Introduction
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive malignancy that can be characterized by rapid growth of a clonal population of neoplastic cells that accumulate in the bone marrow as a result of a blockage in hematopoiesis. In spite of many efforts in the past decades, the outcome for the patients remains poor. AML is predominantly a disease of the elderly. Long-term survival is achieved by approximately 40%-45% of younger patient with AML but less than 10% of patients aged >60 years [
1,
2]. Thus new therapeutic approaches should be explored in the hope of improving outcomes.
AML is a very heterogeneous disease with the constitutive activation of signal transduction pathways that enhances the survival and proliferation of the leukemic cells [
3]. With marked improvements in our understanding of the molecular events occurring during the development of AML, the number of potential targets for therapy has grown rapidly [
4]. For example, numerous small molecular inhibitors as monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy, including Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT-3) inhibitor (sorafenib), farnesyl-transferase inhibitor (tipifarnib), histone deacetylase inhibitor (vorinostat), as well as DNA methyltransferase inhibitors (decitabine, azacitidine), are already on clinical trial for AML [
4,
5].
The cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), a family of serine/threonine kinases, regulate cell cycle events and some members are associated with transcription control. CDK activity is often perturbed in cancer cells but not in human normal cells. This tumor-specific deregulation makes the CDKs being a major target for therapy [
6,
7]. SNS-032 is a potent and selective inhibitor of CDK2, –7, and −9 [
7]. It has been reported that the antitumor effects of SNS-032 are observed in a variety of solid tumors and hematopoietic malignancies such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) [
8], mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) [
9], and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) [
10]. These studies have led to the phase I evaluation of SNS-032 as a potential therapy for CLL and multiple myeloma [
11]. More recently, Walsby E,
et al.[
12] reported that SNS-032 effectively inhibited proliferation of NB4, HL-60 cells and fresh AML samples by inducing a marked dephosphorylation of Ser2 and Ser5 of RNA polymerase (RNA Pol) II carboxy terminal domain (CTD) and inhibiting the expression of CDK-2, and −9. Furthermore, cotreatment with SNS-032 and cytarabine (Ara-c) resulted in remarkable synergy that was associated with reduced expression of the antiapoptotic genes xIAP, Bcl-2, and Mcl-1. Although it has been demonstrated that SNS-032 is capable of inducing cell death in CLL and MCL cells via inhibition of CDKs that regulate the initiation and elongation of transcription and decrease of the levels of short-lived proteins such as xIAP, Bcl-2, Mcl-1, and cyclin D1 [
8,
9], the molecular mechanisms underlying the response of the AML cells to SNS-032 are not fully understood. In this study, we addressed the molecular mechanisms of the antileukemia action of SNS-032. Our results show that SNS-032 significantly inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in AML cells. However, some of leukemic cells are resistant to the drug-induced cell death. Furthermore, we show, for the first time, that SNS-032 suppresses the levels of mTOR expression and phosphor-mTOR on Ser2448 and Ser2481. Additionally, treatment of human AML cells with SNS-032 in combination with Akt inhibitor perifosine causes enhanced cell death. This synergistic cytotoxic effect most likely results from elimination of Akt activation. The findings of the present study provide a rationale for combining SNS-032 with perifosine for the treatment of AML.
Discussion
CDK inhibitors are gaining success in the clinic as antitumor agents for cancers including hematologic malignancies [
11,
23]. SNS-032 is a potent CDK inhibitor, which targets CDK2, CDK7, and CDK9, the CDKs that regulate the initiation and elongation of transcription by phosphorylating Ser2 and Ser5 of RNA Pol II, respectively. These biologic effects are attributed to the inhibitory activity against CLL [
8,
11] and MCL cells [
9], which was also demonstrated in AML cells [
12]. This study investigated the actions of SNS-032 in AML cells. Our results showed that SNS-032 was active against majority of the tested AML cell lines and primary leukemic cells. However, its mechanisms of action seem to be dependent on the molecular context of the disease. We found that in addition to the typical inhibitory effect on phosphorylation of RNA pol II, SNS-032 caused reduction of activity of mTORC1 and mTORC2, as evidenced by dephosphorylation of mTOR on Ser2448 and Ser2481, without strongly inhibiting PI3K, ERK/MAPK, and STAT3/5. Consistent with these results, SNS-032 treatment elicited potent suppression of phosphorylation 4E-BP1 and p70S6K, the downstream targets of mTORC1, in AML cells and also reduced phosphor-Akt on Ser473, a substrate of mTORC2. Crucially, the effects of SNS-032 in AML cells were partially reversible after drug removal, suggesting the necessity of sustained inhibition of the activity of mTORC1 and mTORC2 for cell killing.
The mTOR is part of two distinct cellular protein complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2, which plays an important role in the translational control, modulation of metabolic pathways, regulation of cell cycle, and modulation of apoptosis [
24]. The constitutive activation of the mTORC1 was found in AML cells, which is independent of PI3K/Akt pathway [
25,
26]. Also the presence and activity of mTORC2 was demonstrated in the cell lines and primary blasts of AML [
27]. Thus, mTORC1/mTORC2 pathways provide a promising target for AML therapy. In fact, the efficacy of rapamycin and its analogs RAD001, CCI-779 (temsirolimus), and AP23573 (deforolimus) that inhibit mTORC1 complex has been investigated in various experimental and clinical studies in AML [
28]. Unfortunately, only limited therapeutic effects were observed in clinical trials. The reason for this might be induction of Akt activity because the drugs do not acutely inhibit mTORC2 [
20,
28,
29], and rapamycin is an incomplete inhibitor of mTORC1 [
30]. Recently, dual targeting of mTORC1/2 has been demonstrated to be much more effective than treatment with rapamycin in blocking the growth of AML cells and to have potent cytotoxic activity against AML progenitors in vitro [
17,
27,
30,
31], suggesting that dual inhibition of mTORC1/2 is a new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of AML. In the present study, the effects on levels of mTOR phosphorylated on Ser2448 and Ser2481 in AML cells by treatment with 200 nM SNS-032 was impressive, with a complete elimination after 6 h of treatment. PI3K signaling pathway is essential for activation of mTOR [
28]. Constitutive activation of class I PI3K isoforms has been commonly observed in AML [
28]. The expression of p110δ is consistently expressed at a high level in leukemic cells from AML while other isoforms are only up-regulated in the cells from some patients [
28,
32]. Our studies revealed that 200–400 nM SNS-032 slightly inhibited protein expression of p110δ, but not that of p110α. Moreover, there was decrease in the expression of IGF-1R after exposure to equivalent concentrations of SNS-032. As a constitutively activated IGF-1R is expressed in AML cells and IGF-1/IGF-1R signaling contributes to deregulated PI3K activity [
18,
33], we investigated whether exogenous IGF-1 stimulation reverses SNS-032-induced cell death. We show here that IGF-1 did not affect not only inhibition of cell growth but also downregulation of phosphor-mTOR at Ser2448 and Ser2481 by SNS-032 in AML cells. Collectively, these data suggest that SNS-032 might directly target mTORC1/mTORC2.
AML is a heterogeneous disease with aberrant regulation of various signal pathways. Thus, simultaneous targeting of two or even more deregulated signal transduction pathways is needed to overcome drug resistance. A recent study of phase I trial of SNS-032 showed that its plasma concentration reached 300 nM when the drug was administered intravenously in the patients with lymphoma who received total doses of 75 mg/m
2[
11]. In this study, we observed that HEL cells were resistant to SNS-032. Meanwhile, Kasumi-1 cells and the primary blasts from a few AML patients were found to be relatively resistant with IC
50 > 300 nM. The mechanisms by which AML cells are resistance to SNS-032 remain unclear. Given these observations and the fact that mTOR inhibition activates PI3K/Akt in AML cells [
20], we postulated that Akt inhibitors might act synergistically with SNS-032 in treating leukemia. Our results show that lower concentrations of perifosine sensitized AML cells to low doses SNS-032-induced cell growth inhibition in vitro. Importantly, perifosine and SNS-032 reduced colony formation ability, which was almost completely eliminated when the two treatments were combined. Moreover, this combination treatment resulted in significant downregulation of phosphor-Akt (Ser 437 and Thr308), compared with using either agent alone. As our results were being prepared for submission, a new report shows that combination of perifosine with mTORC1 inhibitors lead to an enhanced antitumor efficacy in vitro and
in vivo most likely via activation of GSKβ [
34]. Previously, we and other demonstrated that perifosine induced apoptosis in AML cell lines [
35] and primary cells [
36] but not affect normal CD34
+ stem cells [
36]. Recently, perifosine have entered phase 2 clinical trials for solid tumors and hematologic malignancies including leukemia [
28,
37]. These data provide a rationale for the combination therapy with SNS-032 and perifosine as a novel approach for treating AML.
Materials and methods
Cell lines, leukemia patient samples, and reagents
Leukemic blasts and normal bone marrow cells were freshly isolated from bone marrow of patients with newly diagnosed, or refractory/relapsed AML (n = 47) and healthy volunteers (n = 5), respectively, after informed consent was obtained using guidelines approved by the Ethics Committee of Zhejiang University the First Affiliated Hospital. CML cell line K562 and AML cell lines HL-60, U937, NB4, THP-1, MV4-11, and HEL were purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC; Manassas, VA, USA). Kasumi-1 and KG-1 cell lines were gifts from Prof. S Chen (Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China) and Prof. R Xu (Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, China), respectively. The primary leukemic cells and cell lines were maintained in Dulbecco modified Eagle medium (DMEM) or RPMI-1640 (Gibco-RRL, Grand Island, NY, USA), respectively, supplemented with heat inactivated fetal bovine serum (FBS) at 37°C in a 5% CO2 humidified incubator.
SNS-032 and Rapamycin were purchased from Selleck Chemicals (Houston, TX, USA) and dissolved in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) at 1 mg/mL, and then stored at −20°C in small aliquots. Perifosine obtained from Selleck was prepared as a 1 mg/mL stock solution in sterile water and stored at −20°C. IGF-1 was purchased from Peprotech (Rocky Hill, NJ, USA). LY294002 and PP242 were purchased from Sigma (St Louis, MO, USA). Stock solutions of these agents were subsequently diluted with serum-free RPMI-1640 medium prior to use. In all experiments, the final concentration of DMSO did not exceed 0.1%.
MTT colorimetric survival assay
Cell viability was monitored by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl) -2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT; Sigma) assay. Briefly, cell lines (2 × 104 cells/well) and primary leukemic cells (1 × 105 cells/well) were seeded in 96-well plates and treated with SNS-032 (50–400 nM) for the indicated times. The end of culture period, 20 μl of MTT solution (5 mg/mL) was added to each well and then the samples were incubated at 37°C for 4 h. The absorbance of the reaction was measured at 570 nm by spectrophotometry. IC50 values (the concentration of drug required to kill 50% of the cells) were calculated.
The effects of SNS-032, perifosine, or combination on the leukemia colony formation (CFU-L) in methylcellulose medium (Sigma) were examined using leukemic colony assay as previously described [
38]. Briefly, leukemic cells (2 × 10
3) in 600 μL of methylcellulose solution were incubated in the presence of the agents or an equivalent amount of medium at 37°C in a humidified atmosphere with 5% CO
2. Primary leukemic cells were cultured in methylcellulose medium containing recombinant human (rh) stem cell factor (SCF), granulocyte macrophage-colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and interleukin 3 (IL-3, Peprotech) at 2 × 10
4 cells/dish. After 7 days, CFU-Ls that contain >40 cells were scored manually under a light microscope (Olympus, Tokyo, Japan). For colony assay of human normal bone marrow cells, 3 U/mL rh erythropoietin (Peprotech), 50 ng/mL rhSCF, 30 ng/mL rhGM-CSF, and 10 ng/mL rhIL-3 were added to the methylcellulose medium. The colonies were counted under a microscope on day 12 of culture.
Flow cytometric analysis
HL-60, KG-1 and HEL cells were treated with SNS-032 at concentrations between 50 and 200 nM for 24 h. Apoptotic cells were quantified by Annexin V-FITC and propidium iodide (PI) double staining using a detection kit purchased from Biouniquer (Jiangsu, China) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Western blot analyses
Cells were incubated for 6 h in the presence or absence of the drugs. The cells were then lysed at 4°C in lysis buffer. Protein concentration was determined by the bicinchoninic acid (BCA) method. The total protein was used for Western blot analysis as previous described [
35]. Aliquots containing 50 μg proteins were separated on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gels containing 6-12% acrylamide gradients and then transferred to polyvinylidene difluoride membranes (Millipore, Billerica, USA). The membranes were blocked for 2 h in Tris-buffered saline containing 0.1% Tween and 5% nonfat dry milk and then incubated with primary antibodies overnight at 4°C, followed by incubation with secondary antibodies conjugatesd with fluorescent dyes for 2 h at room temperature. After washing three times, the membranes were incubated with anti-rabbit/mouse IgG conjugated to horseradish peroxidase. The results were visualized with the ECL detecting kit. All primary antibodies were purchased from Cell Signaling Technology (Beverly, MA, USA), except the human anti-RNA poly II, RNA poly II CTD phospho-Ser2 and phospho-Ser5 (Abcam, Cambridge, UK), and phospho-Akt (Thr308), PI3K p110δ (Eptomics, Burlingame, California, USA) primary antibodies.
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect endogenous levels of mTOR protein phosphorylated at Ser2448 was performed in 96-well plates using PathScan Phospho-mTOR Sandwich ELISA Kit purchased for Cell Signaling Technology according to the manufacturer’s protocol.
Real-time PCR
Total RNA was extracted using an RNeasy Plus kit (TaKaRa Shuzo, Kyoto, Japan). Each cDNA template was made from total RNA with reverse transcriptase kit according to manufacturer’s instructions (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Amplification reactions were performed using SYBR® Premix Ex Taq™ (TaKaRa Shuzo) in a 25 μL volume on a 96-well optical reaction plate in the iQ5 Multicolor Real-time PCR Detection System (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA, USA). The following cycling parameters were used: 30 seconds at 95°C for initial denaturing, 5 seconds at 95°C for denaturing and 30 seconds at 60°C for annealing and extension for the total of 40 cycles. The fold change in mRNA was calculated by the 2
-ΔΔCt method. All samples were normalized to 18 s ribosomal RNA, an RNA polymerase I transcript that is not modulated by inhibition of RNA pol II. Primer sequences were shown in Table
2.
Table 2
Sense and antisense primers for amplification of the tested genes with real-time PCR
xIAP | 5′-CCATATACCCGAGGAACCCT-3′ | 5′-TTTCCACCACAACAAAAGCA-3′ |
Mcl-1 | 5′-AAAAGCAAGTGGCAAGAGGA-3′ | 5′-TTAATGAATTCGGCGGGTAA-3′ |
Bcl-2 | 5′-AAGATTGATGGGATCGTTGC-3′ | 5′-TGTGCTTTGCATTCTTGGAC-3′ |
cIAP-1 | 5′-GCTCAGTAACTGGGAACCAAA-3′ | 5′-ATCATTGCGACCCACATAATA-3′ |
Survivin | 5′- CAGATTTGAATCGCGGGACCC-3′ | 5′- CCAAGTCTGGCTCGTTCTCAG-3′ |
IGF-1R | 5′-TTAAAATGGCCAGAACCTGAG-3′ | 5′-ATTATAACCAAGCCTCCCAC-3′ |
PIK3CD | 5′-CGGGACACAGGGAAGTTCAGGT-3′ | 5′-TAAGGAGTCAGGCCAGGGCGG-3′ |
18 s rRNA | 5′-GTAACCCGTTGAACCCCATT-3′ | 5′-CCATCCAATCGGTAGTAGCG-3′ |
Statistical analysis
One-way analysis of variance followed by the Tukey test, or Student’s test was performed using the GraphPad Prism 5.0. P-values that were less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Synergisms in the combination treatments were analyzed using CalcuSyn software (Biosoft, Cambridge, UK). The data were expressed as log10 (CI) versus fraction affected. By this method, log10 (CI) <0 indicates a synergistic.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ contributions
WBQ designed and guided the experiments, HTM, YMJ, HL, LSY, CMY, and XY conducted the experiments, WBQ and YMJ analyzed the results and wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.