Background
Proteasome inhibitors represent a new class of agents for cancer therapeutics [
1,
2]. The 26S proteasome is a 2, 000-kDa multimeric cylindrical complex comprising a 20S catalytic core and a 19S regulatory subunit [
3]. This structure is a promising target for cancer therapy because it regulates the crucial process of proteasome-mediated protein degradation, which involves many proteins such as cyclins, caspases, Bcl-2 and the nuclear factor of κB (NF-κB) [
2,
4]. Inhibiting proteasome activity leads to the accumulation of these proteins, resulting in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Bortezomib, a specific and selective inhibitor of 26S proteasome, was approved for initial treatment of patients with Multiple Myeloma by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2008. Proteasome inhibitor-based combination therapies suggest that proteasome inhibitors could enhance chemosensitivity or reverse radiotherapy/chemotherapy resistance [
5].
A growing body of evidence indicates that the intrinsic (or mitochondrial) apoptosis pathway represents a fundamental mechanism of apoptosis triggered by proteasome inhibition [
6,
7]. Indeed, the Bcl-2 family proteins, key activators of mitochondrial apoptosis, play a fundamental role in mediating proteasome inhibition-induced toxicity [
8]. However, proteasome inhibitors not only increase the pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins [
9‐
11], but they may also lead to the accumulation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins [
12]. These proteins include the Mcl-1 anti-apoptotic protein, originally identified as an early induction gene during the differentiation of myeloid leukemia cells [
13], which could block cytochrome c release from mitochondria by forming heterodimers with BH3-only proteins Bim and NOXA, or with Bak [
14,
15]. Thus, proteasome inhibitor-induced Mcl-1 accumulation may negatively affect their cytotoxic activity. Targeting Mcl-1 might be a strategy for enhancing the anticancer effect of proteasome inhibitors [
16].
Our previous study demonstrated that proteasome inhibitors would induced a rapid Bik accumulation in various cancer cells [
17]. Bik was also a member of BH3-only proteins, so the question of whether there were elevated anti-apoptotic members of Bcl-2 family existing in our system emerged inevitably. To clarify this question, we analyzed the levels of several anti-apoptotic members of Bcl-2 family in different human cancer cell lines after they were treated with proteasome inhibitors. Our results demonstrated that proteasome inhibitors induced a rapid accumulation of Mcl-1 but not others in our cell lines. The possible underlying mechanism of this accumulation might be the stabilization of proteins from degradation. We also showed that the knockdown of Mcl-1 levels by RNA interference enhanced the apoptosis induced by proteasome inhibitors. These findings suggested that treatment with proteasome inhibitors could induce Mcl-1 accumulation in various cancer cells and that combining these inhibitors with Mcl-1 siRNA might be a more effective strategy for cancer therapy.
Methods
Cells and cell culture
Human colon cancer cell lines DLD1, LOVO, SW620, and HCT116; human lung cancer cell lines H1299; human ovarian cancer cell line SKOV3 which were owned by our lab and human breast cancer cell line MCF7 that was purchased from ATCC, were maintained in RPMI 1640 or Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% (v/v) heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum, 1% glutamine and 1 × antibiotics-antimycotics mixture (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). All cells were cultured at 37°C in a humidified incubator containing 5% CO2.
Chemicals
Bortezomib was obtained from the Pharmacy of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital and dissolved in PBS at 5 mM as a stock solution. Proteasome inhibitor MG132 and ALLN were purchased from Calbiochem (La Jolla, CA, USA) and diluted in DMSO at stock concentrations of 10 and 20 mM, respectively. Cycloheximide and DMSO were purchased from Sigma (St Louis, MO, USA). Mcl-1 siRNA and negative control siRNA were purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA, USA). The transfection of siRNA was performed using Oligofectamine (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Western blot analysis
Cells were lysed in Laemmli buffer after their respective treatments. Equal amounts of lysate were separated by 10% sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and evaluated by Western blot analysis as described previously [
18]. Rabbit anti-human caspase-9, caspase-3, Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, and Mcl-1 antibodies were purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA, USA). Mouse anti-human PARP antibodies were purchased from BD Pharmingen (San Diego, CA, USA). Mouse anti-human β-actin was obtained from Sigma.
Cell viability assay
The viability of the cell lines was determined by a sulforhodamine B colorimetric assay, as previously described [
19]. Briefly, after fixation of adherent cells with trichloroacetic acid in a 96-well microplate, the protein was stained with sulforhodamine B, and the absorbance was determined at 570 nm to reflect the number of stained cells representing cell viability. The percentage of viable cells was determined relative to the cell viability of the PBS control, which was arbitrarily set as 1. Each experiment was performed in quadruplicate and repeated at least three times.
Protein stability assay
To determine protein stability, we treated cells with DMSO, MG132, bortezomib, or ALLN for up to 6 h and then added cycloheximide (25 μg/ml) to block protein synthesis [
20]. Collected protein samples were subjected to Western blot analysis using anti-Mcl-1 antibody. Band densities were qualified using Optimas software (Media Cybernetics, Silver Spring, MD, USA), and the mean half-life of Mcl-1 was calculated.
Flow cytometry assay
Apoptosis was detected using an FITC Annexin-V Apoptosis Detection Kit (BD Pharmingen, San Diego, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The cells were digested with 0.25% trypsin, washed with cold phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) twice, and resuspended in binding buffer (1 × 106 cells/ml). Then 100 μl of the cell suspension (1 × 105 cells) was incubated with 5 μl of Annexin-V FITC and 5 μl of propidium iodide (PI) for 15 min at room temperature in the dark. The population of apoptosis cells was analyzed by flow cytometry (BD FACSCalibur, Becton Dickinson, San Jose, CA, USA).
Statistical analysis
The data were expressed as mean ± SD. Differences among the treatment groups were assessed via ANOVA using statistical software (Statsoft, Tulsa, OK). A P-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Survival was assessed using the Kaplan-Meier method.
Discussion
Proteasomes play an essential role in degrading or processing intracellular proteins, some of which mediate cell cycle progression and apoptosis. Previous studies have shown that many types of actively proliferating malignant cells are more sensitive to proteasome blockade than non-cancerous cells [
2]. Therefore, proteasome inhibitors are thought to be a novel class of anticancer drugs.
Proteasome inhibitors have a documented activity in a number of hematologic malignancies, especially in multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma [
21,
22]. However, despite encouraging preclinical data, studies in solid tumors have yielded disappointing results [
23‐
25]. Even in the treatment of multiple myeloma, the majority of patients do not respond, and resistance is common. The mechanism of proteasome inhibitor resistance is undefined.
Bcl-2 family members play a fundamental role in the regulation of apoptosis and are substrates of the proteasome. Previous studies implicated a role in the accumulation of pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members in proteasome inhibitor-induced apoptosis [
16,
17]. Moreover, proteasome inhibitors may also upregulate the expression of antiapoptotic Bcl-2 family members [
16]. We and others have reported that treatment with proteasome inhibitors does not affect the expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL [
10,
17,
26]. However, Mcl-1 differs from Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL because it is a short-lived molecule that is highly-regulated by ubiquitin proteasome pathway [
16,
27‐
29]. The ubiquitination of Mcl-1 is mediated by Mule-a BH3-only E3 ubiquitin ligase [
30]. This process requires the association of Mcl-1 with Mule and is controlled by Noxa through the regulation of the Mcl/USP9X interaction [
30‐
32]. The level of Mcl-1/Mule complex would determine the sensitivity of cancer cells to apoptosis [
33]. Therefore, Mcl-1 is likely an important survival molecule for regulating proteasome inhibitor-induced apoptosis.
In this study, we report a significant upregulation of Mcl-1 in lung cancer cell line H1299, the ovarian cancer cell line SKOV3, and the colon cancer cell lines DLD-1, LOVO, SW620 and HCT116 after treatment with different proteasome inhibitors. This effect is likely due to prolong half-life of Mcl-1. These results are similar with other previous studies, which showed that proteasome inhibitors upregulated Mcl-1 protein expression in melanoma and myeloma [
16,
26,
34]. Previously, we had reported that proteasome inhibitors could induce Bik accumulation in various cancer cells [
17]. Here we further reported that proteasome inhibitors could also induce Mcl-1 accumulation in these cells. Although both Bik and Mcl-1 protein were accumulated in these cells, they should play distinct role for cell survival. We had demonstrated that Bik accumulation induced by proteasome inhibitors might play a pro-apoptotic role in these cells [
17]. Meanwhile, it had been reported that overexpressed Mcl-1 help malignant cells resistance to proteasome inhibitors [
16]. Therefore, proteasome inhibitors-induced Mcl-1 in our cells may also interfere with its therapeutic effect [
11,
35].
To further explore the role of Mcl-1 after treatment with proteasome inhibitor, we used RNA interference to knockdown Mcl-1 levels in DLD1 cells. Our results demonstrated that although the absolute value of difference between control siRNA+MG132 group and Mcl-1siRNA+MG132 group is not so large, Mcl-1 siRNA significantly increased the cytotoxicity of proteasome inhibitors (
P < 0.01). Our data were consistent with studies on other tumor types, such as melanoma, myeloma and malignant pleural mesothelioma, in which the specific downregulation of Mcl-1 has been shown to sensitize cancer cells to proteasome inhibitor-induced apoptosis [
16,
35,
36]. These data suggested that Mcl-1 could partial prevent cells from death. Base on these, we don't think that Mcl-1 increase following proteasome inhibitors treatment is an epiphenomenon without a functional meaning. These results also provide a molecular basis for a rational combination of proteasome inhibitors with a Mcl-1 antagonist, such as siRNA, UV light, or fludarabine [
12,
16]. In the case of a potent cytotoxic with a restrictive side-effect profile [
37], such as bortezomib, this combination strategy may also be effective using lower drug concentrations to avoid or minimize toxicities. Previous reports have shown that the knockdown of Mcl-1 significantly induced spontaneous apoptosis by its own [
38,
39]. However, we did not find obvious cell death or apoptosis after the specific downregulation of Mcl-1 in DLD1 cells, suggesting that merely losing Mcl-1 expression may not be enough to induce apoptosis. The explanation for the differential effects of Mcl-1 knockdown on the survival of different cells is not entirely clear but might reflect different expression levels of other Bcl-2 family proteins related to Mcl-1 [
14].
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
WZ performed experimental and statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript. JZH and HMT participated in flow cytometry and SRB assay. DW participated in Western blot analysis. XFH and CH participated in manuscript proofreading. HBZ conceived the design, provided financial support, participated Western blot analysis and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.