Recombinant nematode anticoagulant protein c2 inhibits cell invasion by decreasing uPA expression in NSCLC cells

Nematode anticoagulant protein c2 (NAPc2) is an 85-residue polypeptide originally isolated from the hematophagous hookworm, Ancylostoma caninum. Several studies have shown that rNAPc2 inhibits the growth of primary and metastatic tumors in mice independently of its ability to initiate coagulation. We obtained bioactive recombinant rNAPc2 by splicing of the rNAPc2-intein-CBD fusion proteins expressed in E. coli ER2566. In the in vitro assay, rNAPc2 obviously inhibited the invasive ability of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, rNAPc2 suppressed tumor growth in vivo by daily intraperitoneal injection of rNAPc2 in an NSCLC cell xenograft model of nude mice. Respectively, rNAPc2 downregulated the production of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) (P<0.05) and suppressed nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activity. We also identified that inhibition of NF-κB activity impaired cell invasion and reduced the uPA production in NSCLC cells. Meanwhile, NF-κB was found to directly bind to the uPA promoter in vitro. These results demonstrated that rNAPc2 inhibits cell invasion at least in part through the downregulation of the NF-κB-dependent metastasis-related gene expression in NSCLC. Our results also suggest that uPA, a known metastasis-promoting gene, is indirectly regulated by rNAPc2 through NF-κB activation. These results indicate that rNAPc2 may be a potent agent for the prevention of NSCLC progression.