Dysregulation of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway plays an essential role in tumor growth and development. Shikonin, a natural naphthoquinone isolated from the traditional Chinese medicine Zi Cao (gromwell), has been reported to possess tumor cellkilling activity, and results from a clinical study using a shikonincontaining mixture demonstrated its safety and efficacy for the treatment of late-stage lung cancer. In this study, we reported that shikonin is an inhibitor of tumor proteasome activity in vitro and in vivo. Our computational modeling predicts that the carbonyl carbons C 1 and C 4 of shikonin potentially interact with the catalytic site of b5 chymotryptic subunit of the proteasome. Indeed, shikonin potently inhibits the chymotrypsin-like activity of purified 20S proteasome (IC 50 12.5 lmol/L) and tumor cellular 26S proteasome (IC 50 between 2-16 lmol/L). Inhibition of the proteasome by shikonin in murine hepatoma H22, leukemia P388 and human prostate cancer PC-3 cultures resulted in accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins and several proteasome target proapoptotic proteins (IjB-a, Bax and p27), followed by induction of cell death. Shikonin treatment resulted in tumor growth inhibition in both H22 allografts and PC-3 xenografts, associated with suppression of the proteasomal activity and induction of cell death in vivo. Finally, shikonin treatment significantly prolonged the survival period of mice bearing P388 leukemia. Our results indicate that the tumor proteasome is one of the cellular targets of shikonin and inhibition of the proteasome activity by shikonin contributes to its antitumor property.

Intracellular protein degradation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system is ATP-dependent and the optimal ATP concentration to activate proteasome function in vitro is ~100 μM. Intracellular ATP levels are generally in the low millimolar range but ATP at a level within this range was shown to inhibit proteasome peptidase activities in vitro. Here we report new evidence that supports a hypothesis that intracellular ATP at the physiological levels bidirectionally regulates 26S proteasome proteolytic function in the cell. First, we confirmed that ATP exerted bidirectional regulation on the 26S proteasome in vitro, with the optimal ATP concentration (between 50-100 μM) stimulating proteasome chymotrypsin-like activities. Second, we found that manipulating intracellular ATP levels also led to bidirectional changes in the levels of proteasome-specific protein substrates in cultured cells. Finally, measures to increase intracellular ATP enhanced, while decreasing intracellular ATP attenuated, the ability of proteasome inhibition to induce cell death. These data strongly suggest that endogenous ATP within the physiological concentration range can exert a negative impact on proteasome activities, allowing the cell to rapidly up-regulate proteasome activity upon ATP reduction under stress conditions.

Shikonin, extracted from medicinal Chinese herb (Lithospermum erythrorhizo), was reported to exert anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects both in vitro and in vivo. We have found that proteasome was a molecular target of shikonin in tumor cells, but whether shikonin targets macrophage proteasome needs to be investigated. In the current study, we report that shikonin inhibited inflammation in mouse models as efficiently as dexamethasone. Shikonin at 4 μM reduced the Lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-mediated TNFα release in rat primary macrophage cultures, and blocked the translocation of p65-NF-κB from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, associated with decreased proteasomal activity. Consistently, shikonin accumulated IκB-α, an inhibitor of NF-κB, and ubiquitinated proteins in rat primary macrophage cultures, demonstrating that the proteasome is a target of shikonin under inflammatory conditions. Shikonin also induced macrophage cell apoptosis and cell death. These results demonstrate for the first time that proteasome inhibition by shikonin contributes to its anti-inflammatory effect. The novel finding about macrophage proteasome as a target of shikonin suggests that this medicinal compound has great potential to be developed into an anti-inflammatory agent.