Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33705793›Full record

ArticleThe Journal of biological chemistry

Covalent N-arylation by the pollutant 1,2-naphthoquinone activates the EGF receptor.

Kengo Nakahara, Kyohei Hamada, Tomoki Tsuchida, Nobumasa Takasugi, Yumi Abiko, Kazuhiko Shien, Shinichi Toyooka, Yoshito Kumagai, Takashi Uehara

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The Journal of biological chemistry. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
0.5field-weighted citation impact, top 44% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Epidermal growth factor receptor in placental health and disease: pathways, dysfunction, and chemical disruption.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2025
    Review
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Kengo NakaharaDepartment of Medicinal Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan.
Kyohei HamadaDepartment of Medicinal Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan.
Tomoki TsuchidaDepartment of Medicinal Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan.
Nobumasa TakasugiDepartment of Medicinal Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan.
Yumi AbikoEnvironmental Biology Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Kazuhiko ShienDepartment of Thoracic, Breast and Endocrinological Surgery, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan.
Shinichi ToyookaDepartment of Thoracic, Breast and Endocrinological Surgery, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan.
Yoshito KumagaiEnvironmental Biology Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Takashi UeharaDepartment of Medicinal Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan. Electronic address: uehara-t@okayama-u.ac.jp.
Okayama University · JPUniversity of Tsukuba · JP

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is the most intensively investigated receptor tyrosine kinase. Several EGFR mutations and modifications have been shown to lead to abnormal self-activation, which plays a critical role in carcinogenesis. Environmental air pollutants, which are associated with cancer and respiratory diseases, can also activate EGFR. Specifically, the environmental electrophile 1,2-naphthoquinone (1,2-NQ), a component of diesel exhaust particles and particulate matter more generally, has previously been shown to impact EGFR signaling. However, the detailed mechanism of 1,2-NQ function is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that 1,2-NQ is a novel chemical activator of EGFR but not other EGFR family proteins. We found that 1,2-NQ forms a covalent bond, in a reaction referred to as N-arylation, with Lys80, which is in the ligand-binding domain. This modification activates the EGFR-Akt signaling pathway, which inhibits serum deprivation-induced cell death in a human lung adenocarcinoma cell line. Our study reveals a novel mode of EGFR pathway activation and suggests a link between abnormal EGFR activation and environmental pollutant-associated diseases such as cancer.

Indexed as

A549 CellsAdenocarcinoma of LungApoptosisEnvironmental PollutantsErbB ReceptorsHumansLung NeoplasmsNaphthoquinonesPhosphorylationSignal Transduction1,2-naphthoquinoneEGFR protein, humanEnvironmental PollutantsErbB ReceptorsNaphthoquinonesapoptosiscell signalingchemical modificationepidermal growth factor receptorsignal transduction

Identifiers

PMID33705793
PMCPMC8050034
OpenAlexW3134336673

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.