1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
  2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

PH domain-mediated autoinhibition and oncogenic activation of Akt

  1. Hwan Bae
  2. Thibault Viennet
  3. Eunyoung Park
  4. Nam Chu
  5. Antonieta Salguero
  6. Michael J Eck  Is a corresponding author
  7. Haribabu Arthanari  Is a corresponding author
  8. Philip A Cole  Is a corresponding author
  1. Harvard Medical School, United States
  2. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, United States
  3. The Ohio State University, United States
  4. Brigham and Women's Hospital, United States
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.80148
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  1. Hwan Bae
  2. Thibault Viennet
  3. Eunyoung Park
  4. Nam Chu
  5. Antonieta Salguero
  6. Michael J Eck
  7. Haribabu Arthanari
  8. Philip A Cole
(2022)
PH domain-mediated autoinhibition and oncogenic activation of Akt
eLife 11:e80148.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.80148
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Abstract

Akt is a Ser/Thr protein kinase that plays a central role in metabolism and cancer. Regulation of Akt's activity involves an autoinhibitory intramolecular interaction between its pleckstrin homology (PH) domain and its kinase domain that can be relieved by C-tail phosphorylation. PH domain mutant E17K Akt is a well-established oncogene. Previously, we reported that the conformation of autoinhibited Akt may be shifted by small molecule allosteric inhibitors limiting the mechanistic insights from existing X-ray structures that have relied on such compounds (Chu, Viennet, et al, 2020). Here we discover unexpectedly that a single mutation R86A Akt exhibits intensified autoinhibitory features with enhanced PH domain-kinase domain affinity. Structural and biochemical analysis uncovers the importance of a key interaction network involving Arg86, Glu17, and Tyr18 that controls Akt conformation and activity. Our studies also shed light on the molecular basis for E17K Akt activation as an oncogenic driver.

Data availability

Diffraction data have been deposited in PDB under the accession code: 7MYXSource data are uploaded as Zip files on the eLife website

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Hwan Bae

    Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5252-252X

  2. Thibault Viennet

    Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5349-0179

  3. Eunyoung Park

    Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5618-1267

  4. Nam Chu

    Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  5. Antonieta Salguero

    Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  6. Michael J Eck

    Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, United States
    For correspondence
    eck@crystal.harvard.edu
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4247-9403

  7. Haribabu Arthanari

    Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    For correspondence
    hari_arthanari@hms.harvard.edu
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  8. Philip A Cole

    Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    For correspondence
    pacole@bwh.harvard.edu
    Competing interests
    Philip A Cole, Senior editor, eLifePhilip Cole has been a paid consultant for Scorpion Therapeutics..
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-6873-7824

Funding

National Cancer Institute (R01CA74305)

  • Philip A Cole

National Cancer Institute (R35CA242461)

  • Michael J Eck

National Cancer Institute (K22CA241105)

  • Nam Chu

Claudia Adams Barr Program (Grant)

  • Haribabu Arthanari

National Institutes of Health (EB002026)

  • Haribabu Arthanari

Kwanjeong Education Foundation (Fellowship)

  • Hwan Bae

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM124165)

  • Michael J Eck

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2022, Bae et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Hwan Bae
  2. Thibault Viennet
  3. Eunyoung Park
  4. Nam Chu
  5. Antonieta Salguero
  6. Michael J Eck
  7. Haribabu Arthanari
  8. Philip A Cole
(2022)
PH domain-mediated autoinhibition and oncogenic activation of Akt
eLife 11:e80148.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.80148

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.80148

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Further reading

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

    The structural determinants of PH domain-mediated regulation of Akt revealed by segmental labeling

    Nam Chu, Thibault Viennet ... Philip A Cole
    Research Article Updated

    Akt is a critical protein kinase that governs cancer cell growth and metabolism. Akt appears to be autoinhibited by an intramolecular interaction between its N-terminal pleckstrin homology (PH) domain and kinase domain, which is relieved by C-tail phosphorylation, but the precise molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we use a combination of protein semisynthesis, NMR, and enzymological analysis to characterize structural features of the PH domain in its autoinhibited and activated states. We find that Akt autoinhibition depends on the length/flexibility of the PH-kinase linker. We identify a role for a dynamic short segment in the PH domain that appears to regulate autoinhibition and PDK1-catalyzed phosphorylation of Thr308 in the activation loop. We determine that Akt allosteric inhibitor MK2206 drives distinct PH domain structural changes compared to baseline autoinhibited Akt. These results highlight how the conformational plasticity of Akt governs the delicate control of its catalytic properties.

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    Disordered proteins interact with the chemical environment to tune their protective function during drying

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    The conformational ensemble and function of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are sensitive to their solution environment. The inherent malleability of disordered proteins, combined with the exposure of their residues, accounts for this sensitivity. One context in which IDPs play important roles that are concomitant with massive changes to the intracellular environment is during desiccation (extreme drying). The ability of organisms to survive desiccation has long been linked to the accumulation of high levels of cosolutes such as trehalose or sucrose as well as the enrichment of IDPs, such as late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins or cytoplasmic abundant heat-soluble (CAHS) proteins. Despite knowing that IDPs play important roles and are co-enriched alongside endogenous, species-specific cosolutes during desiccation, little is known mechanistically about how IDP-cosolute interactions influence desiccation tolerance. Here, we test the notion that the protective function of desiccation-related IDPs is enhanced through conformational changes induced by endogenous cosolutes. We find that desiccation-related IDPs derived from four different organisms spanning two LEA protein families and the CAHS protein family synergize best with endogenous cosolutes during drying to promote desiccation protection. Yet the structural parameters of protective IDPs do not correlate with synergy for either CAHS or LEA proteins. We further demonstrate that for CAHS, but not LEA proteins, synergy is related to self-assembly and the formation of a gel. Our results suggest that functional synergy between IDPs and endogenous cosolutes is a convergent desiccation protection strategy seen among different IDP families and organisms, yet the mechanisms underlying this synergy differ between IDP families.