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Life Science Alliance, Life Science Alliance, 8(7), p. e202302307, 2024

DOI: 10.26508/lsa.202302307

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The F-actin bundler SWAP-70 promotes tumor metastasis

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Dynamic rearrangements of the F-actin cytoskeleton are a hallmark of tumor metastasis. Thus, proteins that govern F-actin rearrangements are of major interest for understanding metastasis and potential therapies. We hypothesized that the unique F-actin binding and bundling protein SWAP-70 contributes importantly to metastasis. Orthotopic, ectopic, and short-term tail vein injection mouse breast and lung cancer models revealed a strong positive dependence of lung and bone metastasis on SWAP-70. Breast cancer cell growth, migration, adhesion, and invasion assays revealed SWAP-70’s key role in these metastasis-related cell features and the requirement for SWAP-70 to bind F-actin. Biophysical experiments showed that tumor cell stiffness and deformability are negatively modulated by SWAP-70. Together, we present a hitherto undescribed, unique F-actin modulator as an important contributor to tumor metastasis.