Development of JNK2-Selective Peptide Inhibitors That Inhibit Breast Cancer Cell Migration

Abstract

Despite their lack of selectivity toward c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) isoforms, peptides derived from the JIP (JNK Interacting Protein) scaffolds linked to the cell-penetrating peptide TAT are widely used to investigate JNK-mediated signaling events. To engineer an isoform-selective peptide inhibitor, several JIP-based peptide sequences were designed and tested. A JIP sequence connected through a flexible linker to either the N-terminus of an inverted TAT sequence (JIP¹⁰-Δ-TATⁱ) or to a poly arginine sequence (JIP¹⁰-Δ-R₉) enabled the potent inhibition of JNK2 (IC₅₀ ≈ 90 nM) and exhibited 10-fold selectivity for JNK2 over JNK1 and JNK3. Examination of both peptides in HEK293 cells revealed a potent ability to inhibit the induction of both JNK activation and c-Jun phosphorylation in cells treated with anisomycin. Notably, Western blot analysis indicates that only a fraction of total JNK must be activated to elicit robust c-Jun phosphorylation. To examine the potential of each peptide to selectively modulate JNK2 signaling in vivo, their ability to inhibit the migration of Polyoma Middle-T Antigen Mammary Tumor (PyVMT) cells was assessed. PyVMTjnk2−/− cells exhibit a lower migration potential compared to PyVMTjnk2+/+ cells, and this migration potential is restored through the overexpression of GFP-JNK2α. Both JIP¹⁰-Δ-TATⁱ and JIP¹⁰-Δ-R₉ inhibit the migration of PyVMTjnk2+/+ cells and PyVMTjnk2−/− cells expressing GFP-JNK2α. However, neither peptide inhibits the migration of PyVMTjnk2−/− cells. A control form of JIP¹⁰-Δ-TATⁱ containing a single leucine to arginine mutation lacks ability to inhibit JNK2 in vitro cell-free and cell-based assays and does not inhibit the migration of PyVMTjnk2+/+ cells. Together, these data suggest that JIP¹⁰-Δ-TATⁱ and JIP¹⁰-Δ-R₉ inhibit the migration of PyVMT cells through the selective inhibition of JNK2. Finally, the mechanism of inhibition of a D-retro-inverso JIP peptide, previously reported to inhibit JNK, was examined and found to inhibit p38MAPKα in an in vitro cell-free assay with little propensity to inhibit JNK isoforms.