Fenretinide up-regulates DR5/TRAIL-R2 expression via the induction of the transcription factor CHOP and combined treatment with fenretinide and TRAIL induces synergistic apoptosis in colon cancer cell lines

Integrating Genome-Wide Association Studies and Gene Expression Profiles With Chemical-Genes Interaction Networks to Identify Chemicals Associated With Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer and has the second highest mortality rate in global cancer. Exploring the associations between chemicals and CRC has great significance in prophylaxis and therapy of tumor diseases. This study aims to explore the relationships between CRC and environmental chemicals on genetic basis by bioinformatics analysis. The genome-wide association study (GWAS) datasets for CRC were obtained from the UK Biobank. The GWAS data for colon cancer (category C18) includes 2,581 individuals and 449,683 controls, while that of rectal cancer (category C20) includes 1,244 individuals and 451,020 controls. In addition, we derived CRC gene expression datasets from the NCBI-GEO (GSE106582). The chemicals related gene sets were acquired from the comparative toxicogenomics database (CTD). Transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) analysis was applied to CRC GWAS summary data and calculated the expression association testing statistics by FUSION software. We performed chemicals related gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) by integrating GWAS summary data, mRNA expression profiles of CRC and the CTD chemical-gene interaction networks to identify relationships between chemicals and genes of CRC. We observed several significant correlations between chemicals and CRC. Meanwhile, we also detected 5 common chemicals between colon and rectal cancer, including methylnitronitrosoguanidine, isoniazid, PD 0325901, sulindac sulfide, and importazole. Our study performed TWAS and GSEA analysis, linked prior knowledge to newly generated data and thereby helped identifying chemicals related to tumor genes, which provides new clues for revealing the associations between environmental chemicals and cancer.

CAAT/enhancer binding protein homologous protein-dependent death receptor 5 induction is a major component of SHetA2-induced apoptosis in lung cancer cells

The flexible heteroarotinoids (Flex-Het) represent a novel type of atypical retinoids lacking activity in binding to and transactivating retinoid receptors. Preclinical studies have shown that Flex-Hets induce apoptosis of cancer cells while sparing normal cells and exhibit anticancer activity in vivo with improved therapeutic ratios over conventional retinoid receptor agonists. Flex-Hets have been shown to induce apoptosis through activation of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. The present study has revealed a novel mechanism underlying Flex-Het-induced apoptosis involving induction of death receptor 5 (DR5). The representative Flex-Het SHetA2 effectively inhibited the growth of human lung cancer cells in cell culture and in mice. SHetA2 induced apoptosis, which could be abrogated by silencing caspase-8 expression, indicating that ShetA2 triggers a caspase-8-dependent apoptosis. Accordingly, SHetA2 up-regulated DR5 expression, including cell surface levels of DR5, and augmented tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)-induced apoptosis. Importantly, small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated blockade of DR5 induction conferred cell resistance to SHetA2-induced apoptosis, as well as SHetA2/TRAIL-induced apoptosis. These results show that DR5 induction is a key component of apoptosis induced by SHetA2 or by SHetA2 combined with TRAIL. SHetA2 exerted CAAT/enhancer-binding protein homologous protein (CHOP)-dependent transactivation of the DR5 promoter. Consistently, SHetA2 induced CHOP expression, which paralleled DR5 up-regulation, whereas siRNA-mediated blockage of CHOP induction prevented DR5 up-regulation, indicating CHOP-dependent DR5 up-regulation by SHetA2. Collectively, we conclude that CHOP-dependent DR5 up-regulation is a key event mediating SHetA2-induced apoptosis.

Acetyl-keto-beta-boswellic acid induces apoptosis through a death receptor 5-mediated pathway in prostate cancer cells

Acetyl-keto-beta-boswellic acid (AKBA), a triterpenoid isolated from Boswellia carterri Birdw and Boswellia serrata, has been found to inhibit tumor cell growth and to induce apoptosis. The apoptotic effects and the mechanisms of action of AKBA were studied in LNCaP and PC-3 human prostate cancer cells. AKBA induced apoptosis in both cell lines at concentrations above 10 microg/mL. AKBA-induced apoptosis was correlated with the activation of caspase-3 and caspase-8 as well as with poly(ADP)ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage. The activation of caspase-8 was correlated with increased levels of death receptor (DR) 5 but not of Fas or DR4. AKBA-induced apoptosis, caspase-8 activation, and PARP cleavage were inhibited by knocking down DR5 using a small hairpin RNA. AKBA treatment increased the levels of CAAT/enhancer binding protein homologous protein (CHOP) and activated a DR5 promoter reporter but did not activate a DR5 promoter reporter with the mutant CHOP binding site. These results suggest that AKBA induces apoptosis in prostate cancer cells through a DR5-mediated pathway, which probably involves the induced expression of CHOP.