Cell Signalling And Cancer Flashcards
Which class of receptors is important in for cancer cells?
Receptor tyrosine kinase
What do these receptors do? Why are they important to cancer cells
These receptors trigger mitogen activated protein (MAP) kinase and phosphatidylinositol (PI)3 kinase pathways are triggered by signal molecules after interaction with the receptors
MAP KINASE PATHWAY
Check poster for more detail
Signal molecule -> RTK-> Grb-2 -> Ras-Gef -> Ras -> raf -> Mek -> Erk -> cell growth
Cell growth is the main output but also cell differentiation
Modification of target proteins is by
The phosphorylation and dephosphorylation
Phosphorylation can either activate or inhibit target proteins
What does protein kinase do?
It catalyses the transfer of the terminal phosphate group of ATP to specific Ser, Thr or Tyr residues on target proteins
Step 1 of activation of RTK
Binding of the signalling molecule induces receptor dimerisation.
This enables domains of neighbouring receptors to cross phosphorylate each other on multiple Tyr residues (auto phosphorylation)
Step 2 what does this activation of RTK create
After the dimerisation and auto phosphorylation of the Tyr
The phosphorylation creates a docking site for a variety of proteins
- Grb-2 ( MAP kinase pathway)
- PI 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase pathway)
What does Grb-2 stand for?
Growth factor receptor-bound protein 2
What domains does Grb-2 have?
SH2 domain (Src homology 2) which docks to the phosphorylation Tyr residues on the RTK SH3 domain (Src homology 3) which is binds to protein called Sos Sos and Grb-2 complex together
What does the Sos and Grb-2 complex do
The complex enables Sos to recruit and activate Ras.
What is Ras?
Ras is a small G-protein with GTPase activity
Contains a covalently attached lipid group that attaches it to the plasma membrane.
It is an oncogene and is found mutated in 30% of cancers
What is Sos?
Sos stands for son of seven less
It is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF)
It acts on Ras exchange GDP for GTP activating it
Ras can then be inactivated by a GTPase activating protein by stimulating its GTPase activity which then removes a Pi to make a GDP which is inactivated Ras
Ras activation cascade of proteins
Activate raf -> Mek -> Erk
What happens at the end of the cascade
The phosphorykated erk - map kinase can then activate transcription factors,
Activate other kinases or affect gene regulation
Resulting changes result in growth and proliferation
Genes activated can be c-fos c-Jun c-myc
How to turn off the signal to RTK
Remove the extracellular signal
Switching off activated receptor tyrosine kinases by protein tyrosine phosphatatses
Ras GAPs to turn back to Ras-GDP
Ddephosphorylate target proteins by serine/threonine phosphates
Why is this tight regulatory control essential?
Turning the protein on all the time like Ras when RTK is on all the time can result in gene mutations which predispose to cancer
So c-myc, c-jun, c-fos, being constantly switched on can increase risk of mutated proteins
What is the PI 3-kinase pathway
Signal molecule -> RTK -> PI 3-kinase -> PIP3 -> PDK1 -> Akt (PKB) -> cell survival OR -> mTOR -> cell growth
What happens once the RTK is dimerised and Tyr residues are autophosphorylated
The PI 3-kinase binds to the phsphorylated Tyr residues on the RTKs
PI 3-kinase catalysts the phosphorylation of PIP2 to PIP3