| Abstract: | Cancer cells with MET overexpression are paradoxically more sensitive to MET inhibition than cells with baseline MET expression. The underlying molecular mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here, we have traced early responses of SNU5, a MET-overexpressing gastric cancer cell line, exposed to sublethal concentration of PHA-665752, a selective MET inhibitor, using iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomics. More than 1900 proteins were quantified, of which >800 proteins were quantified with at least five peptides. Proteins whose expression was perturbed by PHA-665752 included oxidoreductases, transfer/carrier proteins, and signaling proteins. Strikingly, 38% of proteins whose expression was confidently assessed to be perturbed by MET inhibition were mitochondrial proteins. Upon MET inhibition by a sublethal concentration of PHA-665752, mitochondrial membrane potential increased and mitochondrial permeability transition pore was inhibited concomitant with widespread changes in mitochondrial protein expression. We also showed the presence of highly activated MET in mitochondria, and striking suppression of MET activation by 50 nm PHA-665752. Taken together, our data indicate that mitochondria are a direct target of MET kinase inhibition, in addition to plasma membrane MET. Effects on activated MET in the mitochondria of cancer cells that are sensitive to MET inhibition might constitute a novel and critical noncanonical mechanism for the efficacy of MET-targeted therapeutics.Recent improvements in survival of some malignancies owe much to advances in uncovering aberrantly active molecular pathways, against which molecularly targeted agents have been developed as new strategies to control cancers (1, 2). However, molecular mechanisms underlying the curious dependence of some cancer cells, which contain multiple genomic, genetic, and epigenetic abnormalities, on a single oncogenic molecule (the phenomenon of “oncogene addiction”) are incompletely understood (3–5).Receptor tyrosine kinases are the most extensively studied oncogenic targets and receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors have proven anticancer therapeutic efficacy. A receptor tyrosine kinase, MET, whose ligand is hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), is frequently amplified and overexpressed (6, 7) in gastric cancer, the second highest cause of cancer mortality globally (8, 9). Human gastric cancer cell lines harboring MET amplicons and overexpressing MET are readily induced to apoptosis by selective inhibitors of MET (10, 11), several of which are under active development for clinical use (12). One of the selective small molecular inhibitors, PHA-665752, designed chemically as (3Z)-5-(2,6-dichlorobenzyl)sulfonyl]-3-(3,5-dimethyl-4-{(2R)-2-(pyrrolidin-1-ylmethyl)pyrrolidin-1-yl]carbonyl}-1H-pyrrol-2-yl)methylene]-1,3-dihydro-2H-indol-2-one (molecule weight of 641.61), specifically suppresses tyrosine phosphorylation of MET. PHA-665752 has >50-fold higher selectivity for MET than for other tyrosine and serine/threonine kinases (13). The inhibition of MET kinase function by PHA-665752 on cancer cells had been confirmed with siRNA knockdown of MET, and a number of downstream effectors of MET signaling pathways were confirmed to be effectively abrogated by this compound (10, 13). PHA-665752 has been widely used as a potent and selective tool for the evaluation of MET-dependent cellular functions and signal transduction (10, 14–23).The fact that only a subset of cancers is sensitive to killing by MET-directed therapeutics (hereafter referred to as sensitive cells) (12), raises an unexplained paradox. MET-overexpressing cancer cells could reasonably be expected to be more tolerant of MET kinase inhibition compared with cancer cells that do not overexpress MET. In reality, the opposite occurs. The underlying molecular mechanisms are incompletely understood.To investigate this paradox we undertook a systematic exploration of responses of a MET-overexpressing gastric cancer cell line, SNU5, to sublethal MET inhibition using the iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomics approach. Our results unexpectedly showed a predominant perturbation of mitochondrial proteins in response to MET inhibition. Next, we found that MET inhibition was rapidly associated with altered mitochondrial functions. These observations raised the possibility that mitochondria might be a direct target of MET inhibition. Both protein immunoblotting and confocal microscopy showed the presence of highly activated MET in the mitochondria of sensitive cancer cells. Furthermore, we observed that activating phosphorylation of tyrosine residues of mitochondrial MET was critically modulated by sublethal PHA-665752 treatment. |
