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8-Chloro-Cyclic AMP–Induced Growth Inhibition and Apoptosis Is Mediated by p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Activation in HL60 Cells

¹ School of Biological Sciences, ² Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and ³ Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetic Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Requests for reprints: Seung Hwan Hong, Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea. Phone: 822-880-6776; Fax: 822-888-8577; E-mail: shong{at}plaza.snu.ac.kr.

8-Chloro-cyclic AMP (8-Cl-cAMP), which is known to induce growth inhibition, apoptosis, and differentiation in various cancer cell lines, has been studied as a putative anticancer drug. However, the mechanism of anticancer activities of 8-Cl-cAMP has not been fully understood. Previously, we reported that the 8-Cl-cAMP-induced growth inhibition is mediated by protein kinase C (PKC) activation. In this study, we found that p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) also plays important roles during the 8-Cl-cAMP-induced growth inhibition and apoptosis. SB203580 (a p38-specific inhibitor) recovered the 8-Cl-cAMP-induced growth inhibition and apoptosis, whereas other MAPK inhibitors, such as PD98059 (an extracellular signal-regulated kinase–specific inhibitor) and SP600125 (a c-Jun NH₂-terminal kinase–specific inhibitor), had no effect. The phosphorylation (activation) of p38 MAPK was increased in a time-dependent manner after 8-Cl-cAMP treatment. Furthermore, SB203580 was able to block PKC activation induced by 8-Cl-cAMP. However, PKC inhibitor (GF109203x) could not attenuate p38 activation, indicating that p38 MAPK activation is upstream of PKC activation during the 8-Cl-cAMP-induced growth inhibition. 8-Chloro-adenosine, a metabolite of 8-Cl-cAMP, also activated p38 MAPK and this activation was blocked by adenosine kinase inhibitor. These results suggest that 8-Cl-cAMP exerts its anticancer activity through p38 MAPK activation and the metabolite(s) of 8-Cl-cAMP mediates this process.

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