Mitochondria regulate the unfolded protein response leading to cancer cell survival under glucose deprivation conditions.

Cancer cells consume large amounts of glucose because of their specific metabolic pathway. However, cancer cells exist in tumor tissue where glucose is insufficient. To survive, cancer cells likely have the mechanism to elude their glucose addiction. Here we show that functional mitochondria are essential if cancer cells are to avoid glucose addiction. Cancer cells with dysfunctional mitochondria, such as mitochondrial DNA-deficient rho(0) cells and electron transport chain blocker-treated cells, were highly sensitive to glucose deprivation. Our data demonstrated that this sensitization was associated with failure of the unfolded protein response (UPR), an adaptive response mediated by the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). This study suggests a link between mitochondria and the ER during the UPR under glucose deprivation conditions and that mitochondria govern cell fate, not only through ATP production and apoptosis regulation, but also through modulating the UPR for cell survival.

Mitochondrial deficiency impairs hypoxic induction of HIF-1 transcriptional activity and retards tumor growth.

Mitochondria can be involved in regulating cellular stress response to hypoxia and tumor growth, but little is known about that mechanistic relationship. Here, we show that mitochondrial deficiency severely retards tumor xenograft growth with impairing hypoxic induction of HIF-1 transcriptional activity. Using mtDNA-deficient ρ0 cells, we found that HIF-1 pathway activation was comparable in slow-growing ρ0 xenografts and rapid-growing parental xenografts. Interestingly, we found that ex vivo ρ0 cells derived from ρ0 xenografts exhibited slightly increased HIF-1α expression and modest HIF-1 pathway activation regardless of oxygen concentration. Surprisingly, ρ0 cells, as well as parental cells treated with oxidative phosphorylation inhibitors, were unable to boost HIF-1 transcriptional activity during hypoxia, although HIF-1α protein levels were ordinarily increased in these cells under hypoxic conditions. These findings indicate that mitochondrial deficiency causes loss of hypoxia-induced HIF-1 transcriptional activity and thereby might lead to a constitutive HIF-1 pathway activation as a cellular adaptation mechanism in tumor microenvironment.

Mitochondrial aggregation precedes cytochrome c release from mitochondria during apoptosis.

Mitochondria play a central role in apoptotic signaling pathways. Upon exposure to apoptotic stimuli, mitochondria release cytochrome c to the cytoplasm and activate caspase cascade leading to cell death. However, the events upstream of cytochrome c release are not fully understood. Here, we quantitate mitochondrial aggregation in situ using a novel laser scanning cytometry technique and reveal that mitochondria aggregate during apoptosis in a budding-like shape. The quantitative analysis reveals that mitochondrial aggregation is not inhibited by caspase-3 inhibitor ZEVD. Furthermore, bcl-x(L) transfection cannot suppress mitochondrial aggregation. However, overexpression of bcl-x(L) inhibits cytochrome c release from mitochondria. Therefore, mitochondrial aggregation is an event upstream of cytochrome c release during apoptosis. This mitochondrial aggregation was not observed in human leukemia H9 cells where apoptosis occurs in a mitochondria-independent fashion. Our studies imply that changes in the localization of mitochondria participate in the regulation of apoptosis through cytochrome c release.

Involvement of mitochondrial aggregation in arsenic trioxide (As2O3)-induced apoptosis in human glioblastoma cells.

Arsenic trioxide (As(2)O(3)) is effective against acute promyelocytic leukemia and has potential as a novel treatment against malignant solid tumors. As(2)O(3) induces differentiation and inhibits growth. It also causes mitochondrial damage mediated by the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the dissipation of mitochondrial transmembrane potential (DeltaPsi(m)), leading to apoptosis. Mitochondria might be the key target of antitumor activity by As(2)O(3); however, its mechanisms have not been completely elucidated. Using two human glioblastoma cell lines, A172 and T98G, we found that As(2)O(3) induced apoptosis in A172 cells but not in T98G cells. As(2)O(3)-induced ROS production was observed in both cell lines; however, the dissipation of DeltaPsi(m), Bax oligomerization and caspase activation occurred only in As(2)O(3)-sensitive A172 cells. To determine the mechanisms of As(2)O(3)-induced apoptosis after ROS generation, we examined the change of mitochondrial morphology. As we reported previously, mitochondrial aggregation occurs before cytochrome c release during apoptosis, thus playing a role in cell death progression. We observed mitochondrial aggregation in As(2)O(3)-sensitive A172 cells but not in T98G cells treated with As(2)O(3). Using laser scanning cytometry, we quantitatively confirmed the results, which indicate that mitochondrial aggregation plays an important role in regulating sensitivity to As(2)O(3)-induced apoptosis. We propose a sequential process involving ROS generation, mitochondrial aggregation, Bax oligomerization and DeltaPsi(m) dissipation, and caspase activation during As(2)O(3)-induced apoptosis.

Molecular targeting therapy of cancer: drug resistance, apoptosis and survival signal.

Recent progress in the development of molecular cancer therapeutics has revealed new types of antitumor drugs, such as Herceptin, Gleevec, and Iressa, as potent therapeutics for specific tumors. Our work has focused on molecular cancer therapeutics, mainly in the areas of drug resistance, apoptosis and apoptosis resistance, and survival-signaling, which is related to drug resistance. In this review, we describe our research on molecular cancer therapeutics, including molecular mechanisms and therapeutic approaches. Resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs is a principal problem in the treatment of cancer. P-Glycoprotein (P-gp), encoded by the MDR1 gene, is a multidrug transporter and has a major role in multidrug resistance (MDR). Targeting of P-gp by small-molecular compounds and/or antibodies is an effective strategy to overcome MDR in cancer, especially hematologic malignancies. Several P-gp inhibitors have been developed and are currently under clinical phased studies. In addition to the multidrug transporter proteins, cancer cells have several drug resistance mechanisms. Solid tumors are often placed under stress conditions, such as glucose starvation and hypoxia. These conditions result in topo II poison resistance that is due to proteasome-mediated degradation of DNA topoisomerases. Proteasome inhibitors effectively prevent this stress-induced drug resistance. Glyoxalase I, which is often elevated in drug- and apoptosis-resistant cancers, offers another possibility for overcoming drug resistance. It plays a role in detoxification of methylglioxal, a side product of glycolysis, which is highly reactive with DNA and proteins. Inhibitors of glyoxalase I selectively kill drug-resistant tumors that express glyoxalase I. Finally, the susceptibility of tumor cells to apoptosis induced by antitumor drugs appears to depend on the balance between pro-apoptotic and survival (anti-apoptotic) signals. PI3K-Akt is an important survival signal pathway, that has been shown to be the target of various antitumor drugs, including UCN-01 and geldanamycin, new anticancer drugs under clinical evaluation. Our present studies provide novel targets for future effective molecular cancer therapeutics.