Recent progress on liver kinase B1 (LKB1): expression, regulation, downstream signaling and cancer suppressive function

Ren-You Gan; Hua-Bin Li

doi:10.3390/ijms150916698

Recent progress on liver kinase B1 (LKB1): expression, regulation, downstream signaling and cancer suppressive function

Int J Mol Sci. 2014 Sep 19;15(9):16698-718. doi: 10.3390/ijms150916698.

Authors

Ren-You Gan¹, Hua-Bin Li²

Affiliations

¹ School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China. ganry@connect.hku.hk.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition and Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China. lihuabin@mail.sysu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Liver kinase B1 (LKB1), known as a serine/threonine kinase, has been identified as a critical cancer suppressor in many cancer cells. It is a master upstream kinase of 13 AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-related protein kinases, and possesses versatile biological functions. LKB1 gene is mutated in many cancers, and its protein can form different protein complexes with different cellular localizations in various cell types. The expression of LKB1 can be regulated through epigenetic modification, transcriptional regulation and post-translational modification. LKB1 dowcnstream pathways mainly include AMPK, microtubule affinity regulating kinase (MARK), salt-inducible kinase (SIK), sucrose non-fermenting protein-related kinase (SNRK) and brain selective kinase (BRSK) signalings, etc. This review, therefore, mainly discusses recent studies about the expression, regulation, downstream signaling and cancer suppressive function of LKB1, which can be helpful for better understanding of this molecular and its significance in cancers.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases
AMP-Activated Protein Kinases
Animals
Cell Cycle
Cell Death
Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic
Gonadal Steroid Hormones / physiology
Hormesis
Humans
Mice
Mice, Knockout
Molecular Chaperones / metabolism
Neoplasm Metastasis
Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome / enzymology*
Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome / genetics
Promoter Regions, Genetic
Protein Binding
Protein Interaction Mapping
Protein Kinases / physiology
Protein Processing, Post-Translational
Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / deficiency
Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / genetics
Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / metabolism
Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / physiology*
Signal Transduction / physiology
Species Specificity
Tumor Suppressor Proteins / physiology

Substances

Gonadal Steroid Hormones
Molecular Chaperones
Tumor Suppressor Proteins
Protein Kinases
Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases
STK11 protein, human
Stk11 protein, mouse
AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases
AMP-Activated Protein Kinases