Identification of calgranulin B interacting proteins and network analysis in gastrointestinal cancer cells

Calgranulin B is known to be involved in tumor development, but the underlying molecular mechanism is not clear. To gain insight into possible roles of calgranulin B, we screened for calgranulin B-interacting molecules in the SNU-484 gastric cancer and the SNU-81 colon cancer cells. Calgranulin B-interacting partners were identified by yeast two-hybrid and functional information was obtained by computational analysis. Most of the calgranulin B-interacting partners were involved in metabolic and cellular processes, and found to have molecular function of binding and catalytic activities. Interestingly, 46 molecules in the network of the calgranulin B-interacting proteins are known to be associated with cancer and FKBP2 was found to interact with calgranulin B in both SNU-484 and SNU-81 cells. Polyubiquitin-C encoded by UBC, which exhibited an interaction with calgranulin B, has been associated with various molecules of the extracellular space and plasma membrane identified in our screening, including Na-K-Cl cotransporter 1 and dystonin in SNU-484 cells, and ATPase subunit beta-1 in SNU-81 cells. Our data provide novel insight into the roles of calgranulin B of gastrointestinal cancer cells, and offer new clues suggesting calgranulin B acts as an effector molecule through which the cell can communicate with the tumor microenvironment via polyubiquitin-C.