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The anticancer plant stress-protein methyl jasmonate induces activation of stress-regulated c-Jun N-terminal kinase and p38 protein kinase in human lymphoid cells

Leukemia volume 17, pages 2230–2234 (2003)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 22 January 2004

TO THE EDITOR

We have recently discovered that plant stress hormones, that regulate cell death in stressed plants, are capable of suppressing the proliferation and inducing apoptosis in various human transformed cells including leukemia, melanoma, prostate and breast cancer cells.1 That study focused on several plant stress hormones, that is, salicylic acid and jasmonates. Methyl jasmonate (MJ) was determined to be the most potent agent. Furthermore, while MJ killed Molt-4 human lymphoblastic leukemia cells in an efficient manner, it did not affect normal human peripheral blood lymphocytes. Finally, MJ administered in vivo significantly increased the survival of lymphoma-bearing mice.1

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Israel Cancer Association and by the Nofar program of the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade. We thank Professor Zvi Fishelson for his assistance with the protein synthesis assay. RR and OF contributed equally to this publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Microbiology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    R Rotem, O Fingrut & E Flescher

  2. Laboratory of Biochemistry, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    J Moskovitz

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  1. R Rotem
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  2. O Fingrut
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  4. E Flescher
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Rotem, R., Fingrut, O., Moskovitz, J. et al. The anticancer plant stress-protein methyl jasmonate induces activation of stress-regulated c-Jun N-terminal kinase and p38 protein kinase in human lymphoid cells. Leukemia 17, 2230–2234 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2403107

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