Akt-mediated Regulation of Autophagy and Tumorigenesis Through Beclin 1 Phosphorylation

Overview

Journal Science

Specialty Science

Date 2012 Nov 1

PMID 23112296

Citations 399

Authors

Richard C Wang

Yongjie Wei

Zhenyi An

Zhongju Zou

Guanghua Xiao

Govind Bhagat

Michael White

Julia Reichelt

Beth Levine

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Aberrant signaling through the class I phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt axis is frequent in human cancer. Here, we show that Beclin 1, an essential autophagy and tumor suppressor protein, is a target of the protein kinase Akt. Expression of a Beclin 1 mutant resistant to Akt-mediated phosphorylation increased autophagy, reduced anchorage-independent growth, and inhibited Akt-driven tumorigenesis. Akt-mediated phosphorylation of Beclin 1 enhanced its interactions with 14-3-3 and vimentin intermediate filament proteins, and vimentin depletion increased autophagy and inhibited Akt-driven transformation. Thus, Akt-mediated phosphorylation of Beclin 1 functions in autophagy inhibition, oncogenesis, and the formation of an autophagy-inhibitory Beclin 1/14-3-3/vimentin intermediate filament complex. These findings have broad implications for understanding the role of Akt signaling and intermediate filament proteins in autophagy and cancer.

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