Enzymes in the Cholesterol Synthesis Pathway: Interactomics in the Cancer Context

A global protein interactome ensures the maintenance of regulatory, signaling and structural processes in cells, but at the same time, aberrations in the repertoire of protein–protein interactions usually cause a disease onset. Many metabolic enzymes catalyze multistage transformation of cholesterol precursors in the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway. Cancer-associated deregulation of these enzymes through various molecular mechanisms results in pathological cholesterol accumulation (its precursors) which can be disease risk factors. This work is aimed at systematization and bioinformatic analysis of the available interactomics data on seventeen enzymes in the cholesterol pathway, encoded by HMGCR, MVK, PMVK, MVD, FDPS, FDFT1, SQLE, LSS, DHCR24, CYP51A1, TM7SF2, MSMO1, NSDHL, HSD17B7, EBP, SC5D, DHCR7 genes. The spectrum of 165 unique and 21 common protein partners that physically interact with target enzymes was selected from several interatomic resources. Among them there were 47 modifying proteins from different protein kinases/phosphatases and ubiquitin-protein ligases/deubiquitinases families. A literature search, enrichment and gene co-expression analysis showed that about a quarter of the identified protein partners was associated with cancer hallmarks and over-represented in cancer pathways. Our results allow to update the current fundamental view on protein–protein interactions and regulatory aspects of the cholesterol synthesis enzymes and annotate of their sub-interactomes in term of possible involvement in cancers that will contribute to prioritization of protein targets for future drug development.