BH3 mimetic drugs induce cell death by antagonizing the activity of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins. Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors that function as transcriptional repressors down-regulate the Bcl-2 family member Mcl-1 and increase the activity of selective BH3-mimetics that fail to target this protein. In this study, we determined whether CDK inhibitors potentiate the activity of pan-BH3 mimetics by directly neutralizing Mcl-1. Specifically, we evaluated interactions between the prototypical pan-CDK inhibitor flavopiridol and the pan-BH3-mimetic obatoclax in multiple myeloma (MM) cells in which Mcl-1 is critical for survival. Co-administration of flavopiridol and obatoclax synergistically triggered apoptosis in both drug-naive and drug-resistant MM cells. Mechanistic investigations revealed that flavopiridol inhibited Mcl-1 transcription but increased transcription of Bim and its binding to Bcl-2/Bcl-xL. Obatoclax prevented Mcl-1 recovery and potentiated release of Bim from Bcl-2/Bcl-xL and Mcl-1, accompanied by activation of Bax/Bak. Whether administered singly or in combination with obatoclax, flavopiridol also induced up-regulation of multiple BH3-only proteins, including BimEL, BimL, Noxa, and Bik/NBK. Notably, shRNA knock-down of Bim or Noxa abrogated lethality triggered by the flavopiridol/obatoclax combination in vitro and in vivo. Together, our findings demonstrate that CDK inhibition potentiates pan-BH3-mimetic activity through a cooperative mechanism involving up-regulation of BH3-only proteins with coordinate down-regulation of their anti-apoptotic counterparts. These findings have immediate implications for the clinical trial design of BH3 mimetic-based therapies that are presently being studied intensively for the treatment of diverse hematopoietic malignancies, including lethal multiple myeloma.

Severe cold, defined as a damaging cold beyond acclimation temperatures, has unique responses, but the signaling and evolution of these responses are not well understood. Production of oligogalactolipids, which is triggered by cytosolic acidification in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), contributes to survival in severe cold. Here, we investigated oligogalactolipid production in species from bryophytes to angiosperms. Production of oligogalactolipids differed within each clade, suggesting multiple evolutionary origins of severe cold tolerance. We also observed greater oligogalactolipid production in control samples instead of temperature-challenged samples of some species. Further examination of representative species revealed a tight association between temperature, damage, and oligogalactolipid production that scaled with the cold tolerance of each species. Based on oligogalactolipid production and transcript changes, multiple angiosperm species share a signal of oligogalactolipid production initially described in Arabidopsis, cytosolic acidification. Together, these data suggest that oligogalactolipid production is a severe cold response that originated from an ancestral damage response that remains in many land plant lineages and that cytosolic acidification may be a common signaling mechanism for its activation.

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