| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Advances in Brief |
Departments of Radiation Oncology [E. J. B., A. K. G., D. S., V. J. B., G. C. C., W. G. M.] and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine [R. J. M.], University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, and Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Irvine, California 92697 [E. J. S., S. G.]
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| Introduction |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Oncogenic H-ras contributes to increased radiation resistance in rat embryo cells (8, 9, 10, 11) and rhabdomyosarcoma cells (12) . Further studies in rat embryo cells showed that the increased survival was accompanied by a decrease in apoptosis and a prolonged G2-M arrest after irradiation (13, 14, 15) . Treatment with a farnesyltransferase inhibitor that blocks H-ras prenylation and thus inhibits ras signaling reversed ras-mediated radiation resistance and caused increased radiation-induced apoptosis in these cells (16) . The reduction of radioresistance and the increase in apoptosis were specific for cells expressing activated H-ras oncogenes, and no effect was detected in untransformed rat embryo cells or in cells immortalized with v-myc. However, farnesylation of other proteins and thus their function could be affected by farnesyltransferase inhibitor treatment.
In human cells, assessing the contribution of ras activation
to radiation resistance is more complex, primarily because
transformation of human cells with oncogenes is more difficult and
requires p53 inactivation and telomerase activation (17)
.
Despite this, several studies have shown elevated resistance to
-irradiation in human cells transfected with oncogenic
H-ras. Su and Little (18)
showed consistent
increases in radiation resistance in cells transfected with SV40T, and
further increases were noted in clones isolated from two of three
fibroblast lines transfected sequentially with oncogenic
H-ras and SV40T. The effect was greatest in the cell line
that was initially the most radiosensitive (Do, 1.17 Gy).
The third line, which had a higher initial radiation resistance
(Do, 1.46 Gy) showed a small increase after transfection
with SV40T but no additional effect of oncogenic H-ras
transfection. The interpretation of these studies is complicated by the
report that transformation with SV40 can lead to overexpression of
c-myc, K-ras, and c-raf genes, all of
which have been implicated in radiation resistance (19)
.
In contrast to this report, Grant et al. (20)
reported a lack of correlation between ras transfection and
radioresistance in human retinoblasts. In this study, however, three of
nine ras + adenovirus E1a transfectants
showed radioresistance that was elevated (Do, 1.551.66)
compared with six E1a-transfected lines (Do,
0.881.35). It was also noted that of the three radioresistant
ras + E1a transformants, two were
transfectants expressing the highest levels of ras protein. Mendonca
et al. (21)
obtained similar results in the
human HaCaT keratinocyte line, where modest elevation of resistance was
seen in two of three lines expressing high levels of H-ras. More
recently, increased survival at doses of radiation above six Gy were
observed in human bronchial epithelium cells transfected with
H-ras, although no difference was observed at lower doses
(22)
. Although these reports were interpreted as negative
for a role for activated ras in radiation resistance, in each case some
increase in resistance was noted after ras transfection. In
the one report where ras appeared to be completely without effect in
increasing radiation resistance (23)
, the parental mammary
epithelial cell line tested had an initial Do of 2.19 Gy,
thus demonstrating a high level of radioresistance prior to
transfection.
Studies inhibiting oncogenic ras expression or function have shown that radiation resistance in human cells can be lowered as a consequence. Studies in which inhibition of ras processing was accomplished using pharmacological inhibitors such as lovastatin or prenyltransferase inhibitors demonstrated reduced radiation survival in cells expressing activated ras (24 , 25) . Similar findings were obtained using antisense-mediated inhibition of ras expression in cells with activation of the Her-2/Neu receptor, which signals through the ras pathway (26) . All of these manipulations could, however, induce nonspecific changes in the treated cells that might alter radioresistance.
To better define the role of activated ras in the intrinsic radiation resistance of human tumors, we have now examined a panel of human cells derived from the HT1080 and DLD-1 human tumor lines for clonogenic survival after irradiation. The parental lines contain one activated allele of N- or K-ras, respectively (27) . The radiation survival of the parental lines was compared with the survival of cell lines in which the activated allele of ras was lost, but wild-type ras expression was maintained. In this way, the contribution of an activated ras oncogene to radiation resistance in human cells was addressed directly.
| Materials and Methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Radiation Survival Determination.
Clonogenic survival was determined at radiation doses from 1 to 8 Gy.
Cells from logarithmically growing cultures were plated, allowed to
attach, and then irradiated with a Mark I cesium irradiator (J. L.
Shepherd, San Fernando, CA) at a dose rate of 1.6 Gy/min. Colonies were
stained and counted 1421 days after irradiation. The surviving
fraction at a given dose is defined as: number of colonies
formed/(number of cells plated) x(plating efficiency). Each point on
the survival curves represents the mean surviving fraction from at
least three dishes.
Apoptosis Detection.
Twenty-four and 48 h after irradiation with 10 Gy, both adherent
and nonadherent cells were harvested from irradiated and
sham-irradiated cultures. Cells were stained with propidium iodide in
an NP-40 buffer as described previously (16)
. Cell counts
were performed within 5 min of staining. A minimum of three independent
fields of 100 cells was counted for each sample.
Growth Determination and Flow Cytometry.
Log phase growth cultures were plated at 2 x 105 cells/dish in 60-mm dishes. Replicate dishes
were harvested for cell counts and flow cytometric analysis of DNA
content (29)
. Flow cytometry analysis was carried out
using the ModfitLT version 2.0 program. Where indicated, cells were
treated with 2.5 µM farnesyltransferase inhibitor
L779575 (Merck & Co., Inc.).
| Results |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Lys61). This
allele was lost in the SG-2 line and reintroduced by transfection in
SG-6 cells. As shown in Fig. 1
|
|
|
|
|
| Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
In this report, we have shown that both N- and K-ras activation can contribute to radiation resistance in human tumor cells. H-ras has been the focus of most prior studies in ras oncogene-mediated radiation resistance. N-ras was the first ras oncogene demonstrated to influence radiation survival in rodent cells by FitzGerald et al. (1) in 1985; however, its contribution to radiation resistance in human cells has never been reported previously. Similarly, few studies have examined the contribution of K-ras to radiation resistance. We showed previously that prenyltransferase inhibition can reduce the clonogenic survival of human tumor lines expressing activated K-ras (24) . Inhibiting K-ras prenylation required inhibiting both farnesyl- and geranylgeranyltransferase enzymes. Because over 200 proteins are prenylated by these enzymes, the combined effects of these inhibitors could potentially affect many other essential proteins in addition to ras, thus complicating the interpretation of the observed radiosensitization. The demonstration that loss of an activated K-ras allele results in reduced radiation survival thus confirms and strengthens the earlier observation obtained with inhibitors of ras function.
Finally, we have shown that increased radiation-induced apoptosis does not fully account for the results obtained by clonogenic survival in these cells. An association between the extent of apoptosis and clonogenic survival results was seen in cells derived from HT1080 but not DLD-1. As has been pointed out, apoptosis can neither predict nor substitute for the results of long-term assays, such as clonogenic survival assays, for measuring radiosensitivity (30) .
Demonstrating that intrinsic radiosensitivity is reduced after loss of N- and K-ras in human cells adds to the findings obtained with H-ras in the radioresistance of human cells. Because the most prevalent ras mutations in human solid tumors are in K-ras, the current results strengthen the argument that strategies targeting ras activity or expression may have clinical relevance for the treatment of radiation resistant tumors expressing ras mutations.
| FOOTNOTES |
|---|
1 These studies were supported by NIH Grant
CA75138 (to W. G. M., R. J. M., and E. J. B.) Grant CA73820 (to
E. J. B.), and Grant CA69515 (to E. J. S.). Farnesyltransferase
inhibitors were provided by Merck and Co., Inc. ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be
addressed, at Department of Radiation Oncology, 195 John Morgan
Building, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6072.
Phone: (215) 898-0078; Fax: (215) 898-0090; E-mail
bernhard@mail.med.upenn.edu. ![]()
Received 5/ 1/00. Accepted 10/17/00.
| REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
R. Prevo, E. Deutsch, O. Sampson, J. Diplexcito, K. Cengel, J. Harper, P. O'Neill, W. G. McKenna, S. Patel, and E. J. Bernhard Class I PI3 Kinase Inhibition by the Pyridinylfuranopyrimidine Inhibitor PI-103 Enhances Tumor Radiosensitivity Cancer Res., July 15, 2008; 68(14): 5915 - 5923. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. Arena, C. Isella, M. Martini, A. de Marco, E. Medico, and A. Bardelli Knock-in of Oncogenic Kras Does Not Transform Mouse Somatic Cells But Triggers a Transcriptional Response that Classifies Human Cancers Cancer Res., September 15, 2007; 67(18): 8468 - 8476. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. Toulany, M. Baumann, and H. P. Rodemann Stimulated PI3K-AKT Signaling Mediated through Ligand or Radiation-Induced EGFR Depends Indirectly, but not Directly, on Constitutive K-Ras Activity Mol. Cancer Res., August 1, 2007; 5(8): 863 - 872. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. Shahrzad, L. Quayle, C. Stone, C. Plumb, S. Shirasawa, J. W. Rak, and B. L. Coomber Ischemia-Induced K-ras Mutations in Human Colorectal Cancer Cells: Role of Microenvironmental Regulation of MSH2 Expression Cancer Res., September 15, 2005; 65(18): 8134 - 8141. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
T. B. Brunner, K. A. Cengel, S. M. Hahn, J. Wu, D. L. Fraker, W. G. McKenna, and E. J. Bernhard Pancreatic Cancer Cell Radiation Survival and Prenyltransferase Inhibition: The Role of K-Ras Cancer Res., September 15, 2005; 65(18): 8433 - 8441. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
I.-A. Kim, S.-S. Bae, A. Fernandes, J. Wu, R. J. Muschel, W. G. McKenna, M. J. Birnbaum, and E. J. Bernhard Selective Inhibition of Ras, Phosphoinositide 3 Kinase, and Akt Isoforms Increases the Radiosensitivity of Human Carcinoma Cell Lines Cancer Res., September 1, 2005; 65(17): 7902 - 7910. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
I.-Y. Chang, C.-K. Youn, H.-B. Kim, M.-H. Kim, H.-J. Cho, Y. Yoon, Y.-S. Lee, M.-H. Chung, and H. J. You Oncogenic H-Ras Up-regulates Expression of Ku80 to Protect Cells from {gamma}-Ray Irradiation in NIH3T3 Cells Cancer Res., August 1, 2005; 65(15): 6811 - 6819. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
B. Y. Kim, K. A. Kim, O. Kwon, S. O. Kim, M. S. Kim, B. S. Kim, W. K. Oh, G. D. Kim, M. Jung, and J. S. Ahn NF-{kappa}B inhibition radiosensitizes Ki-Ras-transformed cells to ionizing radiation Carcinogenesis, August 1, 2005; 26(8): 1395 - 1403. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
R. W. Caron, A. Yacoub, X. Zhu, C. Mitchell, S. I. Han, T. Sasazuki, S. Shirasawa, M. P. Hagan, S. Grant, and P. Dent H-RAS V12-induced radioresistance in HCT116 colon carcinoma cells is heregulin dependent Mol. Cancer Ther., February 1, 2005; 4(2): 243 - 255. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J. KIM, J. SEONG, and S. H. KIM Enhancement of Tumor Response by Farnesyltransferase Inhibitor in C3H/HeJ Hepatocarcinoma Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., December 1, 2004; 1030(1): 95 - 102. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
N. E. Martin, T. B. Brunner, K. D. Kiel, T. F. DeLaney, W. F. Regine, M. Mohiuddin, E. F. Rosato, D. G. Haller, J. P. Stevenson, D. Smith, et al. A Phase I Trial of the Dual Farnesyltransferase and Geranylgeranyltransferase Inhibitor L-778,123 and Radiotherapy for Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer Clin. Cancer Res., August 15, 2004; 10(16): 5447 - 5454. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
C.-K. Youn, M.-H. Kim, H.-J. Cho, H.-B. Kim, I.-Y. Chang, M.-H. Chung, and H. J. You Oncogenic H-Ras Up-Regulates Expression of ERCC1 to Protect Cells from Platinum-Based Anticancer Agents Cancer Res., July 15, 2004; 64(14): 4849 - 4857. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
T. M. Grana, C. I. Sartor, and A. D. Cox Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Autocrine Signaling in RIE-1 Cells Transformed by the Ras Oncogene Enhances Radiation Resistance Cancer Res., November 15, 2003; 63(22): 7807 - 7814. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
T. B. Brunner, S. M. Hahn, A. K. Gupta, R. J. Muschel, W. G. McKenna, and E. J. Bernhard Farnesyltransferase Inhibitors: An Overview of the Results of Preclinical and Clinical Investigations Cancer Res., September 15, 2003; 63(18): 5656 - 5668. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
B. B.Y. Ma, R. G. Bristow, J. Kim, and L. L. Siu Combined-Modality Treatment of Solid Tumors Using Radiotherapy and Molecular Targeted Agents J. Clin. Oncol., July 15, 2003; 21(14): 2760 - 2776. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
D. Yu, H. Watanabe, H. Shibuya, and M. Miura Redundancy of Radioresistant Signaling Pathways Originating from Insulin-like Growth Factor I Receptor J. Biol. Chem., February 21, 2003; 278(9): 6702 - 6709. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
T. M. Grana, E. V. Rusyn, H. Zhou, C. I. Sartor, and A. D. Cox Ras Mediates Radioresistance through Both Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase-dependent and Raf-dependent but Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase/Extracellular Signal-regulated Kinase Kinase-independent Signaling Pathways Cancer Res., July 15, 2002; 62(14): 4142 - 4150. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
H.-J. Cho, H. G. Jeong, J.-S. Lee, E.-R. Woo, J.-W. Hyun, M.-H. Chung, and H. J. You Oncogenic H-Ras Enhances DNA Repair through the Ras/Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase/Rac1 Pathway in NIH3T3 Cells. EVIDENCE FOR ASSOCIATION WITH REACTIVE OXYGEN SPECIES J. Biol. Chem., May 24, 2002; 277(22): 19358 - 19366. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J. S. Russell, U. Raju, G. J. Gumin, F. F. Lang, D. R. Wilson, T. Huet, and P. J. Tofilon Inhibition of Radiation-induced Nuclear Factor-{kappa}B Activation by an Anti-Ras Single-Chain Antibody Fragment: Lack of Involvement in Radiosensitization Cancer Res., April 1, 2002; 62(8): 2318 - 2326. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
A. K. Gupta, W. G. McKenna, C. N. Weber, M. D. Feldman, J. D. Goldsmith, R. Mick, M. Machtay, D. I. Rosenthal, V. J. Bakanauskas, G. J. Cerniglia, et al. Local Recurrence in Head and Neck Cancer: Relationship to Radiation Resistance and Signal Transduction Clin. Cancer Res., March 1, 2002; 8(3): 885 - 892. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
A. K. Gupta, V. J. Bakanauskas, G. J. Cerniglia, Y. Cheng, E. J. Bernhard, R. J. Muschel, and W. G. McKenna The Ras Radiation Resistance Pathway Cancer Res., May 1, 2001; 61(10): 4278 - 4282. [Abstract] [Full Text] |
||||
![]() |
E. Cohen-Jonathan, S. M. Evans, C. J. Koch, R. J. Muschel, W. G. McKenna, J. Wu, and E. J. Bernhard The Farnesyltransferase Inhibitor L744,832 Reduces Hypoxia in Tumors Expressing Activated H-ras Cancer Res., March 1, 2001; 61(5): 2289 - 2293. [Abstract] [Full Text] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Cancer Research | Clinical Cancer Research |
| Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention | Molecular Cancer Therapeutics |
| Molecular Cancer Research | Cancer Prevention Research |
| Cancer Prevention Journals Portal | Cancer Reviews Online |
| Annual Meeting Education Book | Meeting Abstracts Online |