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ABBS 2008,40(07): Mechanisms of action of angiogenin

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Acta Biochim Biophys

Sin 2008, 40: 619-624

doi:10.1111/j.1745-7270.2008.00442.x

Mechanisms of action of angiogenin

Xiangwei Gao and Zhengping Xu*

Research Center for Environmental Genomics,

and Bioelectromagnetics Laboratory, Zhejiang University School of Medicine,

Hangzhou 310058, China

Received: May 13,

2008      

Accepted: June 10,

2008

This work was

supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China

(30171035, 30470670 and 30770470), the Program for New Century Excellent

Talents in University (No. NCET-05-0521) and the Zhejiang Provincial Program

for the Cultivation of High-level Innovative Health Talents (2007-191)

*Corresponding

author: Tel, 86-571-88208164; Fax, 86-571-88208163; E-mail, [email protected]

Angiogenin induces angiogenesis by activating

vessel endothelial and smooth muscle cells and triggering a number of

biological processes, including cell migration, invasion, proliferation, and

formation of tubular structures. It has been reported that angiogenin plays its

functions mainly through four pathways: (1) exerting its ribonucleolytic

activity; (2) binding to membrane actin and then inducing basement membrane

degradation; (3) binding to a putative 170-kDa protein and subsequently

transducing signal into cytoplasm; and (4) translocating into the nucleus of

target cells directly and then enhancing ribosomal RNA transcription.

Angiogenin can also translocate into the nucleus of cancer cells and induces

the corresponding cell proliferation. Furthermore, angiogenin has

neuroprotective activities in the central nervous system and the loss of its

function may be related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This review intends

to conclude the mechanisms underlying these actions of angiogenin and give a

perspective on future research.

Keywords        angiogenin; angiogenesis; cancer; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Angiogenin (ANG) was originally isolated from the conditioned medium

of cultured HT-29 human colon adenocarcinoma cells based solely on its

angiogenic activity [1]. The gene encoding ANG is present as a single copy per

haploid genome, and localizes on chromosome 14q11 [2]. The mature ANG is a

basic, single-chain protein containing 123 amino acids with a molecular weight

of about 14,400 Da [1], and is a homolog of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A.

Although its ribonucleolytic activity is rather weak, it is essential for

angiogenesis and other functions. ANG has also been reported to induce the

proliferation of cancer cells directly. Recently, ANG gene was

identified to be a potential amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) related gene.

In this review, we will overview the functions and mechanisms of ANG in these

physiological and pathological processes.

Functions and Mechanisms of ANG in

Angiogenesis

Angiogenesis, the process of new blood-vessel growth, plays an

essential role in normal physiological processes, such as development and

reproduction. However, pathological angiogenesis occurs in many

angiogenesis-dependent diseases such as tumors and other non-neoplastic

diseases [3]. As a key angiogenic factor, ANG is believed to be an ideal target

for anti-angiogenesis therapy. Therefore, revealing the mechanism of action of

ANG will facilitate not only the understanding of angiogenesis, but also the

discovery of angiogenesis inhibitors.It has been reported that ANG interacts with endothelial and smooth

muscle cells to induce a wide range of cellular responses including cell

migration, invasion, proliferation, and formation of tubular structures. Four

aspects of ANG have been discovered to be necessary for the process of

ANG-induced angiogenesis, including ribonuclease activity, basement membrane

degradation, signaling transduction, and nuclear translocation.

ANG exerts its ribonucleolytic activity

ANG belongs to the ribonuclease superfamily with a 33% sequence

homology to the pancreatic ribonuclease A [4]. Although the crystal structures

of human ANG and pancreatic ribonuclease A have high similarity, there is

notable difference in the ribonucleolytic active center. The pyrimidine binding

site of ANG is “obstructed” by the glutamine (Gln)117 residue, which results in

a very weak ribonuc­leolytic activity, about 105106 lower

than that of RNase A. Movement of Gln117 and the adjacent residues may be

required prior to or during catalysis for substrate binding to ANG [5]. Latter

experiments showed that mutation of this residue greatly increased the RNase

activity of ANG but without changing its specificity, which further supported

the notion that Gln117 impeded the ribonucleolytic activity of ANG [6].

Although weak, the RNase activity is necessary for the functions of ANG.

Mutations of His13, Lys40, or His114, key amino acids for the RNase activity of

ANG, greatly decrease its angiogenic activity in the chick embryo

chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay [7,8]. Moreover, human placental

ribonuclease inhibitor (PRI) [9] and compound 65828 [10] targeting the ANG

enzymatic active site abolish both the ribonucleolytic activity and the

angiogenic activity of ANG.

ANG stimulates basement membrane degradation

Besides its ribonucleolytic activity, the binding of ANG with

endothelial cell surface is also needed for its biological functions, and amino

acid residues from 60 to 68 are critical in this process [11]. During an effort

to identify the ANG receptor in endothelial cells, a 42-kDa cell surface

protein was initially found as an ANG-binding molecule [12], and was later

shown to be a smooth muscle type a-actin [13]. The cell surface actin seems to

be involved in the basement membrane degradation. Upon binding of ANG to actin,

some of the ANG-actin complexs dissociate from the cell surface. Thereafter,

this complex accelerates tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA)-catalyzed

generation of plasmin from plasminogen [14]. Therefore, through the formation

of its actin complex, ANG promotes the degradation of basement membrane and

extracellular matrix and thus allows endothelial cells to penetrate and migrate

into the perivascular tissue [15], an essential feature of angiogenesis (Fig.

1).

ANG activates signaling transduction

Because actin is not an ANG receptor for signal transduction, a

170-kDa molecule was later identified as a potential ANG receptor located on

the endothelial cell surface, and expressed only on ANG-responsive but sparsely

cultured endothelial cells (<2?104 cells/cm2) [16]. Unfortunately, the nature of this molecule is still elusive.Although there is a lack of knowledge on ANG receptors, several

pathways have been proposed to be activated by ANG stimulation. In response to

ANG treatment, extracellular signal-related kinase1/2 (ERK1/2) [17] as well as

protein kinase B/Akt [18] were activated in human umbilical vein endothelial

(HUVE) cells, and phosphorylation of stress-associated protein kinase/c-Jun

N-terminal kinase (SAPK/JNK) was observed in human umbilical artery smooth

muscle (HuASM) cells [19] (Fig. 1). Activations of these signaling

pathways by ANG are considered to be an important mechanism leading to cell

proliferation and further angiogenesis. It appears that the 170-kDa putative receptor and actin are not

expressed concurrently on the endothelial cell surface. They seem to be

expressed under different cell conditions and play roles at different

stages of ANG-induced angiogenesis. In subconfluent cells, actin is

expressed and binds to ANG specifically [13]. Binding of ANG to cell

surface actin results in activation of a cell-associated protease system

that promotes cell invasion [14]. After the cells start to migrate and invade

into the basement membrane, the local density of the cells in the vicinity

of the migrating cells decreases, thus triggering the expression of the

170-kDa putative ANG receptor on the remaining adjacent cells. These

cells become responsive to stimulation of ANG and will therefore divide to

fill the space created by the migrating cells. The expression of the

receptor may then be turned off when the cell density increases. It

is speculated that such density-dependent receptor expressions may regulate

the ANG-induced growth of the new capillary network. 

ANG undergoes nuclear translocation and enhances rRNA transcription

Angiogenin undergoes nuclear translocation in endothelial cells and

smooth muscle cells [19], which has also been shown to be necessary for

ANG-induced angiogenesis (Fig. 1). Inhibition of nuclear translocation

of ANG [20] or mutagenesis of its nuclear localization sequence [21] both

abolish its angiogenic activity. Nuclear translocation of ANG in endothelial

cells is rapid [22], but is strictly dependent on cell density [22]. It

decreases as cell density increases and ceases when cells are confluent.The nuclear function of ANG has been found to enhance ribosomal RNA

(rRNA) transcription [23] (Fig. 1). An ANG-binding element (ABE), known

as CTCT repeats, has been identified from the intergenic spacer (IGS) region of

rDNA. ABE binds ANG specifically and exhibits ANG-dependent promoter

activity in the luciferase reporter system [24]. Now it is recognized that the

nuclear ANG assumes an essential role in endothelial cell proliferation and is

necessary for angiogenesis induced by other angiogenic factors, such as acidic

fibroblast growth factor (aFGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and

vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) [25]. ANG-stimulated rRNA transcription

in endothelial cells has been shown to serve as a crossroad in the process of

angiogenesis induced by the other angiogenic factors.However, the process of nuclear translocation of ANG is largely

unknown. The first step required for the nuclear translocation of exogenous ANG

is the internalization of the protein, and receptor-mediated endocytosis seems

to be involved in the internalization [21]. A nuclear localization signal

(NLS), which lies in 31-RRRGL-35 of the protein, is responsible for the nucleolus

targeting of human ANG [26]. However, the ANG NLS does not confer nuclear

import through the pathway used by conventional NLSs in that importins and Ran

are not required [27]. The process is also independent of microtubules and

lysosomes [28]. Since the molecular weight of ANG is less than the limit of

nuclear pore size (50-kDa), the most probable mechanism for ANG

nuclear/nucleolus import may involve passive diffusion of ANG through the

nuclear pore and NLS-mediated nuclear/nucleolus retention [27].

Roles of ANG in Diseases

ANG induces tumor growth

It was reported that the expression of ANG was upregulated in

various types of human cancers, including breast, cervical, colon, colorectal,

endometrial, gastric, liver, kidney, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, and

urothelial cancers, as well as astrocytoma, leukemia (acute myeloid leukemia

and myelodysplastic syndrome), lymphoma (non-Hodgkin’s), melanoma,

osteosarcoma, and Wilms’ tumor [29]. This indicates a close relationship

between ANG and tumor development.Angiogenin was once thought to promote cancer progression by its

angiogenic activity, and target HUVE and HuASM cells as described above.

Recently ANG was reported to constantly translocate to the nucleus of HeLa

cells in a cell density-independent manner. Downregulation of ANG expression in

HeLa cells resulted in a decrease in rRNA transcription, ribosome biogenesis,

proliferation, and tumorigenesis [30]. These results point to a direct effect

of ANG on cancer cells for the first time with a similar action manner as in

HUVE cells. Latter studies on prostate cancer cells showed that ANG could

directly stimulate PC-3 proliferation, and underwent nuclear translocation in

PC-3 cells grown both in vitro and in mice. Blockade of nuclear

translocation of ANG by neomycin inhibited PC-3 cell tumor growth in athymic

mice and was accompanied by a decrease in both cancer cell proliferation and

angiogenesis [29]. In addition, ANG could be an effective substrate for HT-29

cells adhesion during metastasis [31]. Thus, it is clear that ANG takes part in

cancer development by stimulating both angiogenesis and cancer cell

proliferation. However, whether the mechanisms of ANG that act on HUVE cells

and cancer cells are similar is unknown yet.

ANG may be related with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive late-onset

neurodegenerative disorder affecting upper and lower motoneurons (MNs). VEGF

was the first angiogenic factor shown to contribute to the pathogenesis of ALS

[32]. ANG was recently identified as the second angiogenic factor related to

this disease. First, allelic association studies of Irish and Scottish ALS

populations identified chromosome 14q11.2 where the ANG gene is located as a

candidate region. Later a synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (rs 11701)

was found to be associated with Irish and Scottish ALS populations by

sequencing 1629 ALS patients [33]. Thereafter, seven missense mutations in the

ANG gene were identified in 15 patients with either familial or sporadic ALS by

sequencing the same 1629 ALS patients [34]. To date, mutations of the ANG gene

have been detected in the Irish, Scottish, Italian, and North American patients

with ALS diseases [34-39].Angiogenin may exert neuroprotective activities on motoneurons in

the central nervous system. First, as an angiogenic factor, ANG protects MNs by

increasing neurovascular perfusion. Studies on the functional consequence of

those detected ANG mutations showed that the mutants diminished ANG’s

ribonucleolytic activity, nuclear translocation, or both. A correlative

reduction in the HUVE cell proliferative and angiogenic activities was observed

[35,36], which may contribute to the induction of ALS.Second, ANG may protect MNs via its direct effects on the neurons themselves.

Mouse ANG-1 (mAng-1) was found to be strongly expressed in motor neurons in the

spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia as well as in post-mitotic MNs derived from

P19 cells. Its expression was found in the growth cones and neurites.

Inhibition of the ribonucleolytic activity of human ANG affected path finding

by P19-derived neurons [40]. Cultured P19 EC cells could internalize both

wild-type ANG and the variants implicated in ALS. However, wild-type ANG could

induce P19 EC cell differentiation and the extending of the neuritis, whereas

the variants lost these capacities. Wild-type ANG was able to protect neurons

from hypoxia-induced cell death, but the variants lacked the neuroprotective

activity [41]. These findings provide a causal link between mutations in ANG

and ALS.

ANG acts in other diseasesAngiogenin may also play roles in a variety of non-malig­nant angiogenesis-dependent

diseases such as endometriosis [42], peripheral vascular disease

[43], inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) [44], rheumatoid arthritis

[45], diabetes [46], and so on. In these disorders, ANG expression

levels increase and ANG may contribute to the local pathological angiogenesis

conditions.

Perspectives

Identifying the physiological RNase substrate of ANG

The ribonucleolytic activity of ANG is essential for its functions.

Although ANG was reported to be able to catalyze degradation of 18S and 28S

rRNA [47], tRNA from Xenopus oocytes [48], and 5S RNA from Saccharomyces

cerevisiae and Escherichia coli [49], the physiological substrate of

ANG is still unknown. It is unlikely that ANG has a specific recognition

sequence for catalysis. Instead, the target may have a specific secondary

structure, such as a hairpin or a pseudo-knot, or may be part of a protein-nucleic

acid complex. The poor catalytic activity of ANG may have evolved to maximize

specificity for the target substrate [50]. The natural substrate of ANG may

reside in the nucleolus of its target cells where it accumulates. Since rRNA

transcription is always coupled and coordinated with its processing, rRNA could

be a candidate substrate of ANG. The identification of its physiological

substrate should be a great help for the complete description of ANG’s

activities.

Developing ANG nuclear translocation inhibitors

The function of ANG in mediating both endothelial cell and cancer

cell proliferation is related to rRNA transcription and depends on nuclear

translocation [21,30]. Thus, the process of ANG nuclear translocation seems to

be an ideal target for anti-ANG drug discovery. Neomycin seems to be such a

promising drug because it blocks nuclear translocation of ANG in PC-3 cells and

inhibits tumor establishment and growth in athymic mice by inhibiting tumor

angiogenesis and prostate cancer cell proliferation, respectively. In other

words, this drug has a combined benefit of chemotherapy and antiangiogenesis

therapy. Now the Hu group is evaluating the therapeutic value of neomycin and

its nontoxic derivative neamine against cancers [29]. We reason that elucidating

the mechanisms of ANG nuclear translocation would provide new targets for

developing such kinds of inhibitors.

Identifying ANG-interacting proteins

Since protein interactions are critical in every biological process,

interactions between ANG and other proteins should mediate or modulate a series

of biological activities in ANG-induced angiogenesis and tumor cell growth.

Unfortunately, few proteins have so far been identified as binding partners of

ANG. To identify more mediators or modulators of ANG activity, yeast two-hybrid

technology was used in our laboratory and 21 proteins were identified as

potential ANG-interacting molecules from the human liver cDNA library and heart

cDNA library, including cytoskeleton proteins such as alpha-actinin 2 (ACTN-2)

[51], regulatory proteins such as follistatin (FS) [52], and extracellular

matrix proteins such as fibulin-1 [53]. Through interacting with ACTN-2, ANG

may regulate the movement or the cytokinesis of the cells. Follistatin may act

as a regulator on angiogenin’s actions. Interaction between ANG and fibulins

may facilitate cell adhesion. The concrete significance of those interactions

is under study now.  In summary, angiogenin

plays important roles in many pathological states, and could be an ideal target

for disease treatment. Although many molecules have been reported to exert

antitumor effects, such as anti-ANG monoclonal antibodies [54], ANG-binding

peptides [55], ANG antisense RNA [56], and its ribonuclease inhibitors [10],

they all antagonize angiogenin itself, and may have significant side effects.

An ideal angiogenin-oriented drug could only be made possible after fully

elucidating the mechanism of action of angiogenin and identify a

disease-specific process.

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