Bernard Piret

The ATM protein is required for sustained activation of NF-κB following DNA damage

Cells lacking an intact ATM gene are hypersensitive to ionizing radiation and show multiple defects in the cell cycle-coupled checkpoints. DNA damage usually triggers cell cycle arrest through, among other things, the activation of p53. Another DNA-damage responsive factor is NF-κB. It is activated by various stress situations, including oxidative stress, and by DNA-damaging compounds such as topoisomerase poisons. We found that cells from Ataxia Telangiectasia patients exhibit a defect in NF-κB activation in response to treatment with camptothecin, a topoisomerase I poison. In AT cells, this activation is shortened or suppressed, compared to that observed in normal cells. Ectopic expression of the ATM protein in AT cells increases the activation of NF-κB in response to camptothecin. MO59J glioblastoma cells that do not express the DNA-PK catalytic subunit respond normally to camptothecin. These results support the hypothesis that NF-κB is a DNA damage-responsive transcription factor and that its activation pathway by DNA damage shares some components with the one leading to p53 activation.

Identification of the nuclear transcription factor NFκB in rat brain after in vivo ethanol administration

NFκB a nuclear transcription factor, was induced in the brain nuclear fraction of naive rats after an acute injection of ethanol, 2 g/kg. In contrast, rats which had been chronically alcoholised showed the constitutively active NFκB‐like complex only after a further acute dose of ethanol. Hepatic nuclear fractions did not exhibit the specific NFκB‐like complex during the first 45 min after acute ethanol injection, beyond that which was normally constitutively present. Such activation of NFκB‐like complex in the brains of the naive rats may play an important role in the cellular protective response.

NF-kappa B transcription factor and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) activation by methylene blue photosensitization.

Reactive oxygen species like hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) have been shown to serve as messengers in the induction of NF-kappa B and then in the activation and replication of HIV-1 in human cells. Because singlet oxygen (1O2) is another very important reactive oxygen species whose action in transcription factor activation is totally undetermined, we started to investigate its role in both NF-kappa B and HIV-1 activation. For provoking unbalanced redox conditions, 1O2 was generated by photosensitization using methylene blue as photosensitizer. Lymphocytes or monocytes (ACH-2 or U1 respectively) latently infected with HIV-1 were treated by photosensitization mediated by methylene blue and the production of reactive oxygen species was monitored through their cytotoxic effect in infected cells. The generation of 1O2 by methylene blue turns out to be very efficient in inducing NF-kappa B as a heterodimer composed of the p50 and p65 subunits. This induction appears specific since other transcription factors like AP-1 are only weakly activated by this treatment. In comparison with other inducing treatments such as phorbol esters or tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), the methylene-blue-mediated activation of NF-kappa B is slow, becoming optimal 180 min after treatment. These kinetic data were obtained by following, on the same samples, both the emergence of NF-kappa B in the nucleus and the disappearance of I kappa B-alpha in the cytoplasmic extracts. Conjugated with the induction of this transcription factor, HIV-1 reactivation from these latently infected cells was also observed by the measurement of reverse transcriptase activity in the cell supernatants. These data allow us to postulate that 1O2 is a biologically important reactive oxygen species which could play a role in the establishment of oxidative stress conditions leading to HIV-1 activation via the presence of NF-kappa B in the nucleus of infected cells.

Involvement of different transduction pathways in NF-kappaB activation by several inducers

Double-stimulation was used to demonstrate that, in a T lymphocytic cell line (CEM), phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) rapidly induced NF-kappa B through a signaling pathway which did not involve reactive oxygen species (ROS) and was different from the activation triggered by either H2O2 or tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). Since these latter compounds were known to activate NF-kappa B translocation in a redox-sensitive way, we have demonstrated that NF-kappa B activation by PMA was resistant to antioxidant N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) and sensitive to kinase inhibitors staurosporine and H7 while activation by H2O2 or TNF-alpha were not.

Impairment of the Mitochondrial Electron Chain Transport Prevents NF-κB Activation by Hydrogen Peroxide

A large body of work has been devoted to mechanisms leading to the activation of the transcription factor NF-kappa B in various cell types. Several studies have indicated that NF-kappa B activation by numerous stimuli depends on the intracellular generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this report, we first demonstrated that inhibition of the electron transport chain by either rotenone or antimycine A gave rise to dose-dependent inhibition of NF-kappa B translocation induced by 150 microM of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Conversely, the impairment of the mitochondrial respiratory chain did not affect T lymphocyte treatment by TNF-alpha (tumor necrosis factor alpha) or pre-B lymphocyte treatment with LPS (lipopolysaccharide). We also showed that oligomycine which inhibits ATP synthase and FCCP, which uncouples respiration also led to dose-dependent inhibition of NF-kappa B activation by H2O2. All these inhibitors were also shown to inhibit mitochondrial respiration in lymphocytes assessed by oxygen consumption. Although only a transient drop in ATP concentration was observed when lymphocytes were treated by H2O2, this effect was remarkably reinforced in the presence of oligomycine demonstrating the crucial role of ATP in the signal transduction pathway induced by H2O2.

S Phase Dependence and Involvement of Nf-Kappab Activating Kinase to Nf-Kappab Activation by Camptothecin

Camptothecin (CPT) and derivatives are topoisomerase I poisons currently used as anticancer drugs. Their cytotoxicity is maximal for cells in S phase. Using asynchronous and S phase-synchronized HeLa cells, we showed that both the nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) activation and its transcriptional activity, induced by CPT treatment, are enhanced in S phase cells. After CPT treatment, NF-kappaB activation reached a maximum within 2-3 hr and was still detectable after 24 hr. The nature of the complex evolved with time, forming mostly p50/p65 after 2 hr to almost exclusively p52 after 24 hr. In HeLa cells, the different steps of the induction were readily observable in S phase synchronized cells, whereas they were barely noticeable in a randomly growing cell population. The signal progressed through the activation of the IKK complex, the phosphorylation of IkappaBalpha, and the degradation of phosphorylated-IkappaBalpha and -IkappaBbeta. The stable expression of wild-type HA-tagged-IkappaBalpha or mutated HA-tagged-IkappaBalpha (S32,36A) allowed us to confirm the essential role of Ser32 and Ser36. NF-kappaB-activating kinase (NIK) could play a role upstream of the IKK complex, as the transient expression of a kinase inactive mutant NIK(K429,430A) abolished the activation of NF-kappaB by CPT. A kinase inactive mutant of mitogen-activated protein/ERK kinase kinase 1 (MEKK1), another kinase susceptible of acting upstream of the signalsome, did not. Cytotoxicity studies with clonal populations expressing different amounts of wild-type or mutated IkappaBalpha revealed that the overexpression of wild-type IkappaBa in large amount increases the sensitivity of HeLa cells to CPT more efficiently than a lower level of expression of non-phosphorylable IkappaBalpha.