Differential role of cathepsins B and L in autophagy-associated cell death induced by arsenic trioxide in U87 human glioblastoma cells
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Anja Pucer
Abstract
Arsenic trioxide (arsenite) was the first chemotherapeutic drug to be described and is now being rediscovered in cancer treatment, including glioblastoma multiforme. Arsenite toxicity triggers autophagy in cancer cells, although final stages of the process involve executive caspases, suggesting an interplay between autophagic and apoptotic pathways that awaits to be explained at a molecular level. We evaluated the contribution of the lysosomal cathepsins (Cat) L and B, which are upregulated in glioblastomas, in the mechanism of arsenite toxicity in human glioblastoma cells. Arsenite treatment induced autophagosome formation and permeabilization of mitochondria, followed by caspase 3/7-mediated apoptosis. The autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine protected from arsenite toxicity, whereas bafilomycin A1 did not. Furthermore, arsenite significantly decreased CatB levels and selectively inhibited its cellular and recombinant protein activity, while not affecting CatL. However, downregulation of CatL greatly enhanced apoptosis by arsenite. Our results show that arsenite toxicity involves a complex interplay between autophagy and apoptosis in human glioblastoma cells and is associated with inhibition of CatB, and that this toxicity is highly exacerbated by simultaneous CatL inhibition. The latter points to a synergy that could be used in clinical treatment to lower the therapeutic dose, thus avoiding the toxic side effects of arsenite in glioblastoma management.
©2010 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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Articles in the same Issue
- REVIEW
- Chaperone-assisted degradation: multiple paths to destruction
- MINIREVIEWS
- Principles, implementation, and application of biology-oriented synthesis (BIOS)
- The molecular biology of moenomycins: towards novel antibiotics based on inhibition of bacterial peptidoglycan glycosyltransferases
- Kallikrein-related peptidase genes as promising biomarkers for prognosis and monitoring of human malignancies
- GENES AND NUCLEIC ACIDS
- Zinc supplement greatly improves the condition of parkin mutant Drosophila
- MOLECULAR MEDICINE
- Differential role of cathepsins B and L in autophagy-associated cell death induced by arsenic trioxide in U87 human glioblastoma cells
- CELL BIOLOGY AND SIGNALING
- Role of N-acetyl-N-nitroso-tryptophan as nitric oxide donor in the modulation of HIF-1-dependent signaling
- The role of salivary histatin and the human cathelicidin LL-37 in wound healing and innate immunity
- PROTEOLYSIS
- Detection and in-cell selectivity profiling of the full-length West Nile virus NS2B/NS3 serine protease using membrane-anchored fluorescent substrates
- Plasminogen hydrolysis by cathepsin S and identification of derived peptides as selective substrate for cathepsin V and cathepsin L inhibitor
- Expression and activity profiling of selected cysteine cathepsins and matrix metalloproteinases in synovial fluids from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis
- Interdependence of kallikrein-related peptidases in proteolytic networks
