Tanmay S. Chavan, Hyunbum Jang, Lyuba Khavrutskii, Sherwin J. Abraham, Avik Banerjee, Benjamin C. Freed, Liv Johannessen, Sergey G. Tarasov, Vadim Gaponenko, Ruth Nussinov, Nadya I. Tarasova
Biophysical Journal
2015 vol: 109 issue: 12 pp: 2602-2613 doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2015.09.034
Abstract
Ras proteins are small GTPases that act as signal transducers between cell surface receptors and several intracellular signaling cascades. They contain highly homologous catalytic domains and flexible C-terminal hypervariable regions (HVRs) that differ across Ras isoforms. KRAS is among the most frequently mutated oncogenes in human tumors. Surprisingly, we found that the C-terminal HVR of K-Ras4B, thought to minimally impact the catalytic domain, directly interacts with the active site of the protein. The interaction is almost 100-fold tighter with the GDP-bound than the GTP-bound protein. HVR binding interferes with Ras-Raf interaction, modulates binding to phospholipids, and slightly slows down nucleotide exchange. The data indicate that contrary to previously suggested models of K-Ras4B signaling, HVR plays essential roles in regulation of signaling. High affinity binding of short peptide analogs of HVR to K-Ras active site suggests that targeting this surface with inhibitory synthetic molecules for the therapy of KRAS-dependent tumors is feasible.
Topics: Nanodiscs, NMR, Peptides, Monolith – MicroScale Thermophoresis, MST, Proteins, Publications