Influence of hormone antagonists on chromatin remodeling and transcription factor binding to the mouse mammary tumor virus promoter in vivo

Chromatin remodeling during glucocorticoid receptor regulated transactivation

Steroid hormone receptor (SR) signaling leads to widespread changes in gene expression, and aberrant SR signaling can lead to malignancies including breast, prostate, and lung cancers. Chromatin remodeling is an essential component of SR signaling, and defining the process of chromatin and nucleosome remodeling during signaling is critical to the continued development of related therapies. The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is a key SR that activates numerous promoters including the well defined MMTV promoter. The activation of MMTV by GR provides an excellent model for teasing apart the sequence of events between hormone treatment and changes in gene expression. Comparing hormone-induced transcription from stably integrated promoters with defined nucleosomal structure to that from transiently expressed, unstructured promoters permits key distinctions between interactions that require remodeling and those that do not. The importance of co-activators and histone modifications prior to remodeling and the formation of the preinitiation complex that follows can also be clarified by defining key transition points in the propagation of hormonal signals. Combined with detailed mapping of proteins along the promoter, a temporal and spatial understanding of the signaling and remodeling processes begins to emerge. In this review, we examine SR signaling with a focus on GR activation of the MMTV promoter. We also discuss the ATP-dependent remodeling complex SWI/SNF, which provides the necessary remodeling activity during GR signaling and interacts with several SRs. BRG1, the central ATPase of SWI/SNF, also interacts with a set of BAF proteins that help determine the specialized function and fine-tuned regulation of BRG1 remodeling activity. BRG1 regulation comes from its own subdomains as well as its interactive partners. In particular, the HSA domain region of BRG1 and unique features of its ATPase homology appear to play key roles in regulating remodeling function. Details of the inter-workings of this chromatin remodeling protein continue to be revealed and promise to improve our understanding of the mechanism of chromatin remodeling during steroid hormone signaling. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Chromatin in time and space.

Multiple distinct stimuli increase measured nucleosome occupancy around human promoters

Nucleosomes can block access to transcription factors. Thus the precise localization of nucleosomes relative to transcription start sites and other factor binding sites is expected to be a critical component of transcriptional regulation. Recently developed microarray approaches have allowed the rapid mapping of nucleosome positions over hundreds of kilobases (kb) of human genomic DNA, although these approaches have not yet been widely used to measure chromatin changes associated with changes in transcription. Here, we use custom tiling microarrays to reveal changes in nucleosome positions and abundance that occur when hormone-bound glucocorticoid receptor (GR) binds to sites near target gene promoters in human osteosarcoma cells. The most striking change is an increase in measured nucleosome occupancy at sites spanning ∼1 kb upstream and downstream of transcription start sites, which occurs one hour after addition of hormone, but is lost at 4 hours. Unexpectedly, this increase was seen both on GR-regulated and GR-non-regulated genes. In addition, the human SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling factor (a GR co-activator) was found to be important for increased occupancy upon hormone treatment and also for low nucleosome occupancy without hormone. Most surprisingly, similar increases in nucleosome occupancy were also seen on both regulated and non-regulated promoters during differentiation of human myeloid leukemia cells and upon activation of human CD4+ T-cells. These results indicate that dramatic changes in chromatin structure over ∼2 kb of human promoters may occur genomewide and in response to a variety of stimuli, and suggest novel models for transcriptional regulation.

Differential glucocorticoid receptor-mediated transcription mechanisms

Nuclear receptors such as the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) are ligand-dependent transcription factors that mediate transcription of target genes by recruiting factors that modulate chromatin structure. In this study, curcumin, a compound known to inhibit GR-mediated transcription, was used to examine the different mechanisms by which GR regulates transcription. The mechanisms of transcription regulation of metallothioneine-2A (MT2A) and solute carrier family 19 member 2 (SLC19A2), two GR target genes where the hormone-dependent gene activation is inhibited or unaffected by curcumin treatment, respectively, were analyzed by chromatin immunoprecipitation and RT-PCR experiments. The data suggest that the loss of hormone-dependent MT2A gene expression is due to the inhibition of continued transcription activity after initial assembly of the transcription machinery. In contrast, the hormone-dependent SLC19A2 gene expression is maintained because the continued transcription output after assembly of transcription machinery is unaffected by curcumin. These results suggest that the two GR target genes use alternate mechanisms to regulate expression levels at the level of continued transcription output after transcription machinery assembly.

Antiprogestin pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, and metabolism: implications for their long-term use

Antiprogestins represent a relatively new and promising class of therapeutic agents that could have significant impact on human health and reproduction. In the present work, the pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, and metabolism of mifepristone (MIF), lilopristone (LIL), and onapristone (ONA) in humans are reviewed, and characteristics bearing important clinical implications are discussed. Although MIF has gained notoriety as an "abortion pill," antiprogestins may more importantly prove effective in the treatment of endometriosis, uterine leiomyoma, meningioma, cancers of the breast and prostate, and as contraceptive agents. MIF pharmacokinetics display nonlinearities associated with saturable plasma protein (alpha 1-acid glycoprotein, AAG) binding and characterized by lack of dose dependency for parent drug plasma concentrations (for doses greater than 100 mg) and a zero-order phase of elimination. LIL and ONA pharmacokinetics are less well characterized but ONA does not appear to bind AAG and displays a much shorter t1/2 than the other agents. The three antiprogestins are substrates of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4, an enzyme exceedingly important in human xenobiotic metabolism. Even more implicative of likely drug-drug interactions subsequent to their long-term administration are recent data from our laboratory indicating that they inactivate CYP3A4 in a cofactor- and time-dependent manner, suggesting that complexation and induction of the enzyme may occur in vivo via protein stabilization. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that MIF increases CYP3A4 mRNA levels in human hepatocytes in primary culture, indicative of message stabilization and/or transcriptional activation of CYP3A4 expression. Finally, MIF has also been shown to inhibit P-glycoprotein function. Whether LIL and ONA share these latter two characteristics with MIF has not yet been determined but they illustrate properties that, in addition to diminished antiglucocorticoid activities and altered pharmacokinetic characteristics, warrant consideration during the development of these and never antiprogestational agents.

Subnuclear trafficking of glucocorticoid receptors in vitro: chromatin recycling and nuclear export

We have used digitonin-permeabilized cells to examine in vitro nuclear export of glucocorticoid receptors (GRs). In situ biochemical extractions in this system revealed a distinct subnuclear compartment, which collects GRs that have been released from chromatin and serves as a nuclear export staging area. Unliganded nuclear GRs within this compartment are not restricted in their subnuclear trafficking as they have the capacity to recycle to chromatin upon rebinding hormone. Thus, GRs that release from chromatin do not require transit through the cytoplasm to regain functionality. In addition, chromatin-released receptors export from nuclei of permeabilized cells in an ATP- and cytosol-independent process that is stimulated by sodium molybdate, other group VI-A transition metal oxyanions, and some tyrosine phosphatase inhibitors. The stimulation of in vitro nuclear export by these compounds is not unique to GR, but is restricted to other proteins such as the 70- and 90-kD heat shock proteins, hsp70 and hsp90, respectively, and heterogeneous nuclear RNP (hnRNP) A1. Under analogous conditions, the 56-kD heat shock protein, hsp56, and hnRNP C do not export from nuclei of permeabilized cells. If tyrosine kinase inhibitors genistein and tyrphostin AG126 are included to prevent increased tyrosine phosphorylation, in vitro nuclear export of GR is inhibited. Thus, our results are consistent with the involvement of a phosphotyrosine system in the general regulation of nuclear protein export, even for proteins such as GR and hnRNP A1 that use distinct nuclear export pathways.