Hypoxia is an essential factor of cancer progression. Several proteins, including clients of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), are activated/deactivated under hypoxic conditions, leading to changes in tumor microenvironment, metabolism, and response to a...
Hypoxia is an essential factor of cancer progression. Several proteins, including clients of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), are activated/deactivated under hypoxic conditions, leading to changes in tumor microenvironment, metabolism, and response to anticancer therapies. Hsp90 is a chaperone protein that stabilizes a number of proteins required for tumor growth, angiogenesis, and metastasis by assisting proper folding of the proteins. Hsp90 chaperone function is fine-tuned by posttranslational modifications, including acetylation, phosphorylation, S-nitrosylation, oxidation and ubiquitination. HDAC inhibition has shown to increase Hsp90 acetylation while simultaneously destabilizing Hsp90 interaction with several client proteins, including ErbB2, Src, and Hif1α. Deacetylases and acetylases are balanced to regulate this modification. However, little is known about HDACs that modify Hsp90 under hypoxia and acetylases which directly transfer acetylation on Hsp90. Here, I demonstrate that hypoxia increases Hsp90 acetylation and its function by modulating HDAC1, HDAC3, and ARD1 functions, resulting in the increased interaction between MEK and Hsp90 and activation of MEK and its downstream proteins. Ectopic overexpression of HDAC1 and HDAC3 decreases the interaction of Hsp90 with MEK under hypoxia. Through pulldown, immunoprecipitation, and in vitro acetylation assays, I identify that ARD1 mediates interaction with and acetylation of the middle domain of Hsp90. Silencing ARD1 by transfection with siRNA attenuates the interaction between MEK and Hsp90 under hypoxic conditions. ARD1-mediated Hsp90 acetylation and subsequent increase in MEK/FAK signaling contribute to NSCLC migration under hypoxia. Inhibition of ARD1 or overexpression of HDAC1 and HDAC3 significantly reduce the NSCLC cell migration potential. These results suggest that the balanced actions of HDAC1, HDAC3, and ARD1 regulate Hsp90 acetylation and NSCLC migration, supporting the use of epigenetic modulators for regulating NSCLC migration under hypoxia.