Abstract
The c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) has been shown to mediate tamoxifen-induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells. However, the downstream mediators of the JNK pathway linking tamoxifen to effectors of apoptosis have yet to be identified. In this study, we analysed whether c-Jun, the major nuclear target of JNK, has a role in tamoxifen-induced apoptosis of SkBr3 breast cancer cells. We show that before DNA fragmentation and caspase 3/7 activation, cytotoxic concentrations of 4-hydroxytamoxifen (OHT) induced JNK-dependent phosphorylation of c-Jun at JNK sites earlier shown to regulate c-Jun-mediated apoptosis. In addition, OHT induced ERK-dependent expression of c-Fos and transactivation of an AP-1-responsive promoter. In particular, the ectopic expression of dominant-negative constructs blocking either AP-1 activity or c-Jun N-terminal phosphorylation prevented DNA fragmentation after OHT treatment. Furthermore, both c-Fos expression and c-Jun N-terminal phosphorylation preceded OHT-dependent activation of caspase 3–7 in different types of tamoxifen-sensitive cancer cells, but not in OHT-resistant LNCaP prostate cancer cells. Taken together, our results indicate that the c-Jun/c-Fos AP-1 complex has a pro-apoptotic role in OHT-treated cancer cells and suggest that pharmacological boosts of c-Jun activation may be useful in a combination therapy setting to sensitize cancer cells to tamoxifen-mediated cell death.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Lidia Albanito for continuous helpful experimental assistance. We thank Dr Anna Grazia Recchia for the English revision of the paper. We are grateful to C Vinson, K Nose and H van Dam for gifts of reagents. Funding for this project was provided by the Associazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC), Ministero dell’Universita' e Ricerca, Regione Calabria.
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Madeo, A., Vinciguerra, M., Lappano, R. et al. c-Jun activation is required for 4-hydroxytamoxifen-induced cell death in breast cancer cells. Oncogene 29, 978–991 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2009.400
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2009.400
