N-myristoyltransferase 2 expression in human colon cancer:: Cross-talk between the calpain and caspase system

A number of viral and eukaryotic proteins which undergo a lipophilic modification by the enzyme N-myristoyl-transferase (NMT: NMT1 and NMT2) are required for signal transduction and regulatory functions. To investigate whether NMT2 contributes to the pathogenesis of colorectal carcinoma, we observed a higher expression of NMT2 in most of the cases of cancerous tissues compared to normal tissues (84.6% of cases; P < 0.05) by Western blot analysis. Furthermore, protein-protein interaction of NMTs revealed that in-calpain interacts with NMT1 while caspase-3 interacts with NMT2. Our findings provide the first evidence of higher expression of NMT2 in human colorectal adenocarcinomas and the interaction of both forms of NMT with various signaling molecules. (c) 2006 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.