Bcl-2 tumor suppressor as a possible mediator between genotoxic stress and disturbance in hormonal homeostasis

Overexpression of tumor suppressor gene bcl-2 plays an important role in cellular resistance to apoptosis caused by various factors including glucocorticoids. In this study, the role of bcl-2 in glucocorticoid-mediated negative feedback regulation has been investigated. Transient transfection of bcl-2 into murine corticotrope AtT-20 cells resulted in significant resistance of proopiomelanocortin gene expression and ACTH secretion to down-regulation by dexamethasone. Bcl-2 revealed its activity mostly in the presence of saturating concentrations of dexamethasone (100 nM-1 mM). Overexpression of bcl-1 interfered with the receptor-mediated glucocorticoid activity and appeared to be relatively specific towards expression of proopiomelanocortin/ACTH. The data suggest a novel function of bcl-2 as a factor capable of regulating hormonal homeostasis. Thus, bcl-2 may be involved in hormonal and metabolic response to genotoxic stress, the phenomenon which was earlier defined as carcinogenic aging.     

bcl-2 gene enables rescue from in vitro myelosuppression (bone marrow cell death) induced by chemotherapy.

Recent studies have shown that the use of cytokines such as granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) to ameliorate chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression may enhance the viability of tumour cells with functional receptors for these cytokines. In this study, therefore, we used murine bone marrow (BM) cells in an in vitro model in an attempt to determine whether topoisomerase inhibitors (camptothecin, etoposide and doxorubicin) induce myelosuppression (BM cell death) and whether novel treatments other than the administration of G-CSF can be used for rescue from myelosuppression. DNA fragmentation assay, ultrastructural analysis and cell cycle analysis demonstrated that these chemotherapeutic agents induced apoptosis in BM cells. We demonstrated in addition that enforced expression of the bcl-2 gene in BM cells by MPZenNeo (bcl-2) retroviral gene transfer increased resistance to the apoptosis induced by these agents. These findings suggest the possibility that enforced expression of the bcl-2 gene in BM cells using gene transfer techniques may enable rescue from chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression.     

Lovastatin induces a pronounced differentiation response in acute myeloid leukemias.

We recently identified HMG-CoA reductase, the rate-limiting enzyme of the mevalonate pathway, as a potential therapeutic target of various retinoic acid responsive cancers. Lovastatin, a competitive inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase, induced a retinoic acid-like differentiation response followed by extensive apoptosis in neuroblastoma cell lines at relatively low concentrations (<20 microM) of this agent. More recently, we demonstrated that acute myeloid leukemias but not acute lymphocytic leukemias also displayed increased sensitivity to lovastatin-induced apoptosis. In this study, we examined the ability of lovastatin to induce differentiation of acute myeloid leukemic cells and to evaluate the role differentiation may hold in the anti-leukemic properties of this agent. Increased expression of the leukocyte integrins CD11b and CD18 as well as down-regulation of the anti-apoptotic gene bcl-2 are associated with late stage differentiation of the myeloid lineage and retinoic acid induced maturation of acute myeloid leukemic cells. Lovastatin exposure induced increased expression of CD11b and CD18 markers similar to retinoic acid treatment. Following 24 hrs exposure to 20 microM lovastatin, all 7 acute myeloid leukemia cell lines tested showed a decrease in bcl-2 mRNA expression while only 1/5 acute lymphocytic leukemia cell lines showed a similar response. A role for bcl-2 in the apoptotic response of acute myeloid leukemia cells to lovastatin was demonstrated as exogenous constitutive expression of bcl-2 in the AML-5 cell line inhibited apoptosis in a time and dose dependent manner. Thus, lovastatin exposure of acute myeloid leukemia cells induced a differentiation response that may contribute to the therapeutic potential of this agent in the treatment of this disease.     

嵌合抗CD20Fab′抗体片段诱导Raji细胞的凋亡机制

目的: 探讨嵌合抗CD20抗体Fab′片段的抗肿瘤机制。方法: 应用MTT法检测Fab′片段对Raji细胞生长的抑制作用，用Annexin VFITC和PI测定Fab′片段对Raji细胞凋亡的诱导作用，用RTPCR和Western blot检测Raji细胞中bcl2表达的变化。结果: 嵌合抗CD20Fab′片段对Raji细胞具有明显的抑制作用IC50值为24.2 μg/ml，并呈剂量依赖性；嵌合抗CD20 Fab′片段能诱导Raji细胞的凋亡，并降低Raji细胞中bcl2基因及其蛋白的表达水平。 结论:嵌合抗CD20抗体片段Fab′能抑制Raji细胞生长和诱导细胞凋亡，其作用机制与bcl2蛋白表达的下降有关     

紫杉醇对人骨肉瘤细胞凋亡及对bcl-2 、bax基因表达的影响

 目的 了解紫杉醇诱导人骨肉瘤细胞的凋亡效果,以及凋亡与bcl-2和bax表达之间的关系。方法 用不同浓度的紫杉醇作用于骨肉瘤细胞MG63。采用胎盼蓝染色法,于细胞记数板进行活细胞率检测计算。采用光镜和电子显微镜对细胞形态改变进行观测,采用原位缺口末端标记凋亡检测法（TUNEL）和流式细胞术（Annexin-V-FITC＆PI）对细胞凋亡进行检测。采用免疫组织化学法对凋亡调节基因bcl-2和bax表达进行检测。结果 骨肉瘤活细胞率随着紫杉醇作用时间延长和浓度增高而降低。紫杉醇诱导骨肉瘤细胞MG63凋亡表现为典型的凋亡特征,包括：细胞形态学改变,细胞染色质浓聚,染色质新月形变,胞核碎裂等。TUNEL法检测到了细胞DNA片段的断裂。随着细胞凋亡的发生,开始出现G2/M期阻滞。紫杉醇可以降低凋亡相关基因bcl-2的表达和增加bax基因的表达。结论 紫杉醇可以通过时间依赖性和剂量依赖性方式,促使细胞G2/M期阻滞和抑制细胞有丝分裂,从而诱导人骨肉瘤细胞凋亡。这种凋亡可能受到凋亡相关基因bcl-2低表达和bax高表达的调控。     

Tamoxifen-induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells relates to down-regulation of bcl-2, but not bax and bcl-X(L), without alteration of p53 protein levels.

Tamoxifen (TAM) has been shown to induce apoptosis in breast cancer cells. bcl-2 family genes, which can interact with each other, have been shown to interfere with apoptosis after various stimuli. In this study, we investigated the effects of TAM on bcl-2 family gene products bcl-2, bax, and bcl-X(L) and on p53 levels in estrogen receptor-positive MCF-7 breast cancer cells. We found that TAM induced time- and concentration-dependent down-regulation of bcl-2 at both the mRNA and protein level. Down-regulation of bcl-2 correlated with TAM-induced apoptosis. In addition, estradiol treatment significantly increased bcl-2 protein expression and blocked the reduction of bcl-2 by TAM. TAM did not, however, affect bax, bcl-X(L), or p53 expression at the mRNA or protein level. Our results demonstrate that TAM can induce apoptosis in a time- and dose-dependent manner by modulating bcl-2 levels in breast cancer cells, and down-regulation of bcl-2 induced by TAM was not accompanied by alterations in p53 levels.     

不同途径免疫的AFP基因修饰DC瘤苗体内抗肿瘤效应的研究

目的:评价bcl-2反义寡核苷酸对肾细胞癌细胞Bcl-2蛋白表达抑制及诱导凋亡作用.方法:合成与已知人类基因无同源性的bcl-2反义寡核苷酸(AS1与翻译起始端互补,AS2与编码区互补),以阳离子脂质体Lipofectin为转染载体,MTS比色实验测定细胞活率,反转录-聚合酶链反应(RT-PCR)测定bcl-2 mRNA的表达,Western杂交法测定Bcl-2蛋白表达,碘化丙啶(PI)染色流式细胞术测定凋亡细胞.结果:所测定的5个肾癌细胞株均有稳定的bcl-2 mRNA表达;转染的反义寡核苷酸对ACHN细胞Bcl-2蛋白的表达有明显抑制作用,而正义寡核苷酸无明显影响,AS2的抑制作用大于AS1;反义寡核苷酸可诱导ACHN细胞的凋亡,AS1和AS2的诱导率分别为32.1%和43.2%.结论:bcl-2反义寡核苷酸可抑制肾癌细胞Bcl-2蛋白的表达,并进而诱导细胞的调亡.     

Methioninase gene therapy with selenomethionine induces apoptosis in bcl-2-overproducing lung cancer cells

We have previously shown that the toxic pro-oxidant methylselenol is released from selenomethionine (SeMET) by cancer cells transformed with the adenoviral methionine alpha,gamma-lyase (methioninase, MET) gene cloned from Pseudomonas putida. Methylselenol damaged the mitochondria via oxidative stress, and caused cytochrome c release into the cytosol thereby activating caspase enzymes and thereby apoptosis. However, gene therapy strategies are less effective if tumor cells overexpress the antiapoptotic mitochondrial protein bcl-2. In this study, we investigated whether rAdMET/SeMET was effective against bcl-2-overproducing A549 lung cancer cells. We established two clones of the human lung cancer A549 cell line that show moderate and high expression levels of bcl-2, respectively, compared to the parent cell line, which has very low bcl-2 expression. Staurosporine-induced apoptosis was inhibited in the bcl-2-overproducing clones as well as in the parental cell line. In contrast to staurosporine, apoptosis was induced in the bcl-2-overproducing clones as well as the parental cell line by AdMET/SeMET. Apoptosis in the rAdMET-SeMET-treated cells was determined by fragmentation of nuclei, and release of cytochrome c from mitochondria to the cytosol. A strong bystander effect of AdMET/SeMET was observed on A549 cells as well as the bcl-2-overproducing clones. rAdMET/SeMET prodrug gene therapy is therefore a promising novel strategy effective against bcl-2 overexpression, which has blocked other gene therapy strategies.     

Bcl-2 gene prevents induction of apoptosis in l1210 murine leukemia-cells by sn-38, a metabolite of the camptothecin derivative cpt-11

New camptothecin (CPT) derivatives have recently been synthesized following the finding that CPT has strong antitumor activity due to its inhibition of topoisomerase I through the formation of stable topoisomerase I-DNA cleavable complexes, but has not been clinically used due to its pronounced toxicity. 7-ethyl-10-hydroxy-CPT (SN-38), a metabolite of the CPT derivative 7-ethyl-10-[4-(1-piperidino)-1-piperidino] carbonyloxy-CPT(CPT-11), plays an essential role in mediating the antitumor effect of CPT-11. However, the reasons for the cytotoxicity of SN-38 remain unclear. In this study, we demonstrated using results of DNA fragmentation assay and cell cycle analysis that SN-38 and CPT both induce apoptosis in L1210 murine leukemia cells. We demonstrated in addition that enforced expression of the bcl-2 gene in L1210 cells by MPZenNeo (bcl-2) retroviral gene transfer increased resistance to the apoptosis induced by SN-38 and CPT. These findings suggest the possibility that the bcl-2 gene impedes the activity of a common pathway for apoptosis induced by SN-38 and CPT.     

Effect of interference of MTA1 by shRNA on the biological behaviors and expression of related proteins in breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells北大核心

Objective: To silence the expression of metastasis-associated gene 1 (MTA1) in breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 by using short hairpin small interfering RNA (shRNA) and observe its effects on expression of 15-lipoxygenase 2 (15-LOX-2), p53 and bcl-2 proteins. Methods: The shRNA-MTA1 plasmid was stably transfected into MDA-MB-231 cells and the cell proliferation was evaluated using MTT assay. The cell cycle distribution and apoptosis were analyzed using flow cytometry. The mRNA and protein expression levels of MTA1, 15-LOX-2, p53 and bcl-2 were determined using RT-PCR and Western blotting, respectively. Results: shRNA-MTA1 significantly suppressed the expression of MTA1 gene in MDA-MB-231 cells, inhibited the proliferation, induced apoptosis, and arrested the cells in G1 phase. The difference was significant compared with control group (P < 0.01). Expression levels of 15-LOX-2 and p53 were significantly up-regulated but MTA1 and bcl-2 were significantly down-regulated in MDA-MB-231 cells in shRNA-MTA1 group compared with the blank control group and negative control group (P <0.01). Conclusion: Silencing MTA1 gene inhibited the proliferation and induced the apoptosis of MDA-MB-231 cells. This effect may be related with up-regulation of the expression of 15-LOX-2 and p53 and down-regulation of bcl-2.     

RNA interference is a functional pathway with therapeutic potential in human myeloid leukemia cell lines

BACKGROUND: RNA interference (RNAi) is a cellular pathway of gene silencing in a sequence-specific manner at the messenger RNA level. The basic mechanism behind RNAi is the breaking of a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) matching a specific gene sequence into short pieces called short interfering RNA, which trigger the degradation of mRNA that matches its sequence. In this study, we explored the effects of RNAi in reducing the target gene expression in human myeloid leukemia cell lines. METHODS: Four myeloid leukemia cell lines (HL-60, U937, THP-1, and K562) were transfected with dsRNA duplexes corresponding to the endogenous c-raf and bcl-2 genes and the gene expression inhibition was assessed. The effect of RNAi on cell differentiation was studied; the apoptosis induction and the sensitization of the leukemia cell lines to etoposide and daunorubicin were quantified by flowcytometric methods. RESULTS: Transfection of the myeloid leukemia cell lines with dsRNA corresponding to c-raf and bcl-2 genes decreased the expression of Raf-1 and Bcl-2 proteins. RNAi for c-raf gene blocked the appearance of the monocytic differentiation induced by treatment with TPA. Combined RNAi for c-raf and bcl-2 induced apoptosis in HL-60, U937, and THP-1 cells and increased chemosensitivity to etoposide and daunorubicin. CONCLUSIONS: RNAi is a functional pathway in human myeloid leukemia cell lines and combined RNAi of c-raf and bcl-2 genes may represent a novel approach to leukemia, providing a means to overcome the resistance to chemotherapeutic agents and ultimately to augment the efficacy of chemotherapy in myeloid leukemia.     

RNA interference remarkably suppresses bcl-2 gene expression in cancer cells in vitro and in vivo

Bcl-2 is an anti-apoptotic protein. If the level of Bcl-2 protein can be reduced sufficiently in tumors using RNA interference (RNAi) to target the gene message, the apoptosis of tumor cells may be promoted. In this study, we synthesized 19 nucleotides (nts) small interference RNA (siRNA) constructs suppressing bcl-2 gene expression in human tumor cells (HeLaB2 and BGC-823 cell lines) in vitro. The bcl-2 gene expression levels were significantly reduced when these siRNA were transfected into experimental two tumor cells for 72 hours. The apoptosis process was also examined in the tumor cells. Here we synthesized siRNA from a DNA template under the control of the RNA polymerase III promoter in transfected tumor cells. Using this DNA vector-based approach, we found that the siRNA efficiently and specifically inhibited the synthesis of protein encoded by the bcl-2 gene in HeLaB2 and BGC-823 tumor cells. Tumor growth was inhibited by 66.5% with 2mg/kg pSilencer 3.1H1-bcl-2 in mouse liver tumor-bearing BALB/c mice. This approach may prove to be a valuable clinical technique for the analysis of specific gene functions and gene therapy of malignant tumors that utilize the bcl-2 gene via RNA interference.     

Enhanced apoptosis and radiosensitization by combined 13-cis-retinoic acid and interferon-alpha2a; role of RAR-beta gene.

PURPOSE: Combined use of 13-cis-retinoic acid (cRA) and interferon-alpha2a (IFNalpha) induced significant radiosensitization in human cervical cancer ME-180 cell line, whereas it failed to achieve similar radiation enhancement in HeLa cells. The differential radiosensitization could be from the difference of retinoic acid receptor (RAR) expression because RAR-beta was highly expressed in ME-180 cells in contrast to the HeLa cells where RAR-beta was not detectable. We examined the role of this gene in mediating radiosensitization by cRA and IFNalpha, and explored the mechanism of radiation-induced cell killing. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Human cervical cancer cell lines, ME-180 and HeLa, were treated with cRA and IFNalpha followed by radiation. Apoptosis and radiosensitization were quantitated by TUNEL assay (in situ DNA nick end labeling) and colony-forming ability of surviving cells. The cells were transfected with bcl-2 gene and RAR-beta gene to test the role of these genes in mediating radiosensitization and apoptosis. RESULTS: Synergistic radiosensitization and apoptosis was observed by combined use of cRA and IFNalpha with radiation in ME-180 cells which express high level of RAR-beta mRNA, whereas these were not seen in HeLa cells where RAR-beta mRNA is not detectable. Both radiosensitization and apoptosis were abolished by bcl-2 gene in ME-180 cells. RAR-beta gene transfection induced similar radiation enhancement and apoptosis in HeLa cells. CONCLUSION: Apoptosis and radiation response were enhanced in the cells with high level of RAR-beta mRNA expression. The RAR-beta gene appears to mediate the radiation-induced apoptosis by cRA and IFNalpha. These findings indicate that presence of RAR-beta in the cancer cells could be exploited for patient selection in using these drugs for apoptosis and radiosensitization.     

Tamoxifen-induced growth arrest and apoptosis in pituitary tumor cells in vitro via a protein kinase C-independent pathway

Protein kinase C (PKC), a kinase family involved in cell signal transduction, is overexpressed in most pituitary adenoma cells. We studied the effect of tamoxifen, an estrogen receptor antagonist and also a protein kinase inhibitor, on pituitary tumor cell proliferation and the induction of apoptosis; and we compared its effects with those of another PKC inhibitor, staurosporine. Tamoxifen induced growth arrest and apoptosis in a mouse pituitary adenoma cell line, AtT20, and in low-passage human primary pituitary tumor cell cultures. Staurosporine also inhibited pituitary tumor cell growth. PKC activity in AtT20 cells was inhibited by staurosporine and by prolonged treatment with phorbol myristate acetate, which down-regulates PKC activity, but not by tamoxifen, at the dosages used to induce apoptosis. Our findings suggest that tamoxifen induces apoptosis in AtT20 cells independent of a classical PKC isozyme pathway.