"Differentiation therapy" provides a unique and potentially effective, less toxic treatment paradigm for cancer. Moreover, combining "differentiation therapy" with molecular approaches presents an unparalleled opportunity to identify and clone genes mediating cancer growth control, differentiation, senescence, and programmed cell death (apoptosis). Subtraction hybridization applied to human melanoma cells induced to terminally differentiate by treatment with fibroblast interferon (IFN-beta) plus mezerein (MEZ) permitted cloning of melanoma differentiation associated (mda) genes. Founded on its novel properties, one particular mda gene, mda-7, now classified as a member of the interleukin (IL)-10 gene family (IL-24) because of conserved structure, chromosomal location, and cytokine-like properties has become the focus of attention of multiple laboratories. When administered by transfection or adenovirus-transduction into a spectrum of tumor cell types, melanoma differentiation associated gene-7/interleukin-24 (mda-7/IL-24) induces apoptosis, whereas no toxicity is apparent in normal cells. mda-7/IL-24 displays potent "bystander antitumor" activity and also has the capacity to enhance radiation lethality, to induce immune-regulatory activities, and to inhibit tumor angiogenesis. Based on these remarkable attributes and effective antitumor therapy in animal models, this cytokine has taken the important step of entering the clinic. In a Phase I clinical trial, intratumoral injections of adenovirus-administered mda-7/IL-24 (Ad.mda-7) was safe, elicited tumor-regulatory and immune-activating processes, and provided clinically significant activity. This review highlights our current understanding of the diverse activities and properties of this novel cytokine, with potential to become a prominent gene therapy for cancer.

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Activation of activator protein-1 (AP-1) and increased expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) have been clearly shown to play a functional role in UVB-induced skin tumor promotion. In this study, we examined UVB-induced signal transduction pathways in SKH-1 mouse epidermis leading to increases in COX-2 expression and AP-1 activity. We observed rapid increases in p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling through activation of p38 MAPK and its downstream target, MAPK activated protein kinase-2. UVB also increased phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling as observed through increases in AKT and GSK-3B B phosphorylation. Activation of the p38 MAPK and PI3K pathways results in the phosphorylation of cyclic AMP -responsive element binding protein, which was also observed in UVB-irradiated SKH-1 mice. Topical treatment with SB202190 (a specific inhibitor of p38 MAPK) or LY294002 (a specific inhibitor of PI3K) significantly decreased UVB-induced AP-1 activation by 84% and 68%, respectively, as well as COX-2 expression. Our data show that in mouse epidermis, UVB activation of the p38 MAPK and PI3K pathways leads to AP-1 activation and COX-2 expression. (Mol Cancer Res 2005;3(2):90 -9)

To further delineate ultraviolet A (UVA) signaling pathways in the human keratinocyte cell line HaCaT, we examined the potential role of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in UVA-induced activator protein-1 (AP-1) transactivation and c-Fos expression. UVA-induced phosphorylation of p38 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) proteins was detected immediately after irradiation and disappeared after approximately 2 hours. Conversely, phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase was significantly inhibited for up to 1 hour post-UVA irradiation. To examine the role of p38 and JNK MAPKs in UVA-induced AP-1 and c-fos transactivations, the selective pharmacologic MAPK inhibitors, SB202190 (p38 inhibitor) and SP600125 (JNK inhibitor), were used to independently treat stably transfected HaCaT cells in luciferase reporter assays. Both SB202190 and SP600125 dose-dependently inhibited UVA-induced AP-1 and c-fos transactivations. SB202190 (0.25-0.5 microM) and SP600125 (62-125 nM) treatments also primarily inhibited UVA-induced c-Fos expression. These results demonstrated that activation of both JNK and p38 play critical role in UVA-mediated AP-1 transactivation and c-Fos expression in these human keratinocyte cells. Targeted inhibition of these MAPKs with their selective pharmacologic inhibitors may be effective chemopreventive strategies for UVA-induced nonmelanoma skin cancer.

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