Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P10415 (Bcl-2)
33,771 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This study investigates the apoptotic activity of the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor celecoxib in prostate carcinoma cells. COX-2 is constitutively expressed in androgen-responsive LNCaP and androgen-nonresponsive PC-3 cells. Exposure of these cells to celecoxib induces characteristic features of apoptosis, including morphological changes, DNA laddering, and caspase-3 activation, whereas piroxicam, a COX-1-specific inhibitor, displays no appreciable effect on either cancer cell line even after prolonged exposure. Moreover, the potency of celecoxib in apoptosis induction is significantly higher than that of other COX-2 inhibitors examined despite the observation that these inhibitors exhibit similar IC(50) in COX-2 inhibition. It is noteworthy that normal human prostate epithelial cells, expressing a marginally detectable level of COX-2, are insensitive to the induction of apoptosis by celecoxib. These data suggest a correlation between COX-2 expression and sensitivity to the apoptotic effect of the COX-2 inhibitor. In an effort to delineate the underlying mechanism, we examined the effect of celecoxib on the expression of Bcl-2 as well as the activation of the key anti-apoptotic kinase Akt. In contrast to an earlier report that attributed the apoptotic activity of NS398 in LNCaP cells to Bcl-2 down-regulation, we provide evidence that the induction of apoptosis by celecoxib in LNCaP and PC-3 cells is independent of Bcl-2. First, treatment with celecoxib does not alter the cellular Bcl-2 level in both cell lines. Second, enforced Bcl-2 expression in PC-3 cells does not confer protection against the induction of apoptosis by celecoxib. Our data show that celecoxib treatment blocks the phosphorylation of Akt. This correlation is supported by studies showing that overexpression of constitutively active Akt protects PC-3 cells from celecoxib-induced apoptosis. Nevertheless, how celecoxib down-regulates Akt is not clear because the drug does not adversely affect phosphoinositide 3-kinase activity in vivo and okadaic acid, a protein phosphatase 2A inhibitor, cannot rescue the inhibition. In summary, our data demonstrate that inhibition of Akt activation may play a crucial role in the induction of apoptosis by celecoxib.
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PMID:The cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor celecoxib induces apoptosis by blocking Akt activation in human prostate cancer cells independently of Bcl-2. 1075 55

There is increasing evidence suggesting that chondrocyte death may contribute to the progression of osteoarthritis (OA). This study focused on the characterization of signaling cascade during NO-induced cell death in human OA chondrocytes. The NO generator, sodium nitroprusside (SNP), promoted chondrocyte death in association with DNA fragmentation, caspase-3 activation, and down-regulation of Bcl-2. Both caspase-3 inhibitor Z-Asp(OCH3)-Glu(OCH3)-Val-Asp(OCH3)-CH2F and caspase-9 inhibitor Z-Leu-Glu(OCH3)-His-Asp(OCH3)-CH2F prevented the chondrocyte death. Blocking the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway by the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1/2 inhibitor PD98059 or p38 kinase inhibitor SB202190 also inhibited the SNP-mediated cell death, suggesting possible requirements of both extracellular signal-related protein kinase 1/2 and p38 kinase for the NO-induced cell death. Furthermore, the selective inhibition of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 by NS-398 or the inhibition of COX-1/COX-2 by indomethacin blocked the SNP-induced cell death. The chondrocyte death induced by SNP was associated with an overexpression of COX-2 protein (as determined by Western blotting) and an increase in PGE2 release. PD98059 and SB202190, but neither Z-DEVD FMK nor Z-LEHD FMK completely inhibited the SNP-mediated PGE2 production. Analysis of interactions between PGE2 and the cell death showed that PGE2 enhanced the SNP-mediated cell death, whereas PGE2 alone did not induce the chondrocyte death. These data indicate that NO-induced chondrocyte death signaling includes PGE2 production via COX-2 induction and suggest that both extracellular signal-related protein kinase 1/2 and p38 kinase pathways are upstream signaling of the PGE2 production. The results also demonstrate that exogenous PGE2 may sensitize human OA chondrocytes to the cell death induced by NO.
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PMID:The induction of cell death in human osteoarthritis chondrocytes by nitric oxide is related to the production of prostaglandin E2 via the induction of cyclooxygenase-2. 1097 59

Several types of human tumors overexpress cyclooxygenase (COX) -2 but not COX-1, and gene knockout transfection experiments demonstrate a central role of COX-2 in experimental tumorigenesis. COX-2 produces prostaglandins that inhibit apoptosis and stimulate angiogenesis and invasiveness. Selective COX-2 inhibitors reduce prostaglandin synthesis, restore apoptosis, and inhibit cancer cell proliferation. In animal studies they limit carcinogen-induced tumorigenesis. In contrast, aspirin-like nonselective NSAIDs such as sulindac and indomethacin inhibit not only the enzymatic action of the highly inducible, proinflammatory COX-2 but the constitutively expressed, cytoprotective COX-1 as well. Consequently, nonselective NSAIDs can cause platelet dysfunction, gastrointestinal ulceration, and kidney damage. For that reason, selective inhibition of COX-2 to treat neoplastic proliferation is preferable to nonselective inhibition. Selective COX-2 inhibitors, such as meloxicam, celecoxib (SC-58635), and rofecoxib (MK-0966), are NSAIDs that have been modified chemically to preferentially inhibit COX-2 but not COX-1. For instance, meloxicam inhibits the growth of cultured colon cancer cells (HCA-7 and Moser-S) that express COX-2 but has no effect on HCT-116 tumor cells that do not express COX-2. NS-398 induces apoptosis in COX-2 expressing LNCaP prostate cancer cells and, surprisingly, in colon cancer S/KS cells that does not express COX-2. This effect may due to induction of apoptosis through uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation and down-regulation of Bcl-2, as has been demonstrated for some nonselective NSAIDs, for instance, flurbiprofen. COX-2 mRNA and COX-2 protein is constitutively expressed in the kidney, brain, spinal cord, and ductus deferens, and in the uterus during implantation. In addition, COX-2 is constitutively and dominantly expressed in the pancreatic islet cells. These findings might somewhat limit the use of presently available selective COX-2 inhibitors in cancer prevention but will probably not deter their successful application for the treatment of human cancers.
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PMID:Biochemistry of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitors and molecular pathology of COX-2 in neoplasia. 1107 56

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) inhibit colorectal carcinogenesis and prevent or revert the growth of premalignant colonic polyps. They inhibit cyclooxygenase (COX) but recent data indicate that this is not the only or even the most important mechanism of inhibition in colorectal tumor cells. We have used colonic carcinoma and adenoma cell lines to study the effects of the NSAID sulindac sulfide, its COX-inactive metabolite, sulindac sulfone, and the isoenzyme-specific inhibitors SC58125, SC236 and SC58560 on tumor cell growth in relation to COX-2 expression and prostaglandin production. To establish the role of COX-2 in NSAID action, we constructed clones expressing different levels of COX-2 from SW480 cells. All five compounds inhibited DNA synthesis and/or induced apoptosis, each with a characteristic pattern. ID(50)s were very similar in all the cell lines and were independent of COX expression, except for the COX-1 inhibitor SC58560, which was least effective in HT29/HI1, the cell line expressing the highest level of COX-1 (ID(50) 70 microM; in other cells lines the ID(50) was 15 microM). For all other compounds ID(50) concentrations varied less than two-fold: 25-40, 40-90 and 150 microM for SC236, sulindac sulfide and sulindac sulfone, respectively. SC58125 was the weakest inhibitor, never causing >50% cell loss. All compounds modulated expression of Bcl-2 and Bak and activated caspase 3. Overexpression of COX-2 in SW480 cells protected them against induction of apoptosis by sulindac sulfide. The effect was restricted to clones producing high levels of prostaglandin E(2). In summary, our data indicate that both COX-dependent and COX-independent mechanisms are involved in NSAID-induced growth in colorectal tumor cells. The concentrations necessary to inhibit growth were higher than serum concentrations that can be obtained in vivo, indicating that the therapeutic effect of NSAIDs cannot be explained by a direct effect of NSAIDs on the epithelial cells alone. For therapeutic purposes, compounds using different targets could be used to minimize side effects while optimizing therapeutic effect.
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PMID:Growth inhibition and induction of apoptosis in colorectal tumor cells by cyclooxygenase inhibitors. 1115 36

It is clear that COX-2 plays an important role in tumor and endothelial cell biology. Increased expression of COX-2 occurs in multiple cells within the tumor microenvironment that can impact on angiogenesis. COX-2 appears to: (a) play a key role in the release and activity of proangiogenic proteins; (b) result in the production of eicosanoid products TXA2, PGI2, PGE2 that directly stimulate endothelial cell migration and angiogenesis in vivo, and (c) result in enhanced tumor cell, and possibly, vascular endothelial cell survival by upregulation of the antiapoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and/or activation of PI3K-Akt. Selective pharmacologic inhibition of COX-2 represents a viable therapeutic option for the treatment of malignancies. Agents that selectively inhibit COX-2 appear to be safe, and well tolerated suggesting that chronic treatment for angiogenesis inhibition is feasible [107-110]. Because these agents inhibit angiogenesis, they should have at least additive benefit in combination with standard chemotherapy [111] and radiation therapy [24, 112]. In preclinical models, a selective inhibitor of COX-2 was shown to potentiate the beneficial antitumor effects of ionizing radiation with no increase in normal tissue cytotoxicity [113-115]. More recently, metronomic dosing regimens of standard chemotherapeutic agents without extended rest periods were shown to target the microvasculature in experimental animal models and result in significant antitumor activity [116-118]. This antiangiogenic chemotherapy regimen could be enhanced by the concurrent administration of an angiogenesis inhibitor [116-119]. Trials that will evaluate continuous low dose cyclophosphamide in combination with celecoxib are underway in patients with metastatic renal cancer, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma [120]. Given the safety and tolerability of the selective COX-2 inhibitors, and the potent antiangiogenic properties of these agents, the combination of antiangiogenic chemotherapy with a COX-2 inhibitor warrants clinical evaluation [118, 121, 122]. The effects of selective COX-2 inhibitors on angiogenesis may also be due, in part, to COX-independent mechanisms [123-125]. Several reports have confirmed COX-independent effects of celecoxib, at relatively high concentrations (50 microM), where apoptosis is stimulated in cells that lack both COX-1 and COX-2 [126]. More recently, Song et al. [127] described structural modifications to celecoxib that revealed no association between the COX-2 inhibitory and proapoptotic activities of celecoxib [125]. Some of the COX-independent mechanisms for NSAIDs and selective COX-2 inhibitors include activation of protein kinase G, inhibition of NF-kappa B activation, downregulation of the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-XL, inhibition of PPAR delta, and activation of PPAR gamma. One or more of these COX-independent effects could contribute to the antiangiogenic properties of NSAIDs and selective COX-2 inhibitors. In order to take advantage of both the COX-dependent and COX-independent benefits of NSAIDs and selective COX-2 inhibitors, will require evaluation of these agents in neoplastic disease settings, using cancer-specific biomarkers. In conclusion, the contribution of COX-2 at multiple points in the angiogenic cascade makes it an ideal target for pharmacologic inhibition. The reported success of selective COX-2 inhibitors in cancer prevention could be related to angiogenesis inhibition [109]. As premalignant lesions progress towards malignancy, there is a switch to the angiogenic phenotype that is subsequently followed by rapid tumor growth [128, 129]. Intervention with angiogenesis inhibitors at this early stage of carcinogenesis has been shown to attenuate tumor growth in transgenic mouse models [130, 131]. The continued dependence on angiogenesis for later stages of tumorigenesis suggests that COX-2 inhibitors also will have clinical utility in the management of advanced cancers.
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PMID:Therapeutic potential of selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors in the management of tumor angiogenesis. 1279 55

A series of epidemiological, experimental and preliminary clinical trials strongly suggest that mesalazine or 5-aminosalicyclic acid (5-ASA) may have antineoplastic and potentially prophylactic chemopreventive properties. It is assumed that mesalazine may have similar genetic and molecular targets as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which is further supported by its close similarity with aspirin, differing only in its structure by the presence of an amino group at position 5 of the benzene ring. The putative chemopreventive actions include the inhibition of inflammatory cascades and/or reactions involved in cell growth and proliferation, such as cyclo-oxygenase (COX-1 and COX-2), which regulate cell proliferation through the formation of prostaglandins; lipoxygenase; nuclear factor kappaB (NFkappaB), responsible for the subsequent expression of pro-inflammatory molecules; MAP kinases and Bcl-2, as well as the activation of apoptotic processes, such as the stimulation of intestinal sphingomyelinase. The peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARdelta), which also regulates gene transcription, is thought to play a role in both inflammatory and non-inflammatory driven carcinogenesis. This may be another significant target. It is hypothesized that 5-ASAs may prevent the enhancing effect of prostaglandins on PPARdelta binding to DNA by its COX inhibitory properties, decreasing proliferation of colorectal mucosal cells in non-inflammatory bowel disease patients with sporadic polyps of the large bowel.
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PMID:Review article: mechanisms of action of mesalazine in preventing colorectal carcinoma in inflammatory bowel disease. 1295 Apr 15

The increased expression of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 significantly enhances carcinogenesis and inflammatory reactions, and its regulation may be a reasonable target for cancer chemoprevention. We demonstrated previously that deguelin inhibits proliferation of premalignant human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells, such as 1799 cells and squamous HBE cells, by regulating phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase Akt activity, which is involved in COX-2 expression. We sought to determine the effect of deguelin on COX-2 expression in squamous HBE cells. Deguelin strongly inhibited COX-2 expression in squamous HBE cells, without affecting the COX-1 protein level. Deguelin inhibited proliferation of a variety of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) cell lines through apoptosis and induced Bax expression in the H322 NSCLC and squamous HBE cells. Deguelin treatment did not affect Bcl-2 protein levels but increased expression levels of the proapoptotic protein p53 and the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors p21 and p27 in the squamous HBE cells. The sensitivity of the squamous HBE and NSCLC cells to deguelin and the inhibitory effects of deguelin on COX-2 expression in the squamous HBE cells indicate that regulation of COX-2 expression is involved in the chemopreventive action of deguelin in lung cancer.
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PMID:Deguelin-induced inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 expression in human bronchial epithelial cells. 1487 87

Beta-lapachone, the product of a tree Tabebuia avellanedae from South America, is known to exhibit various pharmacologic properties, the mechanisms of which are poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated further possible mechanisms by which beta-lapachone exerts its anti-proliferative action in cultured human prostate carcinoma DU145 cells. Exposure of DU145 cells to beta-lapachone resulted in growth inhibition and induction of apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner as measured by MTT assay, fluorescent microscopy, and flow-cytometry analysis. The increase in apoptosis was associated with a dose-dependent up-regulation in pro-apoptotic Bax expression, down-regulation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2, and proteolytic activation of caspase-3 protease. We found beta-lapachone decreased the levels of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 mRNA and protein expression without significant changes in the levels of COX-1, which was correlated with a decrease in prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) synthesis. Furthermore, beta-lapachone treatment markedly inhibited the activity of telomerase in a dose-dependent fashion. Additionally, the expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), a main determinant of the telomerase enzymatic activity, was progressively down-regulated by beta-lapachone treatment. Taken together, these findings provide important new insights into the possible molecular mechanisms of the anti-cancer activity of beta-lapachone.
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PMID:Down-regulation of cyclooxygenase-2 and telomerase activity by beta-lapachone in human prostate carcinoma cells. 1582 36

Previous studies have demonstrated that N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), a well-known DNA alkylating agent, induces G2/M arrest and apoptotic cell death in several human cancer cell lines. In the present study, we investigated the effects of MNNG on the growth of a U937 human leukemia cell model. The effects of this compound were also tested on cyclooxygenase (COX) activity. Treatment of U937 cells with MNNG resulted in the inhibition of viability and the induction of apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner, which was associated with a dose-dependent upregulation in pro-apoptotic Bax protein, downregulation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL proteins, and proteolytic activation of caspase-3 protease. Furthermore, MNNG decreased the levels of COX-2 mRNA and protein expression without significant changes in the levels of COX-1, which was correlated with inactivation of the reporter construct of a COX-2 promoter and decrease in prostaglandin E2 synthesis. Taken together, these findings provide important new insights into the possible molecular mechanisms of the anti-cancer activity of MNNG.
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PMID:Induction of apoptosis and inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 expression by N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine in human leukemia cells. 1584 16

Although histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are emerging as a promising new treatment strategy in malignancy, how they exert their effect on human non-small cell lung cancer cells is as yet unclear. This study was undertaken to investigate the underlying mechanism of an HDAC inhibitor, Trichostatin A (TSA), -induced apoptosis in a human lung carcinoma cell line A549. The effects of this compound were also tested on cyclooxygenase (COX) activity. Treatment of A549 cells to TSA resulted in the inhibition of viability and the induction of apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner, which could be proved by trypan blue counts, DAPI staining, agarose gel electrophoresis and flow cytometry analysis. Apoptosis of A549 cells by TSA was associated with a down-regulation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein and an up-regulation of pro-apoptotic Bax protein. TSA treatment induced the proteolytic activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9, and a concomitant degradation of poly(ADP-ribose)-polymerase protein. Furthermore, TSA decreased the levels of COX-2 mRNA and protein expression without significant changes in the levels of COX-1, which was correlated with an inhibition in prostaglandin E2 synthesis. Taken together, these findings provide important new insights into the possible molecular mechanisms of the anti-cancer activity of TSA.
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PMID:Induction of apoptosis by trichostatin A, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, is associated with inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 activity in human non-small cell lung cancer cells. 1601 Apr 30


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