{"id":457272,"date":"2026-06-02T15:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T15:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/457272\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T15:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T15:23:15","slug":"kinase-droplets-activate-growth-signals-path-for-cancer-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/457272\/","title":{"rendered":"Kinase Droplets Activate Growth Signals, Path for Cancer Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cancer<\/a>Credit: anusorn nakdee \/ \tiStock \/ Getty Images Plus<\/p>\n

A new study published in\u00a0Cell Reports\u00a0titled, \u201cKinase condensates enrich ATP and trigger autophosphorylation<\/a>,\u201d suggests that cellular phase separation, a mechanism that organizes biomolecules into dense, liquid-like condensates, may play a previously underappreciated role in regulating kinase activity. The findings suggest that aberrant condensate formation could contribute to oncogenic signaling while also offering new opportunities for drug targeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMany biological molecules have this propensity to spontaneously separate,\u201d said Lindsay Case, PhD, assistant professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and corresponding author of the study. \u201cWe were really interested in asking, if we have these kinases forming droplets, what is the consequence of that in the context of signaling?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Phase separation occurs when proteins condense into highly concentrated liquid-like droplets within cells, analogous to oil droplets separating from vinegar. Although biomolecular condensates have\u00a0emerged\u00a0as important organizers of cellular processes, their impact on kinase signaling has\u00a0remained\u00a0incompletely understood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0researchers examined three kinases: focal adhesion kinase (FAK), Mst2, and Abl. Across all three systems, condensate formation increased kinase activity by concentrating enzymes and substrates, thereby promoting phosphorylation reactions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For FAK, the team found that elevated protein levels were sufficient to drive droplet formation and activate downstream growth signaling.\u00a0The findings raise the possibility that FAK overexpression in tumors could promote constitutive signaling through condensate formation, potentially contributing to cancer progression and metastasis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was surprising that just by condensing this protein into a droplet, you can actually turn on a signaling pathway that should be turned off,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Case. \u201cIf FAK concentration is too high, you\u2019re always getting these droplets and you\u2019re always signaling, regardless of what the receptors that are supposed to be controlling this are doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mst2 and Abl also phase separated at high concentrations, which led to increased activity. For Mst2, phase separation is a strategy that healthy cells use to control the Hippo signaling pathway, which promotes cell growth and survival. Phase separation can also lead both enzymes to phosphorylate additional targets, and activate different signaling pathways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just that you\u2019re getting faster phosphorylation, but in those cases, the patterns of what is actually getting phosphorylated were very different inside of the droplet compared to what might be happening in a non-droplet context,\u201d Case says. \u201cThe kinase is able to phosphorylate amino acid residues beyond the set of canonical sites that have been described before.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mechanistically, the team found that kinase condensates selectively concentrate ATP, the phosphate donor\u00a0required\u00a0for kinase activity. Positively charged regions within kinases appear to recruit negatively charged ATP molecules\u00a0to support\u00a0phosphorylation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Using machine-learning analysis, the investigators predicted that approximately 45% of the\u00a0roughly 500\u00a0human kinases\u00a0possess\u00a0the molecular features\u00a0needed to form\u00a0similar condensates.\u00a0The findings suggest that phase separation may\u00a0represent\u00a0a widespread regulatory mechanism\u00a0that\u00a0could influence both normal cellular signaling and disease-associated kinase activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In future work, Case hopes to explore designing drugs that could mimic ATP\u2019s ability to be attracted into droplets within a cell, which could reduce side effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: anusorn nakdee \/ iStock \/ Getty Images Plus A new study published in\u00a0Cell Reports\u00a0titled, \u201cKinase condensates enrich…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2534,26946,63590,232369,6006,39809,2489,29685,111,43,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-457272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-cancer","tag-cancer-therapy","tag-cancers","tag-drug-design","tag-drug-discovery","tag-enzymes","tag-machine-learning","tag-metastasis","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}