MAGI3 negatively regulates Wnt/β-catenin signaling and suppresses malignant phenotypes of glioma cells

Gliomas are the most common primary brain malignancies and are associated with a poor prognosis. Here, we showed that the PDZ domain-containing protein membrane-associated guanylate kinase inverted 3 (MAGI3) was downregulated at the both mRNA and protein levels in human glioma samples. MAGI3 inhibited proliferation, migration, and cell cycle progression of glioma cells in its overexpression and knockdown studies. By using GST pull-down and co-immunoprecipitation assays, we found that MAGI3 bound to β-catenin through its PDZ domains and the PDZ-binding motif of β-catenin. MAGI3 overexpression inhibited β-catenin transcriptional activity via its interaction with β-catenin. Consistently, MAGI3 overexpression in glioma cells C6 suppressed expression of β-catenin target genes including Cyclin D1 and Axin2, whereas MAGI3 knockdown in glioma cells U373 and LN229 enhanced their expression. MAGI3 overexpression decreased growth of C6 subcutaneous tumors in mice, and inhibited expression of β-catenin target genes in xenograft tumors. Furthermore, analysis based on the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) glioma dataset showed association of MAGI3 expression with overall survival and tumor grade. Finally, we demonstrated negative correlation between MAGI3 expression and activity of Wnt/β-catenin signaling through GSEA of three public glioma datasets and immunohistochemical staining of clinical glioma samples. Taken together, these results identify MAGI3 as a novel tumor suppressor and provide insight into the pathogenesis of glioma.