Peptidyl-prolyl isomerase Pin1 markedly enhances the oncogenic activity of the rel proteins in the nuclear factor-kappaB family.

The peptidyl-prolyl isomerase Pin1 is frequently up-regulated in human cancers in which Rel/nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) is constitutively activated, but its role in these cancers remains to be determined, and evidence is still lacking to show that Pin1 contributes to cell transformation by Rel/NF-kappaB. Rel/NF-kappaB transcriptional and oncogenic activities are modulated by several posttranslational modifications and coregulatory proteins, and previous studies showed that cytokine treatment induces binding of Pin1 to the RelA subunit of NF-kappaB, thereby enhancing RelA nuclear localization and stability. Here we show that Pin1 associates with the Rel subunits of NF-kappaB that are implicated in leukemia/lymphomagenesis and modulates their transcriptional and oncogenic activities. Pin1 markedly enhanced transformation of primary lymphocytes by the human c-Rel protein and also increased cell transformation by the potent viral Rel/NF-kappaB oncoprotein v-Rel, in contrast to a Pin1 mutant in the WW domain involved in interaction with NF-kappaB. Pin1 promoted nuclear accumulation of Rel proteins in the absence of activating stimuli. Importantly, inhibition of Pin1 function with the pharmacologic inhibitor juglone or with Pin1-specific shRNA led to cytoplasmic relocalization of endogenous c-Rel in human lymphoma-derived cell lines, markedly interfered with lymphoma cell proliferation, and suppressed endogenous Rel/NF-kappaB-dependent gene expression. Together, these results show that Pin1 is an important regulator of Rel/NF-kappaB transforming activity and suggest that Pin1 may be a potential therapeutic target in Rel/NF-kappaB-dependent leukemia/lymphomas.