G protein coupled growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase: no longer an oxymoron

The receptor tyrosine kinase IGF1R and its associated GPCRs are co-regulated by the noncoding RNA NEAT1 in Alzheimer's disease

The study is based on the complexity of Insulin like growth factor receptor (IGF1R) signaling and its regulation by noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). IGF1R signaling is an important cascade in Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, its regulation and roles are poorly understood. Due to the presence of β-arrestin and GPCR Receptor Kinase binding sites, this protein has been termed a 'functional hybrid', as it can take part in both kinase and GPCR signaling pathways, further adding to its complexity. The objective of this study is to understand the underlying ncRNA regulation controlling IGF1R and GPCRs in AD to find commonalities in the network. We found through data mining that 45 GPCRs were reportedly deregulated in AD and built clusters based on GO/KEGG pathways to show shared functionality with IGF1R. Eight miRs were further discovered that could coregulate IGF1R and GPCRs. We validated their expression in an AD cell model and probed for common lncRNAs downstream that could regulate these miRs. Seven such candidates were identified and further validated. A combined network comprising IGF1R with nine GPCRs, eight miRs, and seven lncRNAs was created to visualize the interconnectivity within pathways. Betweenness centrality analysis showed a cluster of NEAT1, hsa-miR-15a-5p, hsa-miR-16-5p, and IGF1R to be crucial form a competitive endogenous RNA-based (ceRNA) tetrad that could relay information within the network, which was further validated by cell-based studies. NEAT1 emerged as a master regulator that could alter the levels of IGF1R and associated GPCRs. This combined bioinformatics and experimental study for the first time explored the regulation of IGF1R through ncRNAs from the perspective of neurodegeneration.

Heterotrimeric G protein signaling without GPCRs: The Gα-binding-and-activating (GBA) motif

Heterotrimeric G proteins (Gαβγ) are molecular switches that relay signals from 7-transmembrane receptors located at the cell surface to the cytoplasm. The function of these receptors is so intimately linked to heterotrimeric G proteins that they are named G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), showcasing the interdependent nature of this archetypical receptor-transducer axis of transmembrane signaling in eukaryotes. It is generally assumed that activation of heterotrimeric G protein signaling occurs exclusively by the action of GPCRs, but this idea has been challenged by the discovery of alternative mechanisms by which G proteins can propagate signals in the cell. This review will focus on a general principle of G protein signaling that operates without the direct involvement of GPCRs. The mechanism of G protein signaling reviewed here is mediated by a class of G protein regulators defined by containing an evolutionarily conserved sequence named the Gα-binding-and-activating (GBA) motif. Using the best characterized proteins with a GBA motif as examples, Gα-interacting vesicle-associated protein (GIV)/Girdin and dishevelled-associating protein with a high frequency of leucine residues (DAPLE), this review will cover (i) the mechanisms by which extracellular cues not relayed by GPCRs promote the coupling of GBA motif-containing regulators with G proteins, (ii) the structural and molecular basis for how GBA motifs interact with Gα subunits to facilitate signaling, (iii) the relevance of this mechanism in different cellular and pathological processes, including cancer and birth defects, and (iv) strategies to manipulate GBA-G protein coupling for experimental therapeutics purposes, including the development of rationally engineered proteins and chemical probes.

GIV/Girdin, a non-receptor modulator for Gαi/s, regulates spatiotemporal signaling during sperm capacitation and is required for male fertility

For a sperm to successfully fertilize an egg, it must first undergo capacitation in the female reproductive tract and later undergo acrosomal reaction (AR) upon encountering an egg surrounded by its vestment. How premature AR is avoided despite rapid surges in signaling cascades during capacitation remains unknown. Using a combination of conditional knockout (cKO) mice and cell-penetrating peptides, we show that GIV (CCDC88A), a guanine nucleotide-exchange modulator (GEM) for trimeric GTPases, is highly expressed in spermatocytes and is required for male fertility. GIV is rapidly phosphoregulated on key tyrosine and serine residues in human and murine spermatozoa. These phosphomodifications enable GIV-GEM to orchestrate two distinct compartmentalized signaling programs in the sperm tail and head; in the tail, GIV enhances PI3K→Akt signals, sperm motility and survival, whereas in the head it inhibits cAMP surge and premature AR. Furthermore, GIV transcripts are downregulated in the testis and semen of infertile men. These findings exemplify the spatiotemporally segregated signaling programs that support sperm capacitation and shed light on a hitherto unforeseen cause of infertility in men.

TLR4 signaling and macrophage inflammatory responses are dampened by GIV/Girdin

Sensing of pathogens by Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) induces an inflammatory response; controlled responses confer immunity but uncontrolled responses cause harm. Here we define how a multimodular scaffold, GIV (a.k.a. Girdin), titrates such inflammatory response in macrophages. Upon challenge with either live microbes or microbe-derived lipopolysaccharides (a ligand for TLR4), macrophages with GIV mount a more tolerant (hypo-reactive) transcriptional response and suppress proinflammatory cytokines and signaling pathways (i.e., NFkB and CREB) downstream of TLR4 compared to their GIV-depleted counterparts. Myeloid-specific gene-depletion studies confirmed that the presence of GIV ameliorates dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis and sepsis-induced death. The antiinflammatory actions of GIV are mediated via its C-terminally located TIR-like BB-loop (TILL) motif which binds the cytoplasmic TIR modules of TLR4 in a manner that precludes receptor dimerization; such dimerization is a prerequisite for proinflammatory signaling. Binding of GIV's TILL motif to TIR modules inhibits proinflammatory signaling via other TLRs, suggesting a convergent paradigm for fine-tuning macrophage inflammatory responses.

Combination of cytoplasmic and nuclear girdin expression is an independent prognosis factor of breast cancer

Girdin is an actin-binding protein playing key roles in the development of various carcinomas. Although online tools have predicted nuclear localization of girdin with a high probability, convincing proof has rarely been provided until now. The purpose of this study was to discover girdin's precise subcellular distribution and the potential prognostic value corresponding to its localization. The subcellular distribution of girdin was detected in a human breast cancer cell line and in >800 samples of human breast tissue by clinical pathologic analysis. In this study, we discovered for the first time that girdin could attach to chromatin and interact with topoisomerase-IIα in nucleus. Cytoplasmic and nuclear girdin exhibited different roles in prognosis of breast cancer: cytoplasmic girdin expression was an independent prognostic factor for progression-free survival (PFS), whereas nuclear girdin expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (OS). More important, combination cytoplasmic and nuclear girdin was an independent prognosis factor of both OS and PFS. In conclusion, our research results strongly recommend combination analysis of cytoplasmic and nuclear girdin for a precise prognostic prediction in breast cancer.-Zhang, H., Yu, F., Qin, F., Shao, Y., Chong, W., Guo, Z., Liu, X., Fu, L., Gu, F., Ma, Y. Combination of cytoplasmic and nuclear girdin expression is an independent prognosis factor of breast cancer.

Biochemical, Biophysical and Cellular Techniques to Study the Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor, GIV/Girdin

Canonical signal transduction via heterotrimeric G proteins is spatiotemporally restricted, i.e., triggered exclusively at the plasma membrane, only by agonist activation of G protein-coupled receptors via a finite process that is terminated within a few hundred milliseconds. Recently, a rapidly emerging paradigm has revealed a noncanonical pathway for activation of heterotrimeric G proteins via the nonreceptor guanidine-nucleotide exchange factor, GIV/Girdin. Biochemical, biophysical, and functional studies evaluating this pathway have unraveled its unique properties and distinctive spatiotemporal features. As in the case of any new pathway/paradigm, these studies first required an in-depth optimization of tools/techniques and protocols, governed by rationale and fundamentals unique to the pathway, and more specifically to the large multimodular GIV protein. Here we provide the most up-to-date overview of protocols that have generated most of what we know today about noncanonical G protein activation by GIV and its relevance in health and disease. © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

GIV/Girdin activates Gαi and inhibits Gαs via the same motif

We previously showed that guanine nucleotide-binding (G) protein α subunit (Gα)-interacting vesicle-associated protein (GIV), a guanine-nucleotide exchange factor (GEF), transactivates Gα activity-inhibiting polypeptide 1 (Gαi) proteins in response to growth factors, such as EGF, using a short C-terminal motif. Subsequent work demonstrated that GIV also binds Gαs and that inactive Gαs promotes maturation of endosomes and shuts down mitogenic MAPK-ERK1/2 signals from endosomes. However, the mechanism and consequences of dual coupling of GIV to two G proteins, Gαi and Gαs, remained unknown. Here we report that GIV is a bifunctional modulator of G proteins; it serves as a guanine nucleotide dissociation inhibitor (GDI) for Gαs using the same motif that allows it to serve as a GEF for Gαi. Upon EGF stimulation, GIV modulates Gαi and Gαs sequentially: first, a key phosphomodification favors the assembly of GIV-Gαi complexes and activates GIV's GEF function; then a second phosphomodification terminates GIV's GEF function, triggers the assembly of GIV-Gαs complexes, and activates GIV's GDI function. By comparing WT and GIV mutants, we demonstrate that GIV inhibits Gαs activity in cells responding to EGF. Consequently, the cAMP→PKA→cAMP response element-binding protein signaling axis is inhibited, the transit time of EGF receptor through early endosomes are accelerated, mitogenic MAPK-ERK1/2 signals are rapidly terminated, and proliferation is suppressed. These insights define a paradigm in G-protein signaling in which a pleiotropically acting modulator uses the same motif both to activate and to inhibit G proteins. Our findings also illuminate how such modulation of two opposing Gα proteins integrates downstream signals and cellular responses.

Prognostic impact of total and tyrosine phosphorylated GIV/Girdin in breast cancers

Gα-interacting vesicle-associated protein (GIV, aka Girdin) is a guanine exchange factor (GEF) for the trimeric G protein Gαi and a bona fide metastasis-related gene that serves as a platform for amplification of tyrosine-based signals via G-protein intermediates. Here we present the first exploratory biomarker study conducted on a cohort of 187 patients with breast cancer to evaluate the prognostic role of total GIV (tGIV) and tyrosine phosphorylated GIV (pYGIV) across the various molecular subtypes. A Kaplan-Meier analysis of recurrence-free survival showed that the presence of tGIV, either cytoplasmic or nuclear, carried poor prognosis, but that nuclear tGIV had a greater prognostic impact (P = 0.007 in early and P = 0.0048 in late clinical stages). Activated pYGIV in the cytoplasm had the greatest prognostic impact in late clinical stages (P = 0.006). Furthermore, we found that the prognostic impacts of cytoplasmic pYGIV and nuclear tGIV were additive (hazard ratio 19.0548; P = 0.0002). Surprisingly, this additive effect of nuclear tGIV/cytoplasmic pYGIV was observed in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive tumors (hazard ratio 16.918; P = 0.0005) but not in triple-negative breast cancers. In triple-negative breast cancers, tGIV and cytoplasmic pYGIV had no prognostic impact; however, membrane-association of pYGIV carried a poor prognosis (P = 0.026). Both tGIV and pYGIV showed no correlation with clinical stage, tumor size, pathologic type, lymph node involvement, and BRCA1/2 status. We conclude that immunocytochemical detection of pYGIV and tGIV can serve as an effective prognosticator. On the basis of the differential prognostic impact of tGIV/pYGIV within each molecular subtype, we propose a diagnostic algorithm. Further studies on larger cohorts are essential to rigorously assess the effectiveness and robustness of this algorithm in prognosticating outcome among patients with breast cancer.-Dunkel, Y., Diao, K., Aznar, N., Swanson, L., Liu, L., Zhu, W., Mi, X.-Y., Ghosh, P. Prognostic impact of total and tyrosine phosphorylated GIV/Girdin in breast cancers.

Girdin (GIV) Expression as a Prognostic Marker of Recurrence in Mismatch Repair-Proficient Stage II Colon Cancer

PURPOSE

Prognostic markers that identify patients with stage II colon cancers who are at the risk of recurrence are essential to personalize therapy. We evaluated the potential of GIV/Girdin as a predictor of recurrence risk in such patients.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Expression of full-length GIV was evaluated by IHC using a newly developed mAb together with a mismatch repair (MMR)-specific antibody panel in three stage II colon cancer patient cohorts, that is, a training (n = 192), test (n = 317), and validation (n = 181) cohort, with clinical follow-up data. Recurrence risk stratification models were established in the training cohort of T3, proficient MMR (pMMR) patients without chemotherapy and subsequently validated.

RESULTS

For T3 pMMR tumors, GIV expression and the presence of lymphovascular invasion (LVI) were the only factors predicting recurrence in both training (GIV: HR, 2.78, P = 0.013; LVI: HR, 2.54, P = 0.025) and combined test and validation (pooled) cohorts (GIV: HR, 1.85, P = 0.019; LVI: HR, 2.52, P = 0.0004). A risk model based on GIV expression and LVI status classified patients into high- or low-risk groups; 3-year recurrence-free survival was significantly lower in the high-risk versus low-risk group across all cohorts [Training: 52.3% vs. 84.8%; HR, 3.74, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.50-9.32; Test: 85.9% vs. 97.9%, HR, 7.83, 95% CI, 1.03-59.54; validation: 59.4% vs. 84.4%, HR, 3.71, 95% CI, 1.24-11.12].

CONCLUSIONS

GIV expression status predicts recurrence risk in patients with T3 pMMR stage II colon cancer. A risk model combining GIV expression and LVI status information further enhances prediction of recurrence. Further validation studies are warranted before GIV status can be routinely included in patient management algorithms. Clin Cancer Res; 22(14); 3488-98. ©2016 AACR.

Prognostic Impact of Modulators of G proteins in Circulating Tumor Cells from Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

The consequence of a loss of balance between G-protein activation and deactivation in cancers has been interrogated by studying infrequently occurring mutants of trimeric G-protein α-subunits and GPCRs. Prior studies on members of a newly identified family of non-receptor guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs), GIV/Girdin, Daple, NUCB1 and NUCB2 have revealed that GPCR-independent hyperactivation of trimeric G proteins can fuel metastatic progression in a variety of cancers. Here we report that elevated expression of each GEF in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) isolated from the peripheral circulation of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer is associated with a shorter progression-free survival (PFS). The GEFs were stronger prognostic markers than two other markers of cancer progression, S100A4 and MACC1, and clustering of all GEFs together improved the prognostic accuracy of the individual family members; PFS was significantly lower in the high-GEFs versus the low-GEFs groups [H.R = 5, 20 (95% CI; 2,15–12,57)]. Because nucleotide exchange is the rate-limiting step in cyclical activation of G-proteins, the poor prognosis conferred by these GEFs in CTCs implies that hyperactivation of G-protein signaling by these GEFs is an important event during metastatic progression, and may be more frequently encountered than mutations in G-proteins and/or GPCRs.

Heterotrimeric G protein signaling via GIV/Girdin: Breaking the rules of engagement, space, and time

Canonical signal transduction via heterotrimeric G proteins is spatially and temporally restricted, that is, triggered exclusively at the plasma membrane (PM), only by agonist activation of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) via a process that completes within a few hundred milliseconds. Recently, a rapidly emerging paradigm has revealed a non-canonical pathway for activation of heterotrimeric G proteins by the non-receptor guanidine-nucleotide exchange factor (GEF), GIV/Girdin. This pathway has distinctive temporal and spatial features and an unusual profile of receptor engagement: diverse classes of receptors, not just GPCRs can engage with GIV to trigger such activation. Such activation is spatially and temporally unrestricted, that is, can occur both at the PM and on internal membranes discontinuous with the PM, and can continue for prolonged periods of time. Here, we provide the most complete up-to-date review of the molecular mechanisms that govern the unique spatiotemporal aspects of non-canonical G protein activation by GIV and the relevance of this new paradigm in health and disease.

Focal adhesions are foci for tyrosine-based signal transduction via GIV/Girdin and G proteins

GIV is a guanine-nucleotide exchange factor and a bona fide metastasis-related protein. It is found, unexpectedly, that focal adhesions are the major foci for GIV-dependent signaling and that GIV modulates integrin-FAK signaling via activation of G proteins. It is also shown how this phenomenon is altered during cancer progression.

GIV/Girdin is a multimodular signal transducer and a bona fide metastasis-related protein. As a guanidine exchange factor (GEF), GIV modulates signals initiated by growth factors (chemical signals) by activating the G protein Gαi. Here we report that mechanical signals triggered by the extracellular matrix (ECM) also converge on GIV-GEF via β1 integrins and that focal adhesions (FAs) serve as the major hubs for mechanochemical signaling via GIV. GIV interacts with focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and ligand-activated β1 integrins. Phosphorylation of GIV by FAK enhances PI3K-Akt signaling, the integrity of FAs, increases cell–ECM adhesion, and triggers ECM-induced cell motility. Activation of Gαi by GIV-GEF further potentiates FAK-GIV-PI3K-Akt signaling at the FAs. Spatially restricted signaling via tyrosine phosphorylated GIV at the FAs is enhanced during cancer metastasis. Thus GIV-GEF serves as a unifying platform for integration and amplification of adhesion (mechanical) and growth factor (chemical) signals during cancer progression.

Heterotrimeric G proteins as emerging targets for network based therapy in cancer: End of a long futile campaign striking heads of a Hydra

Most common diseases, e.g., cancer are driven by not one, but multiple cell surface receptors that trigger and sustain a pathologic signaling network. The largest fraction of therapeutic agents that target individual receptors/pathways eventually fail due to the emergence of compensatory mechanisms that reestablish the pathologic network. Recently, a rapidly emerging paradigm has revealed GIV/Girdin as a central platform for receptor cross-talk which integrates signals downstream of a myriad of cell surface receptors, and modulates several key pathways within downstream signaling network, all via non-canonical activation of trimeric G proteins. Unlike canonical signal transduction via G proteins, which is spatially and temporally restricted, the temporal and spatial features of non-canonical activation of G protein via GIV is unusually unrestricted. Consequently, the GIV●G protein interface serves as a central hub allowing for control over several pathways within the pathologic signaling network, all at once. The relevance of this new paradigm in cancer and other disease states and the pros and cons of targeting the GIV●G protein interface are discussed.