The cross talk between protein kinase A- and RhoA-mediated signaling in cancer cells

The cross talk between cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)/protein kinase A (PKA) and RhoA-mediated signal transductions and the effect of this cross talk on biologic features of human prostate and gastric cancer cells were investigated. In the human gastric cancer cell line, SGC-7901, lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) increased RhoA activity in a dose-dependent manner. The cellular permeable cAMP analog, 8-chlorophenylthio-cAMP (CPT-cAMP), inhibited the LPA-induced RhoA activation and caused phosphorylation of RhoA at serine(188). Immunofluorescence microscopy, Western blotting, and green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged RhoA location assay in live cells revealed that RhoA was distributed in both the cytoplasm and nucleus of SGC-7901 cells. Treatment with LPA and/or CPT-cAMP did not induce obvious translocation of RhoA in the cells. The LPA treatment caused formation of F-actin in SGC-7901 cells, and CPT-cAMP inhibited the formation. In a modified Boyden chamber assay, LPA stimulated the migration of SGC-7901 cells, and CPT-cAMP dose-dependently inhibited the stimulating effect of LPA. In soft agar assay, LPA stimulated early proliferation of SGC-7901 cells, and CPT-cAMP significantly inhibited the growth of LPA-stimulated cells. In the prostate cancer cell line, PC-3, LPA caused morphologic changes from polygonal to round, and transfection with plasmid DNA encoding constitutively active RhoA(63L) caused a similar change. Treatment with CPT-cAMP inhibited the changes in both cases. However, in PC-3 cells transfected with a plasmid encoding mutant RhoA188A, LPA induced rounding, but CPT-cAMP could not prevent the change. Results of this experiment indicated that cAMP/PKA inhibited RhoA activation, and serine188 phosphorylation on RhoA was necessary for PKA to exert its inhibitory effect on RhoA activation. The cross talk between cAMP/PKA and RhoA-mediated signal transductions had significant affect on biologic features of gastric and prostate cancer cells, such as morphologic and cytoskeletal change, migration, and anchorage-independent growth. The results may be helpful in implementing novel therapeutic strategies for invasive and metastatic prostate and gastric cancers.