Browsing by keyword "IRS2"
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A Mechanistic Investigation of Insulin Receptor Substrate 2 Function in Breast Cancer ProgressionThe advancement of cancer treatment depends on understanding the biological processes that contribute to disease progression. The spread of tumor cells from the primary site to distant organs is the biggest obstacle to efficacious treatment. The insulin receptor substrate (IRS) proteins IRS1 and IRS2 are cytoplasmic adaptor proteins that organize signaling events downstream of the Insulin receptor (IR) and the Insulin-like growth factor receptor 1 (IGF1R). Both of these receptors have been implicated in cancer progression. The IRS proteins share a significant level of homology and are both capable of recruiting and activating phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K). Despite these similarities, signaling through IRS1 and IRS2 leads to distinct tumor cell outcomes in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, IRS1 regulates cell proliferation and growth and IRS2 regulates metabolism, survival and invasion. In vivo, Irs2 is a positive regulator of tumor metastasis, whereas Irs1 does not promote metastasis. The major objective of this thesis work was to further the understanding of the mechanism by which IRS2 signaling regulates tumor progression. To investigate how IRS-1 and IRS-2 regulate distinct tumor cell outcomes, I examined the involvement of the microtubule cytoskeleton in IRS-dependent signaling. I determined that IRS2-mediated AKT activation is dependent upon an intact microtubule cytoskeleton, whereas IRS1-mediated AKT signaling occurs independently of microtubules. As a result, drugs that disrupt microtubules promote apoptosis in cells that signal through IRS2, but cells that signal through IRS1 are resistant to the effects of microtubule disruption. However, AKT inhibition sensitizes IRS1-dependent cells to apoptotic cell death upon microtubule disruption. From a clinical perspective, my studies identify IRS2 as a potential biomarker for the response of breast cancer patients to anti-microtubule drug therapy. To investigate further the mechanism of IRS2 contributions to tumor progression, I employed a mutagenesis approach to identify structural requirements of IRS2 for its function. I established that the ability of IRS2 to activate PI3K is necessary for its regulation of both invasion and tumor initiating cell (TIC) self-renewal. I also identified two independent regions within the IRS2 C-terminus that are required for invasion and self-renewal, respectively. Characterization of the invasion-promoting region identified BMP2-induced protein kinase (BMP2K) as an interacting protein. Suppression of BMP2K expression in mammary tumor cells disrupts IRS2-mediated tumor cell invasion. Taken together, my work advances the understanding of how IRS2 contributes to breast cancer progression and provides a molecular understanding for the development of novel approaches for the treatment of breast cancer and other malignancies that rely upon IRS2.
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CDK4 Rescues Diabetes in IRS2-Deficient Mice: Exploring Novel Roles of a Cell Cycle Regulator in Promoting Beta Cell DifferentiationStrategies aimed at expanding functional beta cell mass remain a prime goal of diabetes research. Both the insulin signaling pathway, as well as the G1/S transition of the cell cycle are critically important for the maintenance of beta cell mass. We previously demonstrated in a mouse model of diabetes, insulin receptor substrate 2 (Irs2) deficient mice, that beta cell failure was attributed to reduced islet expression of Cyclin D2, and that overexpressing Cyclin D2 rescued proliferation in Irs2 deficient beta cells in vitro. Since Cyclin D2 partners with CDK4 to drive cell cycle progression, we hypothesized that an activated form of CDK4, Cdk4-R24C (resistant to inhibition by the INK4A cell cycle inhibitor p16), would rescue the in vivo proliferation defect in Irs2 deficient mice. Interestingly, Irs2 knockout mice with the active Cdk4 R24C allele, displayed rescued blood glucose, and normalized glucose tolerance, without affecting peripheral insulin resistance. I found that both and beta cell mass and proliferation were rescued in vivo, contributing to the rescue of glucose tolerance. Interestingly, the dedifferentiated phenotype of Irs2 knockout islets (ALDH1A3+ cells, nuclear FOXO1 and suppressed PDX1) was completely restored with the active Cdk4 allele, suggesting that CDK4 may play a role in promoting beta cell differentiation. Utilizing various in vitro models where FOXO1 represses Pdx1, overexpression of CDK4/CyclinD2 was consistently able to rescue the FOXO1-mediated repression of Pdx1, without significant impacts on FOXO1 subcellular localization. These results suggested that FOXO1 regulation in the beta cell is more complex than previously described, and also suggested that CDK4/Cyclin D2 may be instead modulating the acetylation status of FOXO1, impacting its transcriptional activity. To this end, inhibiting histone acetylate transferases (HATs) partially rescued FOXO1-mediated Pdx1 suppression, while inhibiting histone deacetylase enzymes (HDACs) showed the reverse effect of trending towards blocking the Cyclin D2/CDK4-mediated rescue of Pdx1. Finally, I found that CDK4/Cyclin D2 increases phosphorylation of sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), an HDAC that modulates the acetylation status, and transcriptional activity of FOXO1, and that CDK4/Cyclin D2 promotes FOXO1 degradation. In sum, we conclude that activated CDK4 rescues beta cell failure due to IRS2 deficiency through multiple mechanisms related to not only cell cycle regulation but also to beta cell differentiation status, primarily through modulation of FOXO1 transcriptional activity.
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Identification of a Novel Invasion-Promoting Region in Insulin Receptor Substrate 2Although the insulin receptor substrate (IRS) proteins IRS1 and IRS2 share considerable homology and activate common signaling pathways, their contributions to breast cancer are distinct. IRS1 has been implicated in the proliferation and survival of breast tumor cells. In contrast, IRS2 facilitates glycolysis, invasion, and metastasis. To determine the mechanistic basis for IRS2-dependent functions, we investigated unique structural features of IRS2 that are required for invasion. Our studies revealed that the ability of IRS2 to promote invasion is dependent upon upstream insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R)/insulin receptor (IR) activation and the recruitment and activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), functions shared with IRS1. In addition, a 174-amino-acid region in the IRS2 C-terminal tail, which is not conserved in IRS1, is also required for IRS2-mediated invasion. Importantly, this "invasion (INV) region" is sufficient to confer invasion-promoting ability when swapped into IRS1. However, the INV region is not required for the IRS2-dependent regulation of glucose uptake. Bone morphogenetic protein 2-inducible kinase (BMP2K) binds to the INV region and contributes to IRS2-dependent invasion. Taken together, our data advance the mechanistic understanding of how IRS2 regulates invasion and reveal that IRS2 functions important for cancer can be independently targeted without interfering with the metabolic activities of this adaptor protein.
