Molecular insight on the role of the phosphoinositide PIP3 in regulating the protein kinases Akt, PDK1, and BTK

Protein kinases are master regulators of myriad processes in eukaryotic cells playing critical roles in growth, metabolism, cellular differentiation, and motility. A subclass of protein kinases is regulated by their ability to be localized and activated by the phosphoinositide phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-trisphosphate (PIP3). This includes multiple members of the AGC and TEC family kinases, which contain PIP3 binding pleckstrin homology (PH) domains. It has been postulated that they can be activated by PIP3-mediated disruption of autoinhibitory interactions between their kinase domains and PH domains. There has been considerable controversy based on differing molecular models for how these kinases are regulated by lipid binding and post-translational modifications. This review focuses on understanding the molecular underpinnings for how the PH domains of these enzymes regulate kinase activity and what role PIP3 plays in pathway activation. A specific focus is on the integration of experimental data derived from X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, and hydrogen deuterium exchange mass spectrometry along with recent advances in artifical intelligence enabled protein modeling. The main lipid-binding enzymes described are the AGC protein kinases 3-phosphoinositide-dependent kinase (PDK1) and Akt, and the TEC family kinase, Bruton’s agammaglobulinemia tyrosine kinase (BTK).