Nucleoporin Nup98 is a component of the nuclear pore complex, and is important in transport across the nuclear pore. Many studies implicate
nucleoporin in
cancer progression, but no direct mechanistic studies of its effect in
cancer have been reported. We show here that
Nup98 specifically regulates nucleus-cytoplasm transport of
galectin-3, which is a ß-galactoside-
binding protein that affects adhesion, migration, and
cancer progression, and controls cell growth through the ß-
catenin signaling pathway in
cancer cells.
Nup98 interacted with
galectin-3 on the nuclear membrane, and promoted
galectin-3 cytoplasmic translocation whereas other
nucleoporins did not show these functions. Inversely, silencing of
Nup98 expression by
siRNA technique localized
galectin-3 to the nucleus and retarded cell growth, which was rescued by
Nup98 transfection. In addition,
Nup98 RNA interference significantly suppressed downstream
mRNA expression in the ß-
catenin pathway, such as
cyclin D1 and FRA-1, while nuclear
galectin-3 binds to ß-
catenin to inhibit transcriptional activity. Reduced expression of ß-
catenin target genes is consistent with the
Nup98 reduction and the galectin-3-nucleus translocation rate. Overall, the results show
Nup98's involvement in nuclear-cytoplasm translocation of
galectin-3 and ß-
catenin signaling pathway in regulating cell proliferation, and the results depicted here suggest a novel therapeutic target/modality for
cancers.