CD317 Promotes the survival of cancer cells through apoptosis-inducing factor

BACKGROUND: Low nutrient environment is a major obstacle to solid tumor growth. However, many tumors have developed adaptive mechanisms to circumvent the requirement for exogenous growth factors. METHODS: Here we used siRNA interference or plasmid transfection techniques to knockdown or enhance CD317 expression respectively, in mammalian cancer cells, and subjected these CD317-manipulated cells to serum deprivation to study the role of CD317 on stress-induced apoptosis and the underlying mechanism. RESULTS: We report that CD317, an innate immune gene overexpressed in human cancers, protected cancer cells against serum deprivation-induced apoptosis. In tumor cells, loss of CD317 markedly enhanced their susceptibility to serum deprivation-induced apoptosis with no effect on autophagy or caspase activation, indicating an autophagy- and caspase-independent mechanism of CD317 function. Importantly, CD317 knockdown in serum-deprived tumor cells impaired mitochondria function and subsequently promoted apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) release and nuclear translocation but had little effect on mitochondrial and cytoplasmic distributions of cytochrome C, a pro-apoptotic factor released from mitochondria that initiates caspase processing in response to death stimuli. Furthermore, overexpression of CD317 in HEK293T cells inhibits serum deprivation-induced apoptosis as well as the release and nuclear accumulation of AIF. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that CD317 functions as an anti-apoptotic factor through the mitochondria-AIF axis in malnourished condition and may serve as a potential drug target for cancer therapy. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13046-016-0391-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.