The Vimentin-targeting drug ALD-R491 partially reverts the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and vimentin interactome of lung cancer cells

Background: The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a common feature in early cancer invasion. Increased vimentin is a canonical marker of the EMT; however, the role of vimentin in EMT remains unknown. Methods: To clarify this, we induced EMT in lung cancer cells with TGF-β1, followed by treatment with the vimentin-targeting drug ALD-R491, live-cell imaging, and quantitative proteomics. Results: We identified 838 proteins in the intermediate filament fraction of cells. TGF-β1 treatment increased the proportion of vimentin in this fraction and the levels of 24 proteins. Variants of fibronectin showed the most pronounced increase (137-fold), followed by regulators of the cytoskeleton, cell motility, and division, such as the mRNA-splicing protein SON. TGF-β1 increased cell spreading and cell migration speed, and changed a positive correlation between cell migration speed and persistence to negative. ALD-R491 reversed these mesenchymal phenotypes to epithelial and the binding of RNA-binding proteins, including SON. Conclusions: These findings present many new interactors of intermediate filaments, describe how EMT and vimentin filament dynamics influence the intermediate filament interactome, and present ALD-R491 as a possible EMT-inhibitor. The observations support the hypothesis that the dynamic turnover of vimentin filaments and their interacting proteins govern mesenchymal cell migration, EMT, cell invasion, and cancer metastasis.