G. Prem Veer Reddy

Clioquinol, a therapeutic agent for alzheimer's disease, has proteasome-inhibitory, androgen receptor-suppressing, apoptosis-inducing, and antitumor activities in human prostate cancer cells and xenografts

Tumor growth and metastasis depend on angiogenesis that requires the cofactor copper. Consistently, high levels of copper have been found in many types of human cancers, including prostate, breast, colon, and lung. Recent studies suggest that copper could be used as a novel selective target for cancer therapies. Clioquinol is capable of forming stable complexes with copper and currently used in clinics for treatment of Alzheimers disease. Most recently, it has been reported that clioquinol possesses antitumor effects. However, the underlying molecular mechanism is unclear. We report here that after binding to copper, clioquinol can inhibit the proteasomal chymotrypsin-like activity, repress androgen receptor (AR) protein expression, and induce apoptotic cell death in human prostate cancer LNCaP and C4-2B cells. In addition, clioquinol alone exhibits similar effects in prostate cancer cell lines with elevated copper at concentrations similar to those found in patients. Addition of dihydrotestosterone did not affect clioquinol-mediated proteasome inhibition in both prostate cancer cell lines. However, dihydrotestosterone partially inhibited clioquinol-induced AR suppression and apoptosis only in androgen-dependent LNCaP cells. Animal studies show that clioquinol treatment significantly inhibits the growth of human prostate tumor C4-2B xenografts (by 66%), associated with in vivo proteasome inhibition, AR protein repression, angiogenesis suppression, and apoptosis induction. Our study provides strong evidence that clioquinol is able to target tumor proteasome in vivo in a copper-dependent manner, resulting in formation of an active AR inhibitor and apoptosis inducer that is responsible for its observed antiprostate tumor effect.

Androgen receptor- and E2F-1-targeted thymoquinone therapy for hormone-refractory prostate cancer

Relapse of prostate cancer after androgen ablation therapy is hormone-refractory, with continued tumor growth being dependent on the androgen receptor (AR). E2F-1, a regulator of cell proliferation and viability, reportedly plays a role in the development of hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Thymoquinone is a component of Nigella sativa, an herb used for thousands of years for culinary and medicinal purposes in Asian and Middle Eastern countries and has been reported to have an antineoplastic effect both in vitro and in vivo. We observed that thymoquinone inhibited DNA synthesis, proliferation, and viability of cancerous (LNCaP, C4-B, DU145, and PC-3) but not noncancerous (BPH-1) prostate epithelial cells by down-regulating AR and E2F-1. In LNCaP cells, this was associated with a dramatic increase in p21(Cip1), p27(Kip1), and Bax. Thymoquinone blunted progression of synchronized LNCaP cells from G1 to S phase, with a concomitant decrease in AR and E2F-1 as well as the E2F-1-regulated proteins necessary for cell cycle progression. In a xenograft prostate tumor model, thymoquinone inhibited growth of C4-2B-derived tumors in nude mice. This in vivo suppression of tumor growth, as with C4-2B cell growth in culture, was associated with a dramatic decrease in AR, E2F-1, and cyclin A as determined by Western blot of tissue extracts. Tissue immunohistochemical staining confirmed a marked reduction in E2F-1 and showed induction of apoptosis on terminal deoxyribonucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling assay. These findings show that thymoquinone suppresses the expression of AR and E2F-1 necessary for proliferation and viability of androgen-sensitive as well as androgen-independent prostate cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo and, moreover, produced no noticeable side effects in mice. We conclude that thymoquinone, a naturally occurring herbal product, may prove to be effective in treating hormone-sensitive as well as hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Furthermore, because of its selective effect on cancer cells, we believe that thymoquinone can also be used safely to help prevent the development of prostate cancer.

Rapid incorporation of label from ribonucleoside disphosphates into DNA by a cell-free high molecular weight fraction from animal cell nuclei.

A readily sedimentable nuclear fraction from Chinese hamster embryo fibroblast (CHEF/18) cells catalyzes incorporation of 14C-rCDP into DNA. Data indicated that this incorporation is made possible by the conversion of rCDP into a small and functionally compartmentalized, rather than a large and freely diffusible, pool of dCTP. This catalytically active sedimentable fraction from S phase CHEF/18 cells or actively replicating calf thymus cells contains nascent and template DNA, and numerous enzymes required for DNA biosynthesis including ribonucleoside diphosphate reductase, thymidylate synthetase, dihydrofolate reductase, DNA methylase, topoisomerase and DNA polymerase. We have named this catalytically active macromolecule the replitase. The replitase fraction contained spherical particles with a diameter of approximately 24 to 30 nm and had an estimated molecular weight on the order of 5 X 10(6).

Regulation of FOXO3a/β-catenin/GSK-3β signaling by 3,3'-diindolylmethane contributes to inhibition of cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis in prostate cancer cells

Previous studies from our laboratory have shown anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects of 3,3′-diindolylmethane (DIM) through regulation of Akt and androgen receptor (AR) in prostate cancer cells. However, the mechanism by which DIM regulates Akt and AR signaling pathways has not been fully investigated. It has been known that FOXO3a and glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β), two targets of activated Akt, interact with β-catenin, regulating cell proliferation and apoptotic cell death. More importantly, FOXO3a, GSK-3β, and β-catenin are all AR coregulators and regulate the activity of AR, mediating the development and progression of prostate cancers. Here, we investigated the molecular effects of B-DIM, a formulated DIM with higher bioavailability, on Akt/FOXO3a/GSK-3β/β-catenin/AR signaling in hormone-sensitive LNCaP and hormone-insensitive C4-2B prostate cancer cells. We found that B-DIM significantly inhibited the phosphorylation of Akt and FOXO3a and increased the phosphorylation of β-catenin, leading to the inhibition of cell growth and induction of apoptosis. We also found that B-DIM significantly inhibited β-catenin nuclear translocation. By electrophoretic mobility shift and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays, we found that B-DIM inhibited FOXO3a binding to the promoter of AR and promoted FOXO3a binding to the p27KIP1 promoter, resulting in the alteration of AR and p27KIP1 expression, the inhibition of cell proliferation, and the induction of apoptosis in both androgen-sensitive and -insensitive prostate cancer cells. These results suggest that B-DIM-induced cell growth inhibition and apoptosis induction are partly mediated through the regulation of Akt/FOXO3a/GSK-3β/β-catenin/AR signaling. Therefore, B-DIM could be a promising non-toxic agent for possible treatment of hormone-sensitive but most importantly hormone-refractory prostate cancers.

Regulatory processes affecting androgen receptor expression, stability, and function: potential targets to treat hormone-refractory prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer cells rely on androgen receptor (AR) for proliferation and survival. Therefore, curing prostate cancer will require elimination of AR. Although androgen is the natural ligand that activates AR, AR activity is also subject to regulation by growth factor/growth factor receptor‐stimulated signaling pathways that control the cell cycle. Cell cycle regulatory proteins and protein kinases in signaling pathways affected by growth factors can lead to AR activation in the absence of androgen. While downstream signaling proteins such as cyclins, cyclin‐dependent kinases (CDKs), and pRB can modulate AR activity, upstream signaling pathways involving protein kinases such as mitogen‐activated protein kinases, protein kinase A, and protein kinase B/Akt can affect post‐translational modification of AR to affect not only AR function but also AR stability. Calcium and calmodulin (CaM), essential for proliferation and viability of a number of cells, including prostate cancer cells, play an important role in AR expression, stability, and function. CaM affects AR partly by interacting directly with AR and partly by activating protein kinases such as Akt and DNA‐PK that can phosphorylate AR. The ubiquitin/26S proteasome pathway responsible for timely destruction of cell cycle regulatory proteins whose levels impede cell cycle progression also induces AR expression by activating NF‐κB, and promotes AR activity by participating in the assembly of an AR transcription complex. Maspin, a serine protease inhibitor that is known mostly for its role as a tumor suppressor can also regulate AR intracellular localization and function by competing with AR for binding to the chaperone protein Hsp90 and co‐repressor HDAC1, respectively. This perspective reviews the experimental evidence implicating these diverse cellular processes in AR expression, stability, and/or function, and presents a rationale for disrupting these cellular processes as a viable option for the treatment of both the hormone‐sensitive and the hormone‐insensitive prostate cancer. J. Cell. Biochem.

Inhibitor evidence for allosteric interaction in the replitase multienzyme complex.

We have previously shown that a fraction from the nuclei of S phase (DNA-synthesizing) Chinese hamster embryo fibroblasts (CHEF/18 cells) can be obtained that has a number of the enzyme activities required for DNA biosynthesis, and can catalyse the incorporation of labelled precursors into DNA (refs 1–4, also see ref. 8). This fraction, which we have termed the ‘replitase’, contains spherical particles of diameter ∼25 nm, apparently multienzyme complexes for de novo DNA biosynthesis. Here we present evidence for the functional association of one of the enzyme activities, thymidylate synthase, with several of the other enzyme activities. Hydroxyurea, novobiocin and aphidicolin, inhibitors of ribonucleotide reductase, topoisomerase and DNA polymerase α, respectively, all inhibit thymidylate synthase in intact S phase CHEF/18 cells, but not in their soluble extracts. We suggest that these results reflect allosteric interactions between the subunits of a multienzyme DNA-synthesizing complex, which can be modulated by the specific inhibitors of individual enzyme activities in intact cells.

Pristimerin induces apoptosis by targeting the proteasome in prostate cancer cells

Pristimerin is a natural product derived from the Celastraceae and Hippocrateaceae families that were used as folk medicines for antiinflammation in ancient times. Although it has been shown that pristimerin induces apoptosis in breast cancer cells, the involved mechanism of action is unknown. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the primary target of pristimerin in human cancer cells, using prostate cancer cells as a working model. Nucleophilic susceptibility and in silico docking studies show that C6 of pristimerin is highly susceptible towards a nucleophilic attack by the hydroxyl group of N‐terminal threonine of the proteasomal chymotrypsin subunit. Consistently, pristimerin potently inhibits the chymotrypsin‐like activity of a purified rabbit 20S proteasome (IC50 2.2 µmol/L) and human prostate cancer 26S proteasome (IC50 3.0 µmol/L). The accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins and three proteasome target proteins, Bax, p27 and IκB‐α, in androgen receptor (AR)‐negative PC‐3 prostate cancer cells supports the conclusion that proteasome inhibition by pristimerin is physiologically functional. This observed proteasome inhibition subsequently led to the induction of apoptotic cell death in a dose‐ and kinetic‐dependent manner. Furthermore, in AR‐positive, androgen‐dependent LNCaP and AR‐positive, androgen‐independent C4‐2B prostate cancer cells, proteasome inhibition by pristimerin results in suppression of AR protein prior to apoptosis. Our data demonstrate, for the first time, that the proteasome is a primary target of pristimerin in prostate cancer cells and inhibition of the proteasomal chymotrypsin‐like activity by pristimerin is responsible for its cancer cell death‐inducing property. J. Cell. Biochem. 103: 234–244, 2008.

A critical analysis of the role of gut Oxalobacter formigenes in oxalate stone disease

Hyperoxaluria is a major risk factor for the formation of calcium oxalate stones, but dietary restriction of oxalate intake might not be a reliable approach to prevent recurrence of stones. Hence, other approaches to reduce urinary oxalate to manage stone disease have been explored. The gut‐dwelling obligate anaerobe Oxalobacter formigenes (OF) has attracted attention for its oxalate‐degrading property. In this review we critically evaluate published studies and identify major gaps in knowledge. Recurrent stone‐formers are significantly less likely to be colonized with OF than controls, but this appears to be due to antibiotic use. Studies in animals and human subjects show that colonization of the gut with OF can decrease urinary oxalate levels. However, it remains to be determined whether colonization with OF can affect stone disease. Reliable methods are needed to detect and quantify colonization status and to achieve durable colonization. New information about oxalate transport mechanisms raises hope for pharmacological manipulation to decrease urinary oxalate levels. In addition, probiotic use of lactic acid bacteria that metabolize oxalate might provide a valid alternative to OF.

Catalytic function of thymidylate synthase is confined to S phase due to its association with replitase.

Abstract Catalytic activity of thymidylate synthase, as measured in , vivo , is tightly linked to S phase of the cell cycle in Chinese hamster embryo fibroblast cells. This activity, as measured in , vitro , is found in all parts of the cell cycle. Thymidylate synthase activity in nuclear (karyoplast) extracts increased as the cells progressed from G 0 G 1 to S phase. This enzymatic activity in the nuclei of S phase cells is associated with the multienzyme complex (replitase) that also contained DNA polymerase and other enzymes of DNA replication and precursor synthesis. The degree of association of thymidylate synthase with replitase, which increased co-ordinately as the cells progressed from G 0 G 1 phase to S phase, coincided strongly with the level of in , vivo activity of the enzyme.

Maspin augments proteasome inhibitor‐induced apoptosis in prostate cancer cells

Proteasome inhibitors are known to induce apoptosis in a variety of cancer cells. On the other hand, maspin, a non‐inhibitory serine protease inhibitor, is shown to sensitize cancer cells to therapeutic agents that induce apoptosis. We examined the consequence of maspin expression in prostate cancer cells targeted for treatment with various proteasome inhibitors. We observed that proteasome inhibitors induced apoptosis more effectively in maspin transfected human prostate cancer DU145 cells than in control cells. Interestingly, increased apoptosis in these cells was associated with a significant induction of maspin expression. MG‐132, a proteasome inhibitor, induced endogenous and ectopic [cytomegalovirus promoter (CMV)‐driven] maspin expression, and maspin siRNA attenuated MG‐132‐induced apoptosis. Proteasome inhibitor‐induced maspin expression was inhibited by actinomycin D (Act D) and cyclohexamide (CHX), and by the inhibitors of p38MAPK, but not ERK1/2 or NF‐κB. Electrophoretic mobility‐shift assay (EMSA) and promoter‐reporter activity analyses suggested that p38MAPK activated transcription factor AP‐1 is responsible for proteasome inhibitor‐induced maspin expression. Taken together, these observations demonstrate that proteasome inhibitors induce maspin expression by activating p38MAPK pathway, and that maspin thus expressed, in turn, augments proteasome inhibitor‐induced apoptosis in prostate cancer cells. Our results suggest that gene therapy involving ectopic maspin expression may dramatically improve the efficacy of proteasome inhibitors for the treatment of prostate cancer. J. Cell. Physiol. 212: 298–306, 2007.