Abstract
Adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) elevating agents such as the incretin hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) potentiate glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) from pancreatic beta cells. However, a debate has existed since the
1970's concerning whether or not cAMP signaling is essential for glucose alone to stimulate insulin secretion. Here we report that the first-phase kinetic component of GSIS is cAMP-dependent, as revealed through the use of a novel highly membrane permeable para-acetoxybenzyl (pAB) ester prodrug that is a bioactivatable derivative of the cAMP antagonist Rp-cAMPS. In dynamic perifusion assays of human or rat islets, a step-wise increase of glucose concentration leads to biphasic insulin secretion, and under these conditions Rp-8-Br-cAMPS-pAB inhibits first-phase GSIS by up to
80%. Surprisingly, second-phase GSIS is inhibited to a much smaller extent (< 20%).
Using luciferase, FRET, and BRET assays performed in living cells, we validate that Rp-8-Br-cAMPS-pAB does in fact block cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) activation. Novel actions of Rp-8-Br-cAMPS-pAB to block cAMP sensor Epac1 and Epac2 activation are also validated using genetically encoded Epac biosensors, and are independently confirmed in an in vitro Rap1 activation assay using Rp-cAMPS and Rp-8-Br-cAMPS. Thus, in addition to revealing the cAMP-dependence of first-phase GSIS from human and rat islets, these findings establish a pAB-based chemistry for the synthesis of highly membrane permeable prodrug derivatives of Rp-cAMPS that act with micromolar or even nanomolar potency to inhibit cAMP signaling in living cells.
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