Clusterin facilitates stress-induced lipidation of LC3 and autophagosome biogenesis to enhance cancer cell survival

We define stress-induced adaptive survival pathways linking autophagy with the molecular chaperone clusterin (CLU) that function to promote anticancer treatment resistance. During treatment stress, CLU co-localizes with LC3 via an LIR-binding sequence within autophagosome membranes, functioning to facilitate LC3–Atg3 heterocomplex stability and LC3 lipidation, and thereby enhance autophagosome biogenesis and autophagy activation. Stress-induced autophagy is attenuated with CLU silencing in CLU(−/−) mice and human prostate cancer cells. CLU-enhanced cell survival occurs via autophagy-dependent pathways, and is reduced following autophagy inhibition. Combining CLU inhibition with anticancer treatments attenuates autophagy activation, increases apoptosis and reduces prostate cancer growth. This study defines a novel adaptor protein function for CLU under stress conditions, and highlights how co-targeting CLU and autophagy can amplify proteotoxic stress to delay cancer progression.