Simvastatin impairs growth hormone-activated signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) signaling pathway in UMR-106 osteosarcoma cells.

Recent studies have demonstrated that statins reduce cell viability and induce apoptosis in various types of cancer cells. The molecular mechanisms underlying these effects are poorly understood. The JAK/STAT pathway plays an important role in the regulation of proliferation and apoptosis in many tissues, and its deregulation is believed to be involved in tumorigenesis and cancer. The physiological activation of STAT proteins by GH is rapid but transient in nature and its inactivation is regulated mainly by the expression of SOCS proteins. UMR-106 osteosarcoma cells express a GH-responsive JAK2/STAT5 signaling pathway, providing an experimental model to study the influence of statins on this system. In this study we investigated the actions of simvastatin on cell proliferation, migration, and invasion on UMR-106 cells and examined whether alterations in GH-stimulated JAK/STAT/SOCS signaling may be observed. Results showed that treatment of osteosarcoma cells with simvastatin at 3 to 10 µM doses decreases cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in a time- and dose-dependent manner. At the molecular level, although the mechanisms used by simvastatin are not entirely clear, the effect of the statin on the reduction of JAK2 and STAT5 phosphorylation levels may partially explain the decrease in the GH-stimulated STAT5 transcriptional activity. This effect correlated with a time- and dose-dependent increase of SOCS-3 expression levels in cells treated with simvastatin, a regulatory role that has not been previously described. Furthermore, the finding that simvastatin is capable of inducing SOCS-3 and CIS genes expression shows the potential of the JAK/STAT pathway as a therapeutic target, reinforcing the efficacy of simvastatin as chemotherapeutic drug for the treatment of osteosarcoma.

La proteomica n la era postgenómica / The Proteomics In The Postgenomic Era

El principal desafío de la biología moderna es entender la expresión, función y regulación del conjunto completo de proteínas codificadas por un organismo, lo cual describe el objetivo del nuevo campo de la proteómica. Las proteínas son las efectoras del trabajo celular, por ello el estudio de sus perfiles globales de expresión y de sus cambios bajo determinadas condiciones fisiológicas o patológicas, permite entender la red compleja de interacciones en que se basa el funcionamiento de una célula. La electroforesis en dos dimensiones (2D-PAGE) es la técnica central de la proteómica. En la actualidad no existe otro método con la capacidad para resolver simultáneamente miles de proteínas en un solo procedimiento y para detectar modificaciones post y co-traduccionales imposibles de predecir a partir de la secuencia genómica. Sus aplicaciones incluyen el análisis de proteomas, señalización, detección de marcadores de enfermedades y cáncer.

The main challenge of modern biology is to understand the expression, function and regulation of the whole set of proteins codified by an organism, which is the objective of the new field of proteomics. Proteins are the effectors of cellular work and the knowledge of their global expression profiles and changes under physiological and pathological conditions can help us to understand the complex network of interactions involved in cellular function. Two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) is the central technology in proteomics. At present no other technique has the throughput and high resolution of 2-DE for the separation of thousands of proteins in one procedure and for the analysis of post-and co-translation modifications, not predictable from the genome sequence. The scope of applications extends from proteome analysis, to cell signaling, disease markers and cancer.