Overexpression of ST5, an activator of Ras, has no effect on β-cell proliferation in adult mice

Objective

Both Type I and Type II diabetes mellitus result from insufficient functional β-cell mass. Efforts to increase β-cell proliferation as a means to restore β-cell mass have been met with limited success. Suppression of Tumorigenicity 5 (ST5) activates Ras/Erk signaling in the presence of Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF). In the pancreatic islet, Ras/Erk signaling is required for augmented β-cell proliferation during pregnancy, suggesting that ST5 is an appealing candidate to enhance adult β-cell proliferation. We aimed to test the hypothesis that overexpression of ST5 drives adult β-cell proliferation.

Methods

We utilized a doxycycline-inducible bitransgenic mouse model to activate β-cell-specific expression of human ST5 in adult mice at will. Islet morphology, β-cell proliferation, and β-cell mass in control and ST5-overexpressing (ST5 OE) animals were analyzed by immunofluorescent staining, under basal and two stimulated metabolic states: pregnancy and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced β-cell loss.

Results

Doxycycline treatment resulted in robust ST5 overexpression in islets from 12-16 week-old ST5 OE animals compared to controls, without affecting the islet morphology and identity of the β-cells. Under both basal and metabolically stimulated pregnancy states, β-cell proliferation and mass were comparable in ST5 OE and control animals. Furthermore, there was no detectable difference in β-cell proliferation between ST5 OE and control animals in response to STZ-induced β-cell loss.

Conclusions

We successfully derived an inducible bitransgenic mouse model to overexpress ST5 specifically in β-cells. However, our findings demonstrate that ST5 overexpression by itself has no mitogenic effect on the adult β-cell under basal and metabolically challenged states.

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Hypothesized that overexpression of ST5 would drive adult β-cell proliferation due to its role in activating MAPK/ERK.

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Generated a doxycycline-inducible bitransgenic mouse model to activate β-cell-specific expression of ST5.

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ST5 overexpression has no mitogenic effect on adult β-cellsunder basal and metabolically challenged states.

Reduced miR-550a-3p leads to breast cancer initiation, growth, and metastasis by increasing levels of ERK1 and 2

Hyperactivation of the Ras/ERK pathway contributes to breast cancer initiation and progression, and recent evidence suggests aberrant signaling of miRNAs that regulate the Ras/ERK pathway play important roles during carcinogenesis and cancer progression. In this study, we demonstrate that miR-550a-3p expression is negatively correlated with levels of ERK1 and ERK2, two pivotal effectors in the Ras/ERK pathway. MiR-550a-3p gradually decreased during breast cancer initiation and progression and this reduction was a prognostic indicator of poorer overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) among breast cancer patients. Our mechanistic studies demonstrated that miR-550a-3p exerts its tumor-suppressor role by directly repressing ERK1 and ERK2 protein expression, thereby suppressing the oncogenic ERK/RSK cascades, which reduced breast cancer cell viability, survival, migration, invasion, tumorigenesis, and metastasis. The inhibitory effects of miR-550a-3p were rescued by ectopic expression of ERK1 and/or ERK2. The novel connection between miR-550a-3p and ERK defines a new diagnostic and prognostic role for miR-550a-3p and highlights ERK inhibition as a candidate therapeutic target for breast cancers exhibiting hyperactivated Ras/ERK signaling.

Absence of Neurofibromin Induces an Oncogenic Metabolic Switch via Mitochondrial ERK-Mediated Phosphorylation of the Chaperone TRAP1

Mutations in neurofibromin, a Ras GTPase-activating protein, lead to the tumor predisposition syndrome neurofibromatosis type 1. Here, we report that cells lacking neurofibromin exhibit enhanced glycolysis and decreased respiration in a Ras/ERK-dependent way. In the mitochondrial matrix of neurofibromin-deficient cells, a fraction of active ERK1/2 associates with succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) and TRAP1, a chaperone that promotes the accumulation of the oncometabolite succinate by inhibiting SDH. ERK1/2 enhances both formation of this multimeric complex and SDH inhibition. ERK1/2 kinase activity is favored by the interaction with TRAP1, and TRAP1 is, in turn, phosphorylated in an ERK1/2-dependent way. TRAP1 silencing or mutagenesis at the serine residues targeted by ERK1/2 abrogates tumorigenicity, a phenotype that is reverted by addition of a cell-permeable succinate analog. Our findings reveal that Ras/ERK signaling controls the metabolic changes orchestrated by TRAP1 that have a key role in tumor growth and are a promising target for anti-neoplastic strategies.

De novo mutations in inhibitors of Wnt, BMP, and Ras/ERK signaling pathways in non-syndromic midline craniosynostosis

Non-syndromic craniosynostosis (NSC) is a frequent congenital malformation in which one or more cranial sutures fuse prematurely. Mutations causing rare syndromic craniosynostoses in humans and engineered mouse models commonly increase signaling of the Wnt, bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), or Ras/ERK pathways, converging on shared nuclear targets that promote bone formation. In contrast, the genetics of NSC is largely unexplored. More than 95% of NSC is sporadic, suggesting a role for de novo mutations. Exome sequencing of 291 parent-offspring trios with midline NSC revealed 15 probands with heterozygous damaging de novo mutations in 12 negative regulators of Wnt, BMP, and Ras/ERK signaling (10.9-fold enrichment, P = 2.4 × 10^-11). SMAD6 had 4 de novo and 14 transmitted mutations; no other gene had more than 1. Four familial NSC kindreds had mutations in genes previously implicated in syndromic disease. Collectively, these mutations contribute to 10% of probands. Mutations are predominantly loss-of-function, implicating haploinsufficiency as a frequent mechanism. A common risk variant near BMP2 increased the penetrance of SMAD6 mutations and was overtransmitted to patients with de novo mutations in other genes in these pathways, supporting a frequent two-locus pathogenesis. These findings implicate new genes in NSC and demonstrate related pathophysiology of common non-syndromic and rare syndromic craniosynostoses. These findings have implications for diagnosis, risk of recurrence, and risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. Finally, the use of pathways identified in rare syndromic disease to find genes accounting for non-syndromic cases may prove broadly relevant to understanding other congenital disorders featuring high locus heterogeneity.

Visualizing and Quantitating the Spatiotemporal Regulation of Ras/ERK Signaling by Dual-Specificity Mitogen-Activated Protein Phosphatases (MKPs)

The spatiotemporal regulation of the Ras/ERK pathway is critical in determining the physiological and pathophysiological outcome of signaling. Dual-specificity mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphatases (DUSPs or MKPs) are key regulators of pathway activity and may also localize ERK to distinct subcellular locations. Here we present methods largely based on the use of high content microscopy to both visualize and quantitate the subcellular distribution of activated (p-ERK) and total ERK in populations of mouse embryonic fibroblasts derived from mice lacking DUSP5, a nuclear ERK-specific MKP. Such methods in combination with rescue experiments using adenoviral vectors encoding wild-type and mutant forms of DUSP5 have allowed us to visualize specific defects in ERK regulation in these cells thus confirming the role of this phosphatase as both a nuclear regulator of ERK activity and localization.

The metastasis suppressor Nm23 as a modulator of Ras/ERK signaling

NM23-H1 (also known as NME1) was the first identified metastasis suppressor, which displays a nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK) and histidine protein kinase activity. NDPKs are linked to many processes, such as cell migration, proliferation, differentiation, but the exact mechanism whereby NM23-H1 inhibits the metastatic potential of cancer cells remains elusive. However, some recent data suggest that NM23-H1 may exert its anti-metastatic effect by blocking Ras/ERK signaling. In mammalian cell lines NDPK-mediated attenuation of Ras/ERK signaling occurs through phosphorylation (thus inactivation) of KSR (kinase suppressor of Ras) scaffolds. In this review I summarize our knowledge about KSR's function and its regulation in mammals and in C. elegans. Genetic studies in the nematode contributed substantially to our understanding of the function and regulation of the Ras pathway (i.e. KSR's discovery is also linked to the nematode). Components of the RTK/Ras/ERK pathway seem to be highly conserved between mammals and worms. NDK-1, the worm homolog of NM23-H1 affects Ras/MAPK signaling at the level of KSRs, and a functional interaction between NDK-1/NDPK and KSRs was first demonstrated in the worm in vivo. However, NDK-1 is a factor, which is necessary for proper MAPK activation, thus it activates rather than suppresses Ras/MAPK signaling in the worm. The contradiction between results in mammalian cell lines and in the worm regarding NDPKs' effect exerted on the outcome of Ras signaling might be resolved, if we better understand the function, structure and regulation of KSR scaffolds.