The Ras signaling inhibitor LOX-PP interacts with Hsp70 and c-Raf to reduce Erk activation and transformed phenotype of breast cancer cells.

The lysyl oxidase gene (LOX) inhibits Ras signaling in transformed fibroblasts and breast cancer cells. Its activity was mapped to the 162-amino-acid propeptide domain (LOX-PP) of the lysyl oxidase precursor protein. LOX-PP inhibits Erk signaling, motility, and tumor formation in a breast cancer xenograft model; however, its mechanism of action is largely unknown. Here, a copurification-mass spectrometry approach was taken using ectopically expressed LOX-PP in HEK293T cells and the heat shock/chaperone protein Hsp70 identified. Hsp70 interaction with LOX-PP was confirmed using coimmunoprecipitation of intracellularly and bacterially expressed and endogenous proteins. The interaction was mapped to the Hsp70 peptide-binding domain and to LOX-PP amino acids 26 to 100. LOX-PP association reduced Hsp70 chaperone activities of protein refolding and survival after heat shock. LOX-PP interacted with the Hsp70 chaperoned protein c-Raf. With the use of ectopic expression of LOX-PP wild-type and deletion proteins, small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown, and Lox(-/-) mouse embryo fibroblasts, LOX-PP interaction with c-Raf was shown to decrease downstream activation of MEK and NF-κB, migration, and anchorage-independent growth and reduce its mitochondrial localization. Thus, the interaction of LOX-PP with Hsp70 and c-Raf inhibits a critical intermediate in Ras-induced MEK signaling and plays an important role in the function of this tumor suppressor.