Cell death as a result of calcium signaling modulation: A cancer-centric prospective

Calcium ions (Ca²⁺) and the complex regulatory system governed by Ca²⁺ signaling have been described to be of crucial importance in numerous aspects related to cell life and death decisions, especially in recent years. The growing attention given to this second messenger is justified by the pleiotropic nature of Ca²⁺-binding proteins and transporters and their consequent involvement in cell fate decisions. A growing number of works highlight that deregulation of Ca²⁺ signaling and homoeostasis is often deleterious and drives pathological conditions; in particular, a disruption of the main Ca²⁺-mediated death mechanisms may lead to uncontrolled cell growth that results in cancer. In this work, we review the latest useful evidence to better understand the complex network of pathways by which Ca²⁺ regulates cell life and death decisions.

1,4-dihydroxy quininib attenuates growth of colorectal cancer cells and xenografts and regulates the TIE-2 signaling pathway in patient tumours

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer associated deaths in developed countries. Cancer progression and metastatic spread is reliant on new blood vasculature, or angiogenesis. Tumour-related angiogenesis is regulated by pro- and anti-angiogenic factors secreted from malignant tissue in a stepwise process. Previously we structurally modified the small anti-angiogenic molecule quininib and discovered a more potent anti-angiogenic compound 1, 4 dihydroxy quininib (Q8), an antagonist of cysteinyl leukotriene receptor-1 with VEGF-independent bioactivity. Here, Q8, quininib (Q1) and five structural analogues were assayed for anti-tumorigenic effects in pre-clinical cancer models. Q8 reduced clone formation of the human colorectal cancer cell line HT29-Luc2. Gene silencing of CysLT₁ in HT29-Luc2 cells significantly reduced expression of calpain-2. In human ex vivo colorectal cancer tumour explants, Q8 significantly decreased the secretion of both TIE-2 and VCAM-1 expression. In vivo Q8 was well tolerated up to 50 mg/kg by Balb/C mice and significantly more effective at reducing tumour volume in colorectal tumour xenografts compared to the parent drug quininib. In tumour xenografts, Q8 significantly reduced expression of the angiogenic marker calpain-2. In summary, we propose Q8 may act on the TIE-2-Angiopoietin signalling pathway to significantly inhibit the process of tumour angiogenesis in colorectal cancer.

Calpastatin phosphorylation regulates radiation-induced calpain activity in glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive, malignant brain tumor that inevitably develops resistance to conventional chemotherapy and radiation treatments. In order to identify signaling pathways involved in the development of radiation resistance, we performed mass spectrometry-based phospho-proteomic profiling of GBM cell lines and normal human astrocytes before and after radiation treatment. We found radiation induced phosphorylation of a number of proteins including calpastatin, specifically in GBM stem cells (GSCs). Herein, we focused on calpastatin, an endogenous inhibitor of calpain proteases. Radiation-induced phosphorylation of calpastatin at Ser-633 within the inhibitory domain was validated with a phospho-specific antibody. In order to test the functional significance of phosphorylated calpastatin, we utilized site-directed mutagenesis to generate phospho-inactive (Ser633Ala) and phospho-mimetic (Ser633Glu) mutant calpastatin. GBM cell lines stably expressing the mutant calpastatin showed that phosphorylation was necessary for radiation-induced calpain activation. We also showed that casein kinase 2, a pro-survival kinase overexpressed in many cancer types, phosphorylated calpastatin at Ser-633. Our results indicate that calpastatin phosphorylation promotes radiation resistance in GBM cells by increasing the activity of calpain proteases, which are known to promote survival and invasion in cancer.

The Calcium-Induced Regulation in the Molecular and Transcriptional Circuitry of Human Inflammatory Response and Autoimmunity

Rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts (RASFs) are fundamental effector cells in RA driving the joint inflammation and deformities. Celastrol is a natural compound that exhibits a potent anti-arthritic effect promoting endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress mediated by intracellular calcium (Ca²⁺) mobilization. Ca²⁺ is a second messenger regulating a variety of cellular processes. We hypothesized that the compound, celastrol, affecting cytosolic Ca²⁺ mobilization could serve as a novel strategy to combat RA. To address this issue, celastrol was used as a molecular tool to assay the inflammatory gene expression profile regulated by Ca²⁺. We confirmed that celastrol treatment mobilized cytosolic Ca²⁺ in patient-derived RASFs. It was found that 23 genes out of 370 were manipulated by Ca²⁺ mobilization using an inflammatory and autoimmunity PCR array following independent quantitative PCR validation. Most of the identified genes were downregulated and categorized into five groups corresponding to their cellular responses participating in RA pathogenesis. Accordingly, a signaling network map demonstrating the possible molecular circuitry connecting the functions of the products of these genes was generated based on literature review. In addition, a bioinformatics analysis revealed that celastrol-induced Ca²⁺ mobilization gene expression profile showed a novel mode of action compared with three FDA-approved rheumatic drugs (methotrexate, rituximab and tocilizumab). To the best of our knowledge, this is a pioneer work charting the Ca²⁺ signaling network on the regulation of RA-associated inflammatory gene expression.

Control of guanine-rich DNA secondary structures depending on the protease activity using a designed PNA peptide

We constructed a regulation system for DNA secondary structure formation of G-rich sequences using a designed PNA peptide exhibiting an on-to-off switching functionality, depending on the protease activity. This study introduces the new concept of a simple and powerful system for regulating quadruplex-related important biological events.

Increased μ-Calpain Activity in Blasts of Common B-Precursor Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Correlates with Their Lower Susceptibility to Apoptosis

Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) blasts are characterized by inhibited apoptosis promoting fast disease progress. It is known that in chronic lymphocytic and acute myeloid leukemias the reduced apoptosis is strongly related with the activity of calpain-calpastatin system (CCS) composed of cytoplasmic proteases--calpains--performing the modulatory proteolysis of key proteins involved in cell proliferation and apoptosis, and of their endogenous inhibitor--calpastatin. Here, the CCS protein abundance and activity was for the first time studied in childhood ALL blasts and in control bone marrow CD19+ B cells by semi-quantitative flow cytometry and western blotting of calpastatin fragments resulting from endogenous calpain activity. Significantly higher μ-calpain (CAPN1) gene transcription, protein amounts and activity (but not those of m-calpain), with calpastatin amount and transcription of its gene (CAST) greatly varying were observed in CD19(+) ALL blasts compared to control cells. Significant inverse relation between the amount/activity of calpain and spontaneous apoptosis was noted. Patients older than 10 years (considered at higher risk) displayed increased amounts and activities of blast calpain. Finally, treatment of blasts with the tripeptide calpain inhibitors II and IV significantly and in dose-dependent fashion increased the percentage of blasts entering apoptosis. Together, these findings make the CCS a potential new predictive tool and therapeutic target in childhood ALL.

Calcium and mitochondria in the regulation of cell death

The calcium ion has long been known to play an important role in cell death regulation. Hence, necrotic cell death was early associated with intracellular Ca(2+) overload, leading to mitochondrial permeability transition and functional collapse. Subsequent characterization of the signaling pathways in apoptosis revealed that Ca(2+)/calpain was critically involved in the processing of the mitochondrially localized, Apoptosis Inducing Factor. More recently, the calcium ion has been demonstrated to play important regulatory roles also in other cell death modalities, notably autophagic cell death and anoikis. In this review, we summarize current knowledge about the mechanisms involved in Ca(2+) regulation of these various modes of cell death with a focus on the importance of the mitochondria.

Calpain mediates processing of the translation termination factor eRF3 into the IAP-binding isoform p-eRF3

The involvement of polypeptide chain-releasing factor eRF3 in translation termination and mRNA decay is well established. Moreover, the finding that the proteolytically processed isoform of eRF3 (p-eRF3) interacts with inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) to activate caspase, implies that eRF3 is a cell death regulator. However, the protease(s) responsible for p-eRF3 production and how p-eRF3 regulates apoptosis remain unknown. Here, we show that calpain mediates p-eRF3 production in vitro and in living cells. p-eRF3 is produced in cells treated with ER stressors in a calpain-dependent manner. These findings suggest that p-eRF3 is a novel regulator of calpain-dependent cell death.

Role of calpastatin in the regulation of mRNA expression of calpain, caspase, and heat shock protein systems in bovine muscle satellite cells

Calpastatin participates in apoptotic cell death and cell signaling, but its role in skeletal myoblast development and molecular involvements in cell growth still remains unknown. The current study aimed to investigate the role of calpastatin on the expression patterns of calpains, caspases, and heat shock proteins (HSPs). In addition, the cell viability during myoblast growth under calpastatin silence condition was also investigated. Three small interference RNA sequences (siRNAs) were used to silence calpastatin gene and ligated into pSilencer plasmid vector to construct short hairpin RNA (shRNA) expression. The all three siRNAs significantly silence the calpastatin gene. Moreover, suppression of calpastatin significantly reduced the viability of myoblasts during growth phase when compared to control cells. Additionally, knockdown of calpastatin significantly increased the mRNA expression of μ-calpain, caspase-3, caspase-7, and caspase-9, as well as HSP-27, -70, and -90. The present study results suggested that the suppression of calpastatin resulted in the increased expression of μ-calpain, caspases, and HSPs which in turn regulate the apoptotic cell death. The present study throws light on the central role of calpastatin in the control of calpain activity, cell proliferation, cell survival, and apoptotic pathways.

Regulation of proteolytic cleavage of retinoid X receptor-α by GSK-3β

We recently reported that an N-terminally truncated retinoid X receptor-α (tRXRα) produced in cancer cells acts to promote cancer cell growth and survival through AKT activation. However, how RXRα is cleaved and how the cleavage is regulated in cancer cells remain undefined. In this study, we demonstrated that calpain II could cleave RXRα protein in vitro, generating two truncated RXRα products. The cleavage sites in RXRα were mapped by Edman N-terminal sequencing to Gly(90)↓Ser(91) and Lys(118)↓Val(119). Transfection of the resulting cleavage product RXRα/90, but not RXRα/118, resulted in activation of AKT in cancer cells, similar to the effect of tRXRα. In support of the role of calpain II in cancer cells, transfection of calpain II expression vector or its activation by ionomycin enhanced the production of tRXRα, whereas treatment of cells with calpain inhibitors reduced the levels of tRXRα. Co-immunoprecipitation assays also showed an interaction between calpain II and RXRα. In studying the regulation of tRXRα production, we observed that treatment of cells with lithium chloride or knockdown of glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) significantly increased the production of tRXRα. Conversely, overexpression of GSK-3β reduced tRXRα expression. Furthermore, we found that the inhibitory effect of GSK-3β on tRXRα production was due to its suppression of calpain II expression. Taken together, our data demonstrate that GSK-3β plays an important role in regulating tRXRα production by calpain II in cancer cells, providing new insights into the development of new strategies and agents for the prevention and treatment of tRXRα-related cancers.

Phevalin (aureusimine B) production by Staphylococcus aureus biofilm and impacts on human keratinocyte gene expression

Staphylococcus aureus biofilms are associated with chronic skin infections and are orders of magnitude more resistant to antimicrobials and host responses. S. aureus contains conserved nonribosomal peptide synthetases that produce the cyclic dipeptides tyrvalin and phevalin (aureusimine A and B, respectively). The biological function of these compounds has been speculated to be involved in virulence factor gene expression in S. aureus, protease inhibition in eukaryotic cells, and interspecies bacterial communication. However, the exact biological role of these compounds is unknown. Here, we report that S. aureus biofilms produce greater amounts of phevalin than their planktonic counterparts. Phevalin had no obvious impact on the extracellular metabolome of S. aureus as measured by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance. When administered to human keratinocytes, phevalin had a modest effect on gene expression. However, conditioned medium from S. aureus spiked with phevalin amplified differences in keratinocyte gene expression compared to conditioned medium alone. Phevalin may be exploited as potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target for chronic, S. aureus biofilm-based infections.

Induction of apoptosis in Eμ-myc lymphoma cells in vitro and in vivo through calpain inhibition

Calpains are cysteine proteases that have been implicated as both effectors and suppressors of apoptosis. Previously, we showed that c-myc transformation regulated calpain activity and sensitized cells to apoptosis induced by calpain inhibition. The objective of this study was to investigate the role of calpain in the Eμ-myc transgenic model of B-cell lymphoma. Calpain activity assays, apoptosis, cell cycle assays, and expression measurements were used to determine the activity and role of calpain in vitro and in vivo. We found that Eμ-myc transgenic cells have highly elevated calpain activity. Calpastatin, the negative calpain regulator, was expressed at much lower levels in Eμ-myc lymphoma cells compared to normal splenic B cells. The primary isoform in Eμ-myc lymphoma is calpain 1. Treatment of Eμ-myc lymphoma cells with the calpain inhibitors PD150606 or calpain inhibitor III induced caspase-3-dependent apoptosis in vitro. General caspase inhibitors or caspase-3/7 inhibitor protected cells from death induced by calpain inhibitor, whereas caspase-9 inhibitors failed to rescue cells. Human Burkitt's lymphoma (BL2) cells display a pattern of sensitivity and caspase-3 dependence similar to calpain inhibition. Treatment of Eμ-myc lymphoma-bearing mice with PD150606 inhibited calpain activity in vivo and induced cell death in these cells as determined by terminal deoxynucleotide transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling staining. Multiple daily treatments resulted in reduced tumor load, particularly in combination with etoposide. In conclusion, calpain is highly elevated in the Eμ-myc lymphoma and calpain inhibition has therapeutic potential.

Elevated calpain activity in acute myelogenous leukemia correlates with decreased calpastatin expression

Calpains are intracellular cysteine proteases that have crucial roles in many physiological and pathological processes. Elevated calpain activity has been associated with many pathological states. Calpain inhibition can be protective or lethal depending on the context. Previous work has shown that c-myc transformation regulates calpain activity by suppressing calpastatin, the endogenous negative regulator of calpain. Here, we have investigated calpain activity in primary acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) blast cells. Calpain activity was heterogeneous and greatly elevated over a wide range in AML blast cells, with no correlation to FAB classification. Activity was particularly elevated in the CD34+CD38− enriched fraction compared with the CD34+CD38+ fraction. Treatment of the cells with the specific calpain inhibitor, PD150606, induced significant apoptosis in AML blast cells but not in normal equivalent cells. Sensitivity to calpain inhibition correlated with calpain activity and preferentially targeted CD34+CD38− cells. There was no correlation between calpain activity and p-ERK levels, suggesting the ras pathway may not be a major contributor to calpain activity in AML. A significant negative correlation existed between calpain activity and calpastatin, suggesting calpastatin is the major regulator of activity in these cells. Analysis of previously published microarray data from a variety of AML patients demonstrated a significant negative correlation between calpastatin and c-myc expression. Patients who achieved a complete remission had significantly lower calpain activity than those who had no response to treatment. Taken together, these results demonstrate elevated calpain activity in AML, anti-leukemic activity of calpain inhibition and prognostic potential of calpain activity measurement.

Calpastatin is regulated by protein never in mitosis gene A interacting-1 (PIN1) in endothelial cells

The peptidyl-proline isomerase, protein never in mitosis gene A interacting-1 (PIN1) binds and isomerizes proteins phosphorylated on serine/threonine before a proline. It was previously found that depletion of PIN1 greatly increased induction of cyclooxygenase-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase by lowering calpain activity in murine aortic endothelial cells (MAEC). Here we investigated the effect of PIN1 on the endogenous inhibitor of heterodimeric μ- and m-calpains, calpastatin. MAEC were transduced with small hairpin (sh) RNA to knock down PIN1 (KD) or an inactive Control shRNA. Cells were also treated with non-targeted double stranded small inhibitory RNA (siRNA) or siRNA designed to deplete calpastatin. Despite reducing calpain activity, PIN1 KD did not significantly affect the expression of μ- and m-calpains, or calpastatin, compared to Control shRNA. Instead, depletion of PIN1 increased the inhibitory activity of calpastatin. Calpastatin co-immunoprecipitated with endogenous PIN1 and was pulled down with glutathione-S-transferase (GST)-PIN1 fusion protein. Adding GST-PIN1 to KD cell extracts lacking PIN1 reduced calpastatin inhibitory activity. Substrate binding and catalytic domain mutants of PIN1 failed to do so. These results suggest that protein interaction and the proline isomerase functions of PIN1 are required for it to inhibit calpastatin. Furthermore, depletion of calpastatin raised calpain activity and reduced calpain inhibitory activity to similar levels in KD and Control MAEC, indicating that calpastatin is required for PIN1 depletion to lower calpain activity. Thus, PIN1 apparently restrains the ability of calpastatin to inhibit calpain, maintaining calpain activity in endothelial cells. PIN1 may act directly via phosphorylated serine/threonine-proline motifs in calpastatin, or indirectly via other PIN1 substrates that control calpastatin.

Calpastatin is associated with lymphovascular invasion in breast cancer

Metastasis of breast cancer is a major contributor to mortality. Histological assessment of vascular invasion (VI) provides important prognostic information and demonstrates that VI occurs predominantly via lymphatics in breast cancer. We sought to examine genes and proteins involved in lymphovascular invasion (LVI) to understand the mechanisms of this key disease process. A gene expression array of 91 breast cancer patients was analysed by an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach using LVI to supervise the analysis. 89 transcripts were significantly associated (p<0.001) with the presence of LVI. Calpastatin, a specific calpain inhibitor, had the second lowest selection error and was investigated in breast cancer specimens using real-time PCR (n=56) and immunohistochemistry (n=53). Both calpastatin mRNA and protein levels were significantly associated with the presence of LVI (p=0.014 and p=0.025 respectively). The data supports the hypothesis that calpastatin may play a role in regulating the initial metastatic dissemination of breast cancer.

The calpain system and cancer

The calpains are a conserved family of cysteine proteinases that catalyse the controlled proteolysis of many specific substrates. Calpain activity is implicated in several fundamental physiological processes, including cytoskeletal remodelling, cellular signalling, apoptosis and cell survival. Calpain expression is altered during tumorigenesis, and the proteolysis of numerous substrates, such as inhibitors of nuclear factor-κB (IκB), focal adhesion proteins (including, focal adhesion kinase and talin) and proto-oncogenes (for example, MYC), has been implicated in tumour pathogenesis. Recent evidence indicates that the increased expression of certain family members might influence the response to cancer therapies, providing justification for the development of novel calpain inhibitors.

Calcium and cell death mechanisms: a perspective from the cell death community

Research during the past several decades has provided convincing evidence for a crucial role of the Ca(2+) ion in cell signaling. Hence, intracellular Ca(2+) transients have been implicated in most aspects of cell physiology, including gene transcription, cell cycle regulation and cell proliferation. Further, the Ca(2+) ion has been found to also play an important role in cell death regulation. Thus, necrotic cell death was early associated with intracellular Ca(2+) overload, and multiple functions in the apoptotic process have subsequently been found to be governed by Ca(2+) signaling. More recently, other modes of cell death, notably anoikis and autophagic cell death, have been demonstrated to also be modulated by Ca(2+) transients. Characteristics, interrelationship and mechanisms involved in Ca(2+) regulation of these cell death modalities are discussed in this review.

Calpains as potential anti-cancer targets

INTRODUCTION

The intracellular signaling cysteine proteases, calpains (specifically the ubiquitous calpains 1 and 2), are involved in numerous physiological and pathological phenomena. Several works have highlighted the implication of calpains in processes crucial for cancer development and progression. For these reasons, calpains are considered by several authors as potential anti-cancer targets.

AREAS COVERED

How calpains are implicated in cancer formation and development, how these enzymes are deregulated in cancer cells and how these proteases could be targeted by anti-cancer drugs. Studies published in the last 10 years are focused on.

EXPERT OPINION

Targeting calpain activity with specific inhibitors could be a novel approach to limiting development of primary tumors and formation of metastases, by inhibiting tumor cell migration and invasion, which allows dissemination as well as tumor neovascularization, which in turn allows expansion. However, such drugs could interfere with anti-cancer treatments, as ubiquitous calpains play crucial roles in chemotherapy-induced apoptosis. For these reasons, drugs targeting calpains would have to be used selectively to avoid interference with other treatments and physiological processes. Further studies will be required concerning the other members of the calpain family and their potential implication in cancer development before considering treatments targeting their activity.