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Advances in Brief |
Department of Dermatology (H. T.), Division of Hematology/Oncology (H. T., X. Z., K. F., F. G. H.), Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, and Department of Medical Genetics, China Medical University, Shenyang, Peoples Republic of China (X. Z.)
| ABSTRACT |
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| Introduction |
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We and others have recently reported that approximately 30% of cutaneous melanoma cell lines harbor mutations or deletions of the tumor suppressor gene, PTEN/MMAC1 (9 , 10) . Sequence analysis of the PTEN/MMAC1 gene revealed a dual serine/threonine and tyrosine phosphatase domain (11 , 12) , whereas biochemical analyses identified a lipid phosphatase function that can dephosphorylate PtdIns(3 , 4 , 5) P33 (13 , 14) . In mouse studies, homozygous elimination of PTEN/MMAC1 leads to early embryonic lethality (15, 16, 17) . Stambolic et al. (15) demonstrated that murine embryonic fibroblasts that lack PTEN function have elevated levels of PtdIns(3 , 4 , 5) P3 and PKB activity, a downstream signal target for PtdIns(3 , 4 , 5) P3. These biochemical data suggest that one function of PTEN is to negatively regulate the PI3-K/PKB pathway.
Several lines of evidence point to a possible genetic relationship between RAS and PTEN/MMAC1. Malignancies that have high rates of RAS mutations, such as colon cancer (18, 19, 20, 21) and pancreatic cancer (22) , have low rates of PTEN/MMAC1 alterations (23 , 24) ; on the other hand, gliomas have a high frequency of PTEN/MMAC1 inactivation (11 , 12 , 25, 26, 27) but low rates of RAS mutations (28 , 29) . Biochemically, the induction of PI3-K activity and intracellular levels of PtdIns(3 , 4 , 5) P3 is mediated through RAS (30, 31, 32) , and, thus, PTEN's impact on this pathway may be affected by the level of RAS activity. We hypothesized that the loss of PTEN [a negative regulator of PtdIns (3 , 4 , 5) P3 levels] and the activation of RAS (a positive regulator of PI3-K) are functionally andpotentially geneticallyequivalent in at least a subset of cutaneous melanomas. We, thus, set out to assess for frequency and type of RAS mutations in our panel of melanoma specimens that have been characterized for PTEN/MMAC1 alterations.
| Materials and Methods |
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DNA from 18 glioma cell lines was provided by Dr. G. Robertson (Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, San Diego, CA). DNA samples of uncultured metastatic melanomas (33) were obtained from Dr. K. Huebner (Kimmel Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA).
A pSG5-PTEN plasmid containing PTEN cDNA was obtained from Dr. W. Sellers (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA). The insert was subcloned into the pIRESpuro vector (Clontech, Palo Alto, CA) and pCDNA3.1neo vector (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA).
PCR-SSCP.
Primers and conditions for PCR-SSCP analysis of the
PTEN/MMAC1 gene have been described previously
(9)
. PCR-SSCP analysis of the RAS genes
used the following primer sets: (a) HRAS Exon 1F:
5'-CAGGCCCCTGAGGAGCATG-3'. and HRAS Exon 1R:
5'-GTATTCGTCCACAAAATGGTTCT-3'; (b) HRAS Exon 2F:
5'-TCCTGCAGGATTCCTACCGG-3', and HRAS Exon 2R:
5'-GGTTCACCTGTACTGGTGGA-3'; (c) KRAS Exon 1F:
5'-GGCCTGCTGAAAATGACTGA-3', and KRAS Exon 1R:
5'-GTCCTGCACCAGTAATATGC-3'; (d) KRAS Exon 2F:
5'-TTCCTACAGGAAGCAAGTAG-3' and KRAS Exon 2R:
5'-CACAAAGAAAGCCCTCCCCA-3'; (e) NRAS Exon 1F:
5'-CAGGTTCTTGCTGGTGTGAAATGACTGAG-3', and NRAS Exon 1R:
5'-CTACCACTGGGCCTCACC-TCTATGG-3'; and (f)
NRAS Exon 2F: 5'-GTTATAGATGGTGAAACCTG-3', and
NRAS Exon 2R: 5'-ATACACAGAGGAAGCCTTCG-3'.
Amplification was carried out in 10-µl reaction mixtures containing 1
µl of DNA, 2 mCi [
-32P]dCTP (NEN,
Boston, MA), and 1 mM each primer under standard
conditions. The samples were denatured at 95°C for 5 min, annealed
for 30 s using a touchdown protocol (62°C for 2 cycles, 60°C
for 2 cycles, 59°C for 2 cycles, 58°C for 3 cycles, 57°C for 3
cycles, 56°C for 3 cycles, and 55°C for 15 cycles), extended at
72°C for 30 s with a final primer extension at 72°C for 10
min. The reactions were stopped with four volumes of stop buffer (95%
formamide, 20 mM EDTA, 0.05% bromphenol blue, and 0.05%
xylene cyanol). Samples were denatured at 95°C for 5 min, chilled on
ice immediately for 5 min, and loaded directly onto a 0.5x MDE
gel (FMC BioProducts, Rockland, ME), with and without glycerol, in
0.6x Tris-Borate EDTA (TBE) buffer. Fragments were subjected to
electrophoresis at 4 W overnight at room temperature. After
electrophoresis, the gels were dried and exposed to autoradiographic
film without a screen for 1224 h.
DNA Fragments showing mobility shifts were then prepared by PCR under the same condition, separated on agarose gel, purified using QIAquick kit (QIAGEN, Inc., Santa Clarita, CA), and directly sequenced using AmpliCycle sequencing kit (Perkin-Elmer, Foster City, CA) or submitted to the Massachusetts General Hospital Sequencing Core Facility for automated sequencing.
Colony Growth Suppression Assay.
On the night before transfection, target cells were plated at 500,000
per well in a 6-well plate with DME/10% FCS (no antibiotics). One to
two µg of column-purified plasmid (QIAGEN, Inc., Santa Clarita, CA)
was transfected with Lipofectamine Plus (Life Technologies, Inc.,
Gaithersburg, MD) using the manufacturers protocol. After 48 h,
the cells were trypsinized into 100-mm dishes and allowed to settle
overnight. The cells were then selected with the appropriate
concentrations of G418 or puromycin (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) for 24
weeks and stained with Giemsa.
| Results |
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Relative Exclusivity of PTEN/MMAC1 and
NRAS Alterations.
PTEN/MMAC1 was altered in 16 of our melanoma cell lines (16
of 53 or 30%; Table 1
). NRAS was mutated in 1 of 16 of the
melanoma cell lines with PTEN/MMAC1 mutations and 10 of 37
of the melanoma cell lines with wild-type PTEN/MMAC1.
Overall 27 (51%) of 53 of our cutaneous melanoma cell lines had either
PTEN/MMAC1 or NRAS mutations, although only 1
cell line (cell line HS 944) had alterations in both genes. The two
uncultured cutaneous melanoma metastases that harbored NRAS
codon 61 mutations had wild-type PTEN/MMAC1 (data not
shown). Furthermore, Furnari et al. (34)
have
previously shown that 14 of the 18 glioma cell lines harbor
PTEN/MMAC1 alterations.
In our total analysis, 12 of 56 specimens with normal PTEN/MMAC1 harbored NRAS mutations compared with 1 of 32 specimens with aberrant PTEN/MMAC1 (Fishers exact test, P = 0.027); thus, the reciprocity of mutations does not appear to be random.
Suppression of Colony Formation by PTEN in the context of
PTEN/MMAC1 and RAS Genotypes.
We next explored the in vitro colony suppressive function of
PTEN in the context of defined genetic backgrounds. Fig. 3A
shows colony suppression by PTEN in a PTEN/MMAC1
del/RAS wt background (cell line UACC903),
PTEN/MMAC1wt/RASwt background (cell line A375)
and PTEN/MMAC1 wt/RAS mut (cell line SK-Mel 119)
background. Fig. 3B
shows the relative suppression by PTEN
in a set of cutaneous melanoma cell lines for which the
PTEN/MMAC1 status and RAS status of each line had
been determined. Each bar represents an individual
experiment; the light gray bars used the pCDNA3 vector
whereas the dark gray bars used the pIRES vector. Exogenous
introduction of PTEN into cutaneous melanoma seems to uniformly
suppress colony growth independent of PTEN/MMAC1 status.
Furthermore, enforced expression of PTEN is also able to suppress
growth of cell lines with mutated NRAS.
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| Discussion |
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Because only one-half of our cell lines demonstrate alterations in either gene, other undetermined genes are likely involved in the remaining cell lines. Although the complete pathway integrating RAS and PTEN signaling are still unknown, several identified components are critical in cancer biology. PI3-K is known to be a downstream target of RAS (38 , 39) , and, recently, Shayesteh et al. (40) found that amplification of the PI-3 K gene, PI3KCA, may be an important step in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancers. The phospholipid products of PI-3 K, which are substrates of PTEN, activate PKB/C-AKT (41) , a protein kinase that, in its constitutively activated form (V-AKT), is a retroviral oncogene (42 , 43) . Two protein substrates of PKB are also involved in cancer: BAD (44) , a negative regulator of Bcl-2, and FKHRL1 (45) , a member of the human Forkhead family that has been shown to be involved in human malignancies (46 , 47) .
Functionally, PTEN is able to suppress growth regardless of the endogenous PTEN/MMAC1 status. Li et al. (48) reported similar findings in breast cancer. This is in sharp contrast to glioma cells, in which PTEN is ineffective in the context of a wild-type PTEN/MMAC1 (34) . This raises the possibility that other unidentified alterations are potentially upstream of PTEN in cutaneous melanoma and downstream of PTEN in gliomas. In particular, PTEN is able to suppress cell lines with normal PTEN/MMAC1 and activating NRAS mutations. The ability of PTEN to suppress cell lines with mutated RAS is consistent with a function for PTEN downstream of RAS. Along these lines, we found that PTEN is also able to suppress the growth of both NIH3T3 cells and v-RAS-transformed-NIH3T3 cells with equivalent efficacy (data not shown). In our earlier experiments, HS944 (the only cell line with both PTEN/MMAC1 and NRAS alterations) seemed relatively resistant to PTEN suppression. Some of the resistance to growth suppression that is seen in HS944 may reflect the use of the pCDNA3 plasmid instead of the pIRES vector. As can be seen for UACC903, both pCDNA3 and pIRES clearly suppressed growth, but the pIRES vector in our hands seems to be more effective. Alternatively, the intracellular levels of PtdIns(3 , 4 , 5) P3 in the presence of both activating RAS and inactivating PTEN/MMAC1 alterations may be higher than the levels resulting from either change alone, and, thus, exogenous expression of PTEN produces a stoichiometrically reduced effect.
In summary, we provide the first genetic evidence in cutaneous melanoma that PTEN/MMAC1 may be a critical component of a RAS-sensitive pathway. Both the human mutational studies and the murine models support the existence of such a pathway. Whether other genes that interact with RAS and PTEN/MMAC1 are also targeted for mutations in melanoma remains to be established. Furthermore, the robust tumor-suppressive effect resulting from restoration of PTEN may have therapeutic implications for cutaneous melanoma.
| FOOTNOTES |
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1 This work was supported in part by an American
Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant (to F. G. H.) and
partially supported by the Marion Gardner Jackson Trust, the Warner
Wellcome Research Fellowship through the Dermatology Foundation, and a
Clinical Research Training Grant (CRTG-99-249-01 CCE) through the
American Cancer Society (to H. T.). ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be
addressed, at Division of Hematology/Oncology, Massachusetts General
Hospital, Boston, MA 02114. Phone: (617) 724-7081; Fax: (617) 726-6974;
E-mail: haluska.frank{at}mgh.harvard.edu ![]()
3 The abbreviations used are: PtdIns(3, 4,
5)P3, phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-triphosphates; PI3-K,
phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase; PKB, protein kinase B; SSCP,
single-strand conformation polymorphism. ![]()
Received 1/18/99. Accepted 2/16/00.
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