Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) regulates HGFR signaling to promote colon cancer progression and metastasis

BACKGROUND: Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is known to highly expression and promotes cancer progression in many cancer types, including colorectal cancer. While metastasis is one of the main causes of cancer treatment failure, the involvement of EpCAM signaling in metastatic processes is unclear. We propose the potential crosstalk of EpCAM signaling with the HGFR signaling in order to govern metastatic activity in colorectal cancer. METHODS: Immunoprecipitation (IP), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) was conducted to explore the extracellular domain of EpCAM (EpEX) and HGFR interaction. Western blotting was taken to determine the expression of proteins in colorectal cancer (CRC) cell lines. The functions of EpEX in CRC were investigated by proliferation, migration, and invasion analysis. The combined therapy was validated via a tail vein injection method for the metastasis and orthotopic colon cancer models. RESULTS: This study demonstrates that the EpEX binds to HGFR and induces downstream signaling in colon cancer cells. Moreover, EpEX and HGF cooperatively mediate HGFR signaling. Furthermore, EpEX enhances the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and metastatic potential of colon cancer cells by activating ERK and FAK-AKT signaling pathways, and it further stabilizes active β-catenin and Snail proteins by decreasing GSK3β activity. Finally, we show that the combined treatment of an anti-EpCAM neutralizing antibody (EpAb2-6) and an HGFR inhibitor (crizotinib) significantly inhibits tumor progression and prolongs survival in metastatic and orthotopic animal models of colon cancer. CONCLUSION: Our findings illuminate the molecular mechanisms underlying EpCAM signaling promotion of colon cancer metastasis, further suggesting that the combination of EpAb2-6 and crizotinib may be an effective strategy for treating cancer patients with high EpCAM expression. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12967-023-04390-2.