scholarly journals Oncogenic KRAS: Signaling and Drug Resistance

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 5599
Author(s):  
Hyeon Jin Kim ◽  
Han Na Lee ◽  
Mi Suk Jeong ◽  
Se Bok Jang

RAS proteins play a role in many physiological signals transduction processes, including cell growth, division, and survival. The Ras protein has amino acids 188-189 and functions as GTPase. These proteins are switch molecules that cycle between inactive GDP-bound and active GTP-bound by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs). KRAS is one of the Ras superfamily isoforms (N-RAS, H-RAS, and K-RAS) that frequently mutate in cancer. The mutation of KRAS is essentially performing the transformation in humans. Since most RAS proteins belong to GTPase, mutated and GTP-bound active RAS is found in many cancers. Despite KRAS being an important molecule in mostly human cancer, including pancreatic and breast, numerous efforts in years past have persisted in cancer therapy targeting KRAS mutant. This review summarizes the biological characteristics of these proteins and the recent progress in the exploration of KRAS-targeted anticancer, leading to new insight.

1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1104-1112
Author(s):  
R D Mosteller ◽  
J Han ◽  
D Broek

Ras proteins are activated in vivo by guanine nucleotide exchange factors encoded by genes homologous to the CDC25 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We have taken a combined genetic and biochemical approach to probe the sites on Ras proteins important for interaction with such exchange factors and to further probe the mechanism of CDC25-catalyzed GDP-GTP exchange. Random mutagenesis coupled with genetic selection in S. cerevisiae was used to generate second-site mutations within human H-ras-ala15 which could suppress the ability of the Ala-15 substitution to block CDC25 function. We transferred these second-site suppressor mutations to normal H-ras and oncogenic H-rasVal-12 to test whether they induced a general loss of function or whether they selectively affected CDC25 interaction. Four highly selective mutations were discovered, and they affected the surface-located amino acid residues 62, 63, 67, and 69. Two lines of evidence suggested that these residues may be involved in binding to CDC25: (i) using the yeast two-hybrid system, we demonstrated that these mutants cannot bind CDC25 under conditions where the wild-type H-Ras protein can; (ii) we demonstrated that the binding to H-Ras of monoclonal antibody Y13-259, whose epitope has been mapped to residues 63, 65, 66, 67, 70, and 73, is blocked by the mouse sos1 and yeast CDC25 gene products. We also present evidence that the mechanism by which CDC25 catalyzes exchange is more involved than simply catalyzing the release of bound nucleotide and passively allowing nucleotides to rebind. Most critically, a complex of Ras and CDC25 protein, unlike free Fas protein, possesses significantly greater affinity for GTP than for GDP. Furthermore, the Ras CDC25 complex is more readily dissociated into free subunits by GTP than it is by GDP. Both of these results suggest a function for CDC25 in promoting the selective exchange of GTP for GDP.


1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1104-1112 ◽  
Author(s):  
R D Mosteller ◽  
J Han ◽  
D Broek

Ras proteins are activated in vivo by guanine nucleotide exchange factors encoded by genes homologous to the CDC25 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We have taken a combined genetic and biochemical approach to probe the sites on Ras proteins important for interaction with such exchange factors and to further probe the mechanism of CDC25-catalyzed GDP-GTP exchange. Random mutagenesis coupled with genetic selection in S. cerevisiae was used to generate second-site mutations within human H-ras-ala15 which could suppress the ability of the Ala-15 substitution to block CDC25 function. We transferred these second-site suppressor mutations to normal H-ras and oncogenic H-rasVal-12 to test whether they induced a general loss of function or whether they selectively affected CDC25 interaction. Four highly selective mutations were discovered, and they affected the surface-located amino acid residues 62, 63, 67, and 69. Two lines of evidence suggested that these residues may be involved in binding to CDC25: (i) using the yeast two-hybrid system, we demonstrated that these mutants cannot bind CDC25 under conditions where the wild-type H-Ras protein can; (ii) we demonstrated that the binding to H-Ras of monoclonal antibody Y13-259, whose epitope has been mapped to residues 63, 65, 66, 67, 70, and 73, is blocked by the mouse sos1 and yeast CDC25 gene products. We also present evidence that the mechanism by which CDC25 catalyzes exchange is more involved than simply catalyzing the release of bound nucleotide and passively allowing nucleotides to rebind. Most critically, a complex of Ras and CDC25 protein, unlike free Fas protein, possesses significantly greater affinity for GTP than for GDP. Furthermore, the Ras CDC25 complex is more readily dissociated into free subunits by GTP than it is by GDP. Both of these results suggest a function for CDC25 in promoting the selective exchange of GTP for GDP.


2001 ◽  
Vol 276 (50) ◽  
pp. 47248-47256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuejun Tian ◽  
Larry A. Feig

Sos and Ras-GRF are two families of guanine nucleotide exchange factors that activate Ras proteins in cells. Sos proteins are ubiquitously expressed and are activated in response to cell-surface tyrosine kinase stimulation. In contrast, Ras-GRF proteins are expressed primarily in central nervous system neurons and are activated by calcium/calmodulin binding and by phosphorylation. Although both Sos1 and Ras-GRF1 activate the Ras proteins Ha-Ras, N-Ras, and Ki-Ras, only Ras-GRF1 also activates the functionally distinct R-Ras GTPase. In this study, we determined which amino acid sequences in these exchange factors and their target GTPases are responsible for this signaling specificity difference. Analysis of chimeras and individual amino acid exchanges between Sos1 and Ras-GRF1 revealed that the critical amino acids reside within an 11-amino acid segment of their catalytic domains between the second and third structurally conserved regions (amino acids (aa) 828–838 in Sos1 and 1057–1067 in Ras-GRF1) of Ras guanine nucleotide exchange factors. In Sos1, this segment is in helix B, which is known to interact with the switch 2 region of Ha-Ras. Interestingly, a similar analysis of Ha-Ras and R-Ras chimeras did not identify the switch 2 region of Ha-Ras as encoding specificity. Instead, we found a more distal protein segment, helix 3 (aa 91–103 in Ha-Ras and 117–129 in R-Ras), which interacts instead primarily with helix K (aa 1002–1016) of Sos1. These findings suggest that specificity derives from the fact that R-Ras-specific amino acids in the region analogous to Ha-Ras helix 3 prevent a functional interaction with Sos1 indirectly, possibly by preventing an appropriate association of its switch 2 region with helix B of Sos1. Although previous studies have shown that helix B of Sos1 and helix 3 of Ha-Ras are involved in promoting nucleotide exchange on Ras proteins, this study highlights the importance of these regions in establishing signaling specificity.


1996 ◽  
Vol 271 (19) ◽  
pp. 11076-11082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence A. Quilliam ◽  
Mark M. Hisaka ◽  
Sheng Zhong ◽  
Amy Lowry ◽  
Raymond D. Mosteller ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (13) ◽  
pp. 4830-4842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja G. Hunter ◽  
Guanglei Zhuang ◽  
Dana Brantley-Sieders ◽  
Wojciech Swat ◽  
Christopher W. Cowan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Angiogenesis, the process by which new blood vessels are formed from preexisting vasculature, is critical for vascular remodeling during development and contributes to the pathogenesis of diseases such as cancer. Prior studies from our laboratory demonstrate that the EphA2 receptor tyrosine kinase is a key regulator of angiogenesis in vivo. The EphA receptor-mediated angiogenic response is dependent on activation of Rho family GTPase Rac1 and is regulated by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. Here we report the identification of Vav2 and Vav3 as guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) that link the EphA2 receptor to Rho family GTPase activation and angiogenesis. Ephrin-A1 stimulation recruits the binding of Vav proteins to the activated EphA2 receptor. The induced association of EphA receptor and Vav proteins modulates the activity of Vav GEFs, leading to activation of Rac1 GTPase. Overexpression of either Vav2 or Vav3 in primary microvascular endothelial cells promotes Rac1 activation, cell migration, and assembly in response to ephrin-A1 stimulation. Conversely, loss of Vav2 and Vav3 GEFs inhibits Rac1 activation and ephrin-A1-induced angiogenic responses both in vitro and in vivo. In addition, embryonic fibroblasts derived from Vav2−/− Vav3−/− mice fail to spread on an ephrin-A1-coated surface and exhibit a significant decrease in the formation of ephrin-A1-induced lamellipodia and filopodia. These findings suggest that Vav GEFs serve as a molecular link between EphA2 receptors and the actin cytoskeleton and provide an important mechanism for EphA2-mediated angiogenesis.


Biochemistry ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (38) ◽  
pp. 5125-5133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Benabdi ◽  
François Peurois ◽  
Agata Nawrotek ◽  
Jahnavi Chikireddy ◽  
Tatiana Cañeque ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob J Stanley ◽  
Geraint MH Thomas

G proteins are an important family of signalling molecules controlled by guanine nucleotide exchange and GTPase activity in what is commonly called an 'activation/inactivation cycle'. The molecular mechanism by which guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) catalyse the activation of monomeric G proteins is well-established, however the complete reversibility of this mechanism is often overlooked. Here, we use a theoretical approach to prove that GEFs are unable to positively control G protein systems at steady-state in the absence of GTPase activity. Instead, positive regulation of G proteins must be seen as a product of the competition between guanine nucleotide exchange and GTPase activity -- emphasising a central role for GTPase activity beyond merely signal termination. We conclude that a more accurate description of the regulation of G proteins via these processes is as a 'balance/imbalance' mechanism. This result has implications for the understanding of many intracellular signalling processes, and for experimental strategies that rely on modulating G protein systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 220 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arun A. Chandrakumar ◽  
Étienne Coyaud ◽  
Christopher B. Marshall ◽  
Mitsuhiko Ikura ◽  
Brian Raught ◽  
...  

Rab11 GTPase proteins are required for cytokinesis, ciliogenesis, and lumenogenesis. Rab11a is critical for apical delivery of podocalyxin (PODXL) during lumen formation in epithelial cells. SH3BP5 and SH3BP5L are guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) for Rab11. We show that SH3BP5 and SH3BP5L are required for activation of Rab11a and cyst lumen formation. Using proximity-dependent biotin identification (BioID) interaction proteomics, we have identified SH3BP5 and its paralogue SH3BP5L as new substrates of the poly-ADP-ribose polymerase Tankyrase and the E3 ligase RNF146. We provide data demonstrating that epithelial polarity via cyst lumen formation is governed by Tankyrase, which inhibits Rab11a activation through the suppression of SH3BP5 and SH3BP5L. RNF146 reduces Tankyrase protein abundance and restores Rab11a activation and lumen formation. Thus, Rab11a activation is controlled by a signaling pathway composed of the sequential inhibition of SH3BP5 paralogues by Tankyrase, which is itself suppressed by RNF146.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document