Gefitinib, an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is used as FDA approved drug in breast cancer and non-small cell lung cancer treatment. However, this drug has certain side effects and complications for which the underlying molecular mechanisms are not well understood. By systems biology based in silico analysis, we identified off-targets of gefitinib that might explain side effects of this drugs. The crystal structure of EGFR-gefitinib complex was used for binding pocket similarity searches on a druggable proteome database (Sc-PDB) by using IsoMIF Finder. The top 128 hits of putative off-targets were validated by reverse docking approach. The results showed that identified off-targets have efficient binding with gefitinib. The identified human specific off-targets were confirmed and further analyzed for their links with biological process and clinical disease pathways using retrospective studies and literature mining, respectively. Noticeably, many of the identified off-targets in this study were reported in previous high-throughput screenings. Interestingly, the present study reveals that gefitinib may have positive effects in reducing brain and bone metastasis, and may be useful in defining novel gefitinib based treatment regime. We propose that a system wide approach could be useful during new drug development and to minimize side effect of the prospective drug.

Various cytokines derived from placental cells are essential for normal placenta development and successful pregnancy. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine produced by extravillous and cytotrophoblasts regulating the functions of these cells, e.g. migration, invasion, trophoblast differentiation and proliferation. In macrophages, newly synthesized IL-6 accumulates in the Golgi complex and exits in tubulovesicular carriers fused with recycling endosomes and secreted as a soluble protein. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) induces various cytokine secretions including IL-6 in different cell types. The signaling mechanisms regulating the IL-6 secretion are unknown. In this study, we found that S1PR₂ was the major S1P receptor being expressed in BeWo cells. S1P regulated IL-6 protein secretion in early phase (6 h) and gene expression in later phase (24 h). IL-6 secretion was completely inhibited via inhibitor of transcription (Actinomycin D) or protein synthesis (Cycloheximide) confirming that IL-6 releases constitutively from BeWo cells. By using specific S1PR₂ inhibitor JTE-013 and S1PR₂ gene silencing, we found that S1PR₂ was the main receptor that regulates IL-6 secretion. Furthermore, S1P induced RhoGTPases-dependent pathways that are required for IL-6 secretion. Pretreatment of cells with specific Rho-kinase inhibitor (Y27632) and Rac1 inhibitor (NSC23766) drastically inhibited S1P-induced IL-6 secretion. By using a specific Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor (LY294002), we found that basal activity of PI3K was required for secretion but was independent of S1P/S1PR₂ axis activation. In summary, we report first time that binding of S1P to S1PR₂ activates multiple RhoGTPases-dependent pathways that coordinate with PI3K pathway for secretion of IL-6 in BeWo cells.

ADF/cofilin proteins are key regulators of actin dynamics. Their function is inhibited by LIMK-mediated phosphorylation at Ser-3. Previous in vitro studies have shown that dependent on its concentration, cofilin either depolymerizes F-actin (at low cofilin concentrations) or promotes actin polymerization (at high cofilin concentrations). We found that after in vivo cross-linking with different probes, a cofilin oligomer (65 kDa) could be detected in platelets and endothelial cells. The cofilin oligomer did not contain actin. Notably, ADF that only depolymerizes F-actin was present mainly in monomeric form. Furthermore, we found that formation of the cofilin oligomer is regulated by Ser-3 cofilin phosphorylation. Cofilin but not phosphorylated cofilin was present in the endogenous cofilin oligomer. In vitro, formation of cofilin oligomers was drastically reduced after phosphorylation by LIMK2. In endothelial cells, LIMK-mediated cofilin phosphorylation after thrombin-stimulation of EGFP- or DsRed2-tagged cofilin transfected cells reduced cofilin aggregate formation, whereas inhibition of cofilin phosphorylation after Rho-kinase inhibitor (Y27632) treatment of endothelial cells promoted formation of cofilin aggregates. In platelets, cofilin dephosphorylation after thrombin-stimulation and Y27632 treatment led to an increased formation of the cofilin oligomer. Based on our results, we propose that an equilibrium exists between the monomeric and oligomeric forms of cofilin in intact cells that is regulated by cofilin phosphorylation. Cofilin phosphorylation at Ser-3 may induce conformational changes on the protein-protein interacting surface of the cofilin oligomer, thereby preventing and/or disrupting cofilin oligomer formation. Cofilin oligomerization might explain the dual action of cofilin on actin dynamics in vivo.