| First Author | Liu T | Year | 2019 |
| Journal | PLoS Biol | Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 6 | Pages | e2004413 |
| PubMed ID | 31181072 | Mgi Jnum | J:276750 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6316449 | Doi | 10.1371/journal.pbio.2004413 |
| Citation | Liu T, et al. (2019) Phenotypic selection with an intrabody library reveals an anti-apoptotic function of PKM2 requiring Mitofusin-1. PLoS Biol 17(6):e2004413 |
| abstractText | Bcl-2 family proteins control a decisive apoptotic event: mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP). To discover MOMP-regulating proteins, we expressed a library of intracellular single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) ("intrabodies") and selected for those rescuing cells from apoptosis induced by BimS (the short isoform of Bim). One anti-apoptotic intrabody, intrabody 5 (IB5), recognized pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2), which is expressed in cancer cells. PKM2 deletion ablated this clonogenic rescue; thus, IB5 activated a latent cytoprotective function of PKM2. This resulted not from pyruvate kinase activity per se but rather from the formation of an active tetrameric conformation of PKM2. A stably tetrameric PKM2 mutant, K422R, promoted cell survival even in the absence of IB5, and IB5 further increased survival. Mitochondria isolated from IB5-expressing cells were relatively resistant to MOMP in vitro. In cells, IB5 expression up-regulated Mitofusin-1 (Mfn1) and increased mitochondrial length. Importantly, Mfn1 deficiency abrogated IB5's cytoprotective effect. PKM2's anti-apoptotic function could help explain its preferential expression in human cancer. |
