Induction of BCL2 family member MCL1 as an early response to DNA damage

When ML-1 human myeloid leukemia cells are exposed to DNA damaging agents, they exhibit dramatic changes in the expression of a variety of gene products. This includes an increase in p53 (wild-type), a decrease in BCL2, a p53-dependent increase in the BCL2 family member BAX, and increases in Growth Arrest and DNA Damage-inducible (GADD) genes such as GADD45; these changes occur as early events in a sequence that culminates in DNA damage-induced apoptosis. DNA damaging agents have now been tested for effects on expression of another BCL2 family member, MCL1, a gene expressed during ML-1 cell differentiation. Expression of MCL1 was found to increase upon exposure of ML-1 cells to various types of DNA damaging agents, including ionizing radiation, ultraviolet radiation, and alkylating drugs. The increase in MCL1 occurred rapidly and was transient, levels of the MCL1 mRNA being elevated within 4 h and having returned to near baseline within 24 h. An increase in the Mcl1 protein was also seen, with the maximal increase occurring at an intermediate dose of IR (5 Gray) and lesser increases occurring at either lower or higher doses. The increase in expression of MCL1 was further studied using a panel of human cell lines that includes cells containing or not containing alterations in p53 as well as cells sensitive or insensitive to the apoptosis-inducing effects of DNA damage. The DNA damage-induced increase in MCL1 mRNA did not depend upon p53 as it was seen in cells lacking functional p53. However, the increase did depend upon susceptibility to apoptosis as it was not seen in cells insensitive to apoptosis-induction by DNA damaging agents. These findings demonstrate that cytotoxic DNA damage causes an increase in the expression of MCL1 along with increases in GADD45 and BAX and a decrease in BCL2. Furthermore, while the increase in GADD45 is seen both in cells that undergo growth arrest and in cells that undergo apoptosis in response to DNA damage, alterations in the profile of expression of BCL2 family members occur exclusively in cells that undergo the apoptotic response, with some family members increasing through p53-dependent (BAX) and others through p53-independent (MCL1) pathways. Overall, expression MCL1 can increase during the induction of cell death as well as during the induction of differentiation.     

Abrogation of p53 function affects gadd gene responses to DNA base-damaging agents and starvation

The tumor suppressor p53 is required for induction of its downstream effector genes such as GADD45 and CIP1/WAF1 by ionizing radiation (IR). This response is probably mediated through defined p53 binding sites located in the promoter of CIP1/WAF1 and in the third intron of GADD45. In contrast, the gadd gene stress response to base-damaging agents, such as methylmethane sulfonate (MMS) or UV radiation, or medium depletion (starvation) occurs in all mammalian cells examined to date regardless of p53 status for both GADD45 and also GADD153, which is not IR-responsive in many lines with functional p53. These agents strongly induce the p53 protein and raise the possibility that, although p53 is not required for the typical "gadd" response to these agents, p53 may contribute to these non-IR stress responses. This possibility was confirmed by the finding that disruption of p53 function by transfection with dominant-negative vectors expressing HPV E6, mutant p53, or SV40 T Ag reduced the induction of GADD45 and GADD153 as measured by increases in mRNA and protein levels in human lines with wild-type p53. Similarly, induction of these genes by MMS or UV radiation was consistently stronger in the parental mouse embryo fibroblasts compared to cells derived from mice where both p53 alleles had been deleted. Similar qualitative responses were also seen for CIP1/WAF1. In agreement with reduced induction of p53-regulated genes, the G1 checkpoint activated by MMS or UV radiation was markedly abrogated in p53-wt human MCF-7 breast carcinoma cells by E6 expression. Interestingly, induction of reporter constructs driven by the GADD45 or GADD153 promoters was substantially reduced in human cells transfected with mutant p53 or E6 expression vectors or in cells lacking p53 following treatment with MMS, UV radiation, or starvation. Because neither promoter is inducible by IR, and neither contains a strong p53 binding site, these results indicate that p53 has a synergistic or cooperative role in these non-IR stress responses for both GADD45 and GADD153, and that this role is not mediated through identifiable p53-binding sites.     

Interaction of the p53-regulated protein Gadd45 with proliferating cell nuclear antigen

GADD45 is a ubiquitously expressed mammalian gene that is induced by DNA damage and certain other stresses. Like another p53-regulated gene, p21WAF1/CIP1, whose product binds to cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdk's) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), GADD45 has been associated with growth suppression. Gadd45 was found to bind to PCNA, a normal component of Cdk complexes and a protein involved in DNA replication and repair. Gadd45 stimulated DNA excision repair in vitro and inhibited entry of cells into S phase. These results establish GADD45 as a link between the p53-dependent cell cycle checkpoint and DNA repair.     

Lack of mutations in the P53 gene exons 5 to 8 in ataxia-telangiectasia

Alterations of the TP53 tumor suppressor gene are present in various human malignancies and in the dominantly inherited Li-Fraumeni syndrome. Recently, a cell cycle checkpoint pathway involving p53 and GADD45 has been identified as defective in ataxia-telangiectasia. Using single strand conformation polymorphism analysis of PCR products, we looked for TP53 mutations in DNA of patients with AT. We did not find any mutation in 6 patients, suggesting that TP53 mutations are not directly involved in the cancer susceptibility observed in AT.     

Agents that cause DNA double strand breaks lead to p16INK4a enrichment and the premature senescence of normal fibroblasts

The occurrence of DNA double strand breaks induces cell cycle arrest in mortal and immortal human cells. In normal, mortal fibroblasts this block to proliferation is permanent. It depends on the growth regulator p53 and a protein p53 induces, the cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor, p21. We show here that following DNA damage in mortal fibroblasts, the induction of p21 and p53 is to a large degree shortlived. By 8 days after a brief exposure to DNA strand breaking agents, bleomycin or actinomycin D, p53 protein is at baseline levels, while the p53 transactivation level is only slightly above its baseline. By this time the concentration of p21 protein, which goes up as high as 100-fold shortly after treatment, is down to just 2-4-fold over baseline levels. Following the drop in p21 concentration a large increase in the expression level of the tumor suppressor gene p16INK4a is observed. This scenario, where a transient increase in p21 is followed by a delayed induction of p16INK4a, also happens with the permanent arrest that occurs with cellular senescence. In fact, these cells treated with agents that cause DNA double strand breaks share a number of additional markers with senescent cells. Our findings indicate that these cells are very similar to senescent cells and that they have additional factor(s) beside p21 and p53 that maintain cell cycle arrest.     

Determination of cell fate by c-Abl activation in the response to DNA damage

The cellular response to DNA damage includes growth arrest and activation of DNA repair. Certain insights into how DNA damage is converted into intracellular signals that control the genotoxic stress response have been derived from the finding that the c-Abl protein tyrosine kinase is activated by ionizing radiation and other DNA-damaging agents. c-Abl associates with the DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) and is activated by DNA-PK-dependent phosphorylation. The ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene product also contributes to c-Abl activation. The demonstration that c-Abl binds to p53, induces the transactivation function of p53 and activates p21 expression has supported involvement of c-Abl in regulation of the p53-dependent G1 arrest response. Interaction between c-Abl and the Rad51 protein has also provided support for involvement of c-Abl in recombinational repair of DNA strand breaks. Defects in G1 arrest and repair predispose to replication of damaged templates and, in the event of irreparable DNA lesions, induction of apoptosis. The available evidence indicates that c-Abl effects a proapoptotic function by a mechanism largely independent of p53. c-Abl also functions as an upstream effector of the proapoptotic JNK/SAPK and p38 MAPK pathways. In addition, c-Abl-dependent inhibition of PI 3-kinase contributes to the induction of apoptosis. The findings thus suggest that, in response to genotoxic stress, c-Abl functions in determining cell fate, that is growth arrest and repair or induction of apoptosis. The physiologic function of c-Abl may reside in control of the cellular response to DNA strand breaks that occur during DNA replication, genetic recombination and gene rearrangements.     

Articular cartilage lesions of the knee

We have evaluated the role of various protein kinases on the induction of the gadd (growth arrest and DNA damage inducible) genes, using a panel of protein kinase inhibitors. Our data indicate that three different stress response pathways mediating gadd gene induction are most likely regulated by different protein kinases or combinations of protein kinases. The protein kinase inhibitor staurosporine and the temperature sensitive (ts) p34cdc2 mutant reduced induction by the alkylating agent methylmethane sulfonate (MMS) of the rodent gadd45 and gadd153 genes. However, staurosporine had no effect of the ionizing radiation (IR) induction of the human GADD45. Caffeine and 2-aminopurine, on the other hand, completely blocked this IR induction. Suramin, an antitumor drug that interferes with the interaction of growth factors with their receptors, inhibited the UV radiation induction of GADD45 and GADD153 but had no effect on the MMS and IR pathways. Elevated expression of gadd45 by medium depletion (starvation) was partially reduced by the addition of either genistein or tyrphostin, two protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors, while gadd153 was affected by tyrphostin only. Two inhibitors acting preferentially on cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA), N-[2-(methylamino)ethyl]-5-isoquinolinesulfonamide, HCl (H8) and protein kinase inhibitor (PKI), also had a moderate effect on the medium depletion-induced levels of both gadd genes. Thus, these varied effects of inhibitors on gadd gene responses point to important differences in the pathways controlling these responses.     

Hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptosis mediated by p53 protein in glial cells

It is now generally accepted that massive neuronal death due to oxidative stress is a regular feature of brains in neurodegenerative diseases. However, much less attention has been given to the death of glial cells. In this study, we examined p53-sensitive apoptosis of cells by using human glioblastoma A172 cells and p53-deficient mouse astrocytes. In human A172 cells, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) caused cell death in a time- and concentration-dependent manner, accompanied by nucleosomal DNA fragmentation and chromatin condensation. After treatment with H2O2, p53 protein was highly expressed and protein levels of Bak, p21WAF1/CIP1 and GADD45 were also enhanced. However, the protein levels of Bcl-2 and Bax did not change. On the other hand, primary cultured astrocytes from p53-deficient mouse brain grew faster than wild-type and heterozygous astrocytes. In addition, p53-deficient astrocytes were more resistant to H2O2-induced apoptosis than wild-type and heterozygous astrocytes. These results suggest that glial proliferation and the repair of damaged DNA may be regulated by p53-induced p21WAF1/CIP1 and GADD45, and that glial apoptosis caused by oxidative stress may be mediated by p53-induced Bak.     

Leucovorin modulation of 5-iododeoxyuridine radiosensitization: a phase I study

Evidence for clinically significant radiosensitization by the halogenated pyrimidine 5-iododeoxyuridine (IdUrd) continues to accumulate. In vitro radiosensitization has been demonstrated in human colon tumor cell lines following exposure to 1-10 micrometer. Coadministration of leucovorin (LV) increases radiosensitization, which correlates directly with increased IdUrd DNA incorporation. Clinical data regarding proliferation rates and thymidine kinase levels in tumors versus normal tissues suggest selective incorporation of IdUrd into gastrointestinal tumors may occur. The objectives of this Phase I study were: (a) to assess the feasibility of LV modulation of IdUrd radiosensitization by determining the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of IdUrd plus LV; and (b) to perform correlative laboratory studies to investigate the potential of IdUrd plus LV to increase radiosensitization in vivo. Seventeen patients with unresectable or recurrent gastrointestinal adenocarcinomas received a 14-day course of continuous i.v. infusion of IdUrd prior to initiation of radiotherapy. Two additional 14-day infusions of IdUrd with LV were given during the course of radiotherapy (60 Gy in 6 weeks). The initial dose of IdUrd was 250 mg/m2/day and was escalated in subsequent patients to 400 and 600 mg/m2/day. The LV dose remained fixed at 250 mg/m2/day. Leukopenia was the dose-limiting toxicity, and 400 mg/m2/day was the MTD for this trial. At the MTD, the mean +/- SD steady-state plasma concentration of IdUrd during the infusion, measured by high-performance liquid chromatography, was 0.66 +/- 0.23 micrometer. There was no significant influence of LV on IdUrd DNA incorporation in peripheral blood granulocytes as measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. Based on toxicity data and correlative laboratory studies, a meaningful increase in radiosensitization would not be achieved with the IdUrd infusion schedule and dose of LV investigated compared with IdUrd alone.     

Pharmacokinetics of ibutilide and its enantiomers in dogs

Signal transduction pathways activated by injury play a central role in coordinating the cellular responses that determine whether a cell survives or dies. GADD153 expression increases markedly in response to some types of cellular injury and the product of this gene causes cell cycle arrest. Using induction of GADD153 as a model, we have investigated the activation of the cellular injury response after treatment with taxol and cisplatin (cDDP). Activation of the GADD153 promoter coupled to the luciferase gene and transfected into human ovarian carcinoma 2008 cells correlated well with the increase in endogenous GADD153 mRNA after treatment with taxol but not after treatment with cDDP. Following treatment with cDDP, the increase in endogenous GADD153 mRNA was 10-fold greater than the increase in GADD153 promoter activity. Likewise, at equitoxic levels of exposure (IC80), cDDP produced a 5-fold greater increase in endogenous GADD153 mRNA than taxol. The tyrosine kinase inhibitor tyrophostin B46 had no significant effect on the ability of taxol to activate the GADD153 promoter, but inhibited activation of the GADD153 promoter by cDDP in a concentration-dependent manner. Tyrphostin B46 synergistically enhanced the cytotoxicity of cisplatin; however, the same exposure had no significant effect on the cytotoxicity of taxol. We conclude that (1) taxol and cDDP activate GADD153 promoter activity through different mechanisms; (2) the signal transduction pathway mediating induction by cDDP involves a tyrosine kinase inhibitable by tyrphostin B46; and (3) that inhibition of this signal transduction pathway by tyrphostin synergistically enhances cDDP toxicity.