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Vol. 60, Issue 6, 1153-1160, December 2001
Department of Medicine and the Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
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Abstract |
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Cisplatin (cDDP) is effective against some human tumors, but many are intrinsically resistant and, even among initially sensitive tumors, acquired resistance develops commonly during treatment. It has not been possible to prove which biochemical mechanisms control sensitivity to cDDP. Gene knockout studies in yeast, Dictyostelium discoideum, and mammalian cells have begun to unambiguously identify genes whose products function to modulate the cytotoxicity of cDDP. This review summarizes information currently available about the function of these genes. This comprehensive compilation points to the involvement of regulatory pathways known to mediate apoptosis, cell cycle checkpoint activation, and transcriptional rescue as regulators of cDDP sensitivity. Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms that mediate cDDP resistance holds promise for the design of pharmacological strategies for preventing, overcoming, or reversing this form of drug resistance.
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Introduction |
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The
propensity of tumor cells to become resistant to cDDP with repeated
exposure accounts for therapeutic failure in many cancer patients and
is easily demonstrated in tissue culture [reviewed in Andrews and
Howell (1990)
] and animal models (Andrews et al., 1990
). Determination
of cDDP sensitivity in vitro using tumor samples or cell lines obtained
before and after treatment of patients with cDDP indicates that the
level of acquired resistance that emerges in vivo is usually only
modest, in the range of 1.5- to 3.0-fold (Andrews et al., 1990
; Andrews
and Howell, 1990
).
Biochemical studies have not succeeded in identifying
conclusively the basis of resistance in any type of cell selected with cDDP, but they have defined several mechanisms that can contribute to
resistance. The effectiveness of cell killing is a function of how much
drug gets into the cell, how much of this actually reacts with DNA, how
tolerant the cell is of lesions in its DNA, and how effectively it
removes these adducts from DNA [reviewed in Perez (1998)
]. Impaired
uptake of cDDP is the most consistent finding both in vivo and in vitro
(Sharp et al., 1995
; Perez, 1998
; Shen et al., 2000
).
The difficulty of using biochemical approaches to obtain proof of
the mechanisms responsible for acquired cDDP resistance has frustrated
many investigators in the field. However, the rapid development of
techniques for molecularly engineering cells to disrupt the expression
of single genes has provided an alternative strategy that is
potentially much less ambiguous. Although this approach is still in its
infancy, it has already yielded novel insights into previously
unsuspected mechanisms that control cDDP sensitivity. This article
reviews recent information derived specifically from studies in which
resistance to this important chemotherapeutic agent was produced in
yeast, Dictyostelium discoideum, and mammalian cells by the
disruption of a single gene. Although the focus of this review is on
genes likely to play a role in acquired
cDDP resistance (Table 1), there
is a high likelihood that these same genes account for intrinsic
resistance as well. At this juncture, it is not apparent that a useful
distinction between acquired and intrinsic resistance can be made at
the molecular level. Figure 1 provides a
schematic that outlines some of the possible interactions between
pathways in which the genes discussed below are believed to
participate.
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Genes Whose Products Are Involved in the Recognition or Processing of cDDP DNA Adducts |
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DNA Mismatch Repair Proteins.
Several genes have been
identified that when disabled seem to either impair or enhance
recognition of cDDP adducts. The best known of these are the DNA
mismatch repair genes, and hMSH2 in combination with one of its
heterodimer partners binds specifically to cDDP adducts. Intriguingly,
testicular and ovarian tissues, which give rise to tumors that are
among the most sensitive to cDDP, have been reported to overexpress
hMSH2 (Mello et al., 1996
). This DNA repair system appears to function
as a detector of cDDP adducts (Mu et al., 1997
; Li, 1999
; Nehme et al.,
1999
; Wu et al., 1999
). Defects in DNA mismatch repair resulting from
mutation or methylation-mediated silencing of hMLH1, hMSH2, or hPMS2
produce low level resistance to cDDP that seems to be caused by a
failure to recognize the adduct and propagate a signal to the apoptotic machinery. cDDP treatment enriches malignant populations for cells that
have lost DNA mismatch repair both in vitro (Fink et al., 1998b
) and in
vivo (Samimi et al., 2000
). This topic has been reviewed (Fink et al.,
1998a
) and thus only a couple of very recent observations will be noted here.
, and/or members of the class containing polymerases
,
, and
(Crul et al., 1997
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Photolyases That Repair of Cyclobutane Pyrimidine Dimers.
As
an alternative or additional pathway to NER, a wide variety of
organisms, including bacteria, fungi, plants, invertebrates, and many
vertebrates, can revert cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CDPs) using
CPD-photolyase in the presence of photoreactivating blue light (of
wavelength 350-450 nm), which restore the bases to their native form
(Yasui et al., 1994
; Sancar, 1996
). Pyrimidine dimers are among the
most common lesions produced in DNA by UV light. The PHR1
gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes a photolyase that
specifically and exclusively repairs this type of damage. Comparison of
the regulatory sequences of this gene with those found in other
damage-inducible genes from yeast cells revealed a conserved sequence
that is also present in the RAD2 and RNR2 genes,
and that is required for damage inducibility of all three. These
sequences may constitute elements of a damage-responsive regulon in
S. cerevisiae (Sebastian et al., 1990
).
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Genes of the Stress Signaling Pathways |
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Upstream factors involved in the cellular response to DNA damage
mediate the induction of a network that transmits both pro- and
antiapoptotic signals. Any interference that favors antiapoptotic signal transduction or abrogates proapoptotic pathways, including the
transcriptional and translational response, is a potential mechanism of
cDDP resistance. In view of the fact that most of these pathways also
conduct signals generated by other intra- and extracellular stimuli,
the importance of any given defect may be dependent on the other
traffic on the pathways. One example is the abrogation of cDDP-induced
apoptosis in human breast cancer cells by epidermal growth factor
antisense RNA (Dixit et al., 1997
).
P53 Pathway.
It is well established that p53 plays a central
role in chemotherapy-induced apoptosis; however, its importance as a
determinant of cDDP sensitivity differs in various cell lines and
tissues (Kastan et al., 1991
; Kuerbitz et al., 1992
; Fritsche et al., 1993
; Eliopoulos et al., 1995
; Juvekar et al., 2000
). The strongest evidence that p53 normally functions to protect cells from cDDP-induced injury in human tumor cells comes from studies of a subline of the
HCT-116 human colon carcinoma in which both alleles of p53 were
somatically disrupted using a knockout strategy (Bunz et al., 1999
). In
these cells, loss of p53 resulted in hypersensitivity to cDDP, possibly
as a result of the failure to induce expression of the cyclin-dependent
kinase inhibitor p21 (Bunz et al., 1999
; Lin et al., 2000
). The concept
that loss of p53 function results in cDDP hypersensitivity is supported
by studies in the A2780 human ovarian carcinoma cell line, in which
lack of p53 function was found to be accompanied by cDDP
hypersensitivity, loss of G1/S checkpoint
control, and decreased cDDP adduct repair compared with A2780 cells
with intact p53 function (Pestell et al., 2000
).
and
,
PCNA, and insulin-like growth factor).
In summary, the effect of the loss of p53 function on sensitivity to
cDDP is not uniform in all cell types. It is likely that its influence
depends on cell type-specific interactions with other pro- and
anti-apoptotic pathways. This makes it unlikely that a measure of p53
protein level by itself will be a useful predictor of cDDP
responsiveness. Given that the multiple interactions of p53 depend on
several functional domains, a single mutation might well not abrogate
all of them but rather shift the balance of downstream effects leading
to either hypersensitivity or resistance.
The Protein Kinase A Pathway.
PDE2 codes for the
S. cerevisiae cAMP phosphodiesterase [as opposed to
mammalian nomenclature, which describes PDE2 as cGMP activated
phosphodiesterases (Beavo, 1995
)], which is a key regulator of
intracellular cAMP level and is involved in the negative regulation of
PKA activity (Sass et al., 1986
; Burger et al., 2000
). Interestingly, disruption of PDE2 in yeast (Burger et al., 2000
) and
knockout of the RegA cAMP-phosphodiesterase in D. discoideum
(Li et al., 2000
) both produce cDDP resistance. Investigation of
radiation-induced emergence of transient cDDP resistance in murine
fibrosarcoma cells (SSK) has demonstrated involvement of cAMP- and
cGMP-dependent signal transduction pathways in mammalian cells
(Eichholtz-Wirth, 1995
), although the effect was in the opposite
direction in these human cells. The authors demonstrated a 1.8- to
2.5-fold increase in cDDP toxicity by increasing cAMP in both parental
(nonirradiated) and resistant (irradiated) SSK cells.
2 fold) in 2008 and
A2780 human ovarian carcinoma cells relative to untreated cells. But
Mann et al. (1991)
B and partly by PKA-independent pathways.
However, it is important to note that the more resistant leukemia cell
line (MDR1+ K/Dau600) had a higher expression of the PKA regulatory
subunit RI
and nuclear catalytic subunit PKAc
, suggesting that
these findings might be specific for tumor necrosis factor
-induced
apoptosis and cytostasis.
Consistent with the concept that PKA activity maintains sensitivity to
cDDP, wild-type Chinese hamster ovary cells transfected with and
overexpressing the yeast phosphodiesterase, or a dominant negative
mutant Rl
subunit, displayed increased resistance to cDDP (Liu et
al., 1996
compared with their parental cells
(Cvijic and Chin, 1998
subunit selected
for further resistance to cDDP remained refractory to cAMP-induced
growth inhibition and had decreased PKA activity proportional to
increasing levels of cDDP resistance (Cvijic and Chin, 1997
-mutants showed increased binding of nuclear
factor(s) to the damaged DNA (Liu et al., 1996
-glutamylcysteine synthetase. This enzyme is at least in part
responsible for intracellular levels of glutathione in cDDP-resistant
ovarian cancer cell lines (Yao et al., 1995
subunit
regulates cDDP sensitivity via PKA independent pathways, especially in
view of the identical PKA activity in cDDP-resistant and -sensitive
2008 ovarian cancer cells described by Mann et al. (1991)| |
Genes Whose Pathway Identification Is Not Yet Known |
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Investigators working with the slime mold D. discoideum
have recently made an important contribution. Using an insertional mutagenesis technique, Li et al. (2000)
identified 6 genes whose knockout produced cDDP resistance. Deletion of these genes did not
result in resistance to other DNA-damaging agents, indicating an
unusual degree of specificity for resistance to cDDP (Li et al., 2000
).
The cAMP-phosphodiesterase (RegA) has already been mentioned. The other
5 genes are golvesin, putative phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphatase
5-kinase (PIP5K), sphingosine-1-phosphatase (S1P), an unknown gene that
is 52% similar to human purine receptor P2Y1, and an unknown gene that
is 51% similar to the human CAAX prenyl protease.
Colocalization experiments by Molenaar et al. (2000)
with a Golgi
apparatus-selective stain and cDDP labeled with a fluorescent tag
demonstrated that cDDP accumulated in vesicles associated with the
Golgi apparatus. ATP7B, which serves to deliver copper from the
cytoplasm into the trans-Golgi network, has been identified as a candidate for the transporter that mediates this sequestration on
the basis of the observation by Komatsu et al. (2000)
that overexpression of this protein rendered cells resistant to cDDP. This
protein moves from the trans-Golgi network to the plasma membrane in response to exposure to copper (Petris et al., 1996
). In
this location, it exports copper from the cell, and conceivably might
also export cDDP, if cDDP also triggers such relocalization. Golvesin
is a Golgi-associated protein that putatively functions in vesicular
membrane trafficking. Thus, if golvesin interferes with relocalization
of cDDP export transporters from the Golgi to the plasma membrane, one
might reasonably expect its deficiency to produce cDDP resistance.
PIP5K regulates the levels of several key signaling messengers,
including phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate and
phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate. It participates not only in
signal transduction, cytoskeletal regulation, and DNA synthesis but
also in vesicular trafficking (Yamamoto et al., 1995
; Hassan et al.,
1998
). Although a human mutant PIP5K homolog has been implicated as
possible cause for Friedreich's Ataxia (Carvajal et al., 1996
), there
is currently no discernible link to cDDP resistance in human or
mammalian cell models.
S1P degrades sphingosine-1-phosphate and converts it into sphingosine.
Impairment of S1P function shifts the balance between ceramide, which
induces apoptosis via caspase activation, and sphingosine-1-phosphate,
which promotes cell survival [for a review of sphingosine-1-phosphate
function see Pyne and Pyne (2000)
]. Although such a shift may reset
the trigger for apoptosis, it is not currently apparent why this should
be specific for cDDP-induced injury.
P2Y1 belongs to the metabotropic nucleotide receptor family, of which
several subtypes (Communi et al., 2000
) couple via G proteins to
phospholipase C and the extracellular signal-regulated kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase signal transduction pathways known to be involved in cellular proliferation and differentiation (Communi et al., 2000
; Neary, 2000
). In addition, P2Y receptors mediate
inhibition of adenylyl cyclase and N-type Ca2+
channels and activation of K+ channels (North and
Barnard, 1997
). For this gene as well, it has not yet been possible to
identify a link to biochemical mechanisms likely to influence cDDP sensitivity.
The final gene identified in the D. discoideum knockout
experiments was CAAX prenyl protease, which is involved in the
post-translational processing of proteins that contain a
carboxyl-terminal CAAX motif via prenylation, endoproteolysis, and
methylesterification (Ashby, 1998
). One of these proteins is Ras, the
most frequently mutationally activated oncogene found in human tumors
(Petit et al., 1999
). H-Ras and c-Fos were found to be over-expressed
in the cDDP-resistant human colon carcinoma cell line (HCT8DDP)
(Scanlon et al., 1989
). Although activated Ras failed to induce cDDP
resistance by itself, Masumoto et al. (1999)
demonstrated that
activated v-src can augment DNA repair leading indirectly to cDDP
resistance. V-SRC-transfected HAG/src3-1 human gallbladder
adenocarcinoma cells exhibited 3.5-fold resistance to cDDP compared
with parental or mock- transfected HAG-1 cells [see also Dempke et al.
(2000)
].
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Summary and Conclusions |
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Identification of the mechanisms that control sensitivity to cDDP
is central to improving its therapeutic index, and to developing new
agents that can prevent, overcome, or reverse the acquired resistance
that emerges so commonly during treatment. This review discloses that
many genes are already known whose disruption produces cDDP resistance
of a magnitude that is likely to be of clinical significance. Because a
tumor containing more than 1012 cells (
1 kg)
has a high probability of containing cells harboring random mutations
or deletions in many of these genes, it is likely that the application
of the selective pressure of cDDP treatment enriches for clones whose
resistance is mediated by a variety of different mechanisms. At this
juncture, a skeptic would probably point out that even the gene
knockout studies reviewed here have not yielded information that can be
assembled into a comprehensive description of the biochemical pathways
that mediate the cDDP-resistant phenotype. However, an optimist would
likely counter that it is clearly possible to produce cDDP resistance
by changing the expression of a single gene, and that this approach has
already identified some of the most important individual steps in these
pathways. Nevertheless, the challenge of sorting out which of these is
central to the phenomenon of clinical cDDP resistance is very substantial.
This review also highlights the fact that the currently available
information on cDDP resistance is derived from widely different model
systems; in most of these, the biochemical and signaling pathways with
the highest probability of contributing to cDDP resistance are poorly
characterized. Given the powerful molecular tools now available, it
seems that more rapid progress is likely to be made by focusing on
thorough investigation of a single model system than by continuation of
more limited studies in less-characterized cell types. In this regard,
S. cerevisiae is a particularly good candidate model system,
because many of the tools for doing this are currently in hand
(Winzeler et al., 1999
, 2000
). The complete S. cerevisiae
genome is now available and numerous cellular pathways, including key
enzymes required for cell cycle and DNA repair are known. Taking into
account the fact that, even in this organism, the knockout of just one
gene may produce changes in hundreds of downstream elements involving
many pathways, it will clearly be necessary to use new techniques to
measure and interpret all of these changes. Emerging tools that permit
simultaneous monitoring of the expression of several thousand genes and
proteins using microarray technology, which are already being applied
in the field of drug discovery (Friend, 2000
; Scherf et al., 2000
),
should enable investigators to address this challenge. Although direct translation of functional information about a protein from S. cerevisiae to human cells is not always possible, once key
pathways have been discovered, new drug targets can be identified that permit discovery of pharmacologic strategies for countering cDDP resistance (Friend, 2000
).
The information reviewed here also forces one to consider whether
current clinical trial strategies for investigating cDDP resistance
need to be reconsidered. It is already apparent that this phenotype can
be produced by many different mechanisms, some of which are quite
specific for cDDP and others of which reduce sensitivity to disparate
kinds of cellular stress. Particularly because even relatively low-evel
resistance is sufficient to reduce tumor responsiveness to cDDP in vivo
(Andrews et al., 1990
; Nusbaum and Joseph, 1994
; Fink et al., 1997
), it
seems likely that tumors that fail treatment with cDDP will contain
clones that have adopted numerous different mechanisms with which to
protect themselves against this drug. There is no practical way to
assay for all of them in clinical samples using conventional methods.
Thus, many clinical correlative studies currently planned or underway that focus on discovering associations between the expression of
individual proteins and clinical resistance to cDDP seem unlikely to be
a rich source of novel insights.
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Footnotes |
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Received February 23, 2001; Accepted September 19, 2001
This work was supported in part by Grant NI602/1 from the German Research Foundation and Grant CA78648 from the National Institutes of Health. This work was conducted in part by the Clayton Foundation for Research-California Division. Drs. Christen and Howell are Clayton Foundation investigators.
Dr. Stephen B. Howell , Department of Medicine 0058, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0058. E-mail: showell{at}ucsd.edu
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Abbreviations |
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cDDP, cisplatin [cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II)]; MMR, DNA mismatch repair; CPD, cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer; PKA, protein kinase A; APC, anaphase-promoting complex; HOX, homeotic complex; AP, activator protein; PIP5K, phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphatase 5-kinase; S1P, sphingosine-1-phosphatase; PDE, phosphodiesterase.
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