Human Molecular Genetics Advance Access published online on December 7, 2007
Human Molecular Genetics, doi:10.1093/hmg/ddm364
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Regulation of the PTEN Promoter by Statins and SREBP
1 Genomic Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA 2 Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA 3 Taussig Cancer Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA 4 Department of Genetics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106; USA
* Corresponding Author: Charis Eng, MD, PhD, Genomic Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, 9500 Euclid Ave, NE-50, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA. Tel: 1-216-444-3440; Alt Tel: 1-216-445-7845; Fax: 1-216-636-0009; or 636-0655 Email: engc{at}ccf.org
Received October 14, 2007; Revised December 5, 2007; Accepted December 5, 2007
Germline mutations in the tumor suppressor gene PTEN predispose to heritable breast cancer. The transcription factor PPAR
has also been implicated as a tumor suppressor pertinent to a range of neoplasias, including breast cancer. We previously demonstrated that Lovastatin may signal through PPAR and directly upregulate PTEN expression at the transcriptional level. In our current study, we show that Simvastatin, Pravastatin and Fluvastatin can induce PTEN expression in a dose-dependent manner. This resulted from an increase in PTEN mRNA indicating transcriptional upregulation. Additionally, we observed, for the first time, that upregulation of SREBP protein, known to induce PPAR expression, can increase PTEN expression. Using reporter assays, we observed that both the statins and SREBP could specifically induce PPAR-mediated transcription. However, the statins do not appear to signal through SREBP. Furthermore, our results indicate that SREBP utilizes PPAR's transcriptional activity to induce PTEN transcription, while the statins signal through PPAR's protein activity to upregulate PTEN expression. Overall, our observations suggest that statins signal through another transcription factor, in a PPAR-dependent manner, which in turn induces PTEN transcription. We, therefore, studied the full-length PTEN promoter through serial deletion reporter assays and electromobility shift assays and identified a region between -854 and -791, that binds an as yet unidentified transcription factor, through which the statins induce PTEN expression. Since PTEN is constitutively active, our data indicate it may be worthwhile to examine statin and SREBP stimulation as mechanisms to increase PTEN expression for therapeutic and preventative strategies in cancer, diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease.