Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound   Target Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound

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Query: EC:2.7.12.2 (MEK)
18,161 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Small-molecule kinase inhibitors often modulate signaling pathways other than the one targeted, whether by direct "off-target" effects or by indirect "pathway cross-talk" effects. The presence of either or both of these classes of complicating factors impedes the predictive understanding of kinase inhibitor consequences for cell phenotypic behaviors involved in drug efficacy responses. To address this problem, we offer an avenue toward comprehending how kinase inhibitor modulations of cell signaling networks lead to altered cell phenotypic responses by applying a quantitative, multipathway computational modeling approach. We show that integrating measurements of signals across three key kinase pathways involved in regulating migration of human mammary epithelial cells, downstream of ErbB system receptor activation by epidermal growth factor (EGF) or heregulin (HRG), significantly improves prediction of cell migration changes resulting from treatment with the small-molecule inhibitors 2-(4-morpholinyl)-8-phenyl-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one (LY294002) and 2'-amino-3'-methoxyflavone (PD98059) for both normal and HER2-overexpressing cells. These inhibitors are primarily directed toward inhibition of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) but are known to exhibit off-target effects; moreover, complex cross-talk interactions between the PI3K/Akt and MEK/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk) pathways are also appreciated. We observe here that treatment with LY294002 reduces migration of HRG-stimulated cells but not EGF-stimulated cells, despite comparable levels of reduction of Akt phosphorylation under both conditions, demonstrating that the target inhibition effect is not unilaterally predictive of efficacy against cell phenotypic response. Consequent measurement of levels of Erk and p38 phosphorylation, along with those for EGF receptor phosphorylation, after LY294002 treatment revealed unintended modulation of these nontargeted pathways. However, when these measurements were incorporated into a partial least-squares regression model, the cell migration responses to treatment were successfully predicted. Similar success was found for the same multipathway model in analogously predicting PD98059 treatment effects on cell migration. We conclude that a quantitative, multipathway modeling approach can provide a significant advance toward comprehending kinase inhibitor efficacy in the face of off-target and pathway cross-talk effects.
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PMID:Multipathway model enables prediction of kinase inhibitor cross-talk effects on migration of Her2-overexpressing mammary epithelial cells. 1834 5

Genetic lesions affecting a number of kinases and other elements within the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling pathway have been implicated in the pathogenesis of human non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We performed mutational profiling of a large cohort of lung adenocarcinomas to uncover other potential somatic mutations in genes of this pathway that could contribute to lung tumorigenesis. We have identified in 2 of 207 primary lung tumors a somatic activating mutation in exon 2 of MEK1 (i.e., mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1 or MAP2K1) that substitutes asparagine for lysine at amino acid 57 (K57N) in the nonkinase portion of the kinase. Neither of these two tumors harbored known mutations in other genes encoding components of the EGFR signaling pathway (i.e., EGFR, HER2, KRAS, PIK3CA, and BRAF). Expression of mutant, but not wild-type, MEK1 leads to constitutive activity of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-1/2 in human 293T cells and to growth factor-independent proliferation of murine Ba/F3 cells. A selective MEK inhibitor, AZD6244, inhibits mutant-induced ERK activity in 293T cells and growth of mutant-bearing Ba/F3 cells. We also screened 85 NSCLC cell lines for MEK1 exon 2 mutations; one line (NCI-H1437) harbors a Q56P substitution, a known transformation-competent allele of MEK1 originally identified in rat fibroblasts, and is sensitive to treatment with AZD6244. MEK1 mutants have not previously been reported in lung cancer and may provide a target for effective therapy in a small subset of patients with lung adenocarcinoma.
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PMID:Novel MEK1 mutation identified by mutational analysis of epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway genes in lung adenocarcinoma. 1863 2

Three prominent hallmarks of triple-negative/basal-like breast carcinomas, a subtype of breast cancer gene phenotype associated with poor relapse-free and overall survival, are overexpression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), hyperactivation of the MEK/ERK transduction pathway and high sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents. The cytotoxic interaction between EGFR inhibitors (monoclonal antibodies such as cetuximab and small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as gefitinib) and DNA cross-linking agents (e.g. platinum derivatives) might represent a promising combination for the treatment of triple-negative/basal-like breast tumors that are dependent upon EGFR/MEK/ERK signaling. We evaluated the growth and molecular interactions of the anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab (erbitux) and the DNA cross-linking agent cisplatin (cis-diammedichloroplatinum; CDDP) in the gefitinib-resistant MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cell line, an in vitro model system that shows many of the recurrent basal-like molecular abnormalities including ER-PR-HER2-negative status, TP53 deficiency, EGFR overexpression, PTEN loss and constitutive activation of the MEK/ERK pathway. Unlike other basal-like breast cancer models, MDA-MB-468 cells do not carry mutations of the key DNA repair gene BRCA1. Concurrent treatment with sub-optimal doses of cetuximab significantly enhanced CDDP-induced apoptotic cell death. However, an isobologram-based mathematical assessment of the nature of the interaction revealed a loss of synergism when employing a high-dose of cetuximab. Since BRCA1 depletion has been found to decrease DNA damage repair and cell survival in MDA-MB-468 cells when treated with DNA-damaging drugs, we employed ELISA-based quantitative analyses to measure BRCA1 protein levels in CDDP+/- cetuximab-treated cells. Cetuximab as single agent was as efficient as CDDP at increasing BRCA1 protein expression. Interestingly, cetuximab co-exposure significantly antagonized the ability of CDDP to up-regulate BRCA1 expression. Low-scale phosphor-proteomic approaches [i.e. phospho-receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) and phospho-mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) Array Proteome Profiler capable of simultaneously identifying the relative levels of phosphorylation of 42 different RTKs and 23 different MAPKs and other serine/threonine kinases, respectively] revealed the ability of Cetuximab, as single agent, to paradoxically induce hyper-phosphorylation of EGFR while concomitantly deactivating p42/44 (ERK1/ERK2) MAPK. Unexpectedly, ELISA-based quantitative analyses of EGFR protein content demonstrated that simultaneous exposure to cetuximab and optimal doses of CDDP completely depleted EGFR protein in MDA-MB-468 cells. Although these findings preclinically support, at least in part, ongoing clinical trials for 'triple-negative/basal-like' metastatic breast cancer patients who are receiving either cetuximab alone versus cetuximab plus carboplatin (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00232505), the unexpected ability of CDDP to promote a complete depletion of the cetuximab target EGFR further suggests that treatment schedules, cetuximab/CDDP doses and BRCA1 status should be carefully considered when combining anti-EGFR antibodies and platinum derivatives in triple-negative/basal-like breast carcinomas.
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PMID:Growth and molecular interactions of the anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab and the DNA cross-linking agent cisplatin in gefitinib-resistant MDA-MB-468 cells: new prospects in the treatment of triple-negative/basal-like breast cancer. 1902 Jul 49

FGFR2 and MAP3K1 are members of the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK-signaling pathway and have been identified from genome-wide association studies to be breast cancer susceptibility genes. Potential interactions of these genes and their role with respect to tumor markers, hormonal factors and race on breast cancer risk have not been explored. We examined FGFR2 and MAP3K1 variants, breast tumor characteristics and hormone exposures in a population-based case-control sample of 1225 European-American (EA) and 584 African-American (AA) women. FGFR2 rs1219648 and rs2981582 genotypes were significantly associated with breast cancer in EA only in estrogen receptor-positive (ER+), progesterone receptor-positive (PR+) and HER2/Neu-negative (HER2-) tumors. MAP3K1 was not associated with breast cancer in EA women, but it was associated with breast cancer in AA women, again limited to ER+, PR+ and HER2- tumors. An interaction was observed between combined hormone replacement therapy use and FGFR2 rs1219648 genotypes on breast cancer risk in EA women (P = 0.010). Finally, we observed a significant interaction between MAP3K1 rs889312 and FGFR2 rs2981582 (P = 0.022) in AA but not EA women. These results confirm that FGFR2 and MAP3K1 are involved in breast cancer susceptibility and confer their effects primarily in ER+ and PR+ tumors. We further report that these genes confer their effects in HER2- tumors, interact with one another to confer breast cancer susceptibility in AA women and interact with hormone exposures in AA and EA women.
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PMID:Hormone-dependent effects of FGFR2 and MAP3K1 in breast cancer susceptibility in a population-based sample of post-menopausal African-American and European-American women. 1902 4

Helicobacter pylori is the causative agent of gastric pathologies ranging from chronic gastritis to peptic ulcers and even cancer. Virulent strains carrying both the cag pathogenicity island (cagPAI) and the vacuolating cytotoxin VacA are key players in disease development. The cagPAI encodes a type IV secretion system (T4SS) which forms a pilus for injection of the CagA protein into gastric epithelial cells. Injected CagA undergoes tyrosine phosphorylation and induces actin-cytoskeletal rearrangements involved in host cell scattering and elongation. We show here that the CagA-induced responses can be inhibited in strains expressing highly active VacA. Further investigations revealed that VacA does not interfere with known activities of phosphorylated CagA such as inactivation of Src kinase and cortactin dephosphorylation. Instead, we demonstrate that VacA exhibits inactivating activities on the epidermal growth factor receptor EGFR and HER2/Neu, and subsequently Erk1/2 MAP kinase which are important for cell scattering and elongation. Inactivation of vacA gene, downregulation of the VacA receptor RPTP-alpha, addition of EGF or expression of constitutive-active MEK1 kinase restored the capability of H. pylori to induce the latter phenotypes. These data demonstrate that VacA can downregulate CagA's effects on epithelial cells, a novel molecular mechanism showing how H. pylori can avoid excessive cellular damage.
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PMID:Importance of EGF receptor, HER2/Neu and Erk1/2 kinase signalling for host cell elongation and scattering induced by the Helicobacter pylori CagA protein: antagonistic effects of the vacuolating cytotoxin VacA. 1904 39

The clinical success of selective kinase inhibitors, such as imatinib and erlotinib, as therapeutic agents for several human cancers has prompted substantial interest in the further development and clinical testing of such inhibitors for a wide variety of malignancies. While much of this effort has been focused on the receptor tyrosine kinases, including EGFR, HER2, PDGF receptor, c-KIT, and MET, inhibitors of serine/threonine kinases are also beginning to emerge within discovery pipelines. Among these kinases, the RAF and MEK kinases have received substantial attention, owing largely to the relatively high frequency of activating mutations of RAS ( approximately 20% of all human cancers), an upstream activator of the well established RAF-MEK-ERK signaling cascade, as well as frequent activating mutations in the BRAF kinase ( approximately 7% of all human cancers). Here, we summarize the current state of development of kinase inhibitors directed at this signaling pathway, a few of which have already demonstrating favorable toxicity profiles as well as promising activity in early phase clinical studies.
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PMID:Targeting the RAF-MEK-ERK pathway in cancer therapy. 1921 4

Activation of HER-2/neu leads to multiple signalling cascades and plays a vital role in cell survival and growth. We used a signal transduction antibody array to characterize the tyrosine phosphorylation profiles in heregulin (HRG alpha1)-treated BT474 breast cancer cells, and identified a group of 80 molecules in which tyrosine phosphorylation was highly regulated by HRG-enhanced HER-2/neu signalling. These phosphoproteins included many known HER-2/neu-regulated molecules (e.g., SHC, Akt, Syk and Stat1) and proteins that had not been previously linked to HER-2/neu signalling, such as Fas-associated death domain protein (FADD), apoptosis repressor with CARD domain (ARC), and the tumour suppressor, protein phosphatase type 2A (PP2A). Pharmacological inhibition with HER-2 inhibitor AG825, PI3K inhibitor LY294002, MEK1/2 inhibitor PD98095, and p38MAPK inhibitor SB203580 confirmed that PP2A phosphorylation was modulated by the complicated, HER-2/neu-driven downstream signal network, with the PI3K and MEK1/2 positively, while the p38MAPK negatively regulating its tyrosine phosphorylation. In breast tumour specimens, expression of tyrosine-phosphorylated PP2A (pY307-PP2A) was highly increased in the HER-2/neu positive breast tumours, and significantly correlated to tumour progression, thus enhancing its potential prognostic value. Our data provide meaningful information in the elucidation of the HER-2-driven tyrosine phosphorylation network, and in the development of phosphopeptide-related targets as prognostication indicators.
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PMID:Tyrosine phosphorylation of PP2A is regulated by HER-2 signalling and correlates with breast cancer progression. 1936 Mar 41

The Ste20-like kinase, SLK, is involved in the control of cell motility through its effects on actin reorganization and focal adhesion turnover. Here we investigated the role of SLK in chemotaxis downstream of the tyrosine kinase receptor, HER2/ErbB2/Neu, which is frequently overexpressed in human breast cancers. Our results show that SLK is required for the efficient cell migration of human and mouse mammary epithelial cell lines in the presence of the Neu activator, heregulin, as a chemoattractant. SLK activity is stimulated by heregulin treatment or by overexpression of activated Neu. Phosphorylation of tyrosine 1201 or tyrosines 1226/7 on Neu is a key event for SLK activation and cell migration, and cancer cell invasion mediated by these tyrosines is inhibited by kinase-inactive SLK. Signaling pathway inhibitors show that Neu-mediated SLK activation is dependent on MEK, PI3K, PLCgamma and Shc signaling. Furthermore, heregulin-stimulated SLK activity requires signals from the focal adhesion proteins, FAK and src. Finally, phospho-FAK analysis shows that SLK is required for Neu-dependent focal adhesion turnover. Together, these studies define an interaction between Neu and SLK signaling in the regulation of cancer cell motility.
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PMID:The Ste20-like kinase SLK is required for ErbB2-driven breast cancer cell motility. 1952 80

Non-small cell lung cancers with activating mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) are highly responsive to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), such as gefitinib and erlotinib. Such cancers are "addicted" to EGFR, and treatment with a TKI invariably leads to down-regulation of the PI3K-AKT-mTOR and MEK-ERK signaling pathways, resulting in apoptosis. Using a dual PI3K-mTOR inhibitor, NVP-BEZ235, we evaluated whether PI3K-mTOR inhibition alone induced apoptosis in these cancers. In contrast to HER2-amplified breast cancers, we found that PI3K-mTOR inhibition did not promote substantial apoptosis in the EGFR mutant lung cancers. However, blocking both PI3K-mTOR and MEK simultaneously led to apoptosis to similar levels as the EGFR TKIs, suggesting that down-regulation of these pathways may account for much of the apoptosis promoted by EGFR inhibition. In EGFR mutant lung cancers, down-regulation of both intracellular pathways converged on the BH3 family of proteins regulating apoptosis. PI3K inhibition led to down-regulation of Mcl-1, and MEK inhibition led to up-regulation of BIM. In fact, down-regulation of Mcl-1 by siRNA was sufficient to sensitize these cancers to single-agent MEK inhibitors. Surprisingly, an AKT inhibitor did not decrease Mcl-1 levels, and when combined with MEK inhibitors, failed to induce apoptosis. Importantly, we observed that the combination of PI3K-mTOR and MEK inhibitors effectively shrunk tumors in a transgenic and xenograft model of EGFR T790M-L858R cancers. These data indicate simultaneous inhibition of PI3K-mTOR and MEK signaling is an effective strategy for treating EGFR mutant lung cancers, including those with acquired resistance to EGFR TKIs.
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PMID:Differential induction of apoptosis in HER2 and EGFR addicted cancers following PI3K inhibition. 1985 Aug 69

Several studies have indicated the potential value of targeting HER-2 signaling to enhance the anti-tumor activity of ionizing radiation. However, therapeutic resistance resulting from several factors, including activation of the downstream pathway, represents a major obstacle to treatment. Here, we investigated whether inhibitors targeting downstream of HER-2 signaling would radiosensitize SKBR3 breast cancer cells that exhibit overamplification of HER2. Selective inhibition of MEK-ERK signaling using pharmacologic inhibitors (PD98059, UO126) did not increase the radiosensitivity of SKBR3 cells. Selective inhibition of the PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway using pharmacologic inhibitors (LY294002, AKT inhibitor VIII, Rapamycin) significantly attenuated expression of p-AKT and p-70S6K, respectively and radiosensitized SKBR3 cells. MCF-7 cells those did not overexpress HER-2, showed less radiosensitization compared to SKBR3 cells by inhibition of this pathway. Pre-treatment with these inhibitors also caused significant abrogation of typical G(2) arrest following ionizing radiation and induced marked prolongation of gammaH2AX foci indicating impairment of DNA damage repair. A dual inhibitor of Class I PI3K and mTOR, PI103 effectively radiosensitized SKBR3 cells and showed significant prolongation of gammaH2AX foci. Inhibition of PI3K-AKT signaling was associated with downregulation of DNA-PKs, respectively. While apoptosis was the major mode of cell death when the cells were pretreated with LY294002 or AKT inhibitor VIII, the cells were pretreated by rapamycin or PI103 showed mixed mode of cell death including autophagy. Our results suggest possible mechanisms to counteract the HER-2 prosurvival signaling implicated in radioresistance, and offer an alternative strategy to overcome resistance to HER-2 inhibitors combined with radiation.
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PMID:Targeting HER2 signaling pathway for radiosensitization: alternative strategy for therapeutic resistance. 1992 13


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