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Oncogenic Kras Requires Simultaneous PI3K Signaling to Induce ERK Activation and Transform Thyroid Epithelial Cells In vivo

¹ Human Genetics Program, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Departments of ² Medicine and ³ Pediatrics and Committee on Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; and ⁴ Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York

Requests for reprints: Antonio Di Cristofano, Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Price Center for Genetic and Translational Medicine, 1301 Morris Park Avenue, Room 302, Bronx, NY 10461. Phone: 718-678-1137; Fax: 718-678-1020; E-mail: adicrist{at}aecom.yu.edu.

Key Words: thyroid • Pten • Kras • cancer

Thyroid tumors arising from the follicular cells often harbor mutations leading to the constitutive activation of the PI3K and Ras signaling cascades. However, it is still unclear what their respective contribution to the neoplastic process is, as well as to what extent they interact. We have used mice harboring a Kras oncogenic mutation and a Pten deletion targeted to the thyroid epithelium to address in vivo these questions. Here, we show that although each of these two pathways, alone, is unable to transform thyroid follicular cells, their simultaneous activation is highly oncogenic, leading to invasive and metastatic follicular carcinomas. In particular, phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) activation suppressed Kras-initiated feedback signals that uncouple mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) kinase (MEK) and ERK activation, thus stunting MAPK activity; in addition, PI3K and Kras cooperated to drastically up-regulate cyclin D1 mRNA levels. Finally, combined pharmacologic inhibition of PI3K and MAPK completely inhibited the growth of double-mutant cancer cell lines, providing a compelling rationale for the dual targeting of these pathways in thyroid cancer. [Cancer Res 2009;69(8):3689–94]

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