Lysophosphatidic acid affinity chromatography reveals pyruvate kinase as a specific LPA-binding protein

Oxidative stress stimulates invasive potential in rat C6 and human U-87 MG glioblastoma cells via activation and cross-talk between PKM2, ENPP2 and APE1 enzymes

Maintaining genomic integrity is essential for cell survival and viability. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction results in oxidative stress leading to the genomic instability via generation of small base lesions in DNA and these unrepaired DNA damages lead to various cellular consequences including cancer. Recent data support the concept "oxidative stress is an indispensable participant in fostering proliferation, survival, and migration" in various cancer cell types including glioblastoma cells. In this study we demonstrate that treatment of non-cytotoxic doses of oxidants such as amyloid beta [Aβ(25-35)] peptide, glucose oxidase (GO), and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for 24 h and 48 h time points found to increase the expression level and activity of a multifunctional enzyme Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease (APE1), a key enzyme of base excision repair (BER) pathway which takes care of base damages; and also resulted in modulation in the expression levels of downstream BER-pathway enzymes viz. PARP-1, XRCC1, DNA polβ, and ligase IIIα was observed upon oxidative stress in C6 and U-87 MG cells. Oxidants treatment to the C6 and U-87 MG cells also resulted in an elevation in the intracellular expression of glycolytic pathway enzyme Pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) and the metastasis inducer protein Ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase 2 (ENPP2) as analyzed using Western blotting and Immunofluorescence microscopic studies. Our study also reports that oxidative stress induced for 24 h and 48 h in C6 and U-87 MG cells resulted in extracellular secretion of APE1 and ENPP2 as analyzed using Western blotting in conditioned media. However, the biological significance of extracellular secreted APE1 remains elusive. Oxidative stress also elevated the ENPP2's LysoPLD activity in conditioned media of C6 and U-87 MG cells. Our results also demonstrate that oxidative stress affects the expression level and localization of APE1, PKM2, and ENPP2 in C6 and U-87 MG cells. As evidenced by the colocalization pattern at 24 h and 48 h time points, it can be attributed that oxidative stress mediates crosstalk between APE1, PKM2, and ENPP2. In addition, when C6 and U-87 MG cells were treated with lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a bioactive lipid that negatively regulates ENPP2's LysoPLD activity at 10 μM concentration, demonstrated strong migratory potential in C6 and U-87 MG cells, and also induced migration upon oxidative stress. Altogether, the findings demonstrate the potential of C6 and U-87 MG cells to utilize three proteins viz. APE1, PKM2, and ENPP2 towards migration and survival of gliomas. Thus the knowledge on oxidative stress induced APE1's interaction with PKM2 and ENPP2 opens a new channel for the therapeutic target(s) for gliomas.

Proteomic analysis of differences in ectoderm and mesoderm membranes by DiGE

Ectoderm and mesoderm can be considered as prototypes for epithelial and mesenchymal cell types. These two embryonic tissues display clear differences in adhesive and motility properties, which are phenomenologically well characterized but remain largely unexplored at the molecular level. Because the key downstream regulations must occur at the plasma membrane and in the underlying actin cortical structures, we have set out to compare the protein content of membrane fractions from Xenopus ectoderm and mesoderm tissues using 2-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (DiGE). We have thus identified several proteins that are enriched in one or the other tissues, including regulators of the cytoskeleton and of cell signaling. This study represents to our knowledge the first attempt to use proteomics specifically targeted to the membrane-cortex compartment of embryonic tissues. The identified components should help unraveling a variety of tissue-specific functions in the embryo.

Human pyruvate kinase M2: a multifunctional protein

Glycolysis, a central metabolic pathway, harbors evolutionary conserved enzymes that modulate and potentially shift the cellular metabolism on requirement. Pyruvate kinase, which catalyzes the last but rate-limiting step of glycolysis, is expressed in four isozymic forms, depending on the tissue requirement. M2 isoform (PKM2) is exclusively expressed in embryonic and adult dividing/tumor cells. This tetrameric allosterically regulated isoform is intrinsically designed to downregulate its activity by subunit dissociation (into dimer), which results in partial inhibition of glycolysis at the last step. This accumulates all upstream glycolytic intermediates as an anabolic feed for synthesis of lipids and nucleic acids, whereas reassociation of PKM2 into active tetramer replenishes the normal catabolism as a feedback after cell division. In addition, involvement of this enzyme in a variety of pathways, protein-protein interactions, and nuclear transport suggests its potential to perform multiple nonglycolytic functions with diverse implications, although multidimensional role of this protein is as yet not fully explored. This review aims to provide an overview of the involvement of PKM2 in various physiological pathways with possible functional implications.

Survey of the year 2005: literature on applications of isothermal titration calorimetry

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) can provide a full thermodynamic characterization of an interaction. Its usage does not suffer from constraints of molecular size, shape or chemical constitution. Neither is there any need for chemical modification or attachment to solid support. This ease of use has made it an invaluable instrumental resource and led to its appearance in many laboratories. Despite this, the value of the thermodynamic parameterization has, only quite recently, become widely appreciated. Although our understanding of the correlation between thermodynamic data and structural details continues to be somewhat naïve, a large number of publications have begun to improve the situation. In this overview of the literature for 2005, we have attempted to highlight works of interest and novelty. Furthermore, we draw attention to those works which we feel have provided a route to better analysis and increased our ability to understand the meaning of thermodynamic change on binding.