Deregulated signalling due to aberrant activity of variant protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) is often observed in cancer. Here cancer cell line-derived variants of 2 PTKs, EGFR and Tyk2, were screened for oncogenic properties. Two mutant proteins, EGFR-P753S and Tyk2-R901Q, were found to display increased auto-phosphorylation at multiple tyrosines critical for activity. Ectopic expression of Tyk2-R901Q increases ERK1/2 and STAT5 activities, while siRNA-mediated knock-down of endogenously expressed Tyk2-R901Q in IGROV-1 cells abolishes STAT3 phoshorylation and impairs migration. This Tyk2-mediated STAT3 activity does not affect the expression of 6 commonly reported downstream targets of STAT3, hinting at the existence of novel targets. On the other hand, SW-48 cells, which carry the established gefitinib-sensitizing mutation G719S, is resistant to the drug. This resistance is likely to be due to a lack of EGFR protein expression but not activating braf and kras mutations. In all, this study has unearthed novel oncogenic properties of 2 mutant PTKs and studied potential mechanisms undermining sensitivity conferred by drug-sensitizing EGFR mutations.
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Deregulated signalling due to aberrant activity of variant protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) is often observed in cancer. Here cancer cell line-derived variants of 2 PTKs, EGFR and Tyk2, were screened for oncogenic properties. Two mutant proteins, EGFR-P753S and Tyk2-R901Q, were found to display increased auto-phosphorylation at multiple tyrosines critical for activity. Ectopic expression of Tyk2-R901Q increases ERK1/2 and STAT5 activities, while siRNA-mediated knock-down of endogenously expressed T...
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