ORMDL1 is upregulated and associated with favorable outcomes in colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: The ORMDL1 gene is known as a crucial negative regulator of sphingolipid biogenesis. However, the ORMDL1 gene has rarely been studied in a tumor-related context. Therefore, its prognostic value and functional significance in colorectal cancer (CRC) remain to be explored. METHODS: TCGA CRC cohort analysis, qRT-PCR, and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were used to examine the ORMDL1 expression level. The association between ORMDL1 expression and various clinical characteristics was analyzed by chi-square tests. The overall survival (OS) of CRC patients was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier analysis. In vitro and in vivo cell-based assays were performed to explore the role of ORMDL1 in cell proliferation, invasion and migration. Transcriptional changes in cells with either ORMDL1 knockdown or overexpression were compared and analyzed. RESULTS: ORMDL1 was upregulated in CRC tissues in both the TCGA and our cohort. Interestingly, its expression was significantly lower in patients with metastasis than in patients without metastasis, and the high expression group had longer OS than the low expression group. Knockdown of ORMDL1 expression can promote proliferation, colony formation and invasion, while attenuating migration in CRC cell lines. In contrast, forced overexpression of ORMDL1 reduced cell proliferation, colony formation and invasion, while enhancing cell migration. Stable knockdown of ORMDL1 can promote cancer cell proliferation in vivo to some extent. Finally, Rho GTPase activity was influenced by ORMDL1, and the expression of ORMDL1 was enhanced by DTT treatment. CONCLUSION: ORMDL1 is upregulated and may serve as a biomarker to predict favourable outcomes in colorectal cancer.

Free-cholesterol-mediated autophagy of ORMDL1 stimulates sphingomyelin biosynthesis.

Cholesterol confers unique biophysical properties to the plasma membrane bilayer that are essential for maintaining optimal membrane fluidity, which in turn regulate multiple physiological functions required to promote cellular integrity and viability. Conversely, excessive cholesterol causes pathological conditions such as atherosclerosis that can lead to heart attacks. Human atheroma macrophages carry a large burden of free cholesterol (FC) in addition to cholesterol esters. It is recognized that sterols can modulate the levels of other lipids to attain lipid homeostasis; thus, excess FC may play a role in modulating compensatory sphingolipid pathways. Recent studies have shown that excess lipids can cause ER stress and apoptosis. In contrast, autophagy may play a protective role by clearing excess lipids from macrophage foam cell lipid droplets. Interestingly, a macrophage study using a TLR4-specifc agonist showed that de novo sphingolipid biosynthesis is essential for autophagy induction, suggesting links between sphingolipid biosynthesis and autophagy. While the role of autophagy in removing excess lipids has been the focus of many studies, its role in fine-tuning cellular lipid homeostasis remains largely unexplored.

ORMDL orosomucoid-like proteins are degraded by free-cholesterol-loading-induced autophagy.

Eukaryotic cells have evolved robust mechanisms to counter excess cholesterol including redistribution of lipids into different compartments and compensatory up-regulation of phospholipid biosynthesis. We demonstrate here that excess cellular cholesterol increased the activity of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) enzyme serine palmitoyl-CoA transferase (SPT), the rate-limiting enzyme in sphingomyelin synthesis. This increased SPT activity was not due to altered levels of SPTLC1 or SPTLC2, the major subunits of SPT. Instead, cholesterol loading decreased the levels of ORMDL1, a negative regulator of SPT activity, due to its increased turnover. Several lines of evidence demonstrated that free-cholesterol-induced autophagy, which led to increased turnover of ORMDL1. Cholesterol loading induced ORMDL1 redistribution from the ER to cytoplasmic p62 positive autophagosomes. Coimmunoprecipitation analysis of cholesterol-loaded cells showed increased association between ORMDL1 and p62. The lysosomal inhibitor chloroquine or siRNA knockdown of Atg7 inhibited ORMDL1 degradation by cholesterol, whereas proteasome inhibitors showed no effect. ORMDL1 degradation was specific to free-cholesterol loading as autophagy induced by serum starvation or general ER stress did not lead to ORMDL1 degradation. ORMDL proteins are thus previously unidentified responders to excess cholesterol, exiting the ER to activate SPT and increase sphingomyelin biosynthesis, which may buffer excess cellular cholesterol.