All human granzymes target hnRNP K that is essential for tumor cell viability

Granule exocytosis by cytotoxic lymphocytes is the key mechanism to eliminate virus-infected cells and tumor cells. These lytic granules contain the pore-forming protein perforin and a set of five serine proteases called granzymes. All human granzymes display distinct substrate specificities and induce cell death by cleaving critical intracellular death substrates. In the present study, we show that all human granzymes directly cleaved the DNA/RNA-binding protein heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNP K), designating hnRNP K as the first known pan-granzyme substrate. Cleavage of hnRNP K was more efficient in the presence of RNA and occurred in two apparent proteolysis-sensitive amino acid regions, thereby dissecting the functional DNA/RNA-binding hnRNP K domains. HnRNP K was cleaved under physiological conditions when purified granzymes were delivered into living tumor cells and during lymphokine-activated killer cell-mediated attack. HnRNP K is essential for tumor cell viability, since knockdown of hnRNP K resulted in spontaneous tumor cell apoptosis with caspase activation and reactive oxygen species production. This apoptosis was more pronounced at low tumor cell density where hnRNP K knockdown also triggered a caspase-independent apoptotic pathway. This suggests that hnRNP K promotes tumor cell survival in the absence of cell-cell contact. Silencing of hnRNP K protein expression rendered tumor cells more susceptible to cellular cytotoxicity. We conclude that hnRNP K is indispensable for tumor cell viability and our data suggest that targeting of hnRNP K by granzymes contributes to or reinforces the cell death mechanisms by which cytotoxic lymphocytes eliminate tumor cells.