Skip to main content
Log in

Histone deacetylase inhibitors interact synergistically with tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) to induce apoptosis in carcinoma cell lines

  • Published:
Investigational New Drugs Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

Both tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) and histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDIs) show promise for the treatment of cancer. However, in a number of reports they have been proven ineffective to induce cell death when applied as single agents. In this study, we show that A549 lung carcinoma cells and PC-3 prostate carcinoma cells underwent substantial apoptosis when coexposed to TRAIL and either suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid, sodium butyrate or trichostatin A. HDIs and TRAIL synergized in activation of capase-3, induction of internucleosomal DNA fragmentation and promoting mitochondrial damage. Significantly, cotreatment with minimally toxic doses of HDIs and TRAIL resulted in a marked apoptotic response in both cell lines. These data provide a rationale for a more in-depth exploration into the potential of combining TRAIL and HDIs as a valuable anticancer strategy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Johnstone RW, Ruefli AA, Lowe SW: Apoptosis: A link between cancer genetics and chemotherapy. Cell 108: 153–164, 2002

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Younes A, Kadin ME: Emerging applications of the tumor necrosis factor family of ligands and receptors in cancer therapy. J Clin Oncol 21: 3526–3534, 2003

    Google Scholar 

  3. Nimmanapalli R, Perkins CL, Orlando M, O’Bryan E, Nguyen D, Bhalla KN: Pretreatment with paclitaxel enhances apo-2 ligand/tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand-induced apoptosis of prostate cancer cells by inducing death receptors 4 and 5 protein levels. Cancer Res 61: 759–763, 2001

    Google Scholar 

  4. Zisman A, Ng CP, Pantuck AJ, Bonavida B, Belldegrun AS: Actinomycin D and gemcitabine synergistically sensitize androgen-independent prostate cancer cells to Apo2L/TRAIL-mediated apoptosis. J Immunother 24: 459–471, 2001

    Google Scholar 

  5. Munshi A, McDonnell TJ, Meyn RE: Chemotherapeutic agents enhance TRAIL-induced apoptosis in prostate cancer cells. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 50: 46–52, 2002

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Frese S, Brunner T, Gugger M, Uduehi A, Schmid RA: Enhancement of Apo2L/TRAIL (tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand)-induced apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer cell lines by chemotherapeutic agents without correlation to the expression level of cellular protease caspase-8 inhibitory protein. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 123: 168–174, 2002

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. van Valen F, Fulda S, Schafer KL, Truckenbrod B, Hotfilder M, Poremba C, Debatin KM, Winkelmann W: Selective and nonselective toxicity of TRAIL/Apo2L combined with chemotherapy in human bone tumour cells vs. normal human cells. Int J Cancer 107: 929–940, 2003

    Google Scholar 

  8. Marks P, Rifkind RA, Richon VM, Breslow R, Miller T, Kelly WK: Histone deacetylases and cancer: Causes and therapies. Nat Rev Cancer 1: 194–202, 2001

    Google Scholar 

  9. Johnstone RW: Histone-deacetylase inhibitors: Novel drugs for the treatment of cancer. Nat Rev Drug Discov 1: 287–299, 2002

    Google Scholar 

  10. Glick RD, Swendeman SL, Coffey DC, Rifkind RA, Marks PA, Richon VM, La Quaglia MP: Hybrid polar histone deacetylase inhibitor induces apoptosis and CD95/CD95 ligand expression in human neuroblastoma. Cancer Res 59: 4392–4399, 1999

    Google Scholar 

  11. Schmidt K, Gust R, Jung M: Inhibitors of histone deacetylase suppress the growth of MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Arch Pharm (Weinheim) 332: 353–357, 1999

    Google Scholar 

  12. Butler LM, Agus DB, Scher HI, Higgins B, Rose A, Cordon-Cardo C, Thaler HT, Rifkind RA, Marks PA, Richon VM: Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid, an inhibitor of histone deacetylase, suppresses the growth of prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Cancer Res 60: 5165–5170, 2000

    Google Scholar 

  13. Zhu WG, Lakshmanan RR, Beal MD, Otterson GA: DNA methyltransferase inhibition enhances apoptosis induced by histone deacetylase inhibitors. Cancer Res 61: 1327–1333, 2001

    Google Scholar 

  14. Inoue H, Shiraki K, Ohmori S, Sakai T, Deguchi M, Yamanaka T, Okano H, Nakano T: Histone deacetylase inhibitors sensitize human colonic adenocarcinoma cell lines to TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand-mediated apoptosis. Int J Mol Med 9: 521–525, 2002

    Google Scholar 

  15. Prakash S, Foster BJ, Meyer M, Wozniak A, Heilbrun LK, Flaherty L, Zalupski M, Radulovic L, Valdivieso M, LoRusso PM: Chronic oral administration of CI-994: A phase 1 study. Invest New Drugs 19: 1–11, 2001

    Google Scholar 

  16. Gilbert J, Baker SD, Bowling MK, Grochow L, Figg WD, Zabelina Y, Donehower RC, Carducci MA: A phase I dose escalation and bioavailability study of oral sodium phenylbutyrate in patients with refractory solid tumor malignancies. Clin Cancer Res 7: 2292–2300, 2001

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Piekarz RL, Robey R, Sandor V, Bakke S, Wilson WH, Dahmoush L, Kingma DM, Turner ML, Altemus R, Bates SE: Inhibitor of histone deacetylation, depsipeptide (FR901228), in the treatment of peripheral and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma: A case report. Blood 98: 2865–2868, 2001

    Google Scholar 

  18. Sandor V, Bakke S, Robey RW, Kang MH, Blagosklonny MV, Bender J, Brooks R, Piekarz RL, Tucker E, Figg WD, Chan KK, Goldspiel B, Fojo AT, Balcerzak SP, Bates SE: Phase I trial of the histone deacetylase inhibitor, depsipeptide (FR901228, NSC 630176), in patients with refractory neoplasms. Clin Cancer Res 8: 718–728, 2002

    Google Scholar 

  19. Gore SD, Weng LJ, Figg WD, Zhai S, Donehower RC, Dover G, Grever MR, Griffin C, Grochow LB, Hawkins A, Burks K, Zabelena Y, Miller CB: Impact of prolonged infusions of the putative differentiating agent sodium phenylbutyrate on myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia. Clin Cancer Res 8: 963–970, 2002

    Google Scholar 

  20. Marshall JL, Rizvi N, Kauh J, Dahut W, Figuera M, Kang MH, Figg WD, Wainer I, Chaissang C, Li MZ, Hawkins MJ: A phase I trial of depsipeptide (FR901228) in patients with advanced cancer. J Exp Ther Oncol 2: 325–332, 2002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Kelly WK, Richon VM, O’Connor O, Curley T, MacGregor-Curtelli B, Tong W, Klang M, Schwartz L, Richardson S, Rosa E, Drobnjak M, Cordon-Cordo C, Chiao JH, Rifkind R, Marks PA, Scher H: Phase I clinical trial of histone deacetylase inhibitor: Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid administered intravenously. Clin Cancer Res 9: 3578–3588, 2003

    Google Scholar 

  22. Mayo MW, Denlinger CE, Broad RM, Yeung F, Reilly ET, Shi Y, Jones DR: Ineffectiveness of histone deacetylase inhibitors to induce apoptosis involves the transcriptional activation of NF-kappa B through the Akt pathway. J Biol Chem 278: 18980–18989, 2003

    Google Scholar 

  23. Mitsiades CS, Mitsiades NS, McMullan CJ, Poulaki V, Shringarpure R, Hideshima T, Akiyama M, Chauhan D, Munshi N, Gu X, Bailey C, Joseph M, Libermann TA, Richon VM, Marks PA, Anderson KC: Transcriptional signature of histone deacetylase inhibition in multiple myeloma: Biological and clinical implications. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101: 540–545, 2004

    Google Scholar 

  24. Shi Y: Mechanisms of caspase activation and inhibition during apoptosis. Mol Cell 9: 459–470, 2002

    Google Scholar 

  25. Yamada H, Tada-Oikawa S, Uchida A, Kawanishi S: TRAIL causes cleavage of bid by caspase-8 and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential resulting in apoptosis in BJAB cells. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 265: 130–133, 1999

    Google Scholar 

  26. Walczak H, Bouchon A, Stahl H, Krammer PH: Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand retains its apoptosis-inducing capacity on Bcl-2- or Bcl-xL-overexpressing chemotherapy-resistant tumor cells. Cancer Res 60: 3051–3057, 2000

    Google Scholar 

  27. Bonnotte B, Favre N, Reveneau S, Micheau O, Droin N, Garrido C, Fontana A, Chauffert B, Solary E, Martin F: Cancer cell sensitization to fas-mediated apoptosis by sodium butyrate. Cell Death Differ 5: 480–487, 1998

    Google Scholar 

  28. Bernhard D, Skvortsov S, Tinhofer I, Hubl H, Greil R, Csordas A, Kofler R: Inhibition of histone deacetylase activity enhances Fas receptor-mediated apoptosis in leukemic lymphoblasts. Cell Death Differ 8: 1014–1021, 2001

    Google Scholar 

  29. Mitsiades N, Mitsiades CS, Poulaki V, Chauhan D, Richardson PG, Hideshima T, Munshi N, Treon SP, Anderson KC: Biologic sequelae of nuclear factor-kappaB blockade in multiple myeloma: Therapeutic applications. Blood 99: 4079–4086, 2002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Rosato RR, Almenara JA, Dai Y, Grant S: Simultaneous activation of the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways by histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors and tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) synergistically induces mitochondrial damage and apoptosis in human leukemia cells. Mol Cancer Ther 2: 1273–1284, 2003

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Guo F, Sigua C, Tao J, Bali P, George P, Li Y, Wittmann S, Moscinski L, Atadja P, Bhalla K: Cotreatment with histone deacetylase inhibitor LAQ824 enhances Apo-2L/tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis inducing ligand-induced death inducing signaling complex activity and apoptosis of human acute leukemia cells. Cancer Res 64: 2580–2589, 2004

    Google Scholar 

  32. Nakata S, Yoshida T, Horinaka M, Shiraishi T, Wakada M, Sakai T: Histone deacetylase inhibitors upregulate death receptor 5/TRAIL-R2 and sensitize apoptosis induced by TRAIL/APO2-L in human malignant tumor cells. Oncogene 2004

  33. Neuzil J, Swettenham E, Gellert N: Sensitization of mesothelioma to TRAIL apoptosis by inhibition of histone deacetylase: Role of Bcl-x(L) down-regulation. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 314: 186–191, 2004

    Google Scholar 

  34. Chopin V, Slomianny C, Hondermarck H, Le B, X: Synergistic induction of apoptosis in breast cancer cells by cotreatment with butyrate and TNF-alpha, TRAIL, or anti-Fas agonist antibody involves enhancement of death receptors’ signaling and requires P21(waf1). Exp Cell Res 298: 560–573, 2004

    Google Scholar 

  35. Luo X, Budihardjo I, Zou H, Slaughter C, Wang X: Bid, a Bcl2 interacting protein, mediates cytochrome c release from mitochondria in response to activation of cell surface death receptors. Cell 94: 481–490, 1998

    Google Scholar 

  36. LeBlanc HN, Ashkenazi A: Apo2L/TRAIL and its death and decoy receptors. Cell Death Differ 10: 66–75, 2003

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Cory S, Adams JM: The Bcl2 family: Regulators of the cellular life-or-death switch. Nat Rev Cancer 2: 647–656, 2002

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Vrana JA, Decker RH, Johnson CR, Wang Z, Jarvis WD, Richon VM, Ehinger M, Fisher PB, Grant S: Induction of apoptosis in U937 human leukemia cells by suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) proceeds through pathways that are regulated by Bcl-2/Bcl-XL, c-Jun, and p21CIP1, but independent of p53. Oncogene 18: 7016–7025, 1999

    Google Scholar 

  39. Ruefli AA, Ausserlechner MJ, Bernhard D, Sutton VR, Tainton KM, Kofler R, Smyth MJ, Johnstone RW: The histone deacetylase inhibitor and chemotherapeutic agent suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) induces a cell-death pathway characterized by cleavage of Bid and production of reactive oxygen species. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98: 10833–10838, 2001

    Google Scholar 

  40. Sambucetti LC, Fischer DD, Zabludoff S, Kwon PO, Chamberlin H, Trogani N, Xu H, Cohen D: Histone deacetylase inhibition selectively alters the activity and expression of cell cycle proteins leading to specific chromatin acetylation and antiproliferative effects. J Biol Chem 274: 34940–34947, 1999

    Google Scholar 

  41. Henderson C, Mizzau M, Paroni G, Maestro R, Schneider C, Brancolini C: Role of caspases, Bid, and p53 in the apoptotic response triggered by histone deacetylase inhibitors trichostatin-A (TSA) and suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA). J Biol Chem 278: 12579–12589, 2003

    Google Scholar 

  42. Luo J, Su F, Chen D, Shiloh A, Gu W: Deacetylation of p53 modulates its effect on cell growth and apoptosis. Nature 408: 377–381, 2000

    Google Scholar 

  43. Gu W, Roeder RG: Activation of p53 sequence-specific DNA binding by acetylation of the p53 C-terminal domain. Cell 90: 595–606, 1997

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Dy GK, Adjei AA: Novel targets for lung cancer therapy: Part I. J Clin Oncol 20: 2881–2894, 2002

    Google Scholar 

  45. Shaffer DR, Scher HI: Prostate cancer: A dynamic illness with shifting targets. Lancet Oncol 4: 407–414, 2003

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James F. Beck.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sonnemann, J., Gänge, J., Kumar, K.S. et al. Histone deacetylase inhibitors interact synergistically with tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) to induce apoptosis in carcinoma cell lines. Invest New Drugs 23, 99–109 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10637-005-5854-9

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10637-005-5854-9

Key words

Navigation