Metabolic stress regulates ERK activity by controlling KSR-RAF heterodimerization.
Amandine VerlandeMichaela KrafčíkováDavid PotěšilLukáš TrantírekZbyněk ZdráhalMoustafa ElkalafJan TrnkaKarel SoučekNora RauchJens RauchWalter KolchStjepan UldrijanPublished in: EMBO reports (2017)
Altered cell metabolism is a hallmark of cancer, and targeting specific metabolic nodes is considered an attractive strategy for cancer therapy. In this study, we evaluate the effects of metabolic stressors on the deregulated ERK pathway in melanoma cells bearing activating mutations of the NRAS or BRAF oncogenes. We report that metabolic stressors promote the dimerization of KSR proteins with CRAF in NRAS-mutant cells, and with oncogenic BRAF in BRAFV600E-mutant cells, thereby enhancing ERK pathway activation. Despite this similarity, the two genomic subtypes react differently when a higher level of metabolic stress is induced. In NRAS-mutant cells, the ERK pathway is even more stimulated, while it is strongly downregulated in BRAFV600E-mutant cells. We demonstrate that this is caused by the dissociation of mutant BRAF from KSR and is mediated by activated AMPK. Both types of ERK regulation nevertheless lead to cell cycle arrest. Besides studying the effects of the metabolic stressors on ERK pathway activity, we also present data suggesting that for efficient therapies of both genomic melanoma subtypes, specific metabolic targeting is necessary.
Keyphrases
- cell cycle arrest
- pi k akt
- signaling pathway
- wild type
- induced apoptosis
- cell death
- cell proliferation
- cancer therapy
- drug delivery
- stem cells
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- skeletal muscle
- gene expression
- dna methylation
- single cell
- early stage
- endothelial cells
- squamous cell carcinoma
- mesenchymal stem cells
- protein kinase
- artificial intelligence
- cell therapy
- genome wide
- deep learning
- young adults
- metastatic colorectal cancer
- rectal cancer