Magic™ Anti-SHC1 (Phospho S36) monoclonal antibody, clone 7F21

Proteins in cell signaling networks tend to interact promiscuously through low-affinity interactions. Consequently, evaluating the physiological importance of mapped interactions can be difficult. Attempts to do so have tended to focus on single, measurable physicochemical factors, such as affinity or abundance. For example, interaction importance has been assessed on the basis of the relative affinities of binding partners for a protein of interest, such as a receptor. However, multiple factors can be expected to simultaneously influence the recruitment of proteins to a receptor (and the potential of these proteins to contribute to receptor signaling), including affinity, abundance, and competition, which is a network property. Here, we demonstrate that measurements of protein copy numbers and binding affinities can be integrated within the framework of a mechanistic, computational model that accounts for mass action and competition. We use cell line-specific models to rank the relative importance of protein-protein interactions in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling network for 11 different cell lines. Each model accounts for experimentally characterized interactions of six autophosphorylation sites in EGFR with proteins containing a Src homology 2 and/or phosphotyrosine-binding domain. We measure importance as the predicted maximal extent of recruitment of a protein to EGFR following ligand-stimulated activation of EGFR signaling. We find that interactions ranked highly by this metric include experimentally detected interactions. Proteins with high importance rank in multiple cell lines include proteins with recognized, well-characterized roles in EGFR signaling, such as GRB2 and SHC1, as well as a protein with a less well-defined role, YES1. Our results reveal potential cell line-specific differences in recruitment.

Aims/hypothesis AGEs have been implicated in renal disease associated with ageing, diabetes and other age-related disorders. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) promote formation of AGEs, which cause AGE-receptor-mediated ROS generation with activation of signalling pathways leading to tissue injury and further AGE accumulation. ROS generation is regulated by the Src homology 2 domain-containing transforming protein C1 (Shc1) isoform p66(Shc), whose deletion has been shown to protect from tissue injury induced by ageing, diabetes, hyperlipidaemia and ischaemia-reperfusion by preventing oxidative stress. This study was aimed at assessing the role of p66(Shc) in the modulation of oxidative stress and oxidant-dependent renal injury induced by AGEs. Methods For 10 weeks, male p66 (shc) knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice were injected with 60 mu g/day albumin modified or unmodified by N (epsilon)(carboxymethyl) lysine (CML). Mice were then killed for the assessment of renal function and structure, as well as systemic and renal tissue oxidative stress. Results Upon CML injection, KO mice, in contrast to WT mice, showed no or only mild forms of proteinuria, glomerular hypertrophy, mesangial expansion, glomerular sclerosis, renal/glomerular cell apoptosis and extracellular matrix upregulation. Moreover, KO mice had lower circulating and tissue AGEs than WT mice and unchanged plasma isoprostane 8-epi-prostaglandin-F-2 alpha levels, renal/glomerular CML, 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, AGE receptor and NAD(P)H oxidase 4 (NOX4) content (and expression of the corresponding genes), and nuclear factor kappa B activation (NF kappa B). Mesangial cells from KO mice exposed to CML showed no or slight increase in ROS levels and NF kappa B activation, again at variance with WT cells. Conclusions/interpretation These data indicate that p66(Shc) participates in the pathogenesis of AGE-dependent glomerulopathy by mediating AGE-induced tissue injury and further AGE formation through ROS-dependent mechanisms involving NF kappa B activation and upregulation of Nox4 expression and NOX4 production.