Small-molecule inhibitors of AKT signaling are being in evaluated in patients with various cancer types, but have so far proven therapeutically disappointing for reasons that remain unclear. Here, we treat cancer cells with sub-therapeutic doses of Akti-1/2, an allosteric small molecule AKT inhibitor, in order to experimentally model pharmacologic inhibition of AKT signaling in vitro. We then apply a combined RNA, protein, and metabolite profiling approach to develop an integrated, multi-scale, molecular snapshot of this “AKTlow” cancer cell state. We find that AKT-inhibited cancer cells suppress thousands of mRNA transcripts, and proteins related to the cell cycle, ribosome, and protein translation. Surprisingly, however, these AKT-inhibited cells simultaneously up-regulate a host of other proteins and metabolites post-transcriptionally, reflecting activation of their endo-vesiculo-membrane system, secretion of inflammatory proteins, and elaboration of extracellular microvesicles. Importantly, these microvesicles enable rapidly proliferating cancer cells of various types to better withstand different stress conditions, including serum deprivation, hypoxia, or cytotoxic chemotherapy in vitro and xenografting in vivo. These findings suggest a model whereby cancer cells experiencing a partial inhibition of AKT signaling may actually promote the survival of neighbors through non-cell autonomous communication.
Overall design: Profiles of MCF7 and HCT116 Akti-1/2 treated cells and MCF7 and HCT116 vehicle (i.e. DMSO) treated cells were generated, each in duplicate, using small RNA-Seq.
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