Amsacrine-induced apoptosis of human leukemia U937 cells is mediated by the inhibition of AKT- and ERK-induced stabilization of MCL1

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• 作者：Yuan-Chin Lee ; Ying-Jung Chen ; Chia-Hui Huang ; Long-Sen Chang
• 关键词：Amsacrine ; Leukemia cells ; MCL1 stability ; ERK ; AKT ; GSK3β
• 刊名：Apoptosis
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：March 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：22
• 期：3
• 页码：406-420
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Medicine
• 刊物主题：Cancer Research; Cell Biology; Oncology; Biochemistry, general; Virology;
• 出版者：Springer US
• ISSN：1573-675X
• 卷排序：22

文摘

Previous studies have attributed the anticancer activity of amsacrine to its inhibitory effect on topoisomerase II. However, 9-aminoacridine derivatives, which have the same structural scaffold as amsacrine, induce cancer cell apoptosis by altering the expression of BCL2 family proteins. Therefore, in the present study, we assessed whether BCL2 family proteins mediated the cytotoxic effects of amsacrine on human leukemia U937 cells. Amsacrine-induced apoptosis of U937 cells was characterized by caspase-9 and caspase-3 activation, increased intracellular Ca2+ concentration, mitochondrial depolarization, and MCL1 down-regulation. Amsacrine induced MCL1 down-regulation by decreasing its stability. Further, amsacrine-treated U937 cells showed AKT degradation and Ca2+-mediated ERK inactivation. Blockade of ERK-mediated phosphorylation of MCL1 inhibited the effect of Pin1 on the stabilization of MCL1, and AKT degradation promoted GSK3β-mediated degradation of MCL1. Restoration of ERK phosphorylation and AKT expression abrogated amsacrine-induced MCL1 down-regulation. Moreover, MCL1 over-expression inhibited amsacrine-induced depolarization of mitochondria membrane and increased the viability of amsacrine-treated cells. Taken together, our data indicate that amsacrine abolishes ERK- and Pin1-mediated stabilization of MCL1 and promotes GSK3β-mediated degradation of MCL1, leading to activate mitochondria-mediated apoptosis pathway in U937 cells.