Anticancer effects of the p53 activator nutlin-3 in Ewing's sarcoma cells

作者：Sonnemann Juergen^*; Palani Chithra D; Wittig Susan; Becker Sabine; Eichhorn Friederike; Voigt Astrid; Beck James F

来源：European Journal of Cancer, 2011, 47(9): 1432-1441.

DOI：10.1016/j.ejca.2011.01.015

• Ewing's sarcoma
• p53
• Nutlin-3
• Apoptosis
• Cellular senescence
• NF-kappa B

Mutation of p53 is rare in Ewing's sarcoma (ES), suggesting that targeting and activation of wild-type p53 may be an effective therapeutic strategy for ES. The recently developed small-molecule MDM2 inhibitor nutlin-3 restores wild-type p53 function, resulting in the inhibition of cancer cell growth and the induction of apoptosis. In the present study, we explored the responsiveness of ES cell lines with wild-type or mutated p53 to nutlin-3. We found that treatment with nutlin-3 increased p53 level and induced p53 target gene expression (MDM2, p21, PUMA) in ES cells with wild-type p53, but not in ES cells with mutated p53. Consistently, nutlin-3 elicited apoptosis only in wild-type p53 cells, as assessed by caspase-3 activity assay and flow cytometric analyses of mitochondrial depolarisation and DNA fragmentation. In addition, we found nutlin-3 to evoke cellular senescence, indicating that nutlin-3 induces pleiotropic anticancer effects in ES. Furthermore, combined treatment with nutlin-3 and an inhibitor of NF-kappa B produced synergistic antineoplastic activity in ES cells. Our findings suggest that the direct activation of p53 by nutlin-3 treatment may be a useful new therapeutic approach for patients with ES.

• 出版日期2011-6