Genetic modeling of PIM proteins in cancer: proviral tagging and cooperation with oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, and carcinogens

The PIM proteins, which were initially discovered as proviral insertion sites in Moloney-murine leukemia virus infection, are a family of highly homologous serine/threonine kinases that have been reported to be overexpressed in hematological malignancies and solid tumors. The PIM proteins have also been associated with metastasis and overall treatment responses and implicated in the regulation of apoptosis, metabolism, the cell cycle, and homing and migration, which makes these proteins interesting targets for anti-cancer drug discovery. The use of retroviral insertional mutagenesis and refined approaches such as complementation tagging has allowed the identification of myc, pim, and a third group of genes (including bmi1 and gfi1) as complementing genes in lymphomagenesis. Moreover, mouse modeling of human cancer has provided an understanding of the molecular pathways that are involved in tumor initiation and progression at the physiological level. In particular, genetically modified mice have allowed researchers to further elucidate the role of each of the Pim isoforms in various tumor types. PIM kinases have been identified as weak oncogenes because experimental overexpression in lymphoid tissue, prostate, and liver induces tumors at a relatively low incidence and with a long latency. However, very strong synergistic tumorigenicity between Pim1/2 and c-Myc and other oncogenes has been observed in lymphoid tissues. Mouse models have also been used to study whether the inhibition of specific PIM isoforms is required to prevent carcinogen-induced sarcomas, indicating that the absence of Pim2 and Pim3 greatly reduces sarcoma growth and bone invasion; the extent of this effect is similar to that observed in the absence of all three isoforms. This review will summarize some of the animal models that have been used to understand the isoform-specific contribution of PIM kinases to tumorigenesis.