Molecular pharmacology
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Molecular pharmacology · Mar 1999
Induction of apoptosis by N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide and its association with reactive oxygen species, nuclear retinoic acid receptors, and apoptosis-related genes in human prostate carcinoma cells.
The synthetic retinoid N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide (4HPR) has been shown to induce apoptosis in various malignant cells including human prostate carcinoma cells (HPC). We examined several possible mechanisms by which 4HPR could induce apoptosis in HPC cells. 4HPR exhibited concentration- and time-dependent decrease in cell number both in androgen-dependent (LNCaP) and -independent (DU145 and PC-3) cells. The 4HPR concentrations causing 50% decrease in cell number in LNCaP, DU145, and PC-3 cultures were 0.9 +/- 0.16, 4.4 +/- 0.45, and 3.0 +/- 1.0 microM, respectively, indicating that LNCaP cells were more sensitive to 4HPR than the other cells. 4HPR-induced apoptosis in all three cell lines was evidenced by increased enzymatic labeling of DNA breaks and formation of a DNA ladder. 4HPR increased the level of reactive oxygen species, especially in LNCaP cells. 4HPR-induced apoptosis could be suppressed in LNCaP cells by antioxidant and in DU145 cells by a nuclear retinoic acid receptor-specific antagonist, suggesting the involvement of reactive oxygen species or retinoic acid receptors in mediating apoptosis induced by 4HPR in the different HPC cells. Furthermore, 4HPR modulated the expression levels of some apoptosis-related gene (p21, c-myc, and c-jun), which may also contribute to the induction of apoptosis by 4HPR in HPC cells.
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Molecular pharmacology · Feb 1999
Purine and pyrimidine nucleotides inhibit a noninactivating K+ current and depolarize adrenal cortical cells through a G protein-coupled receptor.
Bovine adrenal zona fasciculata (AZF) cells express a noninactivating K+ current (IAC) that sets the resting membrane potential and may mediate depolarization-dependent cortisol secretion. External ATP stimulates cortisol secretion through activation of a nucleotide receptor. In whole-cell patch clamp recordings from bovine AZF cells, we found that ATP selectively inhibited IAC K+ current by a maximum of 75.7 +/- 3% (n = 13) with a 50% inhibitory concentration of 1.3 microM. ⋯ Nucleotide inhibition of IAC proceeds through a pathway that is independent of phospholipase C, but that requires ATP hydrolysis. The identification of a new signaling pathway in AZF cells, whereby activation of a nucleotide receptor is coupled to membrane depolarization through inhibition of a specific K+ channel, suggests a mechanism for ATP-stimulated corticosteroid secretion that depends on depolarization-dependent Ca++ entry. This may be a means of synchronizing the stress-induced secretion of corticosteroids and catecholamines from the adrenal gland.
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Molecular pharmacology · Oct 1998
Lysine point mutations in Na+ channel D4-S6 reduce inactivated channel block by local anesthetics.
Voltage-gated Na+ channels are a primary target for local anesthetics (LAs). Open or inactivated Na+ channels usually have a severalfold higher affinity for LAs than do resting channels. Hille's modulated receptor hypothesis attributed the changes in LA affinity to state-dependent alterations in the conformation of the LA receptor. ⋯ These effects on resting block could largely be accounted for by either steric/charge interference or cation-pi electron interactions between particular moieties on the LA and lysine. Surprisingly, lysine substitution at these residues allowed the channels to undergo steady state fast inactivation yet reduced inactivated channel block by cocaine by up to 27-fold and reduced the benzocaine-induced leftward shift in the h(infinity) curve by up to 22 mV. Our data suggest that transitions in channel state indeed invoke conformational changes in the LA receptor and that lysine mutations in the LA receptor region alter such conformational changes during the transition to the inactivated state.
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Molecular pharmacology · Sep 1998
Regulation of rat hepatic cytochrome P450 expression by sterol biosynthesis inhibition: inhibitors of squalene synthase are potent inducers of CYP2B expression in primary cultured rat hepatocytes and rat liver.
The effects of treatment with squalestatin 1, a potent inhibitor of squalene synthase, the first committed enzyme of sterol biosynthesis, were examined on cytochrome P450 expression in primary cultured rat hepatocytes and rat liver. Incubation of cultured hepatocytes with squalestatin 1 caused marked accumulations (maximal elevations that were approximately 25-100% of phenobarbital-elicited increases) of CYP2B mRNA and immunoreactive protein but not of CYP1A, CYP3A, or CYP4A. Squalestatin 1 treatment increased CYP2B and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase mRNA content in hepatocyte cultures with comparable potencies (ED50 = 5.0 and 18 nM, respectively), and significantly induced CYP2B (mRNA, immunoreactive protein, and pentoxyresorufin O-dealkylase activity) in the livers of treated rats, producing maximal increases at a dose of 25 mg/kg/day that were approximately 32-87% of phenobarbital-induced increases. ⋯ Coincubation of cultured hepatocytes with 25-hydroxycholesterol suppressed squalestatin 1-mediated CYP2B and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A mRNA induction with approximately the same potency. Treatment of cultures with SQ-34919, a structurally distinct squalene synthase inhibitor, produced the same selective CYP2B mRNA induction as did squalestatin 1. These results suggest that inhibition of hepatic sterol synthesis activates processes that culminate in increased CYP2B gene transcription.
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Molecular pharmacology · Apr 1998
Activation of protein kinase C alpha and/or epsilon enhances transcription of the human endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene.
In primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), incubation with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) enhanced basal and bradykinin-stimulated nitric oxide production. In the HUVEC-derived cell line EA.hy 926, PMA and phorbol-12,13-dibutyrate stimulated endothelial nitric oxide synthase (NOS III) mRNA expression in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Maximal mRNA expression (3.3-fold increase) was observed after 18 hr. ⋯ When human endothelial cells (ECV 304 or EA.hy 926) were transiently or stably transfected with a 3.5-kb fragment of the human NOS III promoter driving a luciferase reporter gene, PMA stimulated promoter activity up to 2.5-fold. On the other hand, PMA did not change the stability of the NOS III mRNA. These data indicate that stimulation of PKC alpha, PKC epsilon, or both by active phorbol esters represents an efficacious pathway activating the human NOS III promoter in human endothelium.