Abstract A030: Deciphering the micro-RNA landscape of AKT isoforms and its clinical impact in patients with lung adenocarcinoma


 Over the last 25 years, AKT kinase has been thoroughly investigated and characterized as a crucial regulator of cellular homeostasis, affecting a plethora of essential molecular functions. The three identified isoforms of this kinase, namely AKT1, AKT2 and AKT3, often display opposing and antagonizing cellular functions. One of these important cellular functions is the expression and activation of micro-RNAs (miRNAs), an important RNA process that epigenetically regulates the human transcriptome. In the context of human cancer and based on several reports, AKT kinase has been associated with aberrant expression of oncogenic miRNAs, that in turn hijack oncogenic pathways, leading to tumor progression, metastasis and resistance to therapy, especially in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Nevertheless, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of each AKT isoform on the regulation and enrichment of a specific miRNA signature in lung adenocarcinoma has yet to be performed. Here, we were willing to elucidate the miRNA epigenetic landscape and downstream targets, driven by each AKT isoform, and its clinical importance in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. To this extent, we utilized RNA-Seq and Small RNA-Seq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA-LUAD) to identify the miRNA signatures related with the expression of each AKT isoform in LUAD. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis from RNA-Seq and miRNA levels analysis from Small RNA-Seq, identified a unique miRNA signature for each AKT isoform, demonstrating their largely opposing effect in miRNA profiling. In parallel analysis, in silico target analysis of the top 50 regulated miRNAs, demonstrated another set of unique targets for each isoform-dependent miRNA signature, which is involved in metabolism, DNA damage, RNA processing, cell survival, immune response and metastasis. More importantly, clinical and survival analysis revealed that the top 50 Differentially regulated miRNAs, ranked by q-value, for each isoform correlated with poor progression free survival in patients with LUAD. Collectively, our atlas of AKT isoform-driven miRNA landscapes implicates AKT as a global effector of miRNA landscape in lung adenocarcinoma. Due to the lack of reliable isoform-specific AKT inhibitors, the identification of the oncogenic miRNA networks regulated by each isoform, acts as an important transnational resource for the design and testing of inhibitors that bypass AKT inhibition toxicity, sparing its impactful physiological functions.
 Citation Format: George Laliotis, Pauline Lin. Deciphering the micro-RNA landscape of AKT isoforms and its clinical impact in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Cancer Epigenomics; 2022 Oct 6-8; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(23 Suppl_2):Abstract nr A030.