RLIP76 (RALBP1) is a glutathione-conjugate transporter that is a critical component of clathrin-coated pit-mediated endocytosis, as well as in stress responses. In cultured cells, it provides protection from stressors including heat, oxidant chemicals, chemotherapeutic agents, UV irradiation, and X-irradiation. Here, we show marked reduction in glutathione conjugate transport capacity and stepwise increase in radiation sensitivity associated with heterozygous or homozygous loss of the RLIP76 gene in mice. Survival after radiation in homozygous knockout animals was significantly shorter than either the heterozygous knockouts or the wild type. Delivery of recombinant RLIP76 to mice lacking RLIP76 via a liposomal delivery system rescued radiation sensitivity. Furthermore, treatment of wild-type mice with RLIP76-containing liposomes conferred resistance to radiation. These findings suggest that inhibiting RLIP76 could be used for sensitization to radiation during cancer therapy and that RLIP76 liposomes could be radioprotective agents useful for treatment of iatrogenic or catastrophic radiation poisoning. (Cancer Res 2005; 65(14): 6022-8)

The heart is well known as a metabolic omnivore in that it is capable of consuming fatty acids, glucose, ketone bodies, pyruvate, lactate, amino acids and even its own constituent proteins, in order of decreasing preference. The energy from these substrates supports not only mechanical contraction, but also the various transmembrane pumps and transporters required for ionic homeostasis, electrical activity, metabolism and catabolism. Cardiac ischemia – for example, due to compromise of the coronary vasculature or end-stage heart failure – will alter both electrical and metabolic activity. While the effects of myocardial ischemia on electrical propagation and stability have been studied in depth, the effects of ischemia on metabolic substrate preference has not been fully appreciated: oxygen deprivation during ischemia will significantly alter the relative ability of the heart to utilize each of these substrates. Although changes in cardiac metabolism are understood to be an underlying component in almost all cardiac myopathies, the potential contribution of amino acids in maintaining cardiac electrical conductance and stability during ischemia is underappreciated. Despite clear evidence that amino acids exert cardioprotective effects in ischemia and other cardiac disorders, their role in the metabolism of the ischemic heart has yet to be fully elucidated. This review synthesizes the current literature of the metabolic contribution of amino acids during ischemia by analyzing relevant historical and recent research.

Hsf-1 (heat shock factor-1) is a transcription factor that is known to regulate cellular heat shock response through its binding with the multispecific transporter protein, Ralbp1. Results of present studies demonstrate that Hsf-1 causes specific and saturable inhibition of the transport activity of Ralbp1 and that the combination of Hsf-1 and POB1 causes nearly complete inhibition through specific bindings with Ralbp1. Augmentation of cellular levels of Hsf-1 and POB1 caused dramatic apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer cell line H358 through Ralbp1 inhibition. These findings indicate a novel model for mutual regulation of Hsf-1 and Ralbp1 through Ralbp1-mediated sequestration of Hsf-1 in the cellular cytoskeleton and Hsf-1-mediated inhibition of the transport activity of membranebound Ralbp1.In response to heat stress, human cells respond by activation of Hsf-1 (heat shock factor-1), a transcription factor that binds to NGAAN repeats of the promoter of heat shock genes, augmenting transcription (1-5). Considered the master regulator of the heat shock response (1-3), Hsf-1 binds DNA constitutively, and its binding affinity is based upon its phosphorylation in response to heat shock (1-5). In the unstressed state, Hsf-1 is sequestered in a complex with tubulin, HSP90, and Ralbp1 (6). Stress or constitutively active Ral-GTP binding to Ralbp1 triggers the release of Hsf-1 and its migration to the nucleus, where its transcription factor activity is important for the expression of heat shock proteins (6, 7). Although these studies focused on Ralbp1 present in the cytoplasm bound to the cytoskeleton and nuclear membrane, several previous and subsequent reports have clearly demonstrated the presence of Ralbp1 in nuclear as well as plasma membranes (8 -12). In several recent studies, we have conclusively demonstrated that Ralbp1 is a transmembrane protein with a defined cell surface domain (8 -11) and that it catalyzes in ATP hydrolysis-dependent trans-membrane anti-gradient efflux of toxic xenobiotics as well as endogenous metabolites. The preferred physiological substrates for transport by Ralbp1 are glutathione-electrophile conjugates of electrophilic lipid metabolites that arise from stress or heat shockinduced lipid peroxidation (13). The cell surface domain of Ralbp1 can be targeted by highly specific antibodies that inhibit the transport activity of Ralbp1 and result in dramatic regression of tumor in syngeneic and xenograft models of melanoma, lung cancer, and colon cancer (14, 15). The membrane functionality of Ralbp1 is also evident from its crucial role in endocytosis as a rate-regulatory element (12, 16 -18).An endocytosis-linked protein POB1 that binds Ralbp1 in a similar region as Hsf-1 has been shown to be a specific and saturable inhibitor of the glutathione-electrophile conjugates and doxorubicin (DOX) 2 transport activity of membrane-reconstituted purified Ralbp1 (19). We proposed that just as POB1 could function as an inhibitor of the transport activity of Ralbp1, Hsf-1 could also function as a tr...

In deletion mutant analyses of potential phosphorylation sites in RLIP76, we identified T 297 and S 509 as targets for phosphorylation by PKCa. Phosphorylation at T 297 increased doxorubicin (DOX)-transport activity 2-fold for RLIP76 purified from recombinant source, or from three small (H69, H1417, H1618) and three non-small cell, one each derived from H226 (squamous), H358 (bronchio alveolar), and H1395 (adenocarcinoma) lung cancer cell lines. T 297 phosphorylation conferred sensitivity to tryptic digestion at R 293 . The specific activity for DOX-transport by RLIP76 purified from non-small cell, which was primarily in the phosphorylated form, was approximately twice that in small cell lung cancer cell lines. These finding offer a novel explanation for the observed intrinsic differences in sensitivity to DOX between non-small cell and small cell lung cancer cell lines.

Here we have assessed the effects of extracellular matrix (ECM) composition and rigidity on mechanical properties of the human airway smooth muscle (ASM) cell. Cell stiffness and contractile stress showed appreciable changes from the most relaxed state to the most contracted state: we refer to the maximal range of these changes as the cell contractile scope. The contractile scope was least when the cell was adherent upon collagen V, followed by collagen IV, laminin, and collagen I, and greatest for fibronectin. Regardless of ECM composition, upon adherence to increasingly rigid substrates, the ASM cell positively regulated expression of antioxidant genes in the glutathione pathway and heme oxygenase, and disruption of a redox-sensitive transcription factor, nuclear erythroid 2 p45-related factor (Nrf2), culminated in greater contractile scope. These findings provide biophysical evidence that ECM differentially modulates muscle contractility and, for the first time, demonstrate a link between muscle contractility and Nrf2-directed responses.