Cisplatin-induced regulation of signal transduction pathways and transcription factors in p53-mutated subclone variants of hepatoma cells: Potential application for therapeutic targeting

Jinn Rung Kuo, Hung Sheng Shang, Chun Te Ho, Kun Goung Lai, Tsan Zon Liu, Yin Ju Chen, Jeng Fong Chiou*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cisplatin is commonly recognized as a DNA-damaging drug; however, its versatile antitumor effects have been demonstrated to extend beyond this narrow functional attribute. The present study determined how cisplatin regulates alternative pathways and transcription factors to exert its additional antitumor actions. Cisplatin was observed to be able to trigger an endoplasmic reticulum stress response through aggravated nitrosative stress coupled to perturbed mitochondrial calcium (Ca2+) homeostasis, which substantially downregulated glucose-regulated protein (GRP) 78 expression by suppressing the cleavage of activating transcription factor (ATF) 6α (90 kDa) to its active 50 kDa subunit. Concomitantly, the ATF4-ATF3-C/emopamil binding protein homologous protein axis was activated by cisplatin, which triggered cellular glutathione (GSH) depletion by strongly inhibiting γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase heavy chain (γ-GCSh), a key enzyme in GSH biosynthesis. The present study also demonstrated that cisplatin substantially inhibited β-catenin, causing a marked downregulation of survivin and B-cell lymphoma (Bcl)-2. Taken together, the present results uncovered a novel mechanism of cisplatin that could simultaneously trigger the inhibition of three prominent antiapoptotic effector molecules (Bcl-2, survivin and GRP78) and effectively promote GSH depletion by inhibiting γ-GCSh. These newly discovered functional attributes of cisplatin can provide an avenue for novel combined therapeutic strategies to kill hepatocellular carcinoma cells effectively.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3723-3730
Number of pages8
JournalOncology Letters
Volume12
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 11 2016
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Spandidos Publications. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Bcl-2
  • Cisplatin
  • ER stress
  • GRP78
  • GSH depletion
  • Survivin

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