Abstract 273: Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase γ Regulates Cardio-protective ERK by Kinase Independent Mechanism

Abstract

Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) enzymes are critical in many cellular processes including survival. PI3Kγ, a member of the PI3K family activated by G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR), is known to be a critical player in activation of extracellular regulated kinase (ERK) signal transduction cascade, a cell survival pathway. However, the exact mechanism by which PI3Kγ plays a role in ERK activation is not clearly understood. Our studies show that PI3Kγ plays a crucial role in enhancing the tone of ERK activation as use of PI3K inhibitors reduced GPCR stimulated ERK phosphorylation in HEK293 cells. siRNA knockdown of PI3Kγ resulted in loss of ERK phosphorylation through GPCRs (β-adrenergic) as well as receptor tyrosine kinases. The role of PI3Kγ in ERK activation was further corroborated by loss of insulin stimulated ERK phosphorylation in PI3Kγ-knockout (KO) mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). Surprisingly, ERK activation in KO MEFs post-insulin stimulation was completely rescued by expression of kinase-dead PI3Kγ mutant in KO MEFs suggesting a kinase-independent role of PI3Kγ in regulating ERK function. Indepth mechanistic studies showed that PI3Kγ mediated activation of ERK by inhibiting ERK dephosphorylation following stimulation, thus stabilizing the ERK phosphorylation. PI3Kγ physically disrupts the interaction between ERK and ERK dephosphorylating phosphatase PP2A as evidenced by increase in phosphatase association with ERK in KO MEFs. Consistent with this observation, ERK activation was completely abolished in KO MEFs following carvedilol suggesting an essential role for PI3Kγ in cardio-protective ERK activation pathway. In this context, it is known that transverse aortic constriction (TAC) in mice leads to increase in ERK activation in the hearts and is also associated with concurrent up-regulation of PI3Kγ suggesting a key role for kinase-independent function of PI3Kγ in activating and maintaining the ERK signaling cascade. These indepth cellular studies and observation from our TAC studies led us to believe that kinase-dependent function of PI3Kγ may contribute to pathology while kinase-independent function may be cardio-protective through inhibition of PP2A by PI3Kγ. This novel signaling mechanism by PI3Kγ will be presented.