title: A role for Pak protein kinases in Schwann cell transformation.
abstract: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a common autosomal dominant disorder caused by loss of the NF1 gene, is characterized clinically by neurofibromas and more rarely by neurofibrosarcomas. Neurofibromin, the protein encoded by NF1, possesses an intrinsic GTPase accelerating activity for the Ras proto-oncogene. Through this activity, it is a negative regulator of Ras. The Pak protein kinase is a candidate for a downstream signaling protein that may mediate Ras signals because it is activated by Rac and Cdc42, two small G proteins required for Ras signaling. Here, we use Pak mutants to explore the role of Pak in Ras signaling in Schwann cells, the cells affected in NF1. Whereas an activated Pak mutant does not transform cells, dominant negative Pak mutants are potent inhibitors of Ras transformation of rat Schwann cells and of a neurofibrosarcoma cell line from an NF1 patient. Although activated Pak stimulated jun-N-terminal kinase, inhibition of Ras transformation by dominant negative Pak did not require inhibition of jun-N-terminal kinase. Instead, the Pak mutants appeared to inhibit transformation by preventing Ras activation of the ERK/mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade. These results have implications for our understanding of NF1 because a neurofibrosarcoma cell line derived from a patient with NF1 was reverted by stable expression of the Pak dominant negative mutants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marwaha
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Rutkowski
authors.forename: G I
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Tennekoon
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Field
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017871:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases / Q000502:physiology; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D048031:JNK Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases / Q000502:physiology; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D025542:Neurofibromin 1; D018319:Neurofibrosarcoma / Q000473:pathology; D027384:Oncogene Proteins v-raf; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000502:physiology*; D011506:Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D015682:Retroviridae Proteins, Oncogenic / Q000502:physiology; D012583:Schwann Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014162:Transfection; D054462:p21-Activated Kinases
chemical_list: D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D025542:Neurofibromin 1; D011506:Proteins; D015682:Retroviridae Proteins, Oncogenic; D027384:Oncogene Proteins v-raf; C515905:Pak1 protein, mouse; C515906:Pak1 protein, rat; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D054462:p21-Activated Kinases; D017871:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases; D048031:JNK Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases