A phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-regulated Akt-independent signaling promotes cigarette smoke-induced FRA-1 expression

The FRA-1 proto-oncogene is overexpressed in a variety of human tumors and is known to up-regulate the expression of genes involved in tumor progression and invasion. The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt pathway is also known to regulate these cellular processes. More importantly, respiratory toxicants and carcinogens activate both the PI3K-Akt pathway and FRA-1 expression in human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells. In this study we investigated a potential link between the PI3K-Akt pathway and the cigarette smoke (CS)-stimulated epidermal growth factor receptor-mediated FRA-1 induction in non-oncogenic HBE cells. Treatment of cells with LY294002, an inhibitor of the PI3K-Akt pathway, completely blocked CS-induced FRA-1 expression. Surprisingly pharmacological inhibition of Akt had no significant effect on CS-induced FRA-1 expression. Likewise the inhibition of protein kinase C zeta, which is a known downstream effector of PI3K, did not alter FRA-1 expression. We found that the PI3K through p21-activated kinase 1 regulates FRA-1 proto-oncogene induction by CS and the subsequent activation of the Elk1 and cAMP-response element-binding protein transcription factors that are bound to the promoter in HBE cells.