Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.10.2 (focal adhesion kinase)
44,029 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The genome and antigens of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) are frequently found in prostatic carcinoma. However, whether this infection is causative or is an epiphenomenon is not clear. We therefore investigated the ability of HCMV to promote metastatic processes, defined by tumor cell adhesion to the endothelium and extracellular matrix proteins. Experiments were based on the human prostate tumor cell line PC3, either infected with the HCMV strain Hi (HCMV(Hi)) or transfected with cDNA encoding the HCMV-specific immediate early protein IEA1 (UL123) or IEA2 (UL122). HCMV(Hi) upregulated PC3 adhesion to the endothelium and to the extracellular matrix proteins collagen, laminin, and fibronectin. The process was accompanied by enhancement of beta(1)-integrin surface expression, elevated levels of integrin-linked kinase, and phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase. IEA1 or IEA2 did not modulate PC3 adhesion or beta(1)-integrin expression. Based on this in vitro model, we postulate a direct association between HCMV infection and prostate tumor transmigration, which is not dependent on IEA proteins. Integrin overexpression, combined with the modulation of integrin-dependent signalling, seems to be, at least in part, responsible for a more invasive PC3(Hi) tumor cell phenotype. Elevated levels of c-myc found in IEA1-transfected or IEA2-transfected PC3 cell populations might promote further carcinogenic processes through accelerated cell proliferation.
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PMID:Human cytomegalovirus infection alters PC3 prostate carcinoma cell adhesion to endothelial cells and extracellular matrix. 1703 97

Integrin-associated signalling renders cells more resistant to genotoxic anti-cancer agents like ionizing radiation and chemotherapeutic substances, a phenomenon termed cell adhesion-mediated radioresistance/drug resistance (CAM-RR, CAM-DR). Integrins are heterodimeric cell-surface molecules that on one side link the actin cytoskeleton to the cell membrane and on the other side mediate cell-matrix interactions. In addition to their structural functions, integrins mediate signalling from the extracellular space into the cell through integrin-associated signalling and adaptor molecules such as FAK (focal adhesion kinase), ILK (integrin-linked kinase), PINCH (particularly interesting new cysteine-histidine rich protein) and Nck2 (non-catalytic (region of) tyrosine kinase adaptor protein 2). Via these molecules, integrin signalling tightly and cooperatively interacts with receptor tyrosine kinase signalling to regulate survival, proliferation and cell shape as well as polarity, adhesion, migration and differentiation. In tumour cells of diverse origin like breast, colon or skin, the function and regulation of these molecules is partly disturbed and thus might contribute to the malignant phenotype and pre-existent and acquired multidrug resistance. These issues as well as a variety of therapeutic options envisioned to influence tumour cell growth, metastasis and resistance, including kinase inhibitors, anti-integrin antibodies or RNA interference, will be summarized and discussed in this review.
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PMID:Signalling via integrins: implications for cell survival and anticancer strategies. 1708 81

Microtubule disruption provokes cytoskeleton and cell adhesion changes whose importance for apoptosis induction remains unclear. The present study focuses on the functional and the molecular adhesion kinetics that are induced by microtubule disruption-mediated apoptosis. We showed that antimicrotubules induce a biphasic sequence of adhesion response that precedes the onset of apoptosis and focal adhesion kinase hydrolysis. Antimicrotubules first induced an increase of the cellular adhesion paralleled by the raise of focal adhesion sites and actin contractility, which was followed by a sharp decrease of cell adhesion and disorganization of focal adhesion and actin stress fibers. The latter sequence of events ends by cell rounding, detachment from the extracellular matrix, and cell death. Microtubule-disrupting agents induced a sustained paxillin phosphorylation, before the activation of apoptosis, that requires the prior activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase and p38 but not c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase. Interestingly, integrin-linked kinase overexpression rescued the antimicrotubule-mediated loss of cell viability. Altogether, these results propound that antimicrotubule agents induce anoikis through the loss of focal adhesion structure integrity.
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PMID:Microtubule-destabilizing agents induce focal adhesion structure disorganization and anoikis in cancer cells. 1709 73

During development of the vertebrate lens there are dynamic interactions between the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the lens capsule and lens cells. Disruption of the ECM causes perturbation of lens development and cataract. Similarly, changes in cell signaling can result in abnormal ECM and cataract. Integrins are key mediators of ECM signals and recent studies have documented distinct repertoires of integrin expression during lens development, and in anterior subcapsular cataract (ASC) and posterior caspsule opacification (PCO). Increasingly, studies are being directed to investigating the signaling pathways that integrins modulate and have identified Src, focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and integrin-linked kinase (ILK) as downstream kinases that mediate proliferation, differentiation and morphological changes in the lens during development and cataract formation.
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PMID:Extracellular matrix and integrin signaling in lens development and cataract. 1713 21

Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) is an extracellular glycoprotein expressed in several solid cancers, including malignant gliomas, upon adoption of metastatic or invasive behaviors. SPARC expression in glioma cells promotes invasion and survival under stress, the latter process dependent on SPARC activation of AKT. Here we demonstrate that downregulation of SPARC expression with short interfering RNA (siRNA) in glioma cells decreased tumor cell survival and invasion. SPARC siRNA reduced the activating phosphorylation of AKT and two cytoplasmic kinases, focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and integrin-linked kinase (ILK). We determined the contributions of FAK and ILK to SPARC effects using SPARC protein and cell lines engineered to overexpress SPARC. SPARC activated FAK and ILK in glioma cells previously characterized as responsive to SPARC. Downregulation of either FAK or ILK expression inhibited SPARC-mediated AKT phosphorylation, and targeting both FAK and ILK attenuated AKT activation more potently than targeting either FAK or ILK alone. Decreased SPARC-mediated AKT activation correlated with a reduction in SPARC-dependent invasion and survival upon the downregulation of FAK and/or ILK expression. These data further demonstrate the role of SPARC in glioma tumor progression through the activation of intracellular kinases that may provide novel therapeutic targets for advanced cancers.
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PMID:Targeting SPARC expression decreases glioma cellular survival and invasion associated with reduced activities of FAK and ILK kinases. 1721 7

CEA functions as an intercellular adhesion molecule and is up-regulated in a wide variety of human cancers, including colon, breast and lung. Its over-expression inhibits cellular differentiation, blocks cell polarization, distorts tissue architecture, and inhibits anoikis of many different cell types. Here we report results concerning the molecular mechanism involved in these biological effects, where relatively rapid molecular changes not requiring alterations in gene expression were emphasized. Confocal microscopy experiments showed that antibody-mediated clustering of a deletion mutant of CEA (DeltaNCEA), normally incapable of self binding and clustering, led to the co-localization of integrin alpha5beta1 with patches of DeltaNCEA on the cell surface. Activation of alpha5, as defined by an anti-alpha5 mAb-sensitive increase in cell adhesion to immobilized fibronectin, and an increased binding of soluble fibronectin to cells, was also observed. This was accompanied by the recruitment of integrin-linked kinase (ILK), protein kinase B (PKB/Akt), and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) to membrane microdomains and the phosphorylation of Akt and MAPK. Inhibition of PI3-K and ILK, but not MAPK, prevented the alpha5beta1 integrin activation. Conversely, anti-alpha5 antibody inhibited the PI3-K-mediated activation of Akt, implying the involvement of outside-in and inside-out signaling in integrin activation. Therefore we propose that CEA-mediated signaling involves clustering of CEA and co-clustering and activation of the alpha5beta1 and associated specific signaling elements on the internal surfaces of membrane microdomains. These changes may represent a molecular mechanism for the biological effects of CEA.
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PMID:A co-clustering model involving alpha5beta1 integrin for the biological effects of GPI-anchored human carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). 1728 76

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) were infected with an adenovirus expressing integrin-linked kinase (ILK) to understand the role of cell-ECM signal transduction cascades in suppressing anoikis. Survivability of ILK-infected hMSCs encapsulated in poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels, an anoikis-inducing environment, was sustained at 90% over 7 weeks, and survival was attributed to increased protein kinase B (PKB/Akt) activation. hMSCs encapsulated in RGD-modified hydrogels induced an upregulation in ILK production, PKB/Akt activation, and subsequent survival to the same extent of ILK-infected, encapsulated hMSCs. As negative controls, encapsulated hMSCs were infected with cyclization recombinase (a protein not associated with cell survival)-expressing virus, and uninfected hMSCs exhibited very little ILK production, PKB/Akt activation, and survival ( approximately 55% after 7 weeks). As a measure of cell-matrix interactions, vinculin was also quantified for the encapsulated hMSCs and found to be 30-fold greater for cells encapsulated in RGD-modified hydrogels and fivefold greater for ILK-infected hMSCs than controls, indicating that cell-material interactions are inducing the cell survivability of hMSCs encapsulated in RGD-modified hydrogels. In sum, ILK infection can support cell survival in the absence of matrix interactions and enable fundamental studies of three-dimensional cell function in response to extrinsic signals, independently of matrix-ligand interactions.
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PMID:Integrin-linked kinase production prevents anoikis in human mesenchymal stem cells. 1733 36

Heart disease is a leading cause of death in newborns and in adults. Efforts to promote cardiac repair by introduction or recruitment of exogenous stem cells hold promise but typically involve isolation and introduction of autologous or donor progenitor cells. We have found that the G-actin-sequestering peptide thymosin beta4 promotes myocardial and endothelial cell migration in the embryonic heart and retains this property in postnatal cardiomyocytes. Survival of embryonic and postnatal cardiomyocytes in culture was also enhanced by thymosin beta4. We found that thymosin beta4 formed a functional complex with PINCH and integrin-linked kinase (ILK), resulting in activation of the survival kinase Akt/PKB, which was necessary for thymosin beta4's effects on cardiomyocytes. After coronary artery ligation in mice, thymosin beta4 treatment resulted in upregulation of ILK and Akt activity in the heart, enhanced early myocyte survival, and improved cardiac function. These findings suggest that thymosin beta4 promotes cardiomyocyte and endothelial migration, survival, and repair and may be a novel therapeutic target in the setting of acute myocardial damage.
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PMID:Thymosin beta4 is cardioprotective after myocardial infarction. 1760 Feb 80

Treatment of lung epithelial cells with different kinds of nano-sized particles leads to cell proliferation. Because bigger particles fail to induce this reaction, it is suggested that the special surface properties, due to the extremely small size of these kinds of materials, is the common principle responsible for this specific cell reaction. Here the activation of the protein kinase B (Akt) signaling cascade by carbon nanoparticles was investigated with regard to its relevance for proliferation. Kinetics and dose-response experiments demonstrated that Akt is specifically activated by nanoparticulate carbon particles in rat alveolar type II epithelial cells as well as in human bronchial epithelial cells. This pathway appeared to be dependent on epidermal growth factor receptor and beta(1)-integrins. The activation of Akt by these receptors is known to be a feature of adhesion-dependent signaling. However, intracellular proteins described in this context (focal adhesion kinase pp125(FAK) and integrin-linked kinase) were not activated, indicating a specific signaling mechanism. Inhibitor studies demonstrate that nanoparticle-induced proliferation is mediated by phosphoinositide 3-kinases and Akt. Moreover, overexpression of mutant Akt, as well as pretreatment with an Akt inhibitor, reduced nanoparticle-specific ERK1/2 phosphorylation, which is decisive for nanoparticle-induced proliferation. With this report, we describe the activation of a pathway by carbon nanoparticles that was so far known to be triggered by ligand receptor binding or on cell adhesion to extracellular matrix proteins.
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PMID:Carbon nanoparticle-induced lung epithelial cell proliferation is mediated by receptor-dependent Akt activation. 1808 69

Induction of tenascin-C mRNA by cyclic strain in fibroblasts depends on RhoA and Rho dependent kinase (ROCK). Here we show that integrin-linked kinase (ILK) is required upstream of this pathway. In ILK-deficient fibroblasts, RhoA was not activated and tenascin-C mRNA remained low after cyclic strain; tenascin-C expression was unaffected by ROCK inhibition. In ILK wild-type but not ILK-/- fibroblasts, cyclic strain-induced reorganization of actin stress fibers and focal adhesions, as well as nuclear translocation of MAL, a transcriptional co-activator that links actin assembly to gene expression. These findings support a role for RhoA in ILK-mediated mechanotransduction. Rescue of ILK -/- fibroblasts by expression of wild-type ILK restored these responses to cyclic strain. Mechanosensation is not entirely abolished in ILK -/- fibroblasts, since cyclic strain activated Erk-1/2 and PKB/Akt, and induced c-fos mRNA in these cells. Conversely, lysophosphatidic acid stimulated RhoA and induced both c-fos and tenascin-C mRNA in ILK -/- cells. Thus, the signaling pathways controlling tenascin-C expression are functional in the absence of ILK, but are not triggered by cyclic strain. Our results indicate that ILK is selectively required for the induction of specific genes by mechanical stimulation via RhoA-mediated pathways.
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PMID:Tenascin-C induction by cyclic strain requires integrin-linked kinase. 1826 18


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