ASPM promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression by activating Wnt/β-catenin signaling through antagonizing autophagy-mediated Dvl2 degradation.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most fatal cancers worldwide. In this article, we show that expression of abnormal spindle-like microcephaly-associated protein (ASPM) is up-regulated in liver cancer samples, and this up-regulation is significantly associated with tumor aggressiveness and reduced survival times of patients. Down-regulation of ASPM expression inhibits the proliferation, invasion, migration and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition of HCC cells in vitro and inhibits tumor formation in nude mice. ASPM interacts with disheveled-2 (Dvl2) and antagonizes autophagy-mediated Dvl2 degradation by weakening the functional interaction between Dvl2 and the lipidated form of microtubule-associated proteins 1A/1B light chain 3A (LC3II), thereby increasing Dvl2 protein abundance and leading to Wnt/β-catenin signaling activation in HCC cells. Thus, our results define ASPM as a novel oncoprotein in HCC and indicate that disruption of the Wnt-ASPM-Dvl2-β-catenin signaling axis might have potential clinical value.