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Degradation of PKB/Akt protein by inhibition of the VEGF receptor/mTOR pathway in endothelial cells

Oncogene volume 23, pages 4624–4635 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

An intact VEGF receptor/PI3K/PKB/Akt signaling cascade protects endothelial cells from apoptotic stress-stimuli and mediates the formation of new blood vessels in pathological conditions such as cancer. Therefore, downregulation of this signaling cascade is of clinical interest for antiangiogenic cancer therapy. In this report, we demonstrate that VEGF controls the protein stability of the serine–threonine kinase PKB/Akt via inhibition of PKB/Akt protein degradation. VEGF deprivation or blockage of the VEGF signal transduction cascade with the VEGF receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor PTK787/ZK222584 resulted in a specific decrease of the PKB/Akt protein level and subsequent cellular restimulation with VEGF rescued its stability. Real-time quantitative RT–PCR analysis demonstrated that VEGF does not regulate PKB/Akt gene expression. On the other hand, broad range inhibitors of caspases and the proteasome complex prevented VEGF-dependent downregulation of the PKB/Akt protein level indicating that PKB/Akt protein stability is regulated by VEGF-controlled proteolysis. Inhibition of the VEGF receptor and PKB/Akt-downstream PIK-related mTOR-kinase by rapamycin also neutralized the VEGF-protective effect in an PKB/Akt gene expression-independent way but results in proteolysis-dependent reduction of PKB/Akt protein stability. These results demonstrate a novel regulatory mechanism of the activated VEGF receptor/mTOR-signal transduction pathway to control the protein stability of PKB/Akt and survival threshold in endothelial cells.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jeanette Wood and Novartis Pharma for providing us with PTK787/ZK222584 and their continuous support and all members of the Laboratory for Molecular Radiobiology for helpful discussions. We thank Brian Hemmings for the different PKB/Akt-pBabe DNA constructs. This work is supported in part by grants from the Radium Fonds, Hartmann Müller-Foundation, the Stiftung zur Krebsbekämpfung (to OR), the Swiss Cancer League (to DZ and MP) and an EORTC-Astra Zeneca Translational Research Fellowship (to MP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, CH-8091, Switzerland

    Oliver Riesterer, Daniel Zingg, Stephan Bodis & Martin Pruschy

  2. Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, CH-8091, Switzerland

    Jörg Hummerjohann

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  1. Oliver Riesterer
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Correspondence to Martin Pruschy.

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Riesterer, O., Zingg, D., Hummerjohann, J. et al. Degradation of PKB/Akt protein by inhibition of the VEGF receptor/mTOR pathway in endothelial cells. Oncogene 23, 4624–4635 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1207596

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