Correction: The anti-metastatic activity of collagenase-2 in breast cancer cells is mediated by a signaling pathway involving decorin and miR-21.

The original microRNA hybridization data for this article, which has been available for the scientific community upon request, has now been deposited in the GEO repository under accession number GSE124432.

The anti-metastatic activity of collagenase-2 in breast cancer cells is mediated by a signaling pathway involving decorin and miR-21.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have been traditionally implicated in cancer progression because of their ability to degrade the extracellular matrix. However, some members of the MMP family have recently been identified as proteases with antitumor properties. Thus, it has been described that collagenase-2 (MMP-8) has a protective role in tumor and metastasis progression, but the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects are unknown. We show herein that Mmp8 expression causes a decrease in miR-21 levels that in turn leads to a reduction in tumor growth and lung metastasis formation by MDA-MB-231 (4175) breast cancer cells. By using both in vitro and in vivo models, we demonstrate that the mechanism responsible for these MMP-8 beneficial effects involves cleavage of decorin by MMP-8 and a subsequent reduction of transforming growth factor ß (TGF-ß) signaling that controls miR-21 levels. In addition, miR-21 downregulation induced by MMP-8 increases the levels of tumor suppressors such as programmed cell death 4, which may also contribute to the decrease in tumor formation and metastasis of breast cancer cells overexpressing this metalloproteinase. These findings reveal a new signaling pathway for cancer regulation controlled by MMP-8, and contribute to clarify the molecular mechanisms by which tumor-defying proteases may exert their protective function in cancer and metastasis.

Tungstate is an effective antidiabetic agent in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats: a long-term study.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Recent studies have shown the anti diabetic effects of oral sodium tungstate treatment in several animal models of diabetes based on short-term experiments. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of long-term tungstate treatment of streptozotocin-induced-diabetic rats. METHODS: Tungstate was administered to the drinking water of rats for eight months. RESULTS: The treatment resulted in a reduction in serum glucose concentrations in diabetic rats, but no change in glycaemia was detected in healthy rats. Alterations in the hepatic glucose metabolism due to diabetes were almost completely counteracted by tungstate treatment. The partial recovery of glucokinase activity, not found in diabetic animals, normalised glycogen and glucose 6-phosphate concentrations. Tungstate treatment also restored pyruvate kinase activity and fructose 2,6-bisphosphate concentrations. In healthy rats, tungstate treatment did not modify the majority of the hepatic parameters studied. Moreover, tungstate treatment prevented diabetes-induced morphological changes in the kidney and ocular lens and also reduced mortality. Furthermore, no hypoglycaemic episodes or undesirable side effects were observed in treated diabetic or healthy rats. In addition, there is no evidence of intolerance developing after prolonged use. CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION: Tungstate could play a helpful part in the long-term treatment of diabetes.

Shared control of hepatic glycogen synthesis by glycogen synthase and glucokinase.

We have used recombinant adenoviruses (AdCMV-RLGS and AdCMV-GK) to overexpress the liver isoforms of glycogen synthase (GS) and glucokinase (GK) in primary cultured rat hepatocytes. Glucose activated overexpressed GS in a dose-dependent manner and caused the accumulation of larger amounts of glycogen in the AdCMV-RLGS-treated hepatocytes. The concentration of intermediate metabolites of the glycogenic pathway, such as glucose 6-phosphate (Glc-6-P) and UDP-glucose, were not significantly altered. GK overexpression also conferred on the hepatocyte an enhanced capacity to synthesize glycogen in response to glucose, as described previously [Seoane, Gómez-Foix, O'Doherty, Gómez-Ara, Newgard and Guinovart (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 23756-23760], although, in this case, they accumulated Glc-6-P. When GS and GK were simultaneously overexpressed, the accumulation of glycogen was enhanced in comparison with cells overexpressing either GS or GK. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that liver GS catalyses the rate-limiting step of hepatic glycogen synthesis. However, hepatic glycogen deposition from glucose is submitted to a system of shared control in which the 'controller', GS, is, in turn, controlled by GK. This control is indirectly exerted through Glc-6-P, which 'switches on' GS dephosphorylation and activation.

Identification of two essential glutamic acid residues in glycogen synthase.

The detailed catalytic mechanism by which glycosyltransferases catalyze the transfer of a glycosyl residue from a donor sugar to an acceptor is not known. Through the multiple alignment of all known eukaryotic glycogen synthases we have found an invariant 17-amino acid stretch enclosed within the most conserved region of the members of this family. This peptide includes an E-X(7)-E motif, which is highly conserved in four families of retaining glycosyltransferases. Site-directed mutagenesis was performed in human muscle glycogen synthase to analyze the roles of the two conserved Glu residues (Glu-510 and Glu-518) of the motif. Proteins were transiently expressed in COS-1 cells as fusions to green fluorescence protein. The E510A and E518A mutant proteins retained the ability to translocate from the nucleus to the cytosol in response to glucose and to bind to intracellular glycogen. Although the E518A variant had approximately 6% of the catalytic activity shown by the green fluorescence protein-human muscle glycogen synthase fusion protein, the E510A mutation inactivated the enzyme. These results led us to conclude that the E-X(7)-E motif is part of the active site of eukaryotic glycogen synthases and that both conserved Glu residues are involved in catalysis. We propose that Glu-510 may function as the nucleophile and Glu-518 as the general acid/base catalyst.