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Address correspondence to Matthew R. Pincus, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, New York Harbor VA Medical Center, 800 Poly Place, Brooklyn, NY 11209, USA; tel 718-630-3688; fax 718 630 2960; e-mail matthew.pincus2{at}med.va.gov.
We have previously found that the pi-isozyme of glutathione-S-transferase (GST-pi) is a strong and selective inhibitor of the phosphorylation of the transcriptional activating protein jun by its activating kinase, jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK). We further performed molecular dynamics calculations on the 3-dimensional structure of GST-pi free and bound to an inhibitor that blocks its ability to inhibit the JNK-jun activation. We thus identified 4 putative domains that may be involved in the interaction between GST-pi and the JNK-jun complex: residues 3450, 99121, 165182 (with 2 overlapping sub-domains 165175 and 169182), and 194201. We have synthesized each of these domains and tested them for their abilities to affect the GST-JNK-jun system, first in a cell-free system. We find that peptides corresponding to residues 99121 and 194201 strongly inhibit the binding of GST to the JNK-jun complex but do not inhibit JNK-induced phosphorylation of jun, while peptides corresponding to residues 3450 and 165182 do not inhibit GST binding but, except for the 165175 subdomain peptide, strongly inhibit jun phosphorylation. A control peptide, X13, had no effect on either process. Peptide effects on jun phosphorylation appear to be selective for the JNK-jun system since the 3450 peptide has no effect on other kinase systems (eg, casein kinase, MAP kinase). Three of the domain peptides, 3450, 165175, and 194201 have been attached on their carboxyl-terminal ends to a penetratin sequence, enabling transmembrane transport into cells, and have been introduced into human astrocytes in which JNK was activated with anisomycin. We find that the 3450-penetratin peptide strongly inhibits intracellular jun phosphorylation while the 194201-penetratin peptide has no effect; the 165175-penetratin peptide has a weak effect on this process. Thus, the effects in cells parallel those in the cell-free system. We conclude that all putative domains, identified in our prior structural studies, appear to interact with the JNK-jun complex. The 3450 peptide may be useful in selectively blocking uncontrolled mitogenic signaling involving the JNK-jun pathway and may be a potential agent for blocking oncogenic ras-p21-induced cell transformation.
Keywords: glutathione-S-transferase-pi (GST-pi), jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK), jun, GST domain peptides
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