|
|
Blood, 1 November 2008, Vol. 112, No. 9, pp. 3827-3834.
Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on August 5, 2008; DOI 10.1182/blood-2008-05-156380.
Previous Article | Table of Contents | Next Article 
NEOPLASIA
p53-mediated apoptosis of CLL cells: evidence for a transcription-independent mechanism
Andrew J. Steele1,
Archibald G. Prentice1,
A. Victor Hoffbrand1,
Birunthini C. Yogashangary1,
Stephen M. Hart1,
Elisabeth P. Nacheva1,
Julie D. Howard-Reeves1,
Veronique M. Duke1,
Panagiotis D. Kottaridis1,
Kate Cwynarski1,
Lyubomir T. Vassilev2, and
R. Gitendra Wickremasinghe1
1 Department of Hematology, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, United Kingdom; and
2 Department of Discovery Oncology, Hoffmann-La Roche, Nutley, NJ
The p53 protein plays a key role in securing the apoptotic response of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells to genotoxic agents. Transcriptional induction of proapoptotic proteins including Puma are thought to mediate p53-dependent apoptosis. In contrast, recent studies have identified a novel nontranscriptional mechanism, involving direct binding of p53 to antiapoptotic proteins including Bcl-2 at the mitochondrial surface. Here we show that the major fraction of p53 induced in CLL cells by chlorambucil, fludarabine, or nutlin 3a was stably associated with mitochondria, where it binds to Bcl-2. The Puma protein, which was constitutively expressed in a p53-independent manner, was modestly up-regulated following p53 induction. Pifithrin , an inhibitor of p53-mediated transcription, blocked the up-regulation of Puma and also of p21CIP1. Surprisingly, pifithrin dramatically augmented apoptosis induction by p53-elevating agents and also accelerated the proapoptotic conformation change of the Bax protein. These data suggest that direct interaction of p53 with mitochondrial antiapoptotic proteins including Bcl-2 is the major route for apoptosis induction in CLL cells and that p53's transcriptional targets include proteins that impede this nontranscriptional pathway. Therefore, strategies that block up-regulation of p53-mediated transcription may be of value in enhancing apoptosis induction of CLL cells by p53-elevating drugs.

CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us Digg Reddit Technorati What's this?
Related Article in Blood Online:
-
Suppressing the tumor suppressor in CLL?
- Chris Pepper
Blood 2008 112: 3537-3538.
[Full Text]
[PDF]
This article has been cited by other articles:

|
 |

|
 |
 
A. J. Steele, A. G. Prentice, A. V. Hoffbrand, B. C. Yogashangary, S. M. Hart, M. W. Lowdell, E. R. Samuel, J. M. North, E. P. Nacheva, A. Chanalaris, et al.
2-phenylacetylenesulfonamide (PAS) induces p53-independent apoptotic killing of B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells
Blood,
August 6, 2009;
114(6):
1217 - 1225.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
P. Secchiero, E. Melloni, M. G. di Iasio, M. Tiribelli, E. Rimondi, F. Corallini, V. Gattei, and G. Zauli
Nutlin-3 up-regulates the expression of Notch1 in both myeloid and lymphoid leukemic cells, as part of a negative feedback antiapoptotic mechanism
Blood,
April 30, 2009;
113(18):
4300 - 4308.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|
|
|