Cited by 30Ubiquitin and proteasome pathwaysHER2/EGFR in Cancer ResearchProtein Degradation and Inhibitors

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a target of the tumor-suppressor E3 ligase FBXW7

Open access
Boretto, Matteo, Geurts, Maarten H., Gandhi, Shashank, Ma, Ziliang, Staliarova, Nadzeya, Celotti, Martina, Lim, Sangho, He, Gui-Wei +8 more·2024·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

FBXW7 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that targets proteins for proteasome-mediated degradation and is mutated in various cancer types. Here, we use CRISPR base editors to introduce different FBXW7 hotspot mutations in human colon organoids. Functionally, FBXW7 mutation reduces EGF dependency of organoid growth by ~10,000-fold. Combined transcriptomic and proteomic analyses revealed increased EGFR protein stability in FBXW7 mutants. Two distinct phosphodegron motifs reside in the cytoplasmic tail of EGFR. Mutations in these phosphodegron motifs occur in human cancer. CRISPR-mediated disruption of the phosphodegron motif at T693 reduced EGFR degradation and EGF growth factor dependency. FBXW7 mutant organoids showed reduced sensitivity to EGFR-MAPK inhibitors. These observations were further strengthened in CRC-derived organoid lines and validated in a cohort of patients treated with panitumumab. Our data imply that FBXW7 mutations reduce EGF dependency by disabling EGFR turnover.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.2309902121

Cites

5 of 5 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Due to the excellent clonal capacity of ASC organoids, these protocols enable rapid screening of various hotspot mutations within a gene in a single round of clone picking.

    “However, due to the excellent clonal capacity of ASC organoids these protocols enable the rapid screening of various hotspot mutations within a gene in a single round of clone picking.51”

    From Protocol to create isogenic disease models from adult stem cell-derived organoids using next-generation CRISPR tools (2024) · cites this paper as [51]

    The Results section, “Establishment of an Organoid Biobank of Recurrent FBXW7 Mutations” (page unavailable), reports generating several FBXW7 mutations in human colon organoids and genotyping individually picked clones. It does not establish that this was a rapid screen enabled by clonal capacity. The Methods section, “Establishment of Clonal Lines and Genotyping” (page unavailable), describes picking organoids after selection and picking growing organoids again a few days later, rather than a single round of picking. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 60

  1. [1]T. Ravid, M. Hochstrasser, Diversity of degradation signals in the ubiquitin–proteasome system. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 9, 679– 689 (2008). 18698327 PMC2606094
  2. [2]A. Ciechanover, The ubiquitin-proteasome proteolytic pathway. Cell 79, 13– 21 (1994). 7923371
  3. [3]A. Mani, E. P. Gelmann, The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway and its role in cancer. J. Clin. Oncol. 23, 4776– 4789 (2005). 16034054
  4. [4]G. Nalepa, M. Rolfe, J. W. Harper, Drug discovery in the ubiquitin–proteasome system. Nat. Rev. Drug. Discov. 5, 596– 613 (2006). 16816840
  5. [5]Z. Ge, Integrated genomic analysis of the ubiquitin pathway across cancer types. Cell Rep. 23, 213– 226.e3 (2018). 29617661 PMC5916807
  6. [6]D. Hoeller, I. Dikic, Targeting the ubiquitin system in cancer therapy. Nature 458, 438– 444 (2009). 19325623
  7. [7]K. I. Nakayama, K. Nakayama, Ubiquitin ligases: Cell-cycle control and cancer. Nat. Rev. Cancer 6, 369– 381 (2006). 16633365
  8. [8]F. Martínez-Jiménez, F. Muiños, E. López-Arribillaga, N. Lopez-Bigas, A. Gonzalez-Perez, Systematic analysis of alterations in the ubiquitin proteolysis system reveals its contribution to driver mutations in cancer. Nat. Cancer. NLM (Medline) 1, 122– 135 (2020). 35121836
  9. [9]B. Mészáros, M. Kumar, T. J. Gibson, B. Uyar, Z. Dosztányi, Degrons in cancer. Sci. Signal 10, eaak9982 (2017). 28292960
  10. [11]B. Hao, S. Oehlmann, M. E. Sowa, J. W. Harper, N. P. Pavletich, Structure of a Fbw7-Skp1-Cyclin E complex: Multisite-phosphorylated substrate recognition by SCF ubiquitin ligases. Mol. Cell 26, 131– 143 (2007). 17434132
  11. [12]M. Welcker, Fbw7 dimerization determines the specificity and robustness of substrate degradation. Genes Dev. 27, 2531– 2536 (2013). 24298052 PMC3861666
  12. [13]S. Orlicky, X. Tang, A. Willems, M. Tyers, F. Sicheri, Structural basis for phosphodependent substrate selection and orientation by the SCFCdc4 ubiquitin ligase. Cell 112, 243– 256 (2003). 12553912
  13. [14]D. M. Koepp, Phosphorylation-dependent ubiquitination of cyclin E by the SCF Fbw7 ubiquitin ligase. Science 1979, 173– 177 (2001). 11533444
  14. [15]M. Welcker, Multisite phosphorylation by Cdk2 and GSK3 controls cyclin E degradation. Mol. Cell 12, 381– 392 (2003). 14536078
  15. [16]C.-M. Xie, The FBXW7-SHOC2-raptor axis controls the cross-talks between the RAS-ERK and mTORC1 signaling pathways. Cell Rep. 26, 3037– 3050.e4 (2019). 30865892 PMC6503676
  16. [17]A. Arabi, Proteomic screen reveals Fbw7 as a modulator of the NF-κB pathway. Nat. Commun. 3, 976 (2012). 22864569 PMC4354031
  17. [18]H. Inuzuka, SCFFBW7 regulates cellular apoptosis by targeting MCL1 for ubiquitylation and destruction. Nature 471, 104– 109 (2011). 21368833 PMC3076007
  18. [19]H. Rajagopalan, Inactivation of hCDC4 can cause chromosomal instability. Nature 428, 77– 81 (2004). 14999283
  19. [20]H. Strohmaier, Human F-box protein hCdc4 targets cyclin E for proteolysis and is mutated in a breast cancer cell line. Nature 413, 316– 322 (2001). 11565034
  20. [21]R. Sancho, R. Gruber, G. Gu, A. Behrens, Loss of Fbw7 reprograms adult pancreatic ductal cells into α, δ, and β cells. Cell Stem Cell 15, 139– 153 (2014). 25105579 PMC4136739
  21. [22]N. Singh, A. Zeke, A. Reményi, Systematic discovery of FBXW7-binding phosphodegrons highlights mitogen-activated protein kinases as important regulators of intracellular protein levels. Int. J. Mol. Sci. MDPI 23, 3320 (2022). PMC8955265 35328741
  22. [23]B. Pérez-Benavente, GSK3-SCF FBXW7 targets JunB for degradation in G2 to preserve chromatid cohesion before anaphase. Oncogene 32, 2189– 2199 (2013). 22710716
  23. [24]C.-J. Lee, FBXW7-mediated stability regulation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 2 in melanoma formation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 584– 594 (2020). 31843895 PMC6955312
  24. [25]X. Zhao, Circadian amplitude regulation via FBXW7-targeted REV-ERBα degradation. Cell 165, 1644– 1657 (2016). 27238018 PMC4912445
  25. [26]S. Singh, Loss of ELF5–FBXW7 stabilizes IFNGR1 to promote the growth and metastasis of triple-negative breast cancer through interferon-γ signalling. Nat. Cell Biol. Nat. Res. 22, 591– 602 (2020). PMC8237104 32284542
  26. [27]D. Cui, FBXW7 confers radiation survival by targeting p53 for degradation. Cell Rep. 30, 497– 509.e4 (2020). 31940492
  27. [28]N. Kourtis, FBXW7 modulates cellular stress response and metastatic potential through HSF1 post-translational modification. Nat. Cell Biol. 17, 322– 332 (2015). 25720964 PMC4401662
  28. [29]N. Li, An FBXW7-ZEB2 axis links EMT and tumour microenvironment to promote colorectal cancer stem cells and chemoresistance. Oncogenesis 8, 13 (2019). 30783098 PMC6381143
  29. [30]S. O’Brien, SCF FBXW7 regulates G2-M progression through control of CCNL1 ubiquitination. EMBO Rep. 23, e55044 (2022). 36278408 PMC9724663
  30. [31]B. King, The ubiquitin ligase FBXW7 modulates leukemia-Initiating cell activity by regulating MYC stability. Cell 153, 1552– 1566 (2013). 23791182 PMC4146439
  31. [32]D. M. Muzny, Comprehensive molecular characterization of human colon and rectal cancer. Nature 487, 330– 337 (2012). 22810696 PMC3401966
  32. [33]R. L. Siegel, K. D. Miller, H. E. Fuchs, A. Jemal, Cancer statistics, 2022. CA Cancer J. Clin. 72, 7– 33 (2022). 35020204
  33. [34]P. A. J. Mendelaar, Whole genome sequencing of metastatic colorectal cancer reveals prior treatment effects and specific metastasis features. Nat. Commun. 12, 574 (2021). 33495476 PMC7835235
  34. [35]L. Lupini, Prediction of response to anti-EGFR antibody-based therapies by multigene sequencing in colorectal cancer patients. BMC Cancer 15, 808 (2015). 26508446 PMC4624582
  35. [36]A. M. Rachiglio, Genomic profiling of KRAS/NRAS/BRAF/PIK3CA wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer patients reveals novel mutations in genes potentially associated with resistance to anti-EGFR agents. Cancers (Basel) 11, 859 (2019). 31226844 PMC6627713
  36. [37]T. Sato, Long-term expansion of epithelial organoids from human colon, adenoma, adenocarcinoma, and Barrett’s epithelium. Gastroenterology 141, 1762– 1772 (2011). 21889923
  37. [38]J. Drost, Sequential cancer mutations in cultured human intestinal stem cells. Nature 521, 43– 47 (2015). 25924068
  38. [41]N. M. Gaudelli, Programmable base editing of A•T to G•C in genomic DNA without DNA cleavage. Nature 551, 464– 471 (2017). 29160308 PMC5726555
  39. [42]L. W. Koblan, Improving cytidine and adenine base editors by expression optimization and ancestral reconstruction. Nat. Biotechnol. 36, 843– 846 (2018). 29813047 PMC6126947
  40. [43]A. C. Komor, Y. B. Kim, M. S. Packer, J. A. Zuris, D. R. Liu, Programmable editing of a target base in genomic DNA without double-stranded DNA cleavage. Nature 533, 420– 424 (2016). 27096365 PMC4873371
  41. [44]M. P. Zafra, Optimized base editors enable efficient editing in cells, organoids and mice. Nat. Biotechnol. 36, 888– 893 (2018). 29969439 PMC6130889
  42. [45]A. Andersson-Rolf, One-step generation of conditional and reversible gene knockouts. Nat. Methods 14, 287– 289 (2017). 28135257 PMC5777571
  43. [46]M. H. Geurts, Evaluating CRISPR-based prime editing for cancer modeling and CFTR repair in organoids. Life Sci. Alliance 4, e202000940 (2021). 34373320 PMC8356249
  44. [47]M. Fujii, M. Matano, K. Nanki, T. Sato, Efficient genetic engineering of human intestinal organoids using electroporation. Nat. Protoc. 10, 1474– 1485 (2015). 26334867
  45. [48]K. F. Marquart, Predicting base editing outcomes with an attention-based deep learning algorithm trained on high-throughput target library screens. Nat. Commun. 12, 5114 (2021). 34433819 PMC8387386
  46. [49]E. R. Fearon, B. Vogelstein, A genetic model for colorectal tumorigenesis. Cell 61, 759– 67 (1990). 2188735
  47. [50]M. Matano, Modeling colorectal cancer using CRISPR-Cas9-mediated engineering of human intestinal organoids. Nat. Med. 21, 256– 262 (2015). 25706875
  48. [51]T. Seino, Human pancreatic tumor organoids reveal loss of stem cell niche factor dependence during disease progression. Cell Stem Cell 22, 454– 467.e6 (2018). 29337182
  49. [52]D. M. Freed, EGFR ligands differentially stabilize receptor dimers to specify signaling kinetics. Cell 171, 683– 695.e18 (2017). 28988771 PMC5650921
  50. [54]G. J. Heisermann, Mutational removal of the Thr669 and Ser671 phosphorylation sites alters substrate specificity and ligand-induced internalization of the epidermal growth factor receptor. J. Biol. Chem. 265, 12820– 12827 (1990). 2115882
  51. [55]T. Lan, Type II cGMP-dependent protein kinase phosphorylates EGFR at threonine 669 and thereby inhibits its activation. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 518, 14– 18 (2019). 31395339
  52. [56]J. Tong, S. Tan, F. Zou, J. Yu, L. Zhang, FBW7 mutations mediate resistance of colorectal cancer to targeted therapies by blocking Mcl-1 degradation. Oncogene 36, 787– 796 (2017). 27399335 PMC5226932
  53. [57]M. Ye, Targeting FBW7 as a strategy to overcome resistance to targeted therapy in non-small cell lung cancer. Cancer Res. 77, 3527– 3539 (2017). 28522751
  54. [58]E. Driehuis, Oral mucosal organoids as a potential platform for personalized cancer therapy. Cancer Discov. 9, 852– 871 (2019). 31053628
  55. [59]J. F. Seligmann, Combined epiregulin and amphiregulin expression levels as a predictive biomarker for panitumumab therapy benefit or lack of benefit in patients with RAS wild-type advanced colorectal cancer. JAMA Oncol. 2, 633 (2016). 26867820
  56. [61]F. Weeber, Preserved genetic diversity in organoids cultured from biopsies of human colorectal cancer metastases. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 112, 13308– 13311 (2015). 26460009 PMC4629330
  57. [63]M. C. Wagle, A transcriptional MAPK pathway activity score (MPAS) is a clinically relevant biomarker in multiple cancer types. NPJ Precis Oncol. 2, 7 (2018). 29872725 PMC5871852
  58. [64]H. Post, Robust, sensitive, and automated phosphopeptide enrichment optimized for low sample amounts applied to primary hippocampal neurons. J. Proteome Res. 16, 728– 737 (2017). 28107008
  59. [65]J. Beumer, BMP gradient along the intestinal villus axis controls zonated enterocyte and goblet cell states. Cell Rep. 38, 110438 (2022). 35235783
  60. [67]M. Boretto, EGFR is a target of the tumor suppressor E3-ligase FBXW7. GEO. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE246896. Deposited 2 November 2023. PMC10962967 38483988

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Boretto, M., Geurts, M. H., Gandhi, S., Ma, Z., Staliarova, N., Celotti, M., Lim, S., He, G.-W., Millen, R., Driehuis, E., Begthel, H., Smabers, L., Roodhart, J., van Es, J., Wu, W., & Clevers, H.
Affiliations
  • Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (NL)
  • Agency for Science, Technology and Research (SG)
  • Utrecht University (NL)
  • University Medical Center Utrecht (NL)
  • Organoid group, Oncode Institute, Hubrecht Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and University Medical Center, 3584 CT Utrecht, the Netherlands
Corresponding author
  • Boretto, Matteo
  • Geurts, Maarten H.
  • Gandhi, Shashank
  • Clevers, Hans
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2024-03-14
Volume
121
Issue
12
Pages
e2309902121-e2309902121
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
OpenAlex
W4392818837
Cited by
30
References
5
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 6
FWCI
4.08
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • KNAW Research Portal (The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
European Molecular Biology Organization (ALTF 769-2019)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Ubiquitin and proteasome pathways
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › HER2/EGFR in Cancer Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Degradation and Inhibitors
Keywords
FBXW7, EGF receptor, E3 ubiquitin ligase, protein degradation, phosphodegron, colon organoids, colorectal cancer, panitumumab, tumor suppressor
MeSH terms
F-Box-WD Repeat-Containing Protein 7, Epidermal Growth Factor, Humans, Neoplasms, Proteomics, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases, F-Box Proteins, ErbB Receptors

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review