Citation
- Authors: Van Audenhove, I., Boucherie, C., Pieters, L., Zwaenepoel, O., Vanloo, B., Martens, E., Verbrugge, C., Hassanzadeh-Ghassabeh, G., Vandekerckhove, J., Cornelissen, M., De Ganck, A., Gettemans, J.
- Year: 2014
- Journal: FASEB J 28 1805-18
- Applications: in vitro / DNA, siRNA / jetPRIME
- Cell types:
- Name: HEK-293T
Description: Human embryonic kidney Fibroblast
Known as: HEK293T, 293T - Name: MDA-MB-231
Description: Human breast adenocarcinoma cells
Known as: MDAMB231
- Name: HEK-293T
Abstract
Invadopodia are actin-rich protrusions arising through the orchestrated regulation of precursor assembly, stabilization, and maturation, endowing cancer cells with invasive properties. Using nanobodies (antigen-binding domains of Camelid heavy-chain antibodies) as perturbators of intracellular functions and/or protein domains at the level of the endogenous protein, we examined the specific contribution of fascin and cortactin during invadopodium formation in MDA-MB-231 breast and PC-3 prostate cancer cells. A nanobody (K(d)~35 nM, 1:1 stoichiometry) that disrupts fascin F-actin bundling emphasizes the importance of stable actin bundles in invadopodium array organization and turnover, matrix degradation, and cancer cell invasion. Cortactin-SH3 dependent WIP recruitment toward the plasma membrane was specifically inhibited by a cortactin nanobody (K(d)~75 nM, 1:1 stoichiometry). This functional domain is shown to be important for formation of properly organized invadopodia, MMP-9 secretion, matrix degradation, and cancer cell invasion. Notably, using a subcellular delocalization strategy to trigger protein loss of function, we uncovered a fascin-bundling-independent role in MMP-9 secretion. Hence, we demonstrate that nanobodies enable high resolution protein function mapping in cells.