The proteasome inhibitor bortezomib is an efficacious apoptotic agent in many tumor cells. This paper shows that bortezomib induced apoptosis in human hepatoma HepG2 cells associated with many modifications in the expression of survival or death factors. Although bortezomib increased the level of the protective factors HSP70 and HSP27, the effects of the drug that favour cell death were predominant. These events include accumulation of c-Jun, phospho-c-Jun and p53; increase in FasL level with activation of caspase-8; changes related to members of Bcl-2 family with increase in the level of pro-apoptotic members and decrease in that of anti-apoptotic ones; dissipation of mitochondrial potential with cytochrome c release and activation of caspase-3. In contrast, Chang liver cells exhibited a very low susceptibility to bortezomib-induced apoptosis, which was accompanied by modest modifications in the expression of apoptotic factors. In HepG2 cells bortezomib markedly increased AP-1 activity and the expression of its transcriptional targets such as c-Jun, FasL, BimEL, which are involved in apoptosis. Moreover, AP-1 induced its own production by increasing c-Jun content in the composition of the same AP-1 complex. In addition, bortezomib caused activation of JNK1, which in turn increased the level of phospho-c-Jun as well as stimulated the activation of caspase-3 and t-Bid, two fundamental apoptotic factors. Interestingly, siRNA silencing of c-Jun or JNK1 reduced HepG2 cell susceptibility to apoptosis and prevented the increase in AP-1 activity. Both JNK-1 and AP-1 thus exerted a crucial role in bortezomib-induced apoptosis. Differently, in Chang liver cells the different composition of AP-1 complex as well as the failure of JNK activation seemed to be responsible for the low susceptibility to apoptosis. Given the high susceptibility of hepatoma cells to bortezomib, our results suggest the potential application of this compound in clinical trials for liver cancers.

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The copper(II) complex of 3,5-bis(2'-pyridyl)-1,2,4-oxadiazole was synthesized and characterized. X-Ray crystallography revealed that the complex consists of a discrete [Cu(3,5-bis(2'-pyridyl)-1,2,4-oxadiazole)(2)(H(2)O)(2)](2+) cation and two ClO(4)(-) anions. The Cu(II) coordination sphere has a distorted octahedral geometry and each ligand chelates the copper ion through the N(4) nitrogen of the oxadiazole ring and the nitrogen of one pyridine moiety. The coordinated water molecules are in cis position and each of them is H-bonded to the 5-pyridyl nitrogen of the oxadiazole ligand and to an oxygen of the perchlorate anion. Biological assays showed that, despite the free ligand not being effective, [Cu(3,5-bis(2'-pyridyl)-1,2,4-oxadiazole)(2)(H(2)O)(2)](2+) reduced the vitality of human hepatoblastoma HepG2 and colorectal carcinoma HT29 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The interaction of the cationic copper complex with native DNA was investigated by variable-temperature UV-vis spectroscopy, circular dichroism, viscosity and gel electrophoresis, indicating that it is a groove binder with binding constant K(b) = 2.2 × 10(4) M(-1).

In this article, we demonstrate that the synthetic cannabinoid R-(ϩ)- (2,3-dihydro-5-methyl-3-[(4-morpholinyl)methyl]pyrol[1,2,3-de]-1,4-benzoxazin-6-yl)-(1-naphthalenyl) methanone mesylate (WIN 55,212-2) sensitizes human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells to apoptosis mediated by tumor necrosis-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL). The apoptotic mechanism induced by treatment with WIN/TRAIL combination involved the loss of the mitochondrial transmembrane potential and led to the activation of caspases. In HCC cells, WIN treatment induced the up-regulation of TRAIL death receptor DR5, an effect that seemed to be related to the increase in the level of p8 and CHOP, two factors implicated in cellular stress response and apoptosis. This relationship was suggested by the observation that the down-regulation of p8 or CHOP by specific small interfering RNAs attenuated both WIN-mediated DR5 up-regulation and the cytotoxicity induced by WIN/TRAIL cotreatment. Moreover, WIN induced a significant decrease in the levels of some survival factors (survivin, c-inhibitor of apoptosis protein 2, and Bcl-2) and in particular in that of the active phosphorylated form of AKT. This event seemed to be dependent on the transcription factor peroxisome proliferatoractivated receptor-␥ whose level significantly increased after WIN treatment. Therefore, both the induction of DR5 via p8 and CHOP and the down-regulation of survival factors seem to be crucial for the marked synergistic effects induced by the two drugs in HCC cells. Taken together, the results reported in this article indicate that WIN/TRAIL combination could represent a novel important tool for the treatment of HCC.The tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), a member of the tumor necrosis factor family, is a potent apoptosis-inducing cytokine. TRAIL seems to specifically kill a wide variety of cancer cells in culture and xenografted tumors while sparing most normal cells (Ray and Almasan, 2003;Falschlehner et al., 2007). TRAIL-induced apoptosis is associated with the interaction of this ligand with two closely related membrane receptors, DR4 (TRAIL-R1) and DR5 (TRAIL-R2), whereas two other TRAIL receptors, DcR1 (TRAIL-R3) and DcR2 (TRAIL-R4), are not involved in apoptotic signal, serving as decoy proteins (Sheridan et al., 1997 ABBREVIATIONS: TRAIL, tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; DR, death receptor; CB, cannabinoid receptor; CHOP, CCAAT/enhancer binding protein homologous protein; IAP, inhibitor of apoptosis protein; PPAR␥, peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-␥; MTT,[3][4] 2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide assay; DiOC 6 , 3-3-dihexyloxacarbocyanine; z-VAD-fmk, benzyloxy-carbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethylketone; GAPDH, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; WIN 55,212-2, WIN, R-(ϩ)- (2,3-dihydro-5-methyl-3-[(4-morpholinyl)methyl]pyrol [1,2,3-de]-1,4-benzoxazin-6-yl)-(1-naphthalenyl) methanone mesylate; siRNA, small interfering RNA; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; FITC, fl...

Abstract. In the present study we demonstrate that anandamide, the most important endogenous cannabinoid, markedly induced apoptosis in Chang liver cells, an immortalized nontumor cell line derived from normal liver tissue, while it induced only modest effects in a number of hepatoma cell lines. The apoptotic effect was reduced by methyl-ß-cyclodextrin, a membrane cholesterol depletor, suggesting an interaction between anandamide and the membrane microdomains named lipid rafts. Anandamide effects were mediated by the production of ceramide, as demonstrated by experiments performed with the sphingomyelinase inhibitor, desipramine, or with the sphingomyelinase activator, melittin. This conclusion was confirmed by the observation that exogenous C2-ceramide induced a remarkable apoptotic effect in the same cells. Anandamide-induced apoptosis in Chang liver cells involved oxidative stress and activation of p38/JNK pathway, which was accompanied by a remarkable increase in AP-1 DNA-binding activity. Moreover, the levels of both c-Jun and JunB, two components of the AP-1 complex, and those of FasL and Bim, two transcriptional targets of AP-1, also increased during anandamide treatment. In addition, anandamide increased the level of Bax and caused degradation of full-length Bid with the production of the active truncated form. These effects were accompanied by dissipation of mitochondrial transmembrane potential with the consequent activation of both caspase-3 and caspase-6. On the contrary, in hepatoma cells, anandamide did not induce apoptotic effects and it was not possible to observe any increase in p38/JNK pathway and AP-1 activity after drug treatment. Our results suggest that the induction of cell death in nontumor Chang liver cells by anandamide was mediated by ceramide, JNK and AP-1 and was dependent on the activation of both the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways of apoptosis.