A Non-ATP-Competitive Dual Inhibitor of JAK2 and BCR-ABL Kinases: Elucidation of a Novel Therapeutic Spectrum Based on Substrate Competitive Inhibition.

Here we report the discovery of ON044580, an α-benzoyl styryl benzyl sulfide that possesses potent inhibitory activity against two unrelated kinases, JAK2 and BCR-ABL, and exhibits cytotoxicity to human tumor cells derived from chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and myelodysplasia (MDS) patients or cells harboring a mutant JAK2 kinase. This novel spectrum of activity is explained by the non-ATP-competitive inhibition of JAK2 and BCR-ABL kinases. ON044580 inhibits mutant JAK2 kinase and the proliferation of JAK2(V617F)-positive leukemic cells and blocks the IL-3-mediated phosphorylation of JAK2 and STAT5. Interestingly, this compound also directly inhibits the kinase activity of both wild-type and imatinib-resistant (T315I) forms of the BCR-ABL kinase. Finally, ON044580 effectively induces apoptosis of imatinib-resistant CML patient cells. The apparently unrelated JAK2 and BCR-ABL kinases share a common substrate, STAT5, and such substrate competitive inhibitors represent an alternative therapeutic strategy for development of new inhibitors. The novel mechanism of kinase inhibition exhibited by ON044580 renders it effective against mutant forms of kinases such as the BCR-ABL(T315I) and JAK2(V617F). Importantly, ON044580 selectively reduces the number of aneuploid cells in primary bone marrow samples from monosomy 7 MDS patients, suggesting another regulatory cascade amenable to this agent in these aberrant cells. Data presented suggest that this compound could have multiple therapeutic applications including monosomy 7 MDS, imatinib-resistant CML, and myeloproliferative neoplasms that develop resistance to ATP-competitive agents.

Destabilization of Bcr-Abl/Jak2 Network by a Jak2/Abl Kinase Inhibitor ON044580 Overcomes Drug Resistance in Blast Crisis Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML).

Bcr-Abl is the predominant therapeutic target in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that inhibit Bcr-Abl have been successful in treating CML. With progression of CML disease especially in blast crisis stage, cells from CML patients become resistant to imatinib mesylate (IM) and other TKIs, resulting in relapse. Because Bcr-Abl is known to drive multiple signaling pathways, the study of the regulation of stability of Bcr-Abl in IM-resistant CML cells is a critical issue as a possible therapeutic strategy. Here, we report that a new dual-kinase chemical inhibitor, ON044580, induced apoptosis of Bcr-Abl+ IM-sensitive, IM-resistant cells, including the gatekeeper Bcr-Abl mutant, T315I, and also cells from blast crisis patients. In addition, IM-resistant K562-R cells, cells from blast crisis CML patients, and all IM-resistant cell lines tested had reduced ability to form colonies in soft agar in the presence of 0.5 µM ON044580. In in vitro kinase assays, ON044580 inhibited the recombinant Jak2 and Abl kinase activities when the respective Jak2 and Abl peptides were used as substrates. Incubation of the Bcr-Abl+ cells with ON044580 rapidly reduced the levels of the Bcr-Abl protein and also reduced the expression of HSP90 and its client protein levels. Lysates of Bcr-Abl+ cell lines were found to contain a large signaling network complex composed of Bcr-Abl, Jak2, HSP90, and its client proteins as detected by a gel filtration column chromatography, which was rapidly disrupted by ON044580. Therefore, targeting Jak2 and Bcr-Abl kinases is an effective way to destabilize Bcr-Abl and its network complex, which leads to the onset of apoptosis in IM-sensitive and IM-resistant Bcr-Abl+ cells. This inhibitory strategy has potential to manage all types of drug-resistant CML cells, especially at the terminal blast crisis stage of CML, where TKIs are not clinically useful.

MEKK3 expression correlates with nuclear factor kappa B activity and with expression of antiapoptotic genes in serous ovarian carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Constitutively activated nuclear factor kappa B (NFkappaB) contributes to the development of cancer by regulating the expression of genes involved in cell survival, metastasis, and angiogenesis. The authors have demonstrated that MEKK3 plays a critical role in cytokine-mediated NFkappaB activation, and that stable expression of MEKK3 in cultured cells leads to increased NFkappaB activity. METHODS: MEKK3 expression in ovarian cancer cells or tumors was assessed by Western blotting and real-time polymerase chain reaction. NFkappaB activities were analyzed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay and luciferase reporter assays. Western blot analysis for the survival factors were also performed and correlated with MEKK3 and NFkappaB activities. Cell survival assays were used to determine the sensitivity of ovarian cancer cells to various chemotherapeutic agents. RESULTS: The authors found that 63% of the ovarian cancers had higher MEKK3 expression than the normal ovarian epithelial cells. Ovarian cancers with high MEKK3 showed correspondingly high IkappaB kinase and NFkappaB activity. Moreover, MEKK3 coimmunoprecipitated with Akt and cooperated with Akt to synergistically activate NFkappaB. Consistent with increased MEKK3 and NFkappaB activity in ovarian cancers, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, survivin, and X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis levels were increased, which correlated with increased resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. Knockdown of MEKK3 with small interfering RNA significantly increased cancer cell sensitivity to paclitaxel. CONCLUSIONS: MEKK3 may be aberrantly expressed in ovarian cancers and plays an important role in tumors with constitutively activated NFkappaB.

Janus kinase 2: a critical target in chronic myelogenous leukemia.

The Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase is the causative factor in most chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients. We have shown that Bcr-Abl is associated with a cluster of signaling proteins, including Janus kinase (Jak) 2, growth factor receptor binding protein 2-associated binder (Gab) 2, Akt, and glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3beta. Treatment of CML cell lines and mouse Bcr-Abl+ 32D cells with either Jak2 short interfering RNA or Jak2 kinase inhibitor AG490 inhibited pTyr Gab2 and pSer Akt formation, inhibited the activation of nuclear factor-kappaB, and caused the activation of GSK-3beta, leading to the reduction of c-Myc. Importantly, BaF3 cells expressing T315I and E255K imatinib-resistant mutants of Bcr-Abl underwent apoptosis on exposure to AG490 yet were resistant to imatinib. Similar to wild-type Bcr-Abl+ cells, inhibition of Jak2 by Ag490 treatment resulted in decrease of pSer Akt and c-Myc in imatinib-resistant cells. These results identify Jak2 as a potentially important therapeutic target for CML.

The IL-1 receptor accessory protein is essential for PI 3-kinase recruitment and activation.

Interleukin-1 (IL-1) binds to its type I receptors (IL-1R), which in complex with IL-1R accessory protein (IL-1R AcP) induces various intracellular signaling events. We report here that IL-1 triggers the recruitment of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) to a signaling complex and induces its lipid kinase activity in a biphasic manner. This IL-1-induced complex consists of IL-1R, IL-1R AcP, PI 3-kinase, and the IL-1-receptor-associated kinase (IRAK). Deletion of the C-terminus 27 amino acids of IL-1R AcP resulted in a mutant, CDelta27, that could not recruit PI 3-kinase to the signalsome nor stimulate PI3-kinase activity. Moreover, CDelta27 functioned as a dominant-negative mutant that inhibited IL-1-induced PI 3-kinase and NFkappaB activation. CDelta27, however, had no effect on IL-1-dependent activation of the Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), indicating that distinct regions of IL-1R AcP mediate the activation of PI 3-kinase and JNK. Thus, our results identified a functional region in the IL-1R AcP required for the recruitment and activation of PI 3-kinase.

Overexpression of MEKK3 confers resistance to apoptosis through activation of NFkappaB.

Many cancers have constitutively activated NFkappaB, the elevation of which contributes to cancer cell resistance to chemotherapeutic agent-induced apoptosis. Although mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular-regulated kinase kinase kinase-3 (MEKK3) has been shown to participate in the activation of NFkappaB, its relations to apoptosis and cancer are unclear. In this study, we established cell model systems to examine whether stable expression of MEKK3 could lead to increased NFkappaB activity and confer resistance to apoptosis. In addition, we investigated in breast and ovarian cancers whether MEKK3 expression may be altered and correlated with aberrant NFkappaB activity. We show that stable cell lines overexpressing MEKK3 not only had elevated levels of NFkappaB binding activity but also were more responsive to cytokine stimulation. These stable cells showed 2-4-fold higher basal expression of Bcl-2 and xIAP than the parental cells. Consistent with this increased expression of cell survival genes, MEKK3 stable cells showed reduced activation of caspases 3 and 8 and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage and dramatically increased resistance to apoptosis induced by tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand, doxorubicin, daunorubicin, camptothecin, and paclitaxel. Intriguingly, analysis of human breast and ovarian cancers showed that a significant fraction of these samples have elevated MEKK3 protein levels with corresponding increases in NFkappaB binding activities. Thus, our results established that elevated expression of MEKK3 appears to be a frequent occurrence in breast and ovarian cancers and that overexpression of MEKK3 in cells leads to increased NFkappaB activity and increased expression of cell survival factors and ultimately contributes to their resistance to apoptosis. As such, MEKK3 may serve as a therapeutic target to control cancer cell resistance to cytokine- or drug-induced apoptosis.

Modulation of interleukin-8 receptor expression by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) in human peripheral monocytes--a preliminary study.

Interleukin-8, a monocyte derived neutrophil chemotactic agent is known to play as a key mediator in the pathogenesis of a large number of neutrophil driven inflammatory diseases. Since the cytokine activates the target cells through a cell surface receptor, study of the regulation of IL-8 receptor expression in monocytes is very important. We found that two very known modulators, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in presence of homologous serum and Phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) resulted in induction of IL-8 receptor by 100-120% and 75-125% respectively within 1 h in monocytes. Based on the inhibitory effect of cycloheximide, actinomycin-D we may suggest that PMA and LPS could upregulate IL-8 receptor in monocytes through denovo protein synthesis. Prior incubation of polymixin B and anti-CD-14 antibody to the monocytes and subsequent stimulation of the cells with ser.act.LPS resulted in > 90% inhibition of IL-8 binding. Scatchard analysis showed that estimated receptor number in control cell was 7,500 per cell and it increased to 15,500 per cell in ser.act.LPS stimulated cell. The receptor number in PMA stimulated cells was 13,000 per cell. Chemical cross-linking of the IL-8 receptor with 125I labelled IL-8 in the ser.act.LPS and PMA stimulated cells-indicated that the signals at 59 kD were considerably increased with respect to control. A correlation between LPS and ser.act.LPS induced upregulation of IL-8 receptor expression has been shown. The study with bacterial product and co-carcinogenic agent thus provides information about the differential expression of IL-8 receptor for sustained IL-8 mediated biological response.