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The PTEN phosphoinositide 3-phosphatase is a tumor suppressor commonly targeted by pathologic missense mutations. Subject to multiple complex layers of regulation, its capital role in cancer relies on its counteracting function of class I phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), a key feature in oncogenic signaling pathways. Precise assessment of the involvement of PTEN mutations described in the clinics in loss of catalytic activity requires either tedious in vitro phosphatase assays or in vivo experiments involving transfection into mammalian cell lines. Taking advantage of the versatility of the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we have developed different functional assays by reconstitution of the mammalian PI3K-PTEN switch in this lower eukaryote. This methodology is based on the fact that regulated PI3K expression in yeast cells causes conversion of PtdIns(4,5)P2 in PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 and co-expression of PTEN counteracts this effect. This can be traced by monitoring growth, given that PtdIns(4,5)P2 pools are essential for the yeast cell, or by using fluorescent reporters amenable for microscopy or flow cytometry. Here we describe the methodology and review its application to evaluate the functionality of PTEN mutations. We show that the technique is amenable to both directed and systematic structure-function relationship studies, and present an example of its use for the study of the recently discovered PTEN-L variant., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

PTEN is a major tumour suppressor protein and a regulator of numerous diverse biological processes. It has an evolutionarily conserved role as a phosphoinositide lipid phosphatase, regulating the PI3K signalling pathway, but also has catalytic phosphatase activity against protein substrates, although the significance of this latter activity is less well understood. Unlike many tumour suppressors, even modest changes in PTEN activity can have strong effects on phenotypes, including tumour formation. Due to this recognised functional significance, several experimental platforms have been developed to assay the catalytic activity of PTEN against different substrates and are being applied to understand this cellular substrate diversity and the regulation of PTEN. Here we present and discuss methods to assay the phosphatase activity of PTEN in vitro., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Small molecule inhibitors of many classes of enzymes, including phosphatases, have widespread use as experimental tools and as therapeutics. Efforts to develop inhibitors against the lipid phosphatase and tumour suppressor, PTEN, was for some time limited by concerns that their use as therapy could result in increased risk of cancer. However, the accumulation of evidence that short term PTEN inhibition may be valuable in conditions such as nerve injury has raised interest. Here we investigate the inhibition of PTEN by four available PTEN inhibitors, bpV(phen), bpV(pic), VO-OHpic and SF1670 and compared this inhibition with that of only 3 other related enzymes, the tyrosine phosphatase SHP1 and the phosphoinositide phosphatases INPP4A and INPP4B. Even with this very small number of comparators, for all compounds, inhibition of multiple enzymes was observed and with all three vanadate compounds, this was similar or more potent than the inhibition of PTEN. In particular, the bisperoxovanadate compounds were found to inhibit PTEN poorly in the presence of reducing agents including the cellular redox buffer glutathione., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10) tumour suppressor is a PI (phosphoinositide) 3-phosphatase that can inhibit cellular proliferation, survival and growth by inactivating PI 3-kinase-dependent signalling. It also suppresses cellular motility through mechanisms that may be partially independent of phosphatase activity. PTEN is one of the most commonly lost tumour suppressors in human cancer, and its deregulation is also implicated in several other diseases. Here we discuss recent developments in our understanding of how the cellular activity of PTEN is regulated, and the closely related question of how this activity is lost in tumours. Cellular PTEN function appears to be regulated by controlling both the expression of the enzyme and also its activity through mechanisms including oxidation and phosphorylation-based control of non-substrate membrane binding. Therefore mutation of PTEN in tumours disrupts not only the catalytic function of PTEN, but also its regulatory aspects. However, although mutation of PTEN is uncommon in many human tumour types, loss of PTEN expression seems to be more frequent. It is currently unclear how these tumours lose PTEN expression in the absence of mutation, and while some data implicate other potential tumour suppressors and oncogenes in this process, this area seems likely to be a key focus of future research.

Insulin-like growth factors elicit many responses through activation of phosphoinositide 3-OH kinase (PI3K). The tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC1-2) suppresses cell growth by negatively regulating a protein kinase, p70S6K (S6K1), which generally requires PI3K signals for its activation. Here, we show that TSC1-2 is required for insulin signaling to PI3K. TSC1-2 maintains insulin signaling to PI3K by restraining the activity of S6K, which when activated inactivates insulin receptor substrate (IRS) function, via repression of IRS-1 gene expression and via direct phosphorylation of IRS-1. Our results argue that the low malignant potential of tumors arising from TSC1-2 dysfunction may be explained by the failure of TSC mutant cells to activate PI3K and its downstream effectors., (Copyright The Rockerfeller University Press)

The PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10) tumour-suppressor protein is a phosphoinositide 3-phosphatase which antagonizes phosphoinositide 3-kinase-dependent signalling by dephosphorylating PtdIns(3,4,5)P3. Most tumour-derived point mutations of PTEN induce a loss of function, which correlates with profoundly reduced catalytic activity. However, here we characterize a point mutation at the N-terminus of PTEN, K13E from a human glioblastoma, which displayed wild-type activity when assayed in vitro. This mutation occurs within a conserved polybasic motif, a putative PtdIns(4,5)P2-binding site that may participate in membrane targeting of PTEN. We found that catalytic activity against lipid substrates and vesicle binding of wild-type PTEN, but not of PTEN K13E, were greatly stimulated by anionic lipids, especially PtdIns(4,5)P2. The K13E mutation also greatly reduces the efficiency with which anionic lipids inhibit PTEN activity against soluble substrates, supporting the hypothesis that non-catalytic membrane binding orientates the active site to favour lipid substrates. Significantly, in contrast to the wild-type enzyme, PTEN K13E failed either to prevent protein kinase B/Akt phosphorylation, or inhibit cell proliferation when expressed in PTEN-null U87MG cells. The cellular functioning of K13E PTEN was recovered by targeting to the plasma membrane through inclusion of a myristoylation site. Our results establish a requirement for the conserved N-terminal motif of PTEN for correct membrane orientation, cellular activity and tumour-suppressor function.

PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10) is a member of the protein tyrosine phosphatase family that is structurally adapted to facilitate the metabolism of 3-phosphoinositide lipid second messengers, especially PtdIns(3,4,5) P (3). Cellular PTEN activity is restrained by the retention of C-terminally phosphorylated enzyme in the cytosol. Dephosphorylation by as yet undefined phosphatases initiates an electrostatic switch which targets PTEN specifically to the plasma membrane, where it binds through multiple positively charged residues in both the C2 and N-terminal domains and is susceptible to feedback regulation through proteolytic degradation. PTEN also forms signalling complexes with PDZ domain-containing adaptors, such as the MAGUK (membrane-associated guanylate kinase) proteins, interactions which appear to be necessary for metabolism of localized pools of PtdIns(3,4,5) P (3) involved in regulating actin cytoskeleton dynamics. TPIP [TPTE (transmembrane phosphatase with tensin homology) and PTEN homologous inositol lipid phosphatase] is a novel gene product which exists in multiply spliced forms. TPIPalpha has PtdIns(3,4,5) P (3) 3-phosphatase activity and is localized to the endoplasmic reticulum, via two transmembrane spanning regions, where it may metabolize PtdIns(3,4,5) P (3) that appears to be unaffected by expressed PTEN. PTEN can be acutely regulated by oxidative stress and by endogenously produced reactive oxygen species. This mechanism provides a novel means to stimulate phosphoinositide 3-kinase-dependent signalling pathways, which may be important in circumstances where PtdIns(3,4,5) P (3) and oxidants are produced concurrently.

The PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10) tumor suppressor is a phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate (PtdInsP3) 3-phosphatase that plays a crucial role in regulating many cellular processes by antagonizing the phosphoinositide 3-kinase signaling pathway. Although able to metabolize soluble inositol phosphates in vitro, the question of their significance as physiological substrates is unresolved. We show that inositol phosphates are not regulated by wild type PTEN, but that a synthetic mutant, PTEN M-CBR3, previously thought to be inactive toward inositides, can selectively regulate inositol 1,3,4,5,6-pentakisphosphate (Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5). Transfection of U87-MG cells with PTEN M-CBR3 lowered Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5 levels by 60% without detectable effect on PtdInsP3. Although PTEN M-CBR3 is a 3-phosphatase, levels of myo-inositol 1,4,5,6-tetrakisphosphate were not increased, whereas myo-inositol 1,3,4,6-tetrakisphospate levels increased by 80%. We have used PTEN M-CBR3 to study the physiological function of Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5 and have found that Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5 does not modulate PKB phosphorylation, nor does it regulate clathrin-mediated epidermal growth factor receptor internalization. By contrast, PTEN M-CBR3 expression, and the subsequent lowering of Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5, are associated with reduced anchorage-independent colony formation and anchorage-dependent proliferation in U87-MG cells. Our results, together with previously published data, suggest that Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5 has a role in proliferation.

The tumour suppressor PTEN is a PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3) phosphatase that regulates many cellular processes through direct antagonism of PI 3-kinase signalling. Here we show that oxidative stress activates PI 3-kinase-dependent signalling via the inactivation of PTEN. We use two assay systems to show that cellular PTEN phosphatase activity is inhibited by oxidative stress induced by 1 mM hydrogen peroxide. PTEN inactivation by oxidative stress also causes an increase in cellular PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3) levels and activation of the downstream PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3) target, PKB/Akt, that does not occur in cells lacking PTEN. We then show that endogenous oxidant production in RAW264.7 macrophages inactivates a fraction of the cellular PTEN, and that this is associated with an oxidant-dependent activation of downstream signalling. These results show that oxidants, including those produced by cells, can activate downstream signalling via the inactivation of PTEN. This demonstrates a novel mechanism of regulation of the activity of this important tumour suppressor and the signalling pathways it regulates. These results may have significant implications for the many cellular processes in which PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3) and oxidants are produced concurrently.

The PTEN tumour suppressor protein is a phosphoinositide 3-phosphatase that, by metabolising phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate (PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3)), acts in direct antagonism to growth factor stimulated PI 3-kinases. A wealth of data has now illuminated pathways that can be controlled by PTEN through PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3), some of which, when deregulated, give a selective advantage to tumour cells. Early studies of PTEN showed that its activity was able to promote cell cycle arrest and apoptosis and inhibit cell motility, but more recent data have identified other functional consequences of PTEN action, such as effects on the regulation of angiogenesis. The structure of PTEN includes several features not seen in related protein phosphatases, which adapt the enzyme to act efficiently as a lipid phosphatase, including a C2 domain tightly associated with the phosphatase domain, and a broader and deeper active site pocket. Several pieces of data indicate that PTEN is a principal regulator of the cellular levels of PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3), but work is only just beginning to uncover mechanisms by which the cellular activity of PTEN can be controlled. There also remains the vexing question of whether any of PTEN's cellular functions reflect its evolutionary roots as a member of the protein tyrosine phosphatase superfamily.

The PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10) tumour suppressor is a phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate [PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3)] 3-phosphatase that plays a critical role in regulating many cellular processes by antagonizing the phosphoinositide 3-kinase signalling pathway. We have identified and characterized two human homologues of PTEN, which differ with respect to their subcellular localization and lipid phosphatase activities. The previously cloned, but uncharacterized, TPTE (transmembrane phosphatase with tensin homology) is localized to the plasma membrane, but lacks detectable phosphoinositide 3-phosphatase activity. TPIP (TPTE and PTEN homologous inositol lipid phosphatase) is a novel phosphatase that occurs in several differentially spliced forms of which two, TPIP alpha and TPIP beta, appear to be functionally distinct. TPIP alpha displays similar phosphoinositide 3-phosphatase activity compared with PTEN against PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3), PtdIns(3,5)P(2), PtdIns(3,4)P(2) and PtdIns(3)P, has N-terminal transmembrane domains and appears to be localized on the endoplasmic reticulum. This is unusual as most signalling-lipid-metabolizing enzymes are not integral membrane proteins. TPIP beta, however, lacks detectable phosphatase activity and is cytosolic. TPIP has a wider tissue distribution than the testis-specific TPTE, with specific splice variants being expressed in testis, brain and stomach. TPTE and TPIP do not appear to be functional orthologues of the Golgi-localized and more distantly related murine PTEN2. We suggest that TPIP alpha plays a role in regulating phosphoinositide signalling on the endoplasmic reticulum, and might also represent a tumour suppressor and functional homologue of PTEN in some tissues.

The tumour suppressor protein, PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10) is a member of the mixed function, serine/threonine/tyrosine phosphatase subfamily of protein phosphatases. Its physiological substrates, however, are primarily 3-phosphorylated inositol phospholipids, which are products of phosphoinositide 3-kinases. PTEN thus antagonizes PI 3-kinase-dependent signalling pathways, which explains to a large extent its tumour suppressor status. We have examined the kinetic behaviour, substrate specificity and regulation of PTEN both in vitro and in a variety of cellular models. Although PTEN can utilize both phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate [PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3)] and its water-soluble headgroup, inositol 1,3,4,5-tetrakisphosphate, as substrates, it displays classical features of interfacial catalysis, which greatly favour the lipid substrate (by as much as 1000-fold as judged by K(cat)/K(m) values). Expression of PTEN in U87 cells (which lack endogenous PTEN) and measuring the levels of all known 3-phosphorylated lipids suggests that phosphatidylinositol 3,4-bisphosphate and PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3) are both substrates, but that phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate and phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate are not. PTEN binds to several PDZ-domain-containing proteins via a consensus sequence at its extreme C-terminus. Disruption of targeting to PDZ-domain proteins selectively blocks some PTEN functions, but not others, suggesting the existence of spatially localized, functionally dedicated pools of signalling lipids. We have also shown recently that PTEN expression is controlled at the transcriptional level and is profoundly upregulated by peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma agonists, thereby providing possible implications for these drugs in diabetes, inflammation and cancer.

The tumour suppressor protein PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10) is a lipid phosphatase which can antagonize the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) signalling pathway, promoting apoptosis and inhibiting cell-cycle progression and cell motility. We show that very little cellular PTEN is associated with the plasma membrane, but that artificial membrane-targeting of PTEN enhances its inhibition of signalling to protein kinase B (PKB). Evidence for potential targeting of PTEN to the membrane through PDZ domain-mediated protein-protein interactions led us to use a PTEN enzyme with a deletion of the C-terminal PDZ-binding sequence, that retains full phosphatase activity against soluble substrates, and to analyse the efficiency of this mutant in different cellular assays. The extreme C-terminal PDZ-binding sequence was dispensable for the efficient down-regulation of cellular PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 levels and a number of PI 3-kinase-dependent signalling activities, including PKB and p70S6K. However, the PDZ-binding sequence was required for the efficient inhibition of cell spreading. The data show that a PTEN mutation, similar to those found in some tumours, affects some functions of the protein but not others, and implicate the deregulation of PTEN-dependent processes other than PKB activation in the development of some tumours. Significantly, this hypothesis is supported by data showing low levels of PKB phosphorylation in a glioblastoma sample carrying a mutation in the extreme C-terminus of PTEN compared with tumours carrying phosphatase-inactivating mutations of the enzyme. Our data show that deregulation of PKB is not a universal feature of tumours carrying PTEN mutations and implicate other processes that may be deregulated in these tumours.

We show here that cytochalasin D-induced depolymerization of actin filaments markedly reduces the stimulus-dependent activation of protein kinase B (PKB) in four different cell types (HEK-293 cells, L6 myotubes, 3T3-L1 adipocytes and U87MG cells). HEK-293 cells expressing the pleckstrin homology (PH) domains of PKB and general receptor for phosphoinositides-1 (GRP1) fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP) were used to monitor production of 3-phosphoinositides in the plasma membrane. Disassembly of the actin cytoskeleton significantly reduced the insulin-mediated translocation of both PKB-PH-GFP and GRP1-PH-GFP to the plasma membrane, consistent with diminished synthesis of 3-phosphoinositides. Actin depolymerization did not affect the hormonal activation of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase), and since cytochalasin D treatment also led to reduced platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-induced phosphorylation of PKB in U87MG cells, a PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10) null cell line, lipid phosphatase activity was unlikely to account for any reduction in cellular 3-phosphoinositides. Withdrawal of cytochalasin D from the extracellular medium induced actin filament repolymerization, and reinstated both the recruitment of PH-GFP fusion proteins to the plasma membrane and PKB activation in response to insulin and PDGF. Our findings indicate that an intact actin network is a crucial requirement for PI 3-kinase-mediated production of 3-phosphoinositides and, therefore, for the activation of PKB.

Phosphorylation of protein kinase C (PKC) provides an amplitude control that operates in conjunction with allosteric effectors. Under many conditions, PKC isotypes appear to be highly phosphorylated; however, the cellular inputs that maintain these phosphorylations are not characterized. In the present work, it is shown that there is a differential phosphorylation of PKCdelta in adherent versus suspension cultures of transfected HEK-293 cells. It is established that integrin activation is sufficient to trigger PKCdelta phosphorylation and that this signals through phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) to stimulate the phosphorylation of two sites, T505 and S662. The loss of signal input to PKCdelta in suspension culture is dependent on the tumour suppressor gene PTEN, which encodes a bi-functional phosphotyrosine/phosphoinositide 3-phosphate phosphatase. In the PTEN(-/-) UM-UC-3 bladder carcinoma cell line grown in suspension, transfected PKCdelta no longer accumulates in a dephospho-form on serum removal. By contrast, in a UM-UC-3-derivative cell line stably expressing PTEN, PKCdelta does become dephosphorylated under these conditions. Employing the PTEN Gly(129)-->Glu mutant, which is selectively defective in lipid phosphatase activity, it was established that it is the lipid phosphatase activity that controls PKCdelta phosphorylation. The evidence indicates that PKCdelta phosphorylation and its latent activity are maintained in serum-deprived adherent cultures through integrin-matrix interactions. This control acts through a pathway involving a lipid product of PI3-kinase in a manner that can be suppressed by PTEN.

The tumour suppressor protein, PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10), is a phosphatase that can dephosphorylate tyrosine-containing peptides, Shc, focal adhesion kinase and phosphoinositide substrates. In cellular assays, PTEN has been shown to antagonize the PI-3K-dependent activation of protein kinase B (PKB) and to inhibit cell spreading and motility. It is currently unclear, however, whether PTEN accomplishes these effects through its lipid- or protein-phosphatase activity, although strong evidence has demonstrated the importance of the latter for tumour suppression by PTEN. By using a PTEN G129E (Gly(129)-->Glu) mutant that has lost its lipid phosphatase activity, while retaining protein phosphatase activity, we demonstrated a requirement for the lipid phosphatase activity of PTEN in the regulation of PKB activity, cell viability and membrane ruffling. We also made a small C-terminal deletion of PTEN, removing a putative PDZ (PSD95, Dlg and ZO1)-binding motif, with no detectable effect on the phosphatase activity of the protein expressed in HEK293 cells (human embryonic kidney 293 cells) assayed in vitro. Surprisingly, expression of this mutant revealed differential requirements for the C-terminus in the different functional assays. Wild-type and C-terminally deleted PTEN appeared to be equally active in down-regulating PKB activity, but this mutant enzyme had no effect on platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-induced membrane ruffling and was only partially active in a cell viability assay. These results stress the importance of the lipid phosphatase activity of PTEN in the regulation of several signalling pathways. They also identify a mutation, similar to mutations that occur in some human tumours, which removes the effect of PTEN on membrane ruffling but not that on PKB.