TRAILing death in cancer.

The observation that certain types of cancer express death receptors on their cell surface has triggered heightened interest in exploring the potential of receptor ligation as a novel anti-cancer modality, and since the expression is somewhat restricted to cancer cells the therapeutic implications are very promising. One such death receptor ligand belonging to the tumor necrosis receptor (TNF) superfamily, TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), has been in the limelight as a tumor selective molecule that transmits death signal via ligation to its receptors (TRAIL-R1 and TRAIL-R2 or death receptors 4 and 5; DR4 and DR5). Interestingly, TRAIL-induced apoptosis exhibits hallmarks of extrinsic as well as intrinsic death pathways, and, therefore, is subject to regulation both at the cell surface receptor level as well as more downstream at the post-mitochondrial level. Despite the remarkable selectivity of DR expression on cancer cell surface, development of resistance to TRAIL-induced apoptosis remains a major challenge. Therefore, unraveling the cellular and molecular mechanisms of TRAIL resistance as well as identifying strategies to overcome this problem for an effective therapeutic response remains the cornerstone of many research endeavors. This review aims at presenting an overview of the biology, function and translational relevance of TRAIL with a specific view to discussing the various regulatory mechanisms and the current trends in reverting TRAIL resistance of cancer cells with the obvious implication of an improved clinical outcome.

Thymoquinone induces telomere shortening, DNA damage and apoptosis in human glioblastoma cells.

BACKGROUND: A major concern of cancer chemotherapy is the side effects caused by the non-specific targeting of both normal and cancerous cells by therapeutic drugs. Much emphasis has been placed on discovering new compounds that target tumour cells more efficiently and selectively with minimal toxic effects on normal cells. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The cytotoxic effect of thymoquinone, a component derived from the plant Nigella sativa, was tested on human glioblastoma and normal cells. Our findings demonstrated that glioblastoma cells were more sensitive to thymoquinone-induced antiproliferative effects. Thymoquinone induced DNA damage, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in the glioblastoma cells. It was also observed that thymoquinone facilitated telomere attrition by inhibiting the activity of telomerase. In addition to these, we investigated the role of DNA-PKcs on thymoquinone mediated changes in telomere length. Telomeres in glioblastoma cells with DNA-PKcs were more sensitive to thymoquinone mediated effects as compared to those cells deficient in DNA-PKcs. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results indicate that thymoquinone induces DNA damage, telomere attrition by inhibiting telomerase and cell death in glioblastoma cells. Telomere shortening was found to be dependent on the status of DNA-PKcs. Collectively, these data suggest that thymoquinone could be useful as a potential chemotherapeutic agent in the management for brain tumours.

LY303511 enhances TRAIL sensitivity of SHEP-1 neuroblastoma cells via hydrogen peroxide-mediated mitogen-activated protein kinase activation and up-regulation of death receptors.

We recently reported that LY294002 (LY29) and LY303511 (LY30) sensitized tumor cells to drug-induced apoptosis independent of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt pathway. Here, we investigated the mechanism of LY30-induced sensitization of human neuroblastoma cells to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis. We provide evidence that LY30-induced increase in intracellular H(2)O(2) up-regulates the expression of TRAIL receptors (DR4 and DR5) in SHEP-1 cells by activating mitogen-activated protein kinases, resulting in a significant amplification of TRAIL-mediated caspase-8 processing and activity, cytosolic translocation of cytochrome c, and cell death. Involvement of the death receptors was further confirmed by the ability of blocking antibodies against DR4 and/or DR5 to inhibit LY30-induced TRAIL sensitization. Pharmacologic inhibition of c-Jun NH(2) terminal kinase (JNK) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation by SP600125 and PD98059, respectively, blocked LY30-induced increase in sensitization to TRAIL-mediated death. Finally, small interfering RNA-mediated gene silencing of JNK and ERK inhibited LY30-induced increase in surface expression of DR4 and DR5, respectively. These data show that JNK and ERK are two crucial players involved in H(2)O(2)-mediated increase in TRAIL sensitization of tumor cells upon exposure to LY30 and underscore a novel mode of action of this inactive analogue of LY29. Our findings could have implications for the use of LY30 and similar compounds for enhancing the apoptotic sensitivity of neuroblastoma cells that often become refractory to chemotherapy.