Patent Application: US-201214344968-A

Abstract:
a method for screening a compound to determine whether the compound is a proteasome deubiquinating inhibitor of high specificity comprises contacting the compound with human 19s regulatory particles of 26s proteasome and determining whether the compound inhibits activity of deubiquinating enzymes uchl5 and usp14 ; inhibition of uchl5 and uscp14 activities indicates that the compound is a proteasome deubiquinating inhibitor of high specificity .

Description:
in vitro proteasome activity assays were performed in black 96 - well microtiter plates using human 20s proteasome ( boston biochem ) in reaction buffer ( 25 mm hepes , 0 . 5 mm edta , 0 . 03 % sds ) with suc - llvy - amc , z - lle - amc or boc - lrramc used as substrates for proteasome activity . de - ubiquitinase activity assays were performed with human 19s rp ( boston biochem ) with ubiquitin - amc as substrate . for xenograft studies a 100 - μl - cell suspension containing 1 × 10 6 fadu head - neck or 2 × 10 5 lewis lung carcinoma ( llc ) cells were injected subcutaneously into the flank of scid or c57bl / 6j mice . upon tumor take mice were randomized into control or treatment groups and administered with 5 mg kg − 1 b - ap15 or vehicle . in vivo levels of apoptosis and cell death were determined from the detection of caspase cleaved and total levels of cytokeratin - 18 in plasma using m30 apoptosense ® and m65 elisa ® s assays ( peviva ). the methods are described below in detail . reagents were obtained from the following sources : 20s proteasome ( e - 360 ), 26s proteasome ( e - 365 ), 19s proteasome ( e - 366 ), suc - llvy - amc ( s - 280 ), z - lle - amc ( s - 230 ), boc - lrr - amc ( s - 300 ), ubiquitin - amc ( u - 550 ), tetra - ubiquitin k63 ( uc - 310 ), tetra - ubiquitin k48 ( uc - 210 ), deconjugating enzyme set ( ke10 ), ha - ubiquitin vinyl sulfone ( u - 212 ) ( boston biochem ); anti - actin ( ac - 15 ), odc - 1 ( hpa001536 ) ( sigma aldrich ); anti - lc - 3 ( 2775 ), anti - gapdh ( 2118 ), anti - p44 / 42 mapk ( 4695 ), anti - phospho - p44 / 42 mapk ( 9101 )( cell signaling ); n - ethylmaleimide ( 34115 ) ( emd chemicals ); anti - ubiquitin k48 ( apu2 ), anti - ubiquitin ( mab1510 ) ( millipore ); anti - p53 ( do1 ), anti - uchl5 ( h - 110 ), hdm2 ( smp14 ) ( santa cruz ); anti - parp ( c2 - 10 ), anti - p27 ( g173 - 524 ), anti - active caspase 3 ( c92 - 605 ) ( bd biosciences ); anti - usp14 ( a300 - 919a ) ( bethyl laboratories ); anti - ha ( 12ca5 ) ( roche ); b - ap15 ( nsc687852 ) was obtained from the developmental therapeutics program of the us national cancer institute ( http :// www . dtp . nci . nih . gov ) or synthesized by oncotargeting ab ( uppsala , sweden ). bortezomib was obtained from the department of oncology , karolinska hospital , sweden . mcf7 cells were maintained in mem / 10 % fetal calf serum . hct - 116 p53 +/+, p53 −/−, bcl - 2 +/+, puma −/− and bax −/− cells were maintained in mccoy &# 39 ; s 5a modified medium / 10 % fetal calf serum . the hct - 116 p53 +/+, p53 −/−, puma −/− and bax −/− were generated as described ( 36 ). the hct - 116 bcl - 2 +/+ cell line was generated by transfecting parental hct - 116 p53 +/+ cells with pcep4 bcl - 2 ( addgene plasmid 16461 ) ( 37 ) and isolating high expression clones . fadu and llc3 cells were maintained in dmem high glucose medium supplemented with 10 % fetal calf serum , na pyruvate , hepes and non - essential amino acids . 4t1 . 12b carcinoma cells were maintained in rpmi medium supplemented with 10 % fetal calf serum . the proteasome reporter cell line meljuso ub - yfp was generated as described ( 38 ). cells were maintained in dulbecco &# 39 ; s modified eagle &# 39 ; s medium / 10 % fetal calf serum . the retinal epithelial cell line was generated as described ( 39 ). all cells were maintained at 37 ° c . in 5 % co 2 . the microarray based gene expression analysis and the connectivity map ( cmap ) analysis was performed as previously described ( 40 ). briefly , mcf7 cells were exposed to b - ap15 ( 1 μm , 6 h ) or vehicle ( 0 . 1 % dmso , 6 h ). rna was isolated ( rneasy miniprep kit , qiagen ) followed by quality control , labelling and hybridization to genome u133 plus 2 . 0 arrays ( affymetrix inc ). raw data was normalized using mas5 ( affymetrix inc .) and rank ordered . for selection of the 30 most induced ( up tags ) and the 30 most suppressed ( down tags ) transcripts the following criteria were used : up tags , present call and expression over 300 arbitrary in the b - ap15 experiment ; down tags , present call after both b - ap15 and vehicle treatment , and expression over 300 arbitrary units in the vehicle experiment . for cmap compatibility only tags ( i . e . probes ) present on hg u133a were used . raw and normalized expression data have been deposited at gene expression omnibus ( http :// www . ncbi . nlm . nih . gov / geo /) with accession number gse24150 . in vitro proteasome activity assays using 20s cp ( 2 nm ) ( boston biochem ) were performed at 37 ° c . in 100 - μl reaction buffer ( 25 mm hepes , 0 . 5 mm edta , 0 . 03 % sds ). samples were incubated for 10 min with indicated compound followed by addition of 10 μm suc - llvy - amc , z - lle - amc or boc - lrr - amc for the detection of chymotrypsin - like , caspase - like and trypsin - like activity respectively . for dub inhibition assays 19s rp ( 5 nm ), 26s ( 5 nm ) uch - l1 ( 5 nm ), uch - l3 ( 0 . 3 nm ), usp2cd ( 5 nm ) usp7cd ( 5 nm ) usp8cd ( 5 nm ) and bap1 ( 5 nm ) were incubated with b - ap15 followed by addition of ubiquitin - amc ( 1000 nm ). fluorescence was monitored using wallac multilabel counter or tecan infinite m1000 equipped with 360 nm excitation and 460 nm emission filters . substrate overlay assays . native gel electrophoresis was performed as described ( 41 ). in brief 4 μg of purified 26s proteasome ( boston biochem ) was mixed with 10 or 50 μm b - ap15 and incubated at 37 ° c . for 10 min . samples were resolved on 4 % non - denaturing page . gels were submerged in assay buffer ( 20 mm tris - hcl , 5 mm mgcl 2 , 1 mm atp , 0 . 1 mm suc - llvy - amc ) and proteasomes were visualized under uv illumination . the recombinant ub - gfp plasmid pet19b ub - m - gfp was generated as described ( 42 ). in brief recombinant ub - gfp was purified from bl21 e . coli cells by his affinity purification . for cleavage assays 19s rp ( 25 nm ) was incubated with 10 mm nem , 250 μm tpen or 50 μm b - ap15 for 10 min followed by the addition of recombinant ub - gfp ( 200 nm ). ubiquitin chain disassembly reactions were performed essentially as above except k48 - or k63 - linked ubiquitin tetramers ( 50 ng ) were substituted for ub - gfp . the level of ub - gfp cleavage or ubiquitin disassembly was determined by immunoblotting with anti ubiquitin antibodies . the ubiquitinated hdm2 substrate was generated according to the boston biochem protocol ( k - 200 ). for the cleavage assay 19s rp ( 25 nm ) was incubated with 50 μm b - ap15 or dmso for 10 min followed by the addition of ubiquitinated hdm2 substrate ( 100 nm ). the cleavage of ubiquitinated hdm2 substrate and ubiquitinated hdm2 was determined by immunoblotting with anti - hdm2 antibodies . hct - 116 cells were treated with bortezomib ( 100 nm ) or b - ap15 ( 1 μm ) for 3 hours . after stimulation , the cells were lysed in 50 mm hepes ph 7 . 4 , 250 mm sucrose , 10 mm mgcl 2 , 2 mm atp , 1 mm dtt and 0 . 025 % digitonin . samples were sonicated briefly and incubated for 15 min on ice . proteasomes from these samples were isolated according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s protocol . for labelling of dubs in cell lysates sub confluent cells were harvested by trypsinization , washed three times with pbs , and centrifuged at 1500 rpm for 5 min . cell pellets were lysed with buffer ( 50 mm hepes ph 7 . 4 , 250 mm sucrose , 10 mm mgcl 2 , 2 mm atp , 1 mm dtt ) on ice for 15 min . debris was removed by centrifugation and 25 μg of protein was labelled with 1 μm ha - ubvs for 30 min at 37 ° c . samples were resolved by sds - page and analyzed by immunoblotting with indicated antibodies . for determination of apoptosis parental hct - 116 p53 +/+ cells were treated with the increasing doses of bortezomib or b - ap15 for 24 h . treatment doses were based on the drug concentration that resulted in maximal apoptosis over a 24 h period . hct - 116 cells were seeded in 96 - well microtiter plates at 10 , 000 cells per well and incubated overnight . cells were treated with indicated drug for 24 h . at the end of the incubation period , np40 was added to the tissue culture medium to 0 . 1 % and 25 μl of the content of each well was assayed using the m30 - apoptosense ® elisa as previously described ( 43 ). cell viability was determined by measuring acid phosphatase activity or using the fmca method ( 44 ). for the acid phosphatase activity cells were seeded at 5000 cells per well in 96 - well culture plates and incubated for 12 h at 37 ° c . compounds were added to the cells in growth media and incubated for 72 h at 37 ° c . cells were washed with 200 μl warm pbs . 100 μl of para - nitrophenyl phosphate ( pnpp , 2 mg / ml ) in na acetate buffer ph 5 ( naac 0 . 1 m , 0 . 1 % triton - x - 100 ) was added per well . cells were incubated for 2 h after which reaction was stopped by addition of 1n naoh . absorbance was measured at 405 nm . for the fmca assay cells were seeded in the drug - prepared 384 - well plates using the pipetting robot precision 2000 ( bio - tek instruments inc ., winooski , vt .). the plates were incubated for 72 h and then transferred to an integrated hts saigan core system consisting of an orca robot ( beckman coulter ) with co 2 incubator ( cytomat 2c , kendro , sollentuna , sweden ), dispenser module ( multidrop 384 , titertek , huntsville , ala . ), washer module ( elx 405 , bio - tek instruments inc ), delidding station , plate hotels , barcode reader ( beckman coulter ), liquid handler ( biomek 2000 , beckman coulter ) and a multipurpose reader ( fluostar optima , bmg labtech gmbh , offenburg , germany ) for automated fmca . survival index ( si ) is defined as the fluorescence of test wells in percentage of controls with blank values subtracted . for determination of cell cycle hct - 116 cells were treated with b - ap15 or dmso cells were harvested by trypsinisation , washed and fixed in 70 % ice cold etoh for 12 h . cells were re - suspended in staining solution containing propidium iodide ( 50 μg / ml ) and rnase a ( 0 . 5 μg / ml ) in pbs . samples were run on bd facscalibur . the percentage of cells in each phase of the cell cycle was determined using modfit software . animal experiments were conducted in full accordance with swedish governmental statutory regulations on animal welfare under permission from local ethical committees . animals were housed at a max of five per cage and provided with sterile water and food ad libitum . all mice were monitored and weighed daily . for the head and neck carcinoma model a 100 - μl cell suspension containing 1 × 10 6 fadu cells was injected subcutaneously into the right rear flank of the animals . after injection , tumor growth was measured daily with calipers and the tumor volume calculated by the formula l = w 2 = 0 . 44 . when tumors had grown to a size of approximately 200 mm 3 ( day 0 ) mice were randomized to receive either vehicle ( n = 10 ) or b - ap15 5 mg / kg − 1 by subcutaneous injection s . c . ( n = 15 ) daily . for the colon carcinoma model , 2 . 5 × 10 6 hct - 116 colon carcinoma cells stably transfected with bcl - 2 ( hct - 116 bcl - 2 + were inoculated subcutaneously into the right flank of nude mice . one day after inoculation mice were treated with 5 mg / kg − 1 by intra peritoneal injection ( i . p .). animals were inspected daily to establish the tumor onset and growth . for the lung carcinoma model a 100 - 0 cell suspension containing 2 × 10 5 lewis lung carcinoma ( llc ) cells was injected subcutaneously into the right rear flank of c57 / b6 mice . when tumors had grown to a size of approximately 50 mm 3 ( day 0 ) mice were randomized to receive either vehicle ( n = 4 ) or b - ap15 5 mg / kg − 1 i . p . ( n = 4 ) with a treatment cycle consisting of two days treatment followed by two days no treatment ( 2 days on / 2 days off ) for two weeks . for the breast carcinoma model a 100 - μl cell suspension containing 1 × 10 5 4 td cells was injected subcutaneously into the right mammary fat pad of balb / c mice . when tumors had grown to a size approximately 25 mm 3 ( day 0 ), mice were randomized to receive either vehicle ( n = 5 ) or b - ap15 2 . 5 mg / kg − 1 i . p . ( n = 5 ) with a treatment cycle consisting of one days treatment followed by three days no treatment ( 1 day on / 3 days off ) for 3 weeks . in the aml studies female c57bl / 6j mice were injected i . v . in the tail vein with 5 × 10 5 c1498 aml cells . after eight days mice were randomized to receive either b - ap15 5 mg / kg − 1 ( n = 10 ) or vehicle ( n = 10 ) i . p . for 7 days ( day + 8 till + 14 ). nineteen days after malignant cell injection all of the mice were killed and histopathological manifestations of liver , ovary ( target organs for this model of tumor ) were evaluated and compared between groups . for administration of drug b - ap15 was dissolved in cremphor el : peg 400 ( 1 : 1 ) by heating to give a working concentration of 2 mg / ml . working stock was 1 : 10 diluted in 0 . 9 % normal saline immediately prior to injection . for measurement of the apoptosis - related ck18 - asp396 fragment , 12 . 5 ml of plasma was collected 24 h after last treatment and analyzed using the m30 - apoptosense ® assay . each sample was mixed with 0 . 4 ml of heterophilic blocking reagent ( scantibodies laboratory inc ). since the 4t1 cells are resistant to 6 - thioguanine , metastases can be determined by culturing homogenized tissue in the presence of 6 - thioguanine . for determination of metastastic 4t1 cells the protocol was as described ( 45 ). in brief lungs from treated or untreated animals were homogenized and treated with collagenase and elastase . cells were grown in the presence of 60 μm 6 - thioguanine for 2 weeks and the number of metastatic colonies determined by giemsa staining . tumor sections were de - paraffinized with xylene , rehydrated and then incubated over - night with k - 48 ubiquitin or active - caspase 3 ( 1 / 500 ) diluted in 1 % ( wt / vol ) bovine serum albumin and visualized by standard avidin - biotin - peroxidase complex technique ( vector laboratories ). counterstaining was performed with mayer &# 39 ; s haematoxylin . for comparisons of treatment groups , we performed the unpaired t test ( mann - whitney ), repeated measures anova and kaplan - meier survival ( mantel - cox test ). all statistical analyses were performed using graphpad prism software ( version 5 . 0 ). statistical significance was achieved when p was less than 0 . 05 . b - ap15 inhibits the ubiquitin - proteasome system . cmap readout of mcf7 cells treated with b - ap15 ( 1 μm ) for 6 h is shown in table 3 . b - ap15 inhibits degradation of ubiquitin - tagged yfp in a proteasome reporter cell line ( fig1 a ). levels of ubg76v - yfp accumulation were determined by flow cytometry and immunoblotting ; immunoblot of ubiquitin conjugation in hct - 116 cells treated with b - ap15 ( 1 μm ) or bortezomib ( 100 nm ) ( fig1 b ). immunoblot of ubiquitin conjugates , caspase 3 activation parp cleavage , p53 . p21 cip1 and p kip1 in hct - 116 cells following 24 h treatment with the indicated concentrations of b - ap15 ( fig1 c ). immunoblot of odc - 1 levels in hct - 116 cells following treatment with bortezomib ( 100 mm or b - ap15 ( 1 μm ) ( fig1 d ); values represent quantified optical density units of odc - 1 normalized to β - actin . cell cycle profiles of b - ap15 treated hct - 116 cells ( fig1 e ); cells were analyzed by propidium iodide staining and flow cytometry . levels of caspase activity in isogenic hct - 116 cells as determined by elisa for caspase cleaved cytokeratin - 18 ( ck18 - asp398 ) following treatment with bortezomib ( 100 nm ) or b - ap15 ( 1 μm ) (**′ p = 0 . 01 , ***′ p = 0 . 001 ) ( fig1 f ). b - ap15 inhibits deubiquitination by the 19s rp . inhibition of ub - amc cleavage by 19s rp or 26s proteasomes following treatment with b - ap15 ; ubiquitin aldehyde ( ubal ), a general dub inhibitor , was included as a control ( fig2 a ). immunoblot of 19s rp mediated cleavage of ub - gfp ( fig2 b ); 19s rp were pre - treated with dmso or indicated concentrations of b - ap15 followed by addition of recombinant ub - gfp as a dub substrate . kinetics of 19s rp ub - gfp cleavage following b - ap15 ( 50 μm ) treatment ( fig2 c ). b - ap15 inhibits de - ubiquination of hdm2 ( fig2 d ); ubiquinated hdm2 was added to dmso or b - ap15 ( 50 μm ) treated 19s rp followed by immunoblotting . ubiquitin chain disassembly reactions of k63 / k48 linked ubiquitin tetramers by 19s rp following treatment with dmso or b - ap15 ( 50 μm ) ( fig2 e ). b - ap15 inhibits the 19s rp dubs uchl5 and usp14 . 19s rp were pre - treated with dmso , nem ( 10 mm ) b - ap15 ( 50 μm ) ( fig3 a ) or tpen ( 250 μm ) ( fig3 b ) followed by addition of ub - gfp and immunoblotting with anti - gfp antibodies . active site directed labelling of proteasomal dubs ( fig3 c ); purified 19s or 26s proteasomes were pre - treated with dmso , nem or bap15 followed by labeling with ha - ubvs and immunoblotting . immunoblot of hct116 cells treated with b - ap15 ( 1 μm ) for 3 h ( fig3 d ); dubs from whole cell lysates were labelled with ha - ubvs followed by sds - page and immunoblotting with indicated antibodies . b - ap15 inhibits tumor growth in vivo . scid mice bearing fadu human tumor xenografts were randomized at tumor take ( 200 mm 3 ) and treated by daily subcutaneous injection with either vehicle ( n = 10 ) or 5 mg kg − 1 b - ap15 ( n = 15 ) for 10 days . mean tumor volume ± sem shown (*** p =& lt ; 0 . 001 ) ( fig4 a ). total levels of tumor derived ck18 and caspase cleaved ( ck 18 - asp396 ) in circulation following b - ap15 treatment (** p = 0 . 01 ) ( fig4 b ). disease free survival of nude mice challenged with hct - 116 bel - 2 + cells ( fig4 c ). mice were treated with vehicle ( n = 6 ) or 5 mg kg − 1 b - ap15 ( n = 6 ) 4 - 5 times weekly for 3 weeks and monitored for tumor onset ( log - rank , p = 0 . 0136 , hazard ratio = 7 . 9 ). c57bl / 6j mice bearing syngenic lung carcinoma ( llc ) tumors were treated with either vehicle ( n = 4 ) of 5 mg kg b - ap15 ( n = 4 ) in a one day on / two days off cycle ( fig4 d ); mean tumor volume ± sem shown ( p =& lt ; 0 . 01 ). balb / c mice bearing orthotopic breast carcinomas ( 4t1 ) were treated with either vehicle ( n = 5 ) or 2 . 5 mg kg − 1 b - ap15 ( n = 5 ) in a one day on / three days off cycle ( fig4 e ); mean tumor volume ± sem shown (** p =& lt ; 0 . 01 ). box and whisker plots of pulmonary metastatic colonies from vehicle or b - ap15 treated 4t1 breast carcinomas ( fig4 f ); boxes represent upper and lower quartiles and median , whiskers show maximum and minimum values . representative immunohistochemical staining for k48 - linked ubiquitin accumulation and cleaved caspase - 3 in vehicle and b - ap15 treated 4t1 tumors , original magnification × 20 ( fig4 g ). aml infiltration in liver and ovary of vehicle and b - ap15 treated mice ( fig4 h ). liver of vehicle treated mice showed invasion of leukemic blasts along with glycogen depletion and non - specific hemorrhage . ovary section of vehicle treated mice showed massive invasion of leukemic blasts and interstitial bleeding . in contrast , liver and ovary from b - ap15 treated mice showed few infiltrated blasts and normal morphology ( original magnification × 20 ). b - ap15 does not induce dna damage . hct - 116 cells were treated with b - ap15 or doxorubicin ( 100 nm , as a positive control for genotoxic stress for 18 h ) ( fig5 ). cell lysates were immuno - blotted with antibodies for phosphorylated p53 and histone h2 ax marker for dna damage of for total levels of p53 and β - actin as loading controls . b - ap15 induces apoptosis and inhibits cell survival of hct - 116 cells whereas pbmc ( peripheral blood mononuclear cells ) and immortalized htert - rpe1 are less sensitive . hct - 116 cells were treated with increasing concentrations of b - ap15 for 24 h and the levels of apoptosis were determined by measuring the levels of caspase cleaved cytokeratin - 18 ( ck18 ) by elisa assay ( fig6 a ). hct - 116 cells were treated with increasing concentrations of b - ap15 for 48 h ). cell viability was determined by acid - phosphatase activity assay . mean values ± s . d . shown ( fig6 b ). hct - 116 or htert - rep1 cells were treated with increasing concentrations of b - ap15 for 72 h followed by analysis of cytotoxicity using the fmca method ( 44 ) ( fig6 c ). hct - 116 or htert - rep1 cells were treated with increasing concentrations of bortezomib for 72 h followed by analysis of cytotoxicity using the fmca method ( fig6 d ). htert - rpe1 is an immortalized human retinal pigment epithelial cell line ( 39 ). ic50 was determined from log concentration / effect curves in graph pad prism ( graphpad software inc . ca , usa ) using non - linear regression analysis ( four parameter model with variable hill slope ) ( fig6 e , 6 f ). concentration / response curves were generated in two - fold dilutions at eight concentrations of b - ap15 and bortezomib in triplicate using the fmca assay . the results are expressed as log ic50 + sd from four or five independent experiments ( hct - 116 , n = 5 ; pbmc , n = 4 ; htert - rpe1 , n = 5 ). dose response curves of apoptosis induction in isogenic clones of hct - 116 cells . hct - 116 cells were treated with increasing concentrations of bortezomib or b - ap15 for 24 h and the levels of apoptosis were determined by measuring the levels of caspase cleaved cytokeratin - 18 ( ck - 18 ) by elisa assay ( mean fold change ± s . d , n = 4 ) ( fig7 ). b - ap15 does not inhibit the proteolytic activities of the proteasome . 20s cp ( 2 nm ) was pretreated with dmso , b - ap15 ( 50 μm ) or bortezomib ( 100 nm ) for 5 min in assay buffer ( 25 mm hepes , 0 . 5 mm edta , 0 . 03 % sds ) followed by the addition of 100 μm of the fluorogenic substrates suc - llvy - amc , z - lle - amc or boc - lrr - amc for analysis of proteasome chymotrypsin - like , caspase - like and trypsin - like activities , respectively ( fig8 a ). 26s proteasomes ( 2 nm ) in assay buffer ( 25 mm hepes , 50 mm nacl , 1 mm mgcl 2 , 2 mm atp , 1 mm dtt ) were treated as in the experiment illustrated in fig8 a ( fig8 b ). values represent fold cleavage in relative fluorescent units . b - ap15 does not cause dissociation of 19s and 20s particles or alter ubiquitin binding . substrate overlay assay of b - ap15 treated proteasomes ( fig9 a ). purified 26 s proteasome was treated with b - ap15 ( 10 μm or 50 μm ) separated by native gel electrophoresis and assayed for proteolytic activity using suc - llvy - amc as a fluorogenic substrate for peptidase activity . analysis of the gels showed the presence of doubly ( rp 2 cp ) and singly ( rp 1 cp ) capped proteasomes in both control and b - ap15 lanes . the addition of 0 . 03 % sds did not reveal an increase in the presence of uncapped 20s core particles . b - ap15 does not alter proteasome - ubiquitin binding activity ( fig9 b ). hct - 116 cells were treated with bortezomib ( 100 nnm ) or b - ap15 ( 1 μm ), and the proteasomes were affinity purified . levels of associated polyubiquitin were determined by immunoblotting . b - ap15 is not a general dub inhibitor . htc - 116 cells were treated for 3 h with b - ap15 ( 1 μm ) ( fig1 ). lysates treated with 10 mm n - ethylmaleimide ( nem ) were included as a control for total dub inhibition . dub activity was determined from cell lysates by measuring cleavage of the fluorogenic substrate ubiquitin - 7 - amido - 4 - methylcoumarin ( ub - amc ). biochemical characterization of b - ap15 binding . dose response of b - ap15 ( fig1 a ): purified 10s proteasomes ( 5 nm ) were treated with indicated concentrations of b - ap15 , and dub activity was determined by detection of ub - amc cleavage . the ic50 value ( 2 . 1 ± 0 . 411 μm ) was determined from log concentration curves in graph pad prism using non - linear regression analysis ( mean values ± sd , n = 3 ). it should be noted that ic50 observed in cell - free assays is somewhat higher than that observed in cells , probably due to the hydrophobicity of b - ap15 ( xlogp = 3 . 3 ) resulting in enrichment of the compound in cells ( 11 ). reversibility of b - ap15 inhibition ( fig1 b ): the reversibility of inhibition was determined by measuring recovery of dub activity after rapid dilution of the enzyme / b - ap15 complex . a reaction mix containing 50 times the 19s concentration normally used in reactions ( 250 mm ) and 10 times the calculated ic50 value for b - ap15 ( 25 μm ) was incubated on ice for 15 min followed by a 50 - fold dilution in reaction buffer to give a final concentration of 5 nm for 19 &# 39 ; s and 0 . 5 μm for b - ap15 . the linear reaction curves of ub - amc cleavage show that b - ap15 is a reversible inhibitor . determination of whether b - ap15 reacts non - specifically with cysteine residues ( fig1 c ). 19s ( 5 nm ) was treated with b - ap15 ( 10 μm ) or b - ap15 ( 10 μm ) mixed with reduced glutathione ( gsh ( 2 mm ). the presence of glutathione did not reduce b - ap15 mediated inhibition of 19s dub activity . b - ap15 is not a general dub inhibitor . hct - 116 cells were treated for 3 h with b - ap15 ( 1 μm ) and the proteasomes were affinity purified ( fig1 a ). proteasome dub activity is expressed as cleavage of ub - amc / suc - llvy - amc to normalize for proteasome recovery ( p = 0 . 012 , unpaired t - test , two tailed ). b - ap15 does not inhibit non - proteasomal dubs ( fig1 b ). recombinant non - proteosomal dubs were treated with b - ap15 and % activity determined . cell lysates from 293t and hela cells were treated with b - ap15 ( 50 μm ) followed by active labelling with ha - ubvs ( fig1 c ). all samples were run on sd - page followed by immunoblotting with α - ha antibodies . b - ap15 treatment does not significantly alter animal weight ( fig1 ). the difference in weight at the start and the endpoint between control and treated animals for the xenografts shown in fig4 was : fadu , − 1 . 3 %; llc , + 2 . 1 %; 4t1 + 5 . 8 %. boxes represent the upper and lower quartiles and median , whiskers show maximum and minimum values . sensitivity of cell lines in the nc160 cell line to b - ap15 and bortezomib ( fig1 ). shown are ic50 values for individual cell lines ( left hand graphs ) and median ic50 for each tumor type ( right hand graphs ). data have been taken from www . dtp . nci . nih . gov . arrows indicate the two most sensitive tumor cell types for each drug . expression of chaperone genes observed in bap15 - treated cells . expression of chaperone genes observed in bap15 - treated cells ( table 1 ) is indicative of induction of a proteotoxic response . further analysis by quantitative pcr showed that b - ap15 induces a stronger hspa6 ( hsp70b ′), hspa1b and dnajb1 ( hsp40 ) expression than bortezomib ( table 2 ). hspa6 , which is known to be induced in response to accumulation of damaged proteins ( 35 ), was induced & gt ; 1000 - fold by b - ap15 . these findings indicate that high molecular weight ubiquitin substrate complexes accumulating as a result of dub inhibition can generate strong cytotoxicity that is insensitive to bcl - 2 over - expression . # hct116 cells were treated with ic90 concentrations of b - ap15 or bortezomib and mrna levels were determined after reverse transcription and real time pcr . fold induction is expressed as fold untreated control . the experiment was repeated with similar results . the cellular response to b - ap15 is not only distinct from that of bortezomib in regard of involvement of apoptosis regulators but also in regard of the sensitivity of tumor cell lines in the nci - 60 cell line panel ( http :// dtp . nci . nih . gov ). inhibitors of 19s rp dub activity should display a therapeutic spectrum different from that of inhibitors of 20s enzymatic activity , and therefore expand the arsenal of therapy options in oncology . 1 . masdehors , p et al ., increased sensitivity of cll - derived lymphocytes to apoptotic death activation by the proteasome - specific inhibitor lactacystin . br j haematol 105 , 752 - 757 , doi : bjh1388 [ pii ] ( 1999 ). 2 . demartino , g n et al ., pa 700 , an atp - dependent activator of the 20 s proteasome , is an atpase containing multiple members of a nucleotide binding protein family . j biol chem 69 , 20878 - 20884 , http :// www . ncbi . nlm . nih . gov / entrez / query . fcgi ? cmd = retrieve & amp ; 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