GTP-binding proteins and adenylate cyclase activity in v-Ki-ras transformed NIH/3T3 fibroblast cells

Oncogenic K-ras expression is associated with derangement of the cAMP/PKA pathway and forskolin-reversible alterations of mitochondrial dynamics and respiration

The Warburg effect in cancer cells has been proposed to involve several mechanisms, including adaptation to hypoxia, oncogenes activation or loss of oncosuppressors and impaired mitochondrial function. In previous papers, it has been shown that K-ras transformed mouse cells are much more sensitive as compared with normal cells to glucose withdrawal (undergoing apoptosis) and present a high glycolytic rate and a strong reduction of mitochondrial complex I. Recent observations suggest that transformed cells have a derangement in the cyclic adenosine monophosphate/cAMP-dependent protein kinase (cAMP/PKA) pathway, which is known to regulate several mitochondrial functions. Herein, the derangement of the cAMP/PKA pathway and its impact on transformation-linked changes of mitochondrial functions is investigated. Exogenous stimulation of PKA activity, achieved by forskolin treatment, protected K-ras-transformed cells from apoptosis induced by glucose deprivation, enhanced complex I activity, intracellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels, mitochondrial fusion and decreased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. Several of these effects were almost completely prevented by inhibiting the PKA activity. Short-time treatment with compounds favoring mitochondrial fusion strongly decreased the cellular ROS levels especially in transformed cells. These findings support the notion that glucose shortage-induced apoptosis, specific of K-ras-transformed cells, is associated to a derangement of PKA signaling that leads to mitochondrial complex I decrease, reduction of ATP formation, prevalence of mitochondrial fission over fusion, and thereby opening new approaches for development of anticancer drugs.

[Cellular and molecular pharmacological studies on membrane receptor-signaling and stress-responses in the brain]

Studies on the cellular and molecular mechanism of neurotransmitter receptor-signaling and of neuronal and glial cell responses to stresses seem to be important to elucidate the action mechanism of centrally-acting drugs and to develop novel therapeutics against several diseases in the brain. The present review shows our findings with regard to the membrane receptor-signaling mechanism including serotonin, noradrenaline, glutamate receptors, ion channels, G-proteins, protein kinases and drug actions in Xenopus oocytes injected with rat brain mRNA, NG108-15 cells and brain membranes. Regarding the results of studies on the inter- and intra-cellular mechanism of neurons and glial cells against cerebral ischemia/hypoxia, we review the involvement of a transcription factor NF-kappa B in LPS-elicited inducible NO synthase (iNOS) expression in rat astroglial cells. Then we describe possible involvement of: 1) ADP-ribosylation/nitrosylation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and 2) decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential, release of caspase-3 from mitochondria and degradation of the inhibitor of caspase-activated DNase by activated caspase in NO-induced neuronal apoptosis. We observed that hypoxia results in expression of a molecular chaperon such as protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) and HSP70 in astroglial cells. Our recent findings indicate that overexpression of PDI in the rat hippocampus (in vivo) and in neuroblastoma SK-N-MC cells (in vitro) significantly suppress the hypoxia-induced neuronal death. From physiological/pathophysiological and pharmacological aspects, we review the importance of studies on the cellular and molecular mechanism of membrane receptor-signaling and of stress-responses in the brain to identify functional roles of neuro-glial- as well as neuro-neuronal interaction in the brain.