Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P04637 (p53)
 77,613 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Despite the fact that objective response rates to 5-FU are as low as 20%, 5-FU remains the most commonly used drug for the treatment of colorectal cancer. The lack of understanding of resistance to 5-FU, therefore, remains a significant impediment in maximizing its efficacy. We used intestinal epithelial cells with an inducible K-RasV12 to demonstrate that expression of oncogenic Ras promotes cell death upon 5-FU treatment. Accordingly, transient expression of the mutant RasV12, but not the WT Ras, enhanced 5-FU-induced apoptosis in 293T cells. Consistent with these data, we showed that targeted deletion of the mutant Ras allele in the HCT116 colon cancer cell line protected cells from 5-FU-induced apoptosis. Using isogenic colon cancer cell lines that differ only by the presence of the mutant Ras allele, HCT116 and Hke-3 cells, we demonstrated that signaling by oncogenic Ras promotes both accumulation of p53 and its phosphorylation on serine15 in response to 5-FU, a situation that favors apoptosis over growth arrest. However, despite the differential induction of p53 in HCT116 and Hke-3 cells, the expression of Puma, a gene with an important role in p53-dependent apoptosis, was not affected by Ras signaling. In contrast, we showed that Ras interferes with 5-FU-induced expression of gelsolin, a protein with known antiapoptotic activity. We ascertained the role of gelsolin in 5-FU-induced apoptosis by demonstrating that silencing of gelsolin expression through RNAi sensitized cells to 5-FU-induced apoptosis and that re-expression of gelsolin in cells harboring mutant Ras protected cells from 5-FU-induced apoptosis. These data therefore demonstrate that Ras mutations increase sensitivity to 5-FU-induced apoptosis at least in part through the negative regulation of gelsolin expression. Our data indicate that Ras mutations promote apoptosis in response to 5-FU treatment and imply that tumors with Ras mutations and/or reduced expression of gelsolin may show enhanced apoptosis in response to 5-FU also in vivo.
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PMID:Oncogenic Ras increases sensitivity of colon cancer cells to 5-FU-induced apoptosis. 1585 30

The p53R2 gene encodes the ribonucleotide reductase (RR) small subunit 2 homologue, and is induced by several stress signals activating p53, such as DNA-damaging agents. The p53R2 gene product causes an increase in the deoxynucleotide triphosphate (dNTP) pool in the nucleus, which facilitates DNA repair and synthesis. We hypothesized that p53R2 would be a good molecular target for cancer gene therapy. In this study, three human oral cancer cell lines (SAS, HSC-4 and Ca9-22), a human breast cancer cell line MCF-7, and a normal human fibroblast cell line NHDF were tested. We silenced the expression of p53R2 with the highly specific post-transcriptional suppression of RNA interference (RNAi). We investigated p53R2 expression with the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting. The sensitivity to anticancer agents was evaluated by a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The expression of p53R2 showed no association with the mutational status of p53. The cancer cell lines with higher p53R2 expression were more resistant to 5-FU. RNAi-mediated p53R2 reduction selectivity inhibited growth and enhanced chemosensitivity in cancer cell lines but not in normal fibroblasts. These results suggest that basal transcription of p53R2 could be associated with the sensitivity to anticancer agents. Moreover, we assessed the possibility that p53R2 would be a good molecular target, and report that RNAi targeting of p53R2 could be useful for oral cancer gene therapy.
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PMID:Silencing of the p53R2 gene by RNA interference inhibits growth and enhances 5-fluorouracil sensitivity of oral cancer cells. 1589 Feb 38

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is one of the widely used chemotherapeutic drugs targeting various cancers, but its chemo-resistance remains as a major obstacle in clinical settings. In the present study, HT-29 colon cancer cells were markedly sensitized to apoptosis by both 5-FU and genistein compared to the 5-FU treatment alone. There is an emerging evidence that genistein, soy-derived phytoestrogen, may have potential as a chemotherapeutic agent capable of inducing apoptosis or suppressing tumor promoting proteins such as cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). However, the precise mechanism of cellular cytotoxicity of genistein is not known. The present study focused on the correlation of AMPK and COX-2 in combined cytotoxicity of 5-FU and genistein, since AMPK is known as a primary cellular homeostasis regulator and a possible target molecule of cancer treatment, and COX-2 as cell proliferation and anti-apoptotic molecule. Our results demonstrated that the combination of 5-FU and genistein abolished the up-regulated state of COX-2 and prostaglandin secretion caused by 5-FU treatment in HT-29 colon cancer cells. These appear to be followed by the specific activation of AMPK and the up-regulation of p53, p21, and Bax by genistein. Under same conditions, the induction of Glut-1 by 5-FU was diminished by the combination treatment with 5-FU and genistein. Furthermore, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) was found as an upstream signal for AMPK activation by genistein. These results suggested that the combination of 5-FU and genistein exert a novel chemotherapeutic effect in colon cancers, and AMPK may be a novel regulatory molecule of COX-2 expression, further implying its involvement in cytotoxicity caused by genistein.
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PMID:Combination of 5-fluorouracil and genistein induces apoptosis synergistically in chemo-resistant cancer cells through the modulation of AMPK and COX-2 signaling pathways. 1589 11

Apigenin, a common dietary flavonoid abundantly present in fruits and vegetables, is believed to possess preventive and therapeutic potential against cancers. In this study, the anti-hepatoma property of apigenin was evaluated on three different human hapatoma cells, namely Hep G2, Hep 3B, and PLC/PRF/5 cells. Results showed that apigenin exhibited a significant growth inhibition against the three selected hepatoma cell lines but not the normal murine liver BNL CL.2 cells. Interestingly, it was shown to possess a similar potency as a commercial anti-hepatoma agent 5-flurouracil (5-FU: positive control) against Hep G2 cells, with IC50 value of 8.02+/-1.30 microg/ml. Therefore, we conducted our study further to investigate the cellular mechanism of apigenin effect on Hep G2 cell death. Using DNA ladder and flow cytometric analysis, apigenin was found to induce apoptosis in Hep G2 cells. It also increased the accumulation of p53 and further enhanced the level of p21/WAF1. Together, it was shown that the apoptosis induced by apigenin in Hep G2 cells was possibly mediated through the p53-dependent pathway and the induction of p21 expression, which was probably associated with the cell cycle arrest in G2/M phase. The present study concludes that the anti-hepatoma activity of apigenin is as effective as 5-FU and its apoptotic mechanism might be mediated through the p53-dependent pathway and the induction of p21 expression.
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PMID:Anti-proliferative effect of apigenin and its apoptotic induction in human Hep G2 cells. 1602 88

A major concern in clinical treatment of cancers is resistance of tumors such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and osteosarcoma to current chemotherapy protocols. Here, we reported that overexpression of second mitochondria-derived activator of caspase (Smac) sensitized osteosarcoma cells and HCC cells in vitro to chemotherapeutic drugs-induced apoptosis. Constitutive expression of Smac resulted in enhanced Bax accumulation on mitochondria upon etoposide stimulation and inhibited Bcl-2-induced antiapoptosis activity. Thus, Smac would sensitize tumor cells to chemotherapeutic drugs in part through promoting Bax translocation to mitochondria and bypassing Bcl-2 block. Moreover, we demonstrated that blockade of Smac expression by antisense smac did not impair etoposide-induced apoptosis; however, p53-induced apoptosis was impaired in smac deficient Saos-2 cell. This suggested Smac might be required in p53-induced apoptosis. Most importantly, complete eradication of HepG2 xenografts in vivo was achieved upon combined therapy with Ad-Smac and 5-Fu. Thus, overexpression of Smac in tumor cells might be a potent strategy for cancer treatment by sensitization of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic drugs.
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PMID:Transfection of Smac sensitizes tumor cells to etoposide-induced apoptosis and eradicates established human hepatoma in vivo. 1621 Oct 87

The glucocorticoid dexamethasone is frequently used as co-treatment in cytotoxic cancer therapy, e.g. to prevent nausea, to protect normal tissue or for other reasons. While the potent pro-apoptotic properties and the supportive effects of glucocorticoids to tumour therapy in lymphoid cells are well studied, the impact to cytotoxic treatment of colorectal and hepatocellular carcinoma is unknown. We tested apoptosis-induction, viability, tumour growth and protein expression using 8 established cell lines, 18 surgical specimen and a xenograft on nude mice. In the presence of dexamethasone we found strong inhibition of apoptosis in response to 5-FU, cisplatin, gemcitabine or gamma-irradiation, enhanced viability and tumour growth of colorectal and hepatocellular carcinomas. No correlation with age, gender, histology, TNM, the p53 status and induction of therapy resistance by dexamethasone co-treatment could be detected. These data show that glucocorticoid-induced resistance occurs not occasionally but is common in colorectal and hepatocellular carcinomas implicating that the use of glucocorticoids may be harmful for cancer patients.
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PMID:Dexamethasone desensitizes hepatocellular and colorectal tumours toward cytotoxic therapy. 1633 63

Despite recent additions to the armory of chemotherapeutic agents for colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment, the results of chemotherapy remain unsatisfactory. 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) still represents the cornerstone of treatment and resistance to its actions is a major obstacle to successful chemotherapy. Therefore, new active agents in CRC and agents that increase the chemosensitivity of cancer cells to 5-FU are still urgently required. Violacein, a pigment isolated from Chromobacterium violaceum in the Amazon river, has a diverse spectrum of biological activities, and represents a novel cytotoxic drug with known antileukemic properties. To assess the suitability of violacein as a chemotherapeutic agent in CRC its cytotoxic effects were evaluated both as a single agent and in combination with 5-FU. Its underlying mechanisms of action were further investigated by studying its effects on the cell cycle, apoptosis and cell survival pathways [phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/Akt, p44/42 mitogen activated protein kinase and nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB)] in colon cancer cell lines. Violacein inhibits the growth of all four colon cancer cell lines tested. It induces apoptosis, and potentiates the cytotoxic effect of 5-FU in a poorly differentiated microsatellite unstable cell line (HCT116). Violacein causes cell cycle block at G(1), upregulates p53, p27 and p21 levels and decreases the expression of cyclin D1. Violacein leads to dephosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein and activation of caspases and a pancaspase inhibitor abrogates its biological activity. Our data provide evidence that violacein acts through the inhibition of Akt phosphorylation with subsequent activation of the apoptotic pathway and downregulation of NF-kappaB signaling. This leads to the increase in chemosensitivity to 5-FU in HCT116 colon cancer cells. Taken together, our findings suggest that violacein will be active in the treatment of colorectal tumors and offers new prospects for overcoming 5-FU resistance.
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PMID:Violacein synergistically increases 5-fluorouracil cytotoxicity, induces apoptosis and inhibits Akt-mediated signal transduction in human colorectal cancer cells. 1634 70

The availability of oral precursors of 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) and its favorable results in treating advanced breast cancer have renewed the interest in the molecular mechanisms underlying its cytotoxicity. We have compared the changes in cell cycle and cell death parameters induced by 2 different concentrations of 5-FU (IC50 and IC80) in the breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF7. G1/S cell cycle arrest was associated with both concentrations, whereas cell death was mainly induced after IC80 5-FU. These changes were correlated with gene expression assessed by cDNA microarray analysis. Main findings included an overexpression of p53 target genes involved in cell cycle and apoptosis (CDKN1A/p21, TP53INP, TNFRSF6/FAS and BBC3/PUMA), and significant repression of Myc. High dose 5-FU also induced a higher regulation of the mitochondrial death genes APAF1, BAK1 and BCL2, and induction of genes of the ID family. Furthermore, we establish a direct causal relationship between p21, ID1 and ID2 overexpression, increased acetylation of histones H3 and H4 and binding of p53 to their promoters as a result of 5-FU treatment. The relevance of these findings was further studied after interfering p53 expression in MCF7 cells (shp53 cells), showing a lower induction of both, ID1 and ID2 transcripts, after 5-FU when compared with MCF7 shGFP control cells. This molecular characterization of dose- and time-dependent modifications of gene expression after 5-FU treatment should provide a resource for future basic studies addressing the molecular mechanisms of chemotherapy in breast cancer.
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PMID:Transcriptional profiling of MCF7 breast cancer cells in response to 5-Fluorouracil: relationship with cell cycle changes and apoptosis, and identification of novel targets of p53. 1655 94

Epigenetic alterations of DNA methylation play an important role in the regulation of gene expression associated with chemosensitivity of gastric carcinomas. With the aim of improving the chemotherapeutic efficacy of gastric carcinoma, the effect of DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, 5-aza-CdR, on the chemosensitivity of five anticancer drugs was investigated. Human gastric cancer cell lines, OCUM-2M and MKN-74, and five anticancer drugs, 5-FU, PTX, OXA, SN38, and GEM, were used. In both gastric cancer cell lines, a synergistic antiproliferative effect by a combination of 5-aza-CdR at 5 microM was found in SN38 and GEM. 5-Aza-CdR at 5 microM increased apoptosis induced by SN38 and GEM in both cell lines. 5-Aza-CdR increases the expression of DAPK-2 and DAPK-3, RASSF1, and THBS1 genes in both OCUM-2M and MKN-74 cells, but not that of hMLH1, p16, MGMT, E-cadherin, and p53 genes. These findings suggest that 5-aza-CdR is a promising chemotherapeutical agent for gastric carcinomas, in combination with the anticancer drugs SN38 and GEM, in apoptosis signaling. The upregulation of DAPK-2 and DAPK-3, RASSF1, and THBS1 genes by 5-aza-CdR might be associated with the synergistic effect.
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PMID:Synergic antiproliferative effect of DNA methyltransferase inhibitor in combination with anticancer drugs in gastric carcinoma. 1680 21

XIAP-associated factor 1 (XAF1) is a new candidate tumor suppressor, which has been known to exert proapoptotic effects by interfering with the caspase-inhibiting activity of XIAP. To explore the XAF1's candidacy for a suppressor in urogenital tumorigenesis, we investigated the XAF1 status in a series of cancer cell lines and primary tumors derived from the bladder, kidney and prostate. Expression of XAF1 transcript was undetectable or extremely low in 60% (3/5) of bladder, 66% (10/15) of kidney, and 100% (3/3) prostate cancer cell lines. Abnormal reduction of XAF1 was also found in 33% (18/55) of primary bladder and 40% (8/20) of primary kidney tumors, and showed a correlation with advanced stage and high grade of bladder tumor. Hypermethylation at 14 CpG sites in the 5' proximal region of the XAF1 promoter was highly prevalent in cancers versus adjacent normal or benign tissues and tightly associated with reduced gene expression. XAF1 expression enhanced the apoptotic response of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic agents, such as etoposide or 5-FU. While XAF1 expression did not influence the subcellular distribution or expression of XIAP, it elevated the protein stability of p53 and its target gene expression. Moreover, the apoptosis-sensitizing and growth suppression function of XAF1 was markedly impeded by blockade of p53 function. Collectively, our study demonstrates that epigenetic alteration of XAF1 is frequent in human urogenital cancers and may contribute to the malignant progression of tumors by rendering tumor cells a survival advantage partially through the attenuated p53 response to apoptotic stresses.
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PMID:Promoter CpG hypermethylation and downregulation of XAF1 expression in human urogenital malignancies: implication for attenuated p53 response to apoptotic stresses. 1690 1


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