Depletion of CABYR-a/b sensitizes lung cancer cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis through YAP/p73-mediated DR5 upregulation

Our previous study revealed that knockdown of CABYR-a/b increases the chemosensitivity of lung cancer cells through inactivation of Akt. Here, we demonstrated that depletion of CABYR-a/b significantly increased DR5 expression and sensitized lung cancer cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis in vitro and/or in vivo. Importantly, treatment with AD5-10, a DR5-specific agonistic monoclonal antibody, was able to mimic TRAIL-induced apoptosis in CABYR-a/b-silenced cells. Strikingly, we identified that depletion of CABYR-a/b not only increased the expressions of p73 and DR5 but also decreased the phosphorylation of YAP S127. Loss- or gain-of-function studies of YAP and p73 revealed that double deletions of YAP and p73 effectively decreased the expression of DR5 and abolished TRAIL-induced apoptosis in CABYR-a/b knockdown cells. Conversely, the co-overexpression of YAP and p73 promoted the expression of DR5 and sensitized cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Taken together, our results demonstrate that depletion of CABYR-a/b sensitizes lung cancer cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis through YAP/p73-mediated DR5 upregulation.