Pinellia pedatisecta agglutinin interacts with the methylosome and induces cancer cell death

Pinellia pedatisecta agglutinin (PPA) is a specific mannose-binding plant lectin accumulated in the tuber of P. pedatisecta. In the work presented, the cytotoxicity of PPA to cancer cells was investigated through exogenous expression. A PPA gene was transduced into normal and cancer cell lines through plasmid vectors, and the effect of PPA expression was examined. Results showed that PPA translocated into the nucleus, colocalized with DNA and induced cell death. A mannose-binding motif and a V(103)-W(130) region directed the nuclear translocation of PPA. Coprecipitation, mass spectrometry and western blotting analysis further indentified that PPA was associated with the methylosome, which contains methylosome protein 50 and protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5). Knockdown of PRMT5 significantly inhibited the PPA-induced cell death, suggesting that PPA used the methylosome as a target. Furthermore, Ad.surp-PPA, an adenovirus vector in which the PPA gene was controlled by a survivin promoter (surp), selectively inhibited the proliferation of cancer cell lines. Taken together, the expression of PPA gene elicited significant cytotoxicity to cancer cells through targeting the methylosome and might be developed into a novel agent in cancer gene therapy.