title: Nerve growth factor-stimulated B-Raf catalytic activity is refractory to inhibition by cAMP-dependent protein kinase.
abstract: The cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) exhibits both inhibitory and stimulatory effects upon growth factor signaling mediated by the mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway. PKA has been demonstrated to inhibit Raf-1-mediated cellular proliferation. PKA can both prevent Ras-dependent Raf-1 activation and directly inhibit Raf-1 catalytic activity. In contrast to the inhibitory effect of PKA on Raf-1-dependent processes, PKA potentiates nerve growth factor-stimulated PC12 cell differentiation, a B-Raf mediated process. This potentiation, rather than inhibition, of PC12 cell differentiation is curious in light of the ability of PKA to inhibit Raf-1 catalytic activity. The kinase domains of Raf-1 and B-Raf are highly conserved, and it has been predicted that B-Raf catalytic activity would also be inhibited by PKA. In this study we examined the ability of PKA to regulate the kinase activity of the B-raf proto-oncogene. We report that nerve growth factor-stimulated B-Raf activity is not inhibited by PKA. By contrast, an N-terminally truncated, constitutively active form of B-Raf is inhibited by PKA both in vitro and in transfected PC12 cells. These results suggest that the N-terminal regulatory domain interferes with the ability of PKA to modulate B-Raf catalytic activity and provide an explanation for the observed resistance of B-Raf-dependent processes to PKA inhibition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and the Committee on Cancer Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: MacNicol
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: MacNicol
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002384:Catalysis; D017868:Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016716:PC12 Cells; D019908:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-raf / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D019908:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-raf; D017868:Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinases