Induction of Apoptosis by Pectenotoxin-2 Isolated from Marine Sponges in U937 Human Leukemic Cells

인체 혈구암세포 U937에서 해양해면동물에서 추출된 Pectenotoxin-2에 의한 Apoptosis의 유발에 관한 연구

Natural product compounds are the source of numerous therapeutic agents. The marine environment produces natural products from a variety of structural classes exhibiting activity against numerous disease targets including anticancer agents. Among these, pectenotoxin-2 (PTX-2), which was first identified as a cytotoxic entity in marine sponges, which depolymerizes actin filaments, was found to be highly effective and more potent to activate an intrinsic pathway of apoptosis in p53-deficient tumor cells compared to those with functional p53 both in vitro and in vivo. However, the anti-proliferative mechanism of the compound at non-cytotoxic concentrations has not yet been explored. In the current study, we sought to investigate anti-proliferation and apoptosis of PTX-2 against U937 human leukemic cells and its underlying molecular mechanism. Exposure of U937 cells to PTX-2 resulted in growth inhibition and induction of apoptosis in dose- and time-dependent manner as measured by MTT assay, fluorescent microscopy and flow cytometric analysis. The anti-proliferative effect of PTX-2 was associated with a marked increase in the expression of cyclin-dependent kinase p21 (WAF1/CIP1) mRNA which was tumor suppressor p53-independent. The increase in apoptosis was connected with a time-dependent down-regulation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-XL and inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) family such as XIAP and cIAP-2. Though additional studies are needed, these findings suggested that PTX-2-induced inhibition of U937 cells was associated with the induction of apoptotic cell death and the results provided important new insights into the possible molecular mechanisms of the anti-cancer activity of PTX-2.

본 연구에서는 U937 인체 백혈병 세포의 증식에 미치는 PTX-2의 영향을 조사한 결과, PTX-2의 처리에 따라 U937 세포는 처리 농도 및 처리 시간 의존적으로 심한 형태적 변형과 함께 증식이 억제되었다. 이러한 PTX-2 처리에 의한 U937 세포의 증식억제는 apoptosis 유발과 관련이 있었으며, 이를 DAPI staining에 의한 apoptotic body 형성, flow cytometry를 이용한 sub-G1 세포 빈도의 정량적 분석을 통하여 확인하였다. 이러한 PTX-2 처리에 의한 U937 세포의 apoptosis 유발은 Bcl-2 family에 속하는 anti-apoptotic 인자인 Bcl-$X_L$의 발현 감소 및 IAPs family에 속하는 유전자들의 선택적 발현 감소와 연관성이 있음을 알 수 있었다. 이상의 결과들은 인체 암세포에서 PTX-2의 항암작용을 이해하는데 중요한 자료가 될 것이고 나아가 PTX-2을 포함한 그와 유사한 항암제 후보물질들의 연구에 있어서 기초 자료로서 사용될 수 있을 것으로 생각된다.