The NLRP6 protein is very faintly expressed in several normal and cancerous epithelial cells and may be confused with an unrelated protein

PLoS One. 2023 Jan 20;18(1):e0279028. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279028. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Nod-Like Receptor Pyrin domain-containing protein 6 (NLRP6), a member of the Nucleotide-oligomerization domain-Like Receptor (NLR) family of proteins, assembles together with the ASC protein to form an inflammasome upon stimulation by bacterial lipoteichoic acid and double-stranded DNA. Besides its expression in myeloid cells, NLRP6 is also expressed in intestinal epithelial cells where it may contribute to the maintenance of gut homeostasis and negatively controls colorectal tumorigenesis. Here, we report that NLRP6 is very faintly expressed in several colon cancer cell lines, detected only in cytoplasmic small dots were it colocalizes with ASC. Consequently, it is very hardly detected by standard western-blotting techniques by several presently available commercial antibodies which, in contrast, highly cross-react with a protein of 90kDa that we demonstrate to be unrelated to NLRP6. We report here these results to caution the community not to confuse the 90kDa protein with the endogenous human NLRP6.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Epithelial Cells / metabolism
  • Homeostasis
  • Humans
  • Inflammasomes* / metabolism
  • Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins
  • Neoplasms*

Substances

  • Inflammasomes
  • NLRP6 protein, human
  • Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins

Grants and funding

CA and MC received specific fundings for this project from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by the Hauts de France Regional Council (contract n°17003781), the MEL (contract n°2016_ESR_05) and the French State (contract n°2017-R3-CTRL-Phase 1). CR is funded by the Université de Lille, the CNRS, the Région Hauts-de-France, the European Regional Development Fund, and the IBiSA network. Other general fundings (including salaries) are from Université de Lille, CNRS, Inserm and Institut Pasteur de Lille. We also got some help from the PLETHA animal facility of the Institut Pasteur de LIlle. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.