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J Cancer 2014; 5(7):598-608. doi:10.7150/jca.8052 This issue Cite

Research Paper

Newly Identified Cancer-Associated Role of Human Neuronal Growth Regulator 1 (NEGR1)

Hyejin Kim¹, Ji-Sook Hwang¹, Bogman Lee², Jinpyo Hong³, Soojin Lee^{1 ✉}

1. Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea,
2. LG Life Sciences, Ltd., R&D Park, Moonji-dong, Daejeon, Republic of Korea,
3. Department of oral physiology, School of Dentistry, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

✉ Corresponding author: Soojin Lee, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 305-764, Korea. Phone: 82-42-821-6414; Fax: 82-42-822-7367; E-mail: leesoojinac.kr.

Abstract

Neuronal growth regulator 1 (NEGR1) has become a great interest based on the recent findings that its genetic alteration is implicated in human obesity and human dyslexia. By analyzing the gene expression profiles of tumor biopsies and normal tissues, we identified NEGR1 as a commonly down-regulated gene in many types of human cancer tissues. NEGR1 contains a C-terminal GPI anchor attachment site and is primarily localized to cell membrane rafts, especially in cell-to-cell contacting areas. The oncogenic phenotype was clearly attenuated when NEGR1 was overexpressed in the human ovarian cancer cell line SKOV-3. Furthermore, cell aggregation and neurite outgrowth was greatly increased by NEGR1 overexpression. On the contrary, cell migration and invasion was increased in NEGR1-depleted cells, suggesting that NEGR1 may contribute to tumor suppression. Taken together, we suggest that NEGR1 is a raft-associated extracellular protein that may participate in cell recognition and interaction, which is important in growth control and malignant transformation.

Keywords: neuronal growth regulator 1, cancer, lipid raft, cell adhesion, cell-cell interaction.

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