Abstract. The present study aims to investigate the role of p73 in response to cisplatin treatment in p53 wild-type neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. Results showed that cisplatin induced a dose-dependent up-regulation of p53, p73, and a number of p53-responsive genes. Interestingly, endogenous Δexon2p73-expression was down-regulated by cisplatin treatment. Neither p21 nor GADD45 induction was observed in p53-deficient Lan-1 cells, although endogenous TAp73 expression was markedly induced. In the presence of cisplatin, exogenous TAp73 overexpression in SH-SY5Y cells induced p21 upregulation without altering the apoptotic sub-G1 cell population. Moreover, siRNA-mediated suppression of TAp73 expression did not alter the sub-G1 population. Collectively, our results suggest that wt-p53 SH-SY5Y cells respond to cisplatin by inducing p73 isoform regulation and sustaining p53-dependent apoptosis that is independent of TAp73·.
IntroductionNeuroblastoma (NB) is a malignant solid tumor of early childhood which is derived from neural crest precursor cells. Of the antitumor agents used in NB induction chemotherapy, cisplatin is known to exert cytotoxic effects as a result of DNA lesions involving the formation of intra-strand adducts. The resulting inhibition of DNA synthesis is associated with transcription arrest and subsequent cell-cycle inhibitory effects and apoptosis. Unlike most human tumors, NB cells do not exhibit mutated p53 at diagnosis. NB tumors from heavily treated patients can acquire high-level drug resistance during cytotoxic therapy. The subsequent loss of p53 function (1,2) is thought to be possibly due to a series of mutations (3). The p73 protein, which is a structural and functional homologue of the p53 protein, is capable of activating specific target genes and inducing cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis (4,5). Moreover, TPp73 encodes several different isoforms generated by the use of a second promoter or alternative 3'-end splicing (6). The N-terminus of the protein exists in various shorter isoforms that lack a transactivation (TA) domain. The dominant negative inhibitor, ΔNp73·, and the full-length TAp73· are the most studied isoforms to date. Despite the fact that it is located on chromosome 1p36.3, a chromosome which undergoes frequent loss of heterozygosity in some cancers such as NB, the TPp73 gene is rarely mutated in human tumors (7). Recently, it was reported that the TAp73 protein can induce apoptosis through different mechanisms. For that matter, TAp73 in Saos-2 osteosarcoma cells lacking p53 elicits endoplasmic reticulum stress due to the overexpression of scotin, an apoptosis mediator (8). Besides, p73 could activate the death receptors through PUMA transactivation and via Bax mitochondrial translocation (9). Other investigators found that, in the U373MG astroma cell line lacking endogenous p53 (p53 -/p73 + ), TAp73 can sentisize cells to apoptosis through Fas signaling pathway and showed that this apoptosis depends on caspase activation but is not due to variations in deathinducing signaling co...