Carolina Cardona Ramírez

LÍNEAS DE INVESTIGACIÓN:   Salud Humana y Animal

 

PROGRAMA:  Medicina

CATEGORÍA MINCIENCIAS:    Junior

NIVEL DE FORMACIÓN: 

Doctora en Ciencias Bioquímicas por la Universidad de Málaga, Magíster en Química Avanzada, Preparación y Caracterización de Materiales, Licenciada en Biología y Química por la Universidad de Caldas. Amplia experiencia en estudios moleculares, celulares y proteómicos de isoenzimas glutaminasa en cerebro y cáncer. Sus líneas de investigación están orientadas a las ciencias médicas, biotecnología y ciencias ómicas. Sus investigaciones más recientes se enmarcan en el análisis de la expresión de la sulfatasa IDS mediante técnicas neuroquímicas, el aislamiento e identificación de su proteoma, y la validación  «in vivo» de interacciónes proteína-proteina mediante rastreo de doble híbrido en levaduras; proyectos desarrollados durante su estancia Postdoctoral en la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Actualmente, encabeza uno de los proyectos de investigación de la Universidad de Ciencias Aplicadas y Ambientales, titulado «Estudio de los mecanismos moleculares de la acción antiproliferativa del Gibbilimbol B; mediante aproximaciones proteómicas y bioinformáticas».

LINEAS DE TRABAJO:   Ciencias Médicas - Metabolismo del Nitrógeno - Biotecnología - Ciencias Ómicas - Errores Innatos del Metabolismo

PRODUCTOS DESTACADOS

Nuclear Translocation of Glutaminase GLS2 in Human Cancer Cells Associates with Proliferation Arrest and Differentiation
Fecha de publicación: 08/02/2020

Glutaminase (GA) catalyzes the first step in mitochondrial glutaminolysis playing a key role in cancer metabolic reprogramming. Humans express two types of GA isoforms: GLS and GLS2. GLS isozymes have been consistently related to cell proliferation, but the role of GLS2 in cancer remains poorly understood. GLS2 is repressed in many tumor cells and a better understanding of its function in tumorigenesis may further the development of new therapeutic approaches. We analyzed GLS2 expression in HCC, GBM and neuroblastoma cells, as well as in monkey COS-7 cells. We studied GLS2 expression after induction of differentiation with phorbol ester (PMA) and transduction with the full- length cDNA of GLS2. In parallel, we investigated cell cycle progression and levels of p53, p21 and c-Myc proteins. Using the baculovirus system, human GLS2 protein was overexpressed, purified and analyzed for posttranslational modifications employing a proteomics LC-MS/MS platform. We have demonstrated a dual targeting of GLS2 in human cancer cells. Immunocytochemistry and subcellular fractionation gave consistent results demonstrating nuclear and mitochondrial locations, with the latter being predominant. Nuclear targeting was confirmed in cancer cells overexpressing c-Myc- and GFP-tagged GLS2 proteins. We assessed the subnuclear location finding a widespread distribution of GLS2 in the nucleoplasm without clear overlapping with specific nuclear substructures. GLS2 expression and nuclear accrual notably increased by treatment of SH-SY5Y cells with PMA and it correlated with cell cycle arrest at G2/M, upregulation of tumor suppressor p53 and p21 protein. A similar response was obtained by overexpression of GLS2 in T98G glioma cells, including downregulation of oncogene c-Myc. Furthermore, human GLS2 was identified as being hypusinated by MS analysis, a posttranslational modification which may be relevant for its nuclear targeting and/or function. Our studies provide evidence for a tumor suppressor role of GLS2 in certain types of cancer. The data imply that GLS2 can be regarded as a highly mobile and multilocalizing protein translocated to both mitochondria and nuclei. Upregulation of GLS2 in cancer cells induced an antiproliferative response with cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase.


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