CYP3A4 mediates growth of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cells in part by inducing nuclear translocation of phospho-Stat3 through biosynthesis of (±)-14,15-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (EET)

CYP3A4 expression in breast cancer correlates with decreased overall survival, but the mechanisms are unknown. Cytochrome P450 gene profiling by RNAi silencing demonstrates that CYP3A or 2C8 gene expression is specifically required for growth of the breast cancer lines MCF7, T47D, and MDA-MB-231. CYP3A4 silencing blocks the cell cycle at the G(2)/M checkpoint and induces apoptosis in the MCF7 line, thereby inhibiting anchorage-dependent growth and survival. CYP3A4 was profiled for NADPH-dependent arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism and synthesized AA epoxygenase products (±)-8,9-, (±)-11,12-, and (±)-14,15-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (EET) (total turnover of ～2 pmol/pmol CYP3A4/min) but not hydroxylase products (±)-15-, (±)-19-, or 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid. Furthermore, eicosanoid profiling revealed that MCF7 cells synthesize EETs in a CYP3A4-dependent manner. The (±)-14,15-EET regioisomer selectively rescues breast cancer cells from CYP3A4 silencing in a concentration-dependent fashion and promotes mitogenesis and anchorage-dependent cloning. Stat3 (Tyr-705) phosphorylation was inhibited by CYP3A4 silencing, providing a potential mechanism for CYP3A4 involvement in breast cancer cell growth. Silencing Stat3 blocks breast cancer cell growth and abrogates (±)-14,15-EET-induced proliferation, indicating a Stat3 requirement for (±)-14,15-EET-mediated cell growth. Although silencing of CYP3A4 reduces nuclear Tyr(P)-705-Stat3, (±)-14,15-EET restores this signaling process and promotes Tyr(P)-705-Stat3 translocation to the nucleus, suggesting that (±)-14,15-EET may be involved in an autocrine/paracrine pathway driving cell growth. These studies indicate that CYP3A4 is a highly active AA epoxygenase that promotes Stat3-mediated breast cancer cell growth in part through (±)-14,15-EET biosynthesis. Furthermore, these studies indicate an essential role for Stat3 as a mediator of epoxygenase activity in breast cancer.     

From analgesia to myopathy: When local anesthetics impair the mitochondrion

The expanding utilization of local anesthesia and analgesia revealed the occurrence of myopathies induced by local anesthetics. Such iatrogenic effect encouraged anesthesiologists to study the toxicity of local anesthetics and to reevaluate their protocols in order to reduce muscle pain and dysfunction. Studies performed in rats and human cells showed that bupivacaine induces muscle histological damages with sarcomers disruption along with structural alteration of mitochondria, the powerplant of the cell. Bupivacaine-induced myopathies (BIM) are underestimated as patients are not examined by the anesthesiologist after the surgery. Biochemical analyses indicate that BIM could be explained both by the alteration of mitochondrial energetics with consecutive oxidative stress and mitophagy, and the modification of sarcoplasmic reticulum activity with perturbations of calcium homeostasis. BIM is time-dependent, local anesthetic concentration-dependent, enhanced by preexisting metabolism alteration or young age, and could be prevented in part by antioxidant agents and rhEPO. These observations suggest that adapted changes in postoperative analgesia protocols, including the adjustment of LA concentration and volume, a more precise delivery of the drug and an adapted duration of analgesia, may prevent myopathies consecutive to local anesthesia.     

Treadmill Intervention Attenuates the Cafeteria Diet-Induced Impairment of Stress-Coping Strategies in Young Adult Female Rats

The current prevalence of diet-induced overweight and obesity in adolescents and adults is continuously growing. Although the detrimental biochemical and metabolic consequences of obesity are widely studied, its impact on stress-coping behavior and its interaction with specific exercise doses (in terms of intensity, duration and frequency) need further investigation. To this aim, we fed adolescent rats either an obesogenic diet (cafeteria diet, CAF) or standard chow (ST). Each group was subdivided into four subgroups according to the type of treadmill intervention as follows: a sedentary group receiving no manipulation; a control group exposed to a stationary treadmill; a low-intensity treadmill group trained at 12 m/min; and a higher intensity treadmill group trained at 17 m/min. Both the diet and treadmill interventions started at weaning and lasted for 8 weeks. Subjects were tested for anxiety-like behavior in the open field test and for coping strategies in the two-way active avoidance paradigm at week 7 and were sacrificed at week 8 for biometric and metabolic characterization. CAF feeding increased the weight gain, relative retroperitoneal white adipose tissue (RWAT %), and plasma levels of glucose, insulin, triglycerides and leptin and decreased the insulin sensitivity. Treadmill intervention partially reversed the RWAT% and triglyceride alterations; at higher intensity, it decreased the leptin levels of CAF-fed animals. CAF feeding decreased the motor activity and impaired the performance in a two-way active avoidance assessment. Treadmill intervention reduced defecation in the shuttle box, suggesting diminished anxiety. CAF feeding combined with treadmill training at 17 m/min increased the time spent in the center of the open field and more importantly, partially reversed the two-way active avoidance deficit. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that at doses that decreased anxiety-like behavior, treadmill exercise partially improved the coping strategy in terms of active avoidance behavior in the CAF-fed animals. This effect was not observed at lower doses of treadmill training.     

Raman study of in vivo synthesized Zn(II)-metallothionein complexes: structural insight into metal clusters and protein folding

Metallothioneins (MTs) are metal-chelating peptides that play an active role in zinc homeostasis. The participation of metal ligands other than cysteines and the presence of secondary structure elements in metal-MT complexes are fairly unknown, especially in nonvertebrate MTs. Here, four Zn(II) complexes of invertebrate MTs (mollusc, insect, nematode, and echinoderm) and the Zn(II)-MT complex of the mammalian MT1 isoform, heterologously synthesized in E. coli, were studied by analytic and spectroscopic techniques. By Raman and circular dichroism spectroscopy, new structural informations were obtained. The five analyzed MT isoforms consist largely of beta-turns with the near exclusion of alpha-helical segments. Raman spectroscopy was revealed as an useful tool, providing information about the state of the cysteine sulfur atoms (metal coordinated and oxidized), the participation of histidine in metal coordination, and the molecular environment of tyrosine residues. In all the five Zn(II)-MT studied samples, acid-labile sulfide anions were found as nonproteic ligands, since sulfide-containing and sulfide-devoid species coexisted in the corresponding preparations. Significantly, Raman bands useful as markers of sulfide bridging ligands were identified. Overall, this work illustrates how the combination of analytical and spectroscopic techniques can be a very informative approach for the analysis of in vivo-synthesized metal-MT complexes, providing new data on the metal binding behavior of MTs from the most diverse organisms.     

Dynamic compression counteracts IL-1β induced inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclo-oxygenase-2 expression in chondrocyte/agarose constructs

Background  

Nitric oxide and prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂play pivotal roles in both the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis and catabolic processes in articular cartilage. These mediators are influenced by both IL-1β and mechanical loading, and involve alterations in the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclo-oxygenase (COX)-2 enzymes. To identify the specific interactions that are activated by both types of stimuli, we examined the effects of dynamic compression on levels of expression of iNOS and COX-2 and involvement of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway.     

Cytochrome p450 epoxygenase metabolism of arachidonic acid inhibits apoptosis

The ubiquitous cytochrome P450 hemoproteins play important functional roles in the metabolism and detoxification of foreign chemicals. However, other than established roles in cholesterol catabolism and steroid hormone biosynthesis, their cellular and/or organ physiological functions remain to be fully characterized. Here we show that the cytochrome P450 epoxygenase arachidonic acid metabolite 14,15-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (14,15-EET) inhibits apoptosis induced by serum withdrawal, H(2)O(2), etoposide, or excess free arachidonic acid (AA), as determined by DNA laddering, Hoechst staining, and fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled annexin V binding. In the stable transfectants (BM3 cells) expressing a mutant bacterial P450 AA epoxygenase, F87V BM3, which was genetically engineered to metabolize arachidonic acid only to 14,15-EET, AA did not induce apoptosis and protected against agonist-induced apoptosis. Ceramide assays demonstrated increased AA-induced ceramide production within 1 h and elevated ceramide levels for up to 48 h, the longest time tested, in empty-vector-transfected cells (Vector cells) but not in BM3 cells. Inhibition of cytochrome P450 activity by 17-octadecynoic acid restored AA-induced ceramide production in BM3 cells. Exogenous C2-ceramide markedly increased apoptosis in quiescent Vector cells as well as BM3 cells, and apoptosis was prevented by pretreatment of Vector cells with exogenous 14,15-EET and by pretreatment of BM3 cells with AA. The ceramide synthase inhibitor fumonisin B1 did not affect AA-induced ceramide production and apoptosis; in contrast, these effects of AA were blocked by the neutral sphingomyelinase inhibitor scyphostatin. The pan-caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-fmk had no effect on AA-induced ceramide generation but abolished AA-induced apoptosis. The antiapoptotic effects of 14,15-EET were blocked by two mechanistically and structurally distinct phosphatidylinositol-3 (PI-3) kinase inhibitors, wortmannin and LY294002, but not by the specific mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase inhibitor PD98059. Immunoprecipitation followed by an in vitro kinase assay revealed activation of Akt kinase within 10 min after 14,15-EET addition, which was completely abolished by either wortmannin or LY294002 pretreatment. In summary, the present studies demonstrated that 14,15-EET inhibits apoptosis by activation of a PI-3 kinase-Akt signaling pathway. Furthermore, cytochrome P450 epoxygenase promotes cell survival both by production of 14,15-EET and by metabolism of unesterified AA, thereby preventing activation of the neutral sphingomyelinase pathway and proapoptotic ceramide formation.