Ushering in the era of tRNA medicines.

Long viewed as an intermediary in protein translation, there is a growing awareness that tRNAs are capable of myriad other biological functions linked to human health and disease. These emerging roles could be tapped to leverage tRNAs as diagnostic biomarkers, therapeutic targets, or even as novel medicines. Furthermore, the growing array of tRNA-derived fragments, which modulate an increasingly broad spectrum of cellular pathways, is expanding this opportunity. Together, these molecules offer drug developers the chance to modulate the impact of mutations and to alter cell homeostasis. Moreover, because a single therapeutic tRNA can facilitate readthrough of a genetic mutation shared across multiple genes, such medicines afford the opportunity to define patient populations not based on their clinical presentation or mutated gene but rather on the mutation itself. This approach could potentially transform the treatment of patients with rare and ultrarare diseases. In this review, we explore the diverse biology of tRNA and its fragments, examining the past and present challenges to provide a comprehensive understanding of the molecules and their therapeutic potential.

Genome-wide Identification of Structure-Forming Repeats as Principal Sites of Fork Collapse upon ATR Inhibition.

DNA polymerase stalling activates the ATR checkpoint kinase, which in turn suppresses fork collapse and breakage. Herein, we describe use of ATR inhibition (ATRi) as a means to identify genomic sites of problematic DNA replication in murine and human cells. Over 500 high-resolution ATR-dependent sites were ascertained using two distinct methods: replication protein A (RPA)-chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and breaks identified by TdT labeling (BrITL). The genomic feature most strongly associated with ATR dependence was repetitive DNA that exhibited high structure-forming potential. Repeats most reliant on ATR for stability included structure-forming microsatellites, inverted retroelement repeats, and quasi-palindromic AT-rich repeats. Notably, these distinct categories of repeats differed in the structures they formed and their ability to stimulate RPA accumulation and breakage, implying that the causes and character of replication fork collapse under ATR inhibition can vary in a DNA-structure-specific manner. Collectively, these studies identify key sources of endogenous replication stress that rely on ATR for stability.

Wild-type RAS: keeping mutant RAS in CHK.

Mutant RAS-driven tumorigenesis was thought for decades to arise independently of wild-type RAS isoforms, but recent evidence indicates wild-type isoforms are involved. In this issue of Cancer Cell, Grabocka and colleagues report how the loss of wild-type RAS alters oncogenic signaling and dampens the DNA-damage response, thereby affecting tumor progression and chemosensitivity.

A highly selective dual insulin receptor (IR)/insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) inhibitor derived from an extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) inhibitor.

Dual inhibitors of the closely related receptor tyrosine kinases insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) and insulin receptor (IR) are promising therapeutic agents in cancer. Here, we report an unusually selective class of dual inhibitors of IGF-1R and IR identified in a parallel screen of known kinase inhibitors against a panel of 300 human protein kinases. Biochemical and structural studies indicate that this class achieves its high selectivity by binding to the ATP-binding pocket of inactive, unphosphorylated IGF-1R/IR and stabilizing the activation loop in a native-like inactive conformation. One member of this compound family was originally reported as an inhibitor of the serine/threonine kinase ERK, a kinase that is distinct in the structure of its unphosphorylated/inactive form from IR/IGF-1R. Remarkably, this compound binds to the ATP-binding pocket of ERK in an entirely different conformation to that of IGF-1R/IR, explaining the potency against these two structurally distinct kinase families. These findings suggest a novel approach to polypharmacology in which two or more unrelated kinases are inhibited by a single compound that targets different conformations of each target kinase.

Comprehensive assay of kinase catalytic activity reveals features of kinase inhibitor selectivity.

Small-molecule protein kinase inhibitors are widely used to elucidate cellular signaling pathways and are promising therapeutic agents. Owing to evolutionary conservation of the ATP-binding site, most kinase inhibitors that target this site promiscuously inhibit multiple kinases. Interpretation of experiments that use these compounds is confounded by a lack of data on the comprehensive kinase selectivity of most inhibitors. Here we used functional assays to profile the activity of 178 commercially available kinase inhibitors against a panel of 300 recombinant protein kinases. Quantitative analysis revealed complex and often unexpected interactions between protein kinases and kinase inhibitors, with a wide spectrum of promiscuity. Many off-target interactions occur with seemingly unrelated kinases, revealing how large-scale profiling can identify multitargeted inhibitors of specific, diverse kinases. The results have implications for drug development and provide a resource for selecting compounds to elucidate kinase function and for interpreting the results of experiments involving kinase inhibitors.

Control of proliferation in astrocytoma cells by the receptor tyrosine kinase/PI3K/AKT signaling axis and the use of PI-103 and TCN as potential anti-astrocytoma therapies.

A growing body of work suggests that astrocytomas and glioblastoma multiforme will require carefully tailored, molecularly targeted therapy for successful treatment. Recent efforts to comprehensively identify mutations and gene expression changes in glioblastoma have shown that mutation of NF1 is a common alteration in human glioblastoma. We have developed and characterized a panel of 14 tumor lines from grades II through IV astrocytomas developed from our Nf1-/+;Trp53-/+cis mouse model and have used this panel to characterize signal transduction pathways and inhibitors that are candidate therapeutic targets for astrocytoma and glioblastoma. We show that these tumors express platelet-derived growth factor receptor-α, epidermal growth factor receptor, and their respective ligands to varying degrees. We find that both the MEK and PI3K signaling pathways downstream of epidermal growth factor receptor and platelet-derived growth factor receptor-α are necessary for full proliferation of astrocytoma cells; however, inhibition of the PI3K pathway is more effective than inhibition of MEK at blocking cell growth. We have examined inhibitors of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and find that PI-103 and TCN show particular promise for inhibiting growth in Nf1 and Trp53 mutant astrocytoma cells.

Phosphoinositides are essential coactivators for p21-activated kinase 1.

Phospholipid-enriched membranes such as the plasma membrane can serve as direct regulators of kinase signaling. Pak1 is involved in growth factor signaling at the plasma membrane, and its dysregulation is implicated in cancer. Pak1 adopts an autoinhibited conformation that is relieved upon binding to membrane-bound Rho GTPases Rac1 or Cdc42, but whether lipids also regulate Pak1 in vivo is unknown. We show here that phosphoinositides, particularly PIP(2), potentiate Rho-GTPase-mediated Pak1 activity. A positively charged region of Pak1 binds to phosphoinositide-containing membranes, and this interaction is essential for membrane recruitment and activation of Pak1 in response to extracellular signals. Our results highlight an active role for lipids as allosteric regulators of Pak1 and suggest that Pak1 is a "coincidence detector" whose activation depends on GTPases present in phosphoinositide-rich membranes. These findings expand the role of phosphoinositides in kinase signaling and suggest how altered phosphoinositide metabolism may upregulate Pak1 activity in cancer cells.