A novel Akt/PKB-interacting protein promotes cell adhesion and inhibits familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-linked mutant SOD1-induced neuronal death via inhibition of PP2A-mediated dephosphorylation of Akt/PKB

Akt/Protein Kinase B (PKB) family proteins (Akts), consisting of Akt1, 2, and 3, play a crucial role in multiple biological processes. We recently demonstrated that activation of Akt3 by the autosomal-recessive familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-linked gene 2 (ALS2) product, alsinLF, led to the suppression of motoneuronal death induced by familial ALS-related mutant superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1). To characterize the mechanism of neuroprotection mediated by Akt3 in detail, we performed a yeast two-hybrid system using Akt3 as a bait and identified BTBD10 as a novel Akt-interacting protein with a BTB/POZ domain. BTBD10 equally binds to any Akt. Overexpression of BTBD10 increased phosphorylation levels of Akts at both Thr³⁰⁸ and Ser⁴⁷³ while the reduction of the endogenous BTBD10 level resulted in a decrease in the phosphorylation levels of Akts. In vitro analysis indicated that BTBD10 bound to protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and inhibited dephosphorylation of Akts by PP2A. In agreement with BTBD10-mediated upregulation of the Akt phosphorylation levels, enforced expression of BTBD10 led to the suppression of mutant SOD1-induced neuronal death. Furthermore, overexpression of BTBD10 accelerated cell growth by enhancing cell adhesion. Given its ubiquitous expression, BTBD10 appears to behave as a suppressor of cell death including neuronal cell death related to ALS and an enhancer of cell growth via its positive regulation of Akt phosphorylation.