In this paper we present the finding that lovastatin arrests cells by inhibiting the proteasome, which results in the accumulation of p21 and p27, leading to G 1 arrest. Lovastatin is an inhibitor of hydroxymethyl glutaryl (HMG)-CoA reductase, the rate-limiting enzyme in cholesterol synthesis. Previously, we reported that lovastatin can be used to arrest cultured cells in the G 1 phase of the cell cycle, resulting in the stabilization of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (CKIs) p21 and p27. In this report we show that this stabilization of p21 and p27 may be the result of a previously unknown function of the pro-drug, ␤-lactone ring form of lovastatin to inhibit the proteasome degradation of these CKIs. The lovastatin mixture used in this study is 80% open-ring form and 20% pro-drug, ␤-lactone form. We show that while the lovastatin open-ring form and pravastatin (a lovastatin analogue, 100% open ring) inhibit the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme, lovastatin pro-drug inhibits the proteasome but does not inhibit HMG-CoA reductase. In addition, many of the properties of proteasome inhibition by the prodrug are the same as the specific proteasome inhibitor lactacystin. Lastly, mevalonate (used to rescue cells from lovastatin arrest) unexpectedly abrogates the lactacystin and lovastatin pro-drug inhibition of the proteasome. Mevalonate increases the activity of the proteasome, which results in degradation of the CKIs, allowing lovastatin-and lactacystinarrested cells to resume cell division. The lovastatin-mediated inhibition of the proteasome suggests a unique mechanism for the chemopreventative effects of this agent seen in human cancer.

Cyclin E is a G 1 cyclin essential for S-phase entry and has a profound role in oncogenesis. Previously this laboratory found that cyclin E is overexpressed and present in lower-molecular-weight (LMW) isoforms in breast cancer cells and tumor tissues compared to normal cells and tissues. Such alteration of cyclin E is linked to poor patient outcome. Here we report that the LMW forms of cyclin E are hyperactive biochemically and they can more readily induce G 1 -to-S progression in transfected normal cells than the full-length form of the protein can. Through biochemical and mutational analyses we have identified two proteolytically sensitive sites in the amino terminus of human cyclin E that are cleaved to generate the LMW isoforms found in tumor cells. Not only are the LMW forms of cyclin E functional, as they phosphorylate substrates such as histone H1 and GSTRb, but also their activities are higher than the full-length cyclin E. These nuclear localized LMW forms of cyclin E are also biologically functional, as their overexpression in normal cells increases the ability of these cells to enter S and G 2 /M. Lastly, we show that cyclin E is selectively cleaved in vitro by the elastase class of serine proteases to generate LMW forms similar to those observed in tumor cells. These studies suggest that the defective entry into and exit from S phase by tumor cells is in part due to the proteolytic processing of cyclin E, which generates hyperactive LMW isoforms whose activities have been modified from that of the full-length protein.In the past decade, new findings in the fields of cell biology and molecular genetics of cancer have revealed a deregulation of the cell cycle as a critical event for the onset of tumorigenesis. Progression through the cell cycle, the sequence of events between two cell divisions, is governed by the actions of positive and negative regulators in the eukaryotic cell. The mammalian cell cycle is positively regulated by heterodimeric complexes of stable cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) and unstable regulatory cyclin subunits (1, 51). Mitogenic stimuli result in the phosphorylation and thereby activation of cyclin-CDK complexes by CDK-activating kinase (17,22,35). The activated cyclin-CDK complexes in turn phosphorylate substrates such as the retinoblastoma protein (pRb) throughout the cell cycle (16,36,51).The connection between cyclins and cancer has been substantiated with G 1 -type cyclins (25-27, 55). Cyclin E, a G 1 cyclin which forms complexes with CDK2, is essential for Sphase entry (41, 47) and has a profound role in oncogenesis (29,31). In dividing cells, the expression of cyclin E increases to a maximum at the G 1 /S transition, with a peak expression level near the restriction point (13, 34). When coupled to CDK2, the active kinase follows cyclin D-CDK4 in progressively phosphorylating pRb, releasing it from members of the E2F family (15). As E2F is released it activates a number of S-phase genes, including cyclin E and E2F-1 (18,40). This state of readiness to enter S phase requi...

Conventional chemotherapy not only kills tumor cells but also changes gene expression in treatment-damaged tissues, inducing production of multiple tumor-supporting secreted factors. This secretory phenotype was found here to be mediated in part by a damage-inducible cell-cycle inhibitor p21 (CDKN1A). We developed small-molecule compounds that inhibit damage-induced transcription downstream of p21. These compounds were identified as selective inhibitors of a transcription-regulating kinase CDK8 and its isoform CDK19. Remarkably, p21 was found to bind to CDK8 and stimulate its kinase activity. p21 and CDK8 also cooperate in the formation of internucleolar bodies, where both proteins accumulate. A CDK8 inhibitor suppresses damage-induced tumor-promoting paracrine activities of tumor cells and normal fibroblasts and reverses the increase in tumor engraftment and serum mitogenic activity in mice pretreated with a chemotherapeutic drug. The inhibitor also increases the efficacy of chemotherapy against xenografts formed by tumor cell/fibroblast mixtures. Microarray data analysis revealed striking correlations between CDK8 expression and poor survival in breast and ovarian cancers. CDK8 inhibition offers a promising approach to increasing the efficacy of cancer chemotherapy.transcriptional damage response | senescence | tumor microenvironment | nucleolus | chemical genomics

The nuclear factor-κB (NFκB) family of transcription factors has been implicated in inflammatory disorders, viral infections, and cancer. Most of the drugs that inhibit NFκB show significant side effects, possibly due to sustained NFκB suppression. Drugs affecting induced, but not basal, NFκB activity may have the potential to provide therapeutic benefit without associated toxicity. NFκB activation by stress-inducible cell cycle inhibitor p21 was shown to be mediated by a p21-stimulated transcription-regulating kinase CDK8. CDK8 and its paralog CDK19, associated with the transcriptional Mediator complex, act as coregulators of several transcription factors implicated in cancer; CDK8/19 inhibitors are entering clinical development. Here we show that CDK8/19 inhibition by different small-molecule kinase inhibitors or shRNAs suppresses the elongation of NFκB-induced transcription when such transcription is activated by p21-independent canonical inducers, such as TNFα. On NFκB activation, CDK8/19 are corecruited with NFκB to the promoters of the responsive genes. Inhibition of CDK8/19 kinase activity suppresses the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain phosphorylation required for transcriptional elongation, in a gene-specific manner. Genes coregulated by CDK8/19 and NFκB includeIL8,CXCL1, andCXCL2, which encode tumor-promoting proinflammatory cytokines. Although it suppressed newly induced NFκB-driven transcription, CDK8/19 inhibition in most cases had no effect on the basal expression of NFκB-regulated genes or promoters; the same selective regulation of newly induced transcription was observed with other transcription signals potentiated by CDK8/19. This selective role of CDK8/19 identifies these kinases as mediators of transcriptional reprogramming, a key aspect of development and differentiation as well as pathological processes.