Inhibition of miR301 enhances Akt-mediated cell proliferation by accumulation of PTEN in nucleus and its effects on cell-cycle regulatory proteins.

Micro-RNAs (miRs) represent an innovative class of genes that act as regulators of gene expression. Recently, the aberrant expression of several miRs has been associated with different types of cancers. In this study, we show that miR301 inhibition influences PI3K-Akt pathway activity. Akt overexpression in MCF7 and MDAMB468 cells caused downregulation of miR301 expression. This effect was confirmed by co-transfection of miR301-modulators in the presence of Akt. Cells overexpressing miR301-inhibitor and Akt, exhibited increased migration and proliferation. Experimental results also confirmed PI3K, PTEN and FoxF2 as regulatory targets for miR301. Furthermore, Akt expression in conjunction with miR301-inhibitor increased nuclear accumulation of PTEN, thus preventing it from downregulating the PI3K-signalling. In summary, our data emphasize the importance of miR301 inhibition on PI3K-Akt pathway-mediated cellular functions. Hence, it opens new avenues for the development of new anti-cancer agents preferentially targeting PI3K-Akt pathway.

Role of the salt bridge between glutamate 546 and arginine 907 in preservation of autoinhibited form of Apaf-1.

Apaf-1, the key element of apoptotic mitochondrial pathway, normally exists in an auto-inhibited form inside the cytosol. WRD-domain of Apaf-1 has a critical role in the preservation of auto-inhibited form; however the underlying mechanism is unclear. It seems the salt bridges between WRD and NOD domains are involved in maintaining the inactive conformation of Apaf-1. At the present study, we have investigated the effect of E546-R907 salt bridge on the maintenance of auto-inhibited form of human Apaf-1. E546 is mutated to glutamine (Q) and arginine (R). Over-expression of wild type Apaf-1 and its E546Q and E546R variants in HEK293T cells does not induce apoptosis unlike - HL-60 cancer cell line. In vitro apoptosome formation assay showed that all variants are cytochrome c and dATP dependent to form apoptosome and activate endogenous procaspase-9 in Apaf-1-knockout MEF cell line. These results suggest that E546 is not a critical residue for preservation of auto-inhibited Apaf-1. Furthermore, the behavior of Apaf-1 variants for in vitro apoptosome formation in HEK293T cell is similar to exogenous wild type Apaf-1. Wild type and its variants can form apoptosome in HEK293T cell with different procaspase-3 processing pattern in the presence and absence of exogenous cytochrome c and dATP.

Glucose starvation-mediated inhibition of salinomycin induced autophagy amplifies cancer cell specific cell death.

Salinomycin has been used as treatment for malignant tumors in a small number of humans, causing far less side effects than standard chemotherapy. Several studies show that Salinomycin targets cancer-initiating cells (cancer stem cells, or CSC) resistant to conventional therapies. Numerous studies show that Salinomycin not only reduces tumor volume, but also decreases tumor recurrence when used as an adjuvant to standard treatments. In this study we show that starvation triggered different stress responses in cancer cells and primary normal cells, which further improved the preferential targeting of cancer cells by Salinomycin. Our in vitro studies further demonstrate that the combined use of 2-Fluoro 2-deoxy D-glucose, or 2-deoxy D-glucose with Salinomycin is lethal in cancer cells while the use of Oxamate does not improve cell death-inducing properties of Salinomycin. Furthermore, we show that treatment of cancer cells with Salinomycin under starvation conditions not only increases the apoptotic caspase activity, but also diminishes the protective autophagy normally triggered by the treatment with Salinomycin alone. Thus, this study underlines the potential use of Salinomycin as a cancer treatment, possibly in combination with short-term starvation or starvation-mimicking pharmacologic intervention.

Human-gyrovirus-Apoptin triggers mitochondrial death pathway--Nur77 is required for apoptosis triggering.

The human gyrovirus derived protein Apoptin (HGV-Apoptin) a homologue of the chicken anemia virus Apoptin (CAV-Apoptin), a protein with high cancer cells selective toxicity, triggers apoptosis selectively in cancer cells. In this paper, we show that HGV-Apoptin acts independently from the death receptor pathway as it induces apoptosis in similar rates in Jurkat cells deficient in either FADD (fas-associated death domain) function or caspase-8 (key players of the extrinsic pathway) and their parental clones. HGV-Apoptin induces apoptosis via the activation of the mitochondrial intrinsic pathway. It induces both mitochondrial inner and outer membrane permebilization, characterized by the loss of the mitochondrial potential and the release into cytoplasm of the pro-apoptotic molecules including apoptosis inducing factor and cytochrome c. HGV-Apoptin acts via the apoptosome, as lack of expression of apoptotic protease-activating factor 1 in murine embryonic fibroblast strongly protected the cells from HGV-Apoptin-induced apoptosis. Moreover, QVD-oph a broad-spectrum caspase inhibitor delayed HGV-Apoptin-induced death. On the other hand, overexpression of the anti-apoptotic BCL-XL confers resistance to HGV-Apoptin-induced cell death. In contrast, cells that lack the expression of the pro-apoptotic BAX and BAK are protected from HGV-Apoptin induced apoptosis. Furthermore, HGV-Apoptin acts independently from p53 signal but triggers the cytoplasmic translocation of Nur77. Taking together these data indicate that HGV-Apoptin acts through the mitochondrial pathway, in a caspase-dependent manner but independently from the death receptor pathway.

Cell type related differences in staining with pentameric thiophene derivatives.

Fluorescent compounds capable of staining cells selectively without affecting their viability are gaining importance in biology and medicine. Recently, a new family of optical dyes, denoted luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes (LCOs), has emerged as an interesting class of highly emissive molecules for studying various biological phenomena. Properly functionalized LCOs have been utilized for selective identification of disease-associated protein aggregates and for selective detection of distinct cells. Herein, we present data on differential staining of various cell types, including cancer cells. The differential staining observed with newly developed pentameric LCOs is attributed to distinct side chain functionalities along the thiophene backbone. Employing flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy we examined a library of LCOs for stainability of a variety of cell lines. Among tested dyes we found promising candidates that showed strong or moderate capability to stain cells to different extent, depending on target cells. Hence, LCOs with diverse imidazole motifs along the thiophene backbone were identified as an interesting class of agents for staining of cancer cells, whereas LCOs with other amino acid side chains along the backbone showed a complete lack of staining for the cells included in the study. Furthermore, for p-HTMI,a LCO functionalized with methylated imidazole moieties, the staining was dependent on the p53 status of the cells, indicating that the molecular target for the dye is a cellular component regulated by p53. We foresee that functionalized LCOs will serve as a new class of optical ligands for fluorescent classification of cells and expand the toolbox of reagents for fluorescent live imaging of different cells.

Functional polymorphisms of FAS and FASL gene and risk of breast cancer - pilot study of 134 cases.

Fas/Fas ligand (FasL) system is one of the key apoptotic signaling entities in the extrinsic apoptotic pathway. De-regulation of this pathway, i.e. by mutations may prevent the immune system from the removal of newly-formed tumor cells, and thus lead to tumor formation. The present study investigated the association between -1377 G/A (rs2234767) and -670 A/G (rs1800682) polymorphisms in Fas as well as single nucleotide polymorphisms INV2nt -124 A/G (rs5030772) and -844 C/T (rs763110) in FasL in a sample of Iranian patients with breast cancer. This case-control study was done on 134 breast cancer patients and 152 normal women. Genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood samples. The polymorphisms were determined by using tetra-ARMS-PCR method. There was no significant difference in the genotype distribution of FAS rs2234767 polymorphism between cases and controls. FAS rs1800682, FASL rs5030772, and FASL rs763110 genotypes showed significant associations with an increasing risk of breast cancer (odds ratio OR = 3.18, P = 0.019; OR = 5.08, P = 0.012; OR = 2.40, P = 0.024, respectively). In conclusion, FAS rs2234767 was not associated with breast cancer risk. Though, FAS rs1800682, FASL rs5030772, and FASL rs763110 polymorphisms were associated with the risk of breast cancer in the examined population.

Interconnections between apoptotic, autophagic and necrotic pathways: implications for cancer therapy development.

The rapid accumulation of knowledge on apoptosis regulation in the 1990s was followed by the development of several experimental anticancer- and anti-ischaemia (stroke or myocardial infarction) drugs. Activation of apoptotic pathways or the removal of cellular apoptotic inhibitors has been suggested to aid cancer therapy and the inhibition of apoptosis was thought to limit ischaemia-induced damage. However, initial clinical studies on apoptosis-modulating drugs led to unexpected results in different clinical conditions and this may have been due to co-effects on non-apoptotic interconnected cell death mechanisms and the 'yin-yang' role of autophagy in survival versus cell death. In this review, we extend the analysis of cell death beyond apoptosis. Upon introduction of molecular pathways governing autophagy and necrosis (also called necroptosis or programmed necrosis), we focus on the interconnected character of cell death signals and on the shared cell death processes involving mitochondria (e.g. mitophagy and mitoptosis) and molecular signals playing prominent roles in multiple pathways (e.g. Bcl2-family members and p53). We also briefly highlight stress-induced cell senescence that plays a role not only in organismal ageing but also offers the development of novel anticancer strategies. Finally, we briefly illustrate the interconnected character of cell death forms in clinical settings while discussing irradiation-induced mitotic catastrophe. The signalling pathways are discussed in their relation to cancer biology and treatment approaches.