title: Lovastatin disrupts early events in insulin signaling: a potential mechanism of lovastatin's anti-mitogenic activity.
abstract: The mechanism by which lovastatin lowers cholesterol levels is well characterized but little is known about its anti-mitogenic and anti-tumorigenic mechanism. Here we demonstrate that lovastatin disrupts early events in the mitogenic signaling pathways of insulin. Insulin treatment (200 mM) of quiescent HIR rat-1 fibroblasts results in an 8-fold stimulation of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI-3-K) activity. Overnight pretreatment of cells with lovastatin (20 microM) inhibits insulin stimulation of PI-3-K activity by 75%. Immunoprecipitation and immunoblotting experiments using antibodies against the regulatory subunit of PI-3-K (p85), phosphotyrosine, and insulin receptor alpha and beta subunits demonstrate that lovastatin inhibits the association of p85 with tyrosine phosphorylated insulin receptor substrate-1 and the beta subunit of the insulin receptor. Furthermore, lovastatin dramatically reduces (70-100%) the level of tyrosine phosphorylated insulin receptor beta subunit following insulin stimulation. These results clearly demonstrate that lovastatin disrupts early events of insulin mitogenic signaling by reducing the levels of tyrosine phosphorylated beta subunit and suggest that this disruption is a potential mechanism for the anti-mitogenic effect of lovastatin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15261.
authors.forename: T F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: McGuire
authors.forename: X Q
authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Corey
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Sebti
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D055504:Insulin Receptor Substrate Proteins; D007700:Kinetics; D008148:Lovastatin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000378:metabolism; D017853:Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor) / Q000378:metabolism; D019000:Phosphotyrosine; D051381:Rats; D011972:Receptor, Insulin / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D014162:Transfection; D014443:Tyrosine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C526292:IRS1 protein, human; D007328:Insulin; D055504:Insulin Receptor Substrate Proteins; C526296:Irs1 protein, rat; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D010750:Phosphoproteins; D019000:Phosphotyrosine; D014443:Tyrosine; D008148:Lovastatin; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D017853:Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor); D011972:Receptor, Insulin