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Background information Ewing's sarcoma (ES) is the second most common bone-associated malignancy in children and is driven by the fusion oncogene EWS/FLI1 and characterised by rapid growth and early metastasis. Here, we explored the role of the Zyxin-related protein thyroid receptor interacting protein 6 (TRIP6) in ES. The Zyxin family comprises seven homologous proteins involved in migration and proliferation of many cell types of which Zyxin has been described as a tumour suppressor in ES. Results By interrogation of published microarray data ( n = 1254), we observed that of all Zyxin proteins, only TRIP6 is highly overexpressed in primary ES compared with normal tissues. Re-analysis of published EWS/FLI1 gain- and loss-of-function microarray experiments as well as chromatin-immunoprecipitation assays revealed that TRIP6 overexpression is not mediated by EWS/FLI1. Microarray and subsequent gene-set enrichment analyses of ES cells with and without RNA interference-mediated TRIP6 knockdown demonstrated that TRIP6 expression confers a pro-proliferative and pro-invasive transcriptional signature to ES cells. While short-term proliferation was not considerably affected by TRIP6 knockdown, silencing of the protein significantly reduced migration, invasion, long-term proliferation and clonogenicity of ES cells in vitro as well as tumourigenicity in vivo. Conclusions Taken together, our data indicate that TRIP6 acts, in contrast to Zyxin, as an oncogene that partially accounts for the autonomous migratory, invasive and proliferative properties of ES cells independent of EWS/FLI1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a ubiquitously present signalling molecule involved in diverse cellular processes such as cell migration, proliferation and differentiation. LPA acts as an autocrine and/or paracrine signalling molecule via different G-protein-coupled LPA receptors (LPARs) that trigger a broad range of intracellular signalling cascades, especially the RHOA pathway. Mounting evidence suggests a crucial role of the LPA/LPAR-axis in cancer cell metastasis and promising studies are underway to investigate the therapeutic potential of LPAR-antagonists. This review summarises current knowledge on how LPA promotes cytoskeletal remodelling to enhance the migratory and invasive properties of cells, which may ultimately contribute to cancer metastasis. Furthermore, we provide comprehensive transcriptome analyses of published microarrays of more than 350 normal tissues and more than 1700 malignant tissues to define the expression signatures of LPARs and the LPA-generating enzymes autotaxin (ATX) and lipase member 1 (LIPI). These analyses demonstrate that ATX is highly expressed in a variety of carcinomas and sarcomas, whereas LIPI is almost exclusively overexpressed in highly aggressive Ewing's sarcomas, which underscores the potential contribution of LPA in metastatic disease. In addition, these analyses show that different cancer entities display distinct expression signatures of LPARs that distinguish them from one another. Finally, we discuss current approaches to specifically target the LPA/LPAR circuits in experimental cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]