leupeptins and Fibrosarcoma

The E6 proteins derived from tumour associated papillomavirus types target the cellular tumour suppressor protein p53 for ubiquitin mediated degradation. In cell lines derived from cervical tumours the p53 protein is present in very low amounts, but it can be activated by appropriate DNA damaging agents, indicating that functional p53 is present within these lines. Recent studies have also shown that different polymorphic forms of the p53 protein are differentially susceptible to E6 mediated degradation. Therefore we have been interested in analysing the effects of different HPV E6 proteins upon p53 levels in a variety of cervical tumour derived cell lines. We show that inhibition of E6 mediated degradation of p53 frequently results in increased levels of p53 expression. However, there are notable exceptions to this where increased p53 levels are only obtained following DNA damage and proteasome inhibition. We also show in E6 expressing cells, that as well as p53 being targeted for degradation, the localization of p53 to the nucleus is also inhibited, consistent with previous observations which indicate that degradation of p53 is not essential for E6 mediated inhibition of p53 function. These results have important implications for any potential therapies which might aim to block E6 mediated degradation of p53.

Topics: Acetylcysteine; Adenocarcinoma; Animals; Antibiotics, Antineoplastic; Breast Neoplasms; Carcinoma; Cell Nucleus; Cysteine Proteinase Inhibitors; DNA Damage; DNA-Binding Proteins; Female; Fibrosarcoma; Humans; Leupeptins; Mitomycin; Oncogene Proteins, Viral; Papillomaviridae; Polymorphism, Genetic; Repressor Proteins; Tumor Cells, Cultured; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

A leupeptin analogue, pyroglutamyl-Leu-Arg-CHO (Pyr-Leu-Arg-CHO), is an inhibitor of urokinase and plasmin, while leupeptin inhibits only plasmin. Pyr-Leu-Arg-CHO was shown to inhibit in vitro invasion of human fibrosarcoma HT1080 cells reducing cellular collagenase activity. Pyr-Leu-Arg-CHO suppressed the invasion of the cells in a Boyden chamber assay with an IC50 of 12 micrograms/ml. Addition of plasminogen to HT1080 cells increased the type IV collagenase activity, and Pyr-Leu-Arg-CHO inhibited this activation of the collagenase with an IC50 of 3 micrograms/ml. Leupeptin inhibited both the invasion and collagenase activation at higher concentrations than that of Pyr-Leu-Arg-CHO. The gelatin zymography of the conditioned medium revealed that a new gelatinolytic band, possibly an activated form of MMP-2, appeared by the addition of plasminogen. The activation of MMP-2 was also inhibited strongly by Pyr-Leu-Arg-CHO. These results indicate that Pyr-Leu-Arg-CHO suppresses the in vitro invasion by preventing the activation of type IV collagenase through inhibition of the urokinase-plasmin system.

Topics: Amino Acid Sequence; Collagenases; Enzyme Activation; Fibrinolysin; Fibrosarcoma; Humans; Leupeptins; Molecular Sequence Data; Neoplasm Invasiveness; Tumor Cells, Cultured; Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator