Soluble Heparin and Heparan Sulfate Glycosaminoglycans Interfere with Sonic Hedgehog Solubilization and Receptor Binding.

Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling plays a tumor-promoting role in many epithelial cancers. Cancer cells produce soluble a Shh that signals to distant stromal cells that express the receptor Patched (Ptc). These receiving cells respond by producing other soluble factors that promote cancer cell growth, generating a positive feedback loop. To interfere with reinforced Shh signaling, we examined the potential of defined heparin and heparan sulfate (HS) polysaccharides to block Shh solubilization and Ptc receptor binding. We confirm in vitro and in vivo that proteolytic cleavage of the N-terminal Cardin-Weintraub (CW) amino acid motif is a prerequisite for Shh solubilization and function. Consistent with the established binding of soluble heparin or HS to the Shh CW target motif, both polysaccharides impaired proteolytic Shh processing and release from source cells. We also show that HS and heparin bind to, and block, another set of basic amino acids required for unimpaired Shh binding to Ptc receptors on receiving cells. Both modes of Shh activity downregulation depend more on HS size and overall charge than on specific HS sulfation modifications. We conclude that heparin oligosaccharide interference in the physiological roles of HS in Shh release and reception may be used to expand the field of investigation to pharmaceutical intervention of tumor-promoting Shh functions.

Sonic hedgehog processing and release are regulated by glypican heparan sulfate proteoglycans.

All Hedgehog morphogens are released from producing cells, despite being synthesized as N- and C-terminally lipidated molecules, a modification that firmly tethers them to the cell membrane. We have previously shown that proteolytic removal of both lipidated peptides, called shedding, releases bioactive Sonic hedgehog (Shh) morphogens from the surface of transfected Bosc23 cells. Using in vivo knockdown together with in vitro cell culture studies, we now show that glypican heparan sulfate proteoglycans regulate this process, through their heparan sulfate chains, in a cell autonomous manner. Heparan sulfate specifically modifies Shh processing at the cell surface, and purified glycosaminoglycans enhance the proteolytic removal of N- and C-terminal Shh peptides under cell-free conditions. The most likely explanation for these observations is direct Shh processing in the extracellular compartment, suggesting that heparan sulfate acts as a scaffold or activator for Shh ligands and the factors required for their turnover. We also show that purified heparan sulfate isolated from specific cell types and tissues mediates the release of bioactive Shh from pancreatic cancer cells, revealing a previously unknown regulatory role for these versatile molecules in a pathological context.