Converting redox signaling to apoptotic activities by stress-responsive regulators HSF1 and NRF2 in fenretinide treated cancer cells.

<h4>Background</h4>Pharmacological intervention of redox balance in cancer cells often results in oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis, attracting much attention for the development of a new generation of targeted therapy in cancer. However, little is known about mechanisms underlying the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kankan Wang, Hai Fang, Dakai Xiao, Xuehua Zhu, Miaomiao He, Xiaoling Pan, Jiantao Shi, Hui Zhang, Xiaohong Jia, Yanzhi Du, Ji Zhang
Format: article
Language:EN
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2009
Subjects:
R
Q
Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/8f9323f3746541df9de934bf541c36aa
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Summary:<h4>Background</h4>Pharmacological intervention of redox balance in cancer cells often results in oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis, attracting much attention for the development of a new generation of targeted therapy in cancer. However, little is known about mechanisms underlying the conversion from oxidative signaling to downstream activities leading cells to death.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>We here report a systematic detection of transcriptome changes in response to oxidative signals generated in leukemia cells upon fenretinide treatment, implicating the occurrence of numerous stress-responsive events during the fenretinide induced apoptosis, such as redox response, endoplasmic reticulum stress/unfolded protein response, translational repression and proteasome activation. Moreover, the configuration of these relevant events is primarily orchestrated by stress responsive transcription factors, as typically highlighted by NF-E2-related factor-2 (NRF2) and heat shock factor 1 (HSF1). Several lines of evidence suggest that the coordinated regulation of these transcription factors and thus their downstream genes are involved in converting oxidative signaling into downstream stress-responsive events regulating pro-apoptotic and apoptotic activities at the temporal and spatial levels, typifying oxidative stress-mediated programmed death rather than survival in cancer cells.<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>This study provides a roadmap for understanding oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis in cancer cells, which may be further developed into more sophisticated therapeutic protocols, as implicated by synergistic induction of cell apoptosis using proteasome inhibitors with fenretinide.