The degradation of p53 and its major E3 ligase Mdm2 is differentially dependent on the proteasomal ubiquitin receptor S5a.

p53 and its major E3 ligase Mdm2 are both ubiquitinated and targeted to the proteasome for degradation. Despite the importance of this in regulating the p53 pathway, little is known about the mechanisms of proteasomal recognition of ubiquitinated p53 and Mdm2. In this study, we show that knockdown of the proteasomal ubiquitin receptor S5a/PSMD4/Rpn10 inhibits p53 protein degradation and results in the accumulation of ubiquitinated p53. Overexpression of a dominant-negative deletion of S5a lacking its ubiquitin-interacting motifs (UIM)s, but which can be incorporated into the proteasome, also causes the stabilization of p53. Furthermore, small-interferring RNA (siRNA) rescue experiments confirm that the UIMs of S5a are required for the maintenance of low p53 levels. These observations indicate that S5a participates in the recognition of ubiquitinated p53 by the proteasome. In contrast, targeting S5a has no effect on the rate of degradation of Mdm2, indicating that proteasomal recognition of Mdm2 can be mediated by an S5a-independent pathway. S5a knockdown results in an increase in the transcriptional activity of p53. The selective stabilization of p53 and not Mdm2 provides a mechanism for p53 activation. Depletion of S5a causes a p53-dependent decrease in cell proliferation, demonstrating that p53 can have a dominant role in the response to targeting S5a. This study provides evidence for alternative pathways of proteasomal recognition of p53 and Mdm2. Differences in recognition by the proteasome could provide a means to modulate the relative stability of p53 and Mdm2 in response to cellular signals. In addition, they could be exploited for p53-activating therapies. This work shows that the degradation of proteins by the proteasome can be selectively dependent on S5a in human cells, and that this selectivity can extend to an E3 ubiquitin ligase and its substrate

Structural analysis of MDM2 RING separates degradation from regulation of p53 transcription activity

MDM2–MDMX complexes bind the p53 tumor-suppressor protein, inhibiting p53's transcriptional activity and targeting p53 for proteasomal degradation. Inhibitors that disrupt binding between p53 and MDM2 efficiently activate a p53 response, but their use in the treatment of cancers that retain wild-type p53 may be limited by on-target toxicities due to p53 activation in normal tissue. Guided by a novel crystal structure of the MDM2–MDMX–E2(UbcH5B)–ubiquitin complex, we designed MDM2 mutants that prevent E2–ubiquitin binding without altering the RING-domain structure. These mutants lack MDM2's E3 activity but retain the ability to limit p53′s transcriptional activity and allow cell proliferation. Cells expressing these mutants respond more quickly to cellular stress than cells expressing wild-type MDM2, but basal p53 control is maintained. Targeting the MDM2 E3-ligase activity could therefore widen the therapeutic window of p53 activation in tumors

Reconstitution of Mdm2-Dependent Post-Translational Modifications of p53 in Yeast

p53 mediates cell cycle arrest or apoptosis in response to DNA damage. Its activity is subject to a tight regulation involving a multitude of post-translational modifications. The plethora of functional protein interactions of p53 at present precludes a clear understanding of regulatory principles in the p53 signaling network. To circumvent this complexity, we studied here the minimal requirements for functionally relevant p53 post-translational modifications by expressing human p53 together with its best characterized modifier Mdm2 in budding yeast. We find that expression of the human p53-Mdm2 module in yeast is sufficient to faithfully recapitulate key aspects of p53 regulation in higher eukaryotes, such as Mdm2-dependent targeting of p53 for degradation, sumoylation at lysine 386 and further regulation of this process by p14ARF. Interestingly, sumoylation is necessary for the recruitment of p53-Mdm2 complexes to yeast nuclear bodies morphologically akin to human PML bodies. These results suggest a novel role for Mdm2 as well as for p53 sumoylation in the recruitment of p53 to nuclear bodies. The reductionist yeast model that was established and validated in this study will now allow to incrementally study simplified parts of the intricate p53 network, thus helping elucidate the core mechanisms of p53 regulation as well as test novel strategies to counteract p53 malfunctions

MDM2 Promoter SNP344T>A (rs1196333) Status Does Not Affect Cancer Risk

The MDM2 proto-oncogene plays a key role in central cellular processes like growth control and apoptosis, and the gene locus is frequently amplified in sarcomas. Two polymorphisms located in the MDM2 promoter P2 have been shown to affect cancer risk. One of these polymorphisms (SNP309T>G; rs2279744) facilitates Sp1 transcription factor binding to the promoter and is associated with increased cancer risk. In contrast, SNP285G>C (rs117039649), located 24 bp upstream of rs2279744, and in complete linkage disequilibrium with the SNP309G allele, reduces Sp1 recruitment and lowers cancer risk. Thus, fine tuning of MDM2 expression has proven to be of significant importance with respect to tumorigenesis. We assessed the potential functional effects of a third MDM2 promoter P2 polymorphism (SNP344T>A; rs1196333) located on the SNP309T allele. While in silico analyses indicated SNP344A to modulate TFAP2A, SPIB and AP1 transcription factor binding, we found no effect of SNP344 status on MDM2 expression levels. Assessing the frequency of SNP344A in healthy Caucasians (n = 2,954) and patients suffering from ovarian (n = 1,927), breast (n = 1,271), endometrial (n = 895) or prostatic cancer (n = 641), we detected no significant difference in the distribution of this polymorphism between any of these cancer forms and healthy controls (6.1% in healthy controls, and 4.9%, 5.0%, 5.4% and 7.2% in the cancer groups, respectively). In conclusion, our findings provide no evidence indicating that SNP344A may affect MDM2 transcription or cancer risk

Treatment with a BH3 mimetic overcomes the resistance of latency III EBV (+) cells to p53-mediated apoptosis

P53 inactivation is often observed in Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cells due to mutations in the p53 gene or overexpression of its negative regulator, murine double minute-2 (MDM2). This event is now considered an essential part of the oncogenic process. Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is strongly associated with BL and is a cofactor in its development. We previously showed that nutlin-3, an antagonist of MDM2, activates the p53 pathway in BL cell lines harboring wild-type p53. However, nutlin-3 strongly induced apoptosis in EBV (−) or latency I EBV (+) cells, whereas latency III EBV (+) cells were much more resistant. We show here that this resistance to apoptosis is also observed in latency III EBV (+) lymphoblastoid cell lines. We also show that, in latency III EBV (+) cells, B-cell lymphona 2 (Bcl-2) is selectively overproduced and interacts with Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax), preventing its activation. The treatment of these cells with the Bcl-2-homology domain 3 mimetic ABT-737 disrupts Bax/Bcl-2 interaction and allows Bax activation by nutlin-3. Furthermore, treatment with these two compounds strongly induces apoptosis. Thus, a combination of Mdm2 and Bcl-2 inhibitors might be a useful anti-cancer strategy for diseases linked to EBV infection

Sunitinib and other targeted therapies for renal cell carcinoma

Targeted therapy has radically altered the way metastatic renal cancer is treated. Six drugs are now licensed in this setting, with several other agents under evaluation. Sunitinib is currently the most widely used in the first line setting with impressive efficacy and an established toxicity profile. However, as further randomised studies report and as newer drugs become available this may change. In this review, we address our current understanding of targeted therapy in renal cancer. We also discuss areas in which our knowledge is incomplete, including the identification of correlative biomarkers and mechanisms of drug resistance. Finally, we will describe the major areas of clinical research that will report over the next few years

A Theoretical Exploration of Birhythmicity in the p53-Mdm2 Network

Experimental observations performed in the p53-Mdm2 network, one of the key protein modules involved in the control of proliferation of abnormal cells in mammals, revealed the existence of two frequencies of oscillations of p53 and Mdm2 in irradiated cells depending on the irradiation dose. These observations raised the question of the existence of birhythmicity, i.e. the coexistence of two oscillatory regimes for the same external conditions, in the p53-Mdm2 network which would be at the origin of these two distinct frequencies. A theoretical answer has been recently suggested by Ouattara, Abou-Jaoudé and Kaufman who proposed a 3-dimensional differential model showing birhythmicity to reproduce the two frequencies experimentally observed. The aim of this work is to analyze the mechanisms at the origin of the birhythmic behavior through a theoretical analysis of this differential model. To do so, we reduced this model, in a first step, into a 3-dimensional piecewise linear differential model where the Hill functions have been approximated by step functions, and, in a second step, into a 2-dimensional piecewise linear differential model by setting one autonomous variable as a constant in each domain of the phase space. We find that two features related to the phase space structure of the system are at the origin of the birhythmic behavior: the existence of two embedded cycles in the transition graph of the reduced models; the presence of a bypass in the orbit of the large amplitude oscillatory regime of low frequency. Based on this analysis, an experimental strategy is proposed to test the existence of birhythmicity in the p53-Mdm2 network. From a methodological point of view, this approach greatly facilitates the computational analysis of complex oscillatory behavior and could represent a valuable tool to explore mathematical models of biological rhythms showing sufficiently steep nonlinearities

A Study of T Cell Tolerance to the Tumor-Associated Antigen MDM2: Cytokines Can Restore Antigen Responsiveness, but Not High Avidity T Cell Function

BACKGROUND: Most tumor-associated antigens (TAA) currently used for immunotherapy of cancer are also expressed in normal tissues, which may induce tolerance and impair T cell-mediated immunity. However, there is limited information about how physiological expression in normal tissues alters the function of TAA-specific T cells. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used a T cell receptor transgenic model to study how MDM2 expression in normal tissues affects the function of T cells specific for this TAA that is found at high levels in many different types of tumors. We found that some MDM2-specific T cells escaped thymic deletion and persisted in the peripheral T cell pool. When stimulated with antigen, these T cells readily initiated cell division but failed to proliferate and expand, which was associated with a high rate of apoptosis. Both IL-2 and IL-15 efficiently rescued T cell survival and antigen-specific T cell proliferation, while IL-7 and IL-21 were ineffective. Antigen-stimulated T cells showed impaired expression of the effector molecules CD43, granzyme-B and IFN-γ, a defect that was completely restored when T cells were stimulated in the presence of IL-2. In contrast, IL-15 and IL-21 only restored the expression of CD43 and granzyme-B, but not IFN-γ production. Finally, peptide titration experiments with IL-2 rescued T cells indicated that they were of lower avidity than non-tolerant control T cells expressing the same TCR. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These data indicate that cytokines can rescue the antigen-specific proliferation and effector function of MDM2-specific T cells, although this does not lead to the recovery of high avidity T cell function. This study sheds light on possible limitations of immunotherapy approaches that target widely expressed TAA, such as MDM2

Establishment of a new human osteosarcoma cell line, UTOS-1: cytogenetic characterization by array comparative genomic hybridization

The cytogenetic characteristics of osteosarcoma (OS) remain controversial. The establishment of a new human OS cell line may improve the characterization. We report the establishment of a new human osteosarcoma cell line, UTOS-1, from a typical osteoblastic OS of an 18-year-old man. Cultured UTOS-1 cells are spindle-shaped, and have been maintained in vitro for over 50 passages in more than 2 years. Xenografted UTOS-1 cells exhibit features typical of OS, such as production of osteoid or immature bone matrix, and proliferation potency in vivo. UTOS-1 also exhibit morphological and immunohistochemical characteristics typical of osteoblastic OS. Chromosomal analysis by G-band show 73~85 chromosomes with complicated translocations. Array CGH show frequent gains at locus DAB2 at chromosome 5q13, CCND2 at 12p13, MDM2 at 12q14.3-q15, FLI and TOP3A at 17p11.2-p12 and OCRL1 at Xq25, and show frequent losses at HTR1B at 6q13, D6S268 at 6q16.3-q21, SHGC17327 at 18ptel, and STK6 at 20q13.2-q13.3. The UTOS-1 cell line may prove useful for biologic and molecular pathogenetic investigations of human OS