Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PROMIGREX (Mechanical regulation of cell migration by Piezo1 and its implications in epithelial cell turnover)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-04-01 do 2023-03-31
Mechanical forces link cell death and division; where crowding activates cells to extrude from the epithelial layer and die and stretch triggers rapid cells to rapidly enter mitosis. Critically, both mechano-responses require the stretch- activated cationic channel Piezo1. The overarching goal of PROMIGREX was to identify the mechanisms by which this channel controls cell division, migration, and death in response to mechanical signals. Specifically, this project aimed at describing how Piezo1 detects cell-cell collisions and redirects migration, how it detects forces and triggers severing of the thin connection between dividing cells, and how its mutations in cancer affect these processes.
Despite COVID19-related restrictions, PROMIGREX results were disseminated at international renowned conferences including the Joint BSCB-BSDB meeting (April 2022), EMBO Symposia (May 2022, 2023, September 2023), meeting of the Australian Society for Mechanobiology (November 2022), Biophysical Society Meeting (February 2023), and the Biochemical Society-BSCB meeting (April 2023). Remarkably, in all these conferences, PROMIGREX work was presented after direct invitation by the organisers or selected among submissions to be presented as a talk. In all instances, EU funding was acknowledged.
PROMIGREX has found that Piezo1-dependent EGFR signalling does not involve canonical tyrosine phosphorylation or the kinase activity of EGFR. Instead, this newly identified axis signals via kinases of the Src and p38 families. These findings may help explaining cancer resistance to Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors and EGFR-blocking antibodies (an unmet medical need) and could be exploited in new therapeutical approaches. Further pre-clinical research will elucidate this.