hakiri S, Osada H, Ishiguro F, Murakami H, Murakami-Tonami Y, Yokoi K, Sekido Y.

Abstract

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) shows inactivation of the BRCA1-associated protein 1 (BAP1) gene. In this study, we found BAP1 mutations in 5 (26%) of the 19 cell lines that we established from Japanese MM patients, and examined functional differences between the wild-type and mutant BAP1. First, we studied the subcellular localization of BAP1, demonstrating that the wild-type primarily resides in the nucleus and that the mutant BAP1 is found in the cytoplasm of the cells. Transduction of the wild-type BAP1 vector into MM cells with homozygous deletion (HD) at the BAP1 3′ side resulted in both inhibition of cell proliferation and anchorage-independent cell growth, while BAP1 mutants of a missense or C-terminal truncated form showed impaired growth inhibitory effects. Next, we studied how BAP1 is involved in MM cell survival after irradiation (IR) which causes DNA damage. After IR, we found that both wild-type and mutant BAP1 were similarly phosphorylated and phospho-BAP1 localized mainly in the nucleus. Interestingly, BRCA1 proteins were decreased in the MM cells with BAP1 deletion, and that transduction of the mutants as well as wild-type BAP1 increased BRCA1 proteins, suggesting that BAP1 may promote DNA repair partly through stabilizing BRCA1. Furthermore, using the MM cells with BAP1 deletion, we found that the wild-type, and even a missense mutant, BAP1 conferred a higher survival rate after IR compared to the control vector. Our results suggested that, while wild-type BAP1 suppresses MM cell proliferation and restores cell survival after IR-damage, some mutant BAP1 may also moderately retain these functions.