1. SCF(FBW7) regulates cellular apoptosis by targeting MCL1 for ubiquitylation and destruction.
- Author
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Inuzuka H, Shaik S, Onoyama I, Gao D, Tseng A, Maser RS, Zhai B, Wan L, Gutierrez A, Lau AW, Xiao Y, Christie AL, Aster J, Settleman J, Gygi SP, Kung AL, Look T, Nakayama KI, DePinho RA, and Wei W
- Subjects
- Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Benzenesulfonates pharmacology, Biphenyl Compounds pharmacology, Cell Cycle Proteins genetics, Cell Line, Tumor, F-Box Proteins genetics, F-Box-WD Repeat-Containing Protein 7, Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 metabolism, Humans, Mice, Molecular Sequence Data, Myeloid Cell Leukemia Sequence 1 Protein, Niacinamide analogs & derivatives, Nitrophenols pharmacology, Phenylurea Compounds, Phosphorylation, Piperazines pharmacology, Precursor T-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma pathology, Protein Binding drug effects, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 antagonists & inhibitors, Pyridines pharmacology, Sorafenib, Sulfonamides pharmacology, Tumor Suppressor Proteins deficiency, Tumor Suppressor Proteins genetics, Tumor Suppressor Proteins metabolism, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases deficiency, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases genetics, Apoptosis drug effects, Cell Cycle Proteins metabolism, F-Box Proteins metabolism, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 chemistry, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 metabolism, SKP Cullin F-Box Protein Ligases chemistry, SKP Cullin F-Box Protein Ligases metabolism, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases metabolism, Ubiquitination drug effects
- Abstract
The effective use of targeted therapy is highly dependent on the identification of responder patient populations. Loss of FBW7, which encodes a tumour-suppressor protein, is frequently found in various types of human cancer, including breast cancer, colon cancer and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL). In line with these genomic data, engineered deletion of Fbw7 in mouse T cells results in T-ALL, validating FBW7 as a T-ALL tumour suppressor. Determining the precise molecular mechanisms by which FBW7 exerts antitumour activity is an area of intensive investigation. These mechanisms are thought to relate in part to FBW7-mediated destruction of key proteins relevant to cancer, including Jun, Myc, cyclin E and notch 1 (ref. 9), all of which have oncoprotein activity and are overexpressed in various human cancers, including leukaemia. In addition to accelerating cell growth, overexpression of Jun, Myc or notch 1 can also induce programmed cell death. Thus, considerable uncertainty surrounds how FBW7-deficient cells evade cell death in the setting of upregulated Jun, Myc and/or notch 1. Here we show that the E3 ubiquitin ligase SCF(FBW7) (a SKP1-cullin-1-F-box complex that contains FBW7 as the F-box protein) governs cellular apoptosis by targeting MCL1, a pro-survival BCL2 family member, for ubiquitylation and destruction in a manner that depends on phosphorylation by glycogen synthase kinase 3. Human T-ALL cell lines showed a close relationship between FBW7 loss and MCL1 overexpression. Correspondingly, T-ALL cell lines with defective FBW7 are particularly sensitive to the multi-kinase inhibitor sorafenib but resistant to the BCL2 antagonist ABT-737. On the genetic level, FBW7 reconstitution or MCL1 depletion restores sensitivity to ABT-737, establishing MCL1 as a therapeutically relevant bypass survival mechanism that enables FBW7-deficient cells to evade apoptosis. Therefore, our work provides insight into the molecular mechanism of direct tumour suppression by FBW7 and has implications for the targeted treatment of patients with FBW7-deficient T-ALL.
- Published
- 2011
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