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Rational development of a cytotoxic peptide to trigger cell death.

ABSTRACT: Defects in the apoptotic machinery can contribute to tumor formation and resistance to treatment, creating a need to identify new agents that kill cancer cells by alternative mechanisms. To this end, we examined the cytotoxic properties of a novel peptide, CT20p, derived from the C-terminal, alpha-9 helix of Bax, an amphipathic domain with putative membrane binding properties. Like many antimicrobial peptides, CT20p contains clusters of hydrophobic and cationic residues that could enable the peptide to associate with lipid membranes. CT20p caused the release of calcein from mitochondrial-like lipid vesicles without disrupting vesicle integrity and, when expressed as a fusion protein in cells, localized to mitochondria. The amphipathic nature of CT20p allowed it to be encapsulated in polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) that have the capacity to harbor targeting molecules, dyes or drugs. The resulting CT20p-NPs proved an effective killer, in vitro, of colon and breast cancer cells, and in vivo, using a murine breast cancer tumor model. By introducing CT20p to Bax deficient cells, we demonstrated that the peptide's lethal activity was independent of endogenous Bax. CT20p also caused an increase in the mitochondrial membrane potential that was followed by plasma membrane rupture and cell death, without the characteristic membrane asymmetry associated with apoptosis. We determined that cell death triggered by the CT20p-NPs was minimally dependent on effector caspases and resistant to Bcl-2 overexpression, suggesting that it acts independently of the intrinsic apoptotic death pathway. Furthermore, use of CT20p with the apoptosis-inducing drug, cisplatin, resulted in additive toxicity. These results reveal the novel features of CT20p that allow nanoparticle-mediated delivery to tumors and the potential application in combination therapies to activate multiple death pathways in cancer cells.

SUBMITTER: Boohaker RJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3458162 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Rational development of a cytotoxic peptide to trigger cell death.

Boohaker Rebecca J RJ Zhang Ge G Lee Michael W MW Nemec Kathleen N KN Santra Santimukul S Perez J Manuel JM Khaled Annette R AR

Molecular pharmaceutics 20120529 7

Defects in the apoptotic machinery can contribute to tumor formation and resistance to treatment, creating a need to identify new agents that kill cancer cells by alternative mechanisms. To this end, we examined the cytotoxic properties of a novel peptide, CT20p, derived from the C-terminal, alpha-9 helix of Bax, an amphipathic domain with putative membrane binding properties. Like many antimicrobial peptides, CT20p contains clusters of hydrophobic and cationic residues that could enable the pep ...[more]

PMID: 22591113

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Project description:Sigma-2-ligands (S2L) are characterized by high-affinity interaction with their cognate sigma-2 receptor, overexpressed in rapidly proliferating tumor cells. As such, S2L were developed as imaging probes (ISO1) or as cancer therapeutics, alone (SV119 [C6], SW43 [C10]) and as delivery vehicles for cytotoxic drug cargoes following chemical conjugation (C6-Erastin, C10-SMAC). However, the exact mechanism of S2L-induced cytotoxicity remains to be fully elucidated. A series of high-affinity S2L were evaluated regarding their cytotoxicity profiles across pancreatic, ovarian, and synovial cancer cell lines. While C6 and C10 displayed distinct cytotoxicities (extended aliphatic side chains), C0 (no aliphatic side chain) and ISO1 (structurally unrelated) were essentially non-toxic, enabling us to investigate the unique mechanism of S2L cytotoxicity. Confocal microscopy and lipidomics analysis in cellular and mouse models revealed that C10 induced an increase in intralysosomal free cholesterol, a corresponding increase in cholesterol esters, suggestive of unaltered intracellular cholesterol trafficking and processing, and cytotoxicity due to cholesterol excess, a phenomenon that contrasts the effects of inhibiting NPC1 function. RNA-sequencing revealed that gene clusters involved in cholesterol homeostasis and ER stress response were activated exclusively by cytotoxic S2L. ER stress markers were confirmed on qPCR, and ER stress modulators inhibited or enhanced cytotoxicity of C10 confirming the involvement of ER stress response in the cytotoxicity of S2L. Moreover, C10 increased sterol regulatory element-binding protein 2 (SREBP2) and low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) which were also confirmed with qPCR and at the protein level and were found to be a pro-survival mechanism activated by ER stress response. Moreover, inhibiting the processes downstream this adaptive response with simvastatin resulted in synergistic treatment outcomes when combined with C10 in vitro and in vivo. Of note, the conjugates retained the S2L-mediated cholesterol phenotype of their parental ligands, which suggests that disrupting cholesterol homeostasis might contribute to the overall cytotoxicity of the drug conjugates. Furthermore, these phenomena were seen exclusively with cytotoxic S2L. Based on these findings, we conclude that S2L-mediated cell death is due to free cholesterol accumulation that leads to ER stress. Consequently, the cytotoxic profiles of S2L drug conjugates are proposed to be enhanced via concurrent ER stress inducers or simvastatin, strategies that could be instrumental on the path toward tumor eradication.

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Rational development of a cytotoxic peptide to trigger cell death.

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Rational development of a cytotoxic peptide to trigger cell death.

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