Overly active KRAS leads to increased serine phosphorylation of Ago2 downstream of MEK and ERK. Phosphorylated Ago2 associates more with P-bodies than with multivesicular endosomes, which reduces the sorting of Ago2 and miRNAs into exosomes bound for export from the cell.
Source: Cell Reports
miRNA release into extracellular vesicles (EVs) is a mechanism to control the gene expression and cellular phenotypes of neighboring cells. A key question is how specific miRNAs are sorted into EVs. Active sorting of RNAs to extracellular carriers such as EVs likely depends on binding to specific RNA binding proteins. As a key member of the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) machinery that directly binds miRNA, Argonaute 2 (Ago2) has been a strong candidate as a miRNA carrier in EVs. However, the presence of Ago2 in EVs has been controversial.
In a new paper, we show that Ago2 is carried in both microvesicles and exosomes. Using isogenic cell lines for mutant oncogenic KRAS, we show that Ago2 sorting to exosomes is specifically down-regulated by KRAS-MEK-ERK signaling at late endosomes. Tests of three candidate miRNAs showed that this mechanism can regulate sorting of miRNAs to exosomes. Overall, these data indicate that Ago2 sorting to exosomes is a regulated event and may control miRNA sorting. Furthermore, previous studies that were performed in the presence of serum or growth factors in the media may have detected little Ago2 in exosomes due to growth factor activation of KRAS-MEK-ERK signaling. We hypothesize that this may be a mechanism for cells to sense the growth factor milieu and send that information to other cells via alterations in Ago2 and miRNA secretion.
McKenzie et al. “KRAS-MEK signaling controls Ago2 sorting into exosomes.” Cell Reports AOP 21 April 2016.
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