Browsing by Author "Gerber, Scott A."
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Item Akt Regulates TNF? Synthesis Downstream of RIP1 Kinase Activation during Necroptosis(PLoS One, 2013-03) McNamara, Colleen R.; Ahuja, Ruchita; Osafo-Addo, Awo D.; Barrows, Douglas; Kettenbach, Arminja; Skidan, Igor; Teng, Xin; Cuny, Gregory D.; Gerber, Scott A.; Degterev, AlexeiNecroptosis is a regulated form of necrotic cell death that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various diseases including intestinal inflammation and systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). In this work, we investigated the signaling mechanisms controlled by the necroptosis mediator receptor interacting protein-1 (RIP1) kinase. We show that Akt kinase activity is critical for necroptosis in L929 cells and plays a key role in TNF? production. During necroptosis, Akt is activated in a RIP1 dependent fashion through its phosphorylation on Thr308. In L929 cells, this activation requires independent signaling inputs from both growth factors and RIP1. Akt controls necroptosis through downstream targeting of mammalian Target of Rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1). Akt activity, mediated in part through mTORC1, links RIP1 to JNK activation and autocrine production of TNF?. In other cell types, such as mouse lung fibroblasts and macrophages, Akt exhibited control over necroptosis-associated TNF? production without contributing to cell death. Overall, our results provide new insights into the mechanism of necroptosis and the role of Akt kinase in both cell death and inflammatory regulation.Item Identification of RIP1 kinase as a specific cellular target of necrostatins(Nature Chemical Biology, 2017-05) Degterev, Alexei; Hitomi, Junichi; Germscheid, Megan; Ch'en, Irene L.; Korkina, Olga; Teng, Xin; Abbott, Derek; Cuny, Gregory D.; Yuan, Chengye; Wagner, Gerhard; Hedrick, Stephen M.; Gerber, Scott A.; Lugovskoy, Alexey; Yuan, JunyingNecroptosis is a cellular mechanism of necrotic cell death induced by apoptotic stimuli in the form of death domain receptor engagement by their respective ligands under conditions where apoptotic execution is prevented. Although it occurs under regulated conditions, necroptotic cell death is characterized by the same morphological features as unregulated necrotic death. Here we report that necrostatin-1, a previously identified small-molecule inhibitor of necroptosis, is a selective allosteric inhibitor of the death domain receptor–associated adaptor kinase RIP1 in vitro. We show that RIP1 is the primary cellular target responsible for the antinecroptosis activity of necrostatin-1. In addition, we show that two other necrostatins, necrostatin-3 and necrostatin-5, also target the RIP1 kinase step in the necroptosis pathway, but through mechanisms distinct from that of necrostatin-1. Overall, our data establish necrostatins as the first-in-class inhibitors of RIP1 kinase, the key upstream kinase involved in the activation of necroptosis.Item Kinetic, Mechanistic, and Structural Modeling Studies of Truncated Wild-Type Leucine-Rich Repeat Kinase 2 and the G2019S Mutant(Biochemistry, 2012-11) Liu, Min; Kang, Stephanie; Ray, Soumya S.; Jackson, Justin; Zaitsev, Alexandra D.; Gerber, Scott A.; Cuny, Gregory D.; Glicksman, Marcie A.Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2), a large and complex protein that possesses two enzymatic properties, kinase and GTPase, is one of the major genetic factors in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Here, we characterize the kinetic and catalytic mechanisms of truncated wild-type (t-wt) LRRK2 and its most common mutant, G2019S (t-G2019S), with a structural interpretation of the kinase domain. First, the substitution of threonine with serine in the LRRKtide peptide results in a much less efficient substrate as demonstrated by a 26-fold decrease in kcat and a 6-fold decrease in binding affinity. The significant decrease in kcat is attributed to a slow chemical transfer step as evidenced by the inverse solvent kinetic isotope effect in the proton inventory and pL (pH or pD)-dependent studies. The shape of the proton inventory and pL profile clearly signals the involvement of a general base (pKa = 7.5) in the catalysis with a low fractionation factor in the ground state. We report for the first time that the increased kinase activity of the G2019S mutant is substrate-dependent. Homology modeling of the kinase domain (open and closed forms) and structural analysis of the docked peptide substrates suggest that electrostatic interactions play an important role in substrate recognition, which is affected by G2019S and may directly influence the kinetic properties of the enzyme. Finally, the GTPase activity of the t-G2019S mutant was characterized, and the mutation modestly decreases GTPase activity without significantly affecting GTP binding affinity.