Proteasome Inhibitors Can Induce Caspase-3 Activation and Apoptosis in Human CML Cell Lines.

The proteasome is a multi-enzyme complex that provides the ubiquitin-dependent degradation of many cytoplasmic and nuclear proteins involved in cell cycle progression and apoptosis. Inhibition of the proteasome represents a promising approach for the treatment of cancer because it can lead to cell cycle arrest and activation of caspases in tumor cells. There are several proteasome inhibitors that have been reported to induce apoptosis in various tumors. However, the effect of proteasome inhibition in human myeloid leukemia has not been reported so far. In this study, we tested two peptide-aldehyde proteasome inhibitors (MG115, MG132) on two human CML cell lines (K562, KCL22). At first, we treated both cell lines for 24, 48 and 72 hours with different doses of MG115 and MG132 and cell viability was tested by MTT assay. It showed substantial time and dose dependent cytotoxicity in both CML cell lines. Acridine orange staining also revealed DNA fragmentation. We then performed caspase-3 colorimetric assay after treating both cell lines for 6, 12 and 24 hours with 0.78μM of MG115, MG132. K562 showed the continuous rising of caspase-3 activity, while KCL22 exhibited the initial increase and subsequent mild decrease of caspase-3 activity. In addition, western blot analysis showed the reduction of procaspase-3 expression. The expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL was reduced by western blot. p21 expression was slightly increased and that of cyclin D1 was decreased. Additionally, the treatment of proteasome inhibitor in CML cell lines initially induced phosphorylation of Jun kinase. We next examined the expression of heat shock proteins (Hsp70, Hsp90) after treating for 6, 12, 24 hours with the same proteasome inhibitors. Western blot analysis results indicated that expression patterns were different between MG115 and MG132. MG115 induced the slight increase of Hsp70 and Hsp90 in K562, but the reduction of both in KCL22. Meanwhile, MG132 produced the decrease of Hsp70 and Hsp90 in both K562, KCL22. In summary, our work supports that a proteasome inhibitor can induce apoptosis in human CML cell lines. We are currently focusing on the combined effect of proteasome inhibitor and Hsp90 inhibitor on CML.

IC₅₀ of Proteasome Inhibitors