Interaction between IDH1 WT and calmodulin and its implications for glioblastoma cell growth and migration

Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutations are found in low-grade gliomas, and the product of the IDH mutant (MT), 2-hydroxyglutarate (2-HG), is the first known oncometabolite. However, the roles of the IDH wild type (WT) in high-grade glioblastoma, which rarely has the IDH mutation, are still unknown. To investigate possible pathways related to IDH WT in gliomas, we carried out bioinformatics analysis, and found that IDH1 has several putative calmodulin (CaM) binding sites. Pull-down and quantitative dissociation constant (Kd) measurements using recombinant proteins showed that IDH1 WT indeed binds to CaM with a higher affinity than IDH1 R132H MT. This biochemical interaction was demonstrated also in the cellular environment by immunoprecipitation with glioblastoma cell extracts. A synthetic peptide for the suggested binding region interfered with the interaction between CaM and IDH1, confirming the specificity of the binding. Direct binding between the synthetic peptide and CaM was observed in an NMR binding experiment, which additionally revealed that the peptide initially binds to the C-lobe of CaM. The physiological meaning of the CaM-IDH1 WT binding was shown with trifluoperazine (TFP), a CaM antagonist, which disrupted the binding and inhibited survival and migration of glioblastoma cells with IDH1 WT. As CaM signaling is activated in glioblastoma, our results suggest that IDH1 WT may be involved in the CaM-signaling pathway in the tumorigenesis of high-grade gliomas.