Abstract
The Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule or EpCAM is a well-known marker highly expressed in carcinomas and showing a strong correlation with poor cancer prognosis. While its name relates to its proposed function as a cell adhesion molecule, EpCAM has been shown to have various signalling functions. In particular, it has been identified as an important positive regulator of cell adhesion and migration, playing an essential role in embryonic morphogenesis as well as intestinal homeostasis. This activity is not due to its putative adhesive function, but rather to its ability to repress myosin contractility by impinging on a PKC signalling cascade. This mechanism confers EpCAM the unique property of favouring tissue plasticity. I review here the currently available data, comment on possible connections with other properties of EpCAM, and discuss the potential significance in the context of cancer invasion.
Highlights
The Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule (EpCAM) is cell membrane protein originally identified as an antigen derived from tumours
One hypothesis could be that EpCAM would target a particular pool of these signalling components, which might be mostly dedicated to control actomyosin cortical contractility, Intriguingly, our observations revealed rather global effects of EpCAM GOF and LOF on both PKC and
The list of validated nPKC and PKD substrates was selected from the PhosphoSitePlus database, based on known activities impinging on the actin cytoskeleton and/or on adherens junctions and tight junctions
Summary
The Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule (EpCAM) is cell membrane protein originally identified as an antigen derived from tumours. In parallel, it was identified through its enrichment in the placenta, acquired its alternate name Trop for Trophoblast cell surface antigen 1 [1]. Enhanced expression of EpCAM is associated with active proliferations of neoplastic or normal tissues (e.g., [4,5,6]). EpCAM is unique to vertebrates, but highly conserved from fish to human. Considering the close sequence similarity between EpCAM and Trop (48% identity and 78% similarity in humans), the high conservation of EpCAM in all vertebrates (and the conserved enrichment in epithelial tissues), while the trophectoderm only exists in mammals, a better name for. Note that Trop was independently characterized as a molecule capable of modulating intracellular calcium, and was given the name of tumour-associated calcium signal transducer [12]; one finds, in the literature and databases, the terms TACSTD1/2
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