Despite recent additions to the armory of chemotherapeutic agents for colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment, the results of chemotherapy remain unsatisfactory. 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) still represents the cornerstone of treatment and resistance to its actions is a major obstacle to successful chemotherapy. Therefore, new active agents in CRC and agents that increase the chemosensitivity of cancer cells to 5-FU are still urgently required. Violacein, a pigment isolated from Chromobacterium violaceum in the Amazon river, has a diverse spectrum of biological activities, and represents a novel cytotoxic drug with known antileukemic properties. To assess the suitability of violacein as a chemotherapeutic agent in CRC its cytotoxic effects were evaluated both as a single agent and in combination with 5-FU. Its underlying mechanisms of action were further investigated by studying its effects on the cell cycle, apoptosis and cell survival pathways [phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/Akt, p44/42 mitogen activated protein kinase and nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB)] in colon cancer cell lines. Violacein inhibits the growth of all four colon cancer cell lines tested. It induces apoptosis, and potentiates the cytotoxic effect of 5-FU in a poorly differentiated microsatellite unstable cell line (HCT116). Violacein causes cell cycle block at G(1), upregulates p53, p27 and p21 levels and decreases the expression of cyclin D1. Violacein leads to dephosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein and activation of caspases and a pancaspase inhibitor abrogates its biological activity. Our data provide evidence that violacein acts through the inhibition of Akt phosphorylation with subsequent activation of the apoptotic pathway and downregulation of NF-kappaB signaling. This leads to the increase in chemosensitivity to 5-FU in HCT116 colon cancer cells. Taken together, our findings suggest that violacein will be active in the treatment of colorectal tumors and offers new prospects for overcoming 5-FU resistance.

The development of resistance against chemotherapy remains one of the major challenges in the clinical management of leukemia. There is still limited insight into the molecular mechanisms that maintain the chemotherapy-resistant phenotype, despite the obvious clinical relevance that such knowledge would have. In this study, we show that the chemotherapy-resistant phenotype of myeloid leukemia cells correlates with activation of the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway, whereas in chemosensitive cells, such activation is less pronounced. Importantly, the overexpression of Hh pathway components induces chemoprotection and inhibition of the pathway reverts chemoresistance of Lucena-1 cells, apparently by interfering with P-glycoprotein-dependent drug resistance. Our data thus identify the Hh pathway as an essential component of multidrug resistance (MDR) myeloid leukemia and suggest that targeting the Hh pathway might be an interesting therapeutic avenue for overcoming MDR resistance in myeloid leukemia.

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Pre-osteoblast adhesion attracts increasing interest in both medicine and dentistry. However, how this physiological event alters osteoblast phenotype is poorly understood. We therefore attempted to address this question by investigating key biochemical mechanism that governs pre-osteoblast adhesion on polystyrene surface. Importantly, we found that cofilin activity was strongly modulated by PP2A (Ser/Thr phosphatase), while cell-cycle was arrested. Accordingly, we observed that the profile of cofilin phosphorylation (at Ser03) was similar to phospho-PP2A (at Tyr307). Also, it is plausible to suggest during pre-osteoblast adhesion that PP2A phosphorylation at Y307 was executed by phospho-Src (Y416). In addition, it was observed that MAPKp38, but not MAPK-erk, played a key role on pre-osteoblast adhesion by phosphorylating MAPKAPK-2 and ATF-2 (also called CRE-BP1). Also, the up-modulation of RhoA reported here suggests its involvement at the beginning of osteoblast attachment, while Akt remained active during all periods. Altogether, our results clearly showed that osteoblast adhesion is under an intricate network of signaling molecules, which are responsible to guide their interaction with substrate mainly via cytoskeleton rearrangement.

Cell adhesion on surfaces is a fundamental process in the emerging biomaterials field and developmental events as well. However, the mechanisms regulating this biological process in osteoblasts are not fully understood. Reversible phosphorylation catalyzed by kinases is probably the most important regulatory mechanism in eukaryotes. Therefore, the goal of this study is to assess osteoblast adhesion through a molecular prism under a peptide array technology, revealing essential signaling proteins governing adhesion-related events. First, we showed that there are main morphological changes on osteoblast shape during adhesion up to 3 h. Second, besides classical proteins activated upon integrin activation, our results showed a novel network involving signaling proteins such as Rap1A, PKA, PKC, and GSK3beta during osteoblast adhesion on polystyrene. Third, these proteins were grouped in different signaling cascades including focal adhesion establishment, cytoskeleton rearrangement, and cell-cycle arrest. We have thus provided evidence that a global phosphorylation screening is able to yield a systems-oriented look at osteoblast adhesion, providing new insights for understanding of bone formation and improvement of cell-substratum interactions. Altogether, these statements are necessary means for further intervention and development of new approaches for the progress of tissue engineering.

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