Autophagy-related Gene 7 (ATG7) and Reactive Oxygen Species/Extracellular Signal-regulated Kinase Regulate Tetrandrine-induced Autophagy in Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma

作者：Gong, Ke; Chen, Chao; Zhan, Yao; Chen, Yan; Huang, Zebo; Li, Wenhua^*

来源：JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY, 2012, 287(42): 35576-35588.

DOI：10.1074/jbc.M112.370585

• COLON-CANCER CELLS
• CYTOCHROME-C
• APOPTOSIS
• DEATH
• ACTIVATION
• PATHWAY
• MITOCHONDRIA
• THERAPY
• GROWTH
• PERMEABILIZATION

Tetrandrine, a bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid isolated from the broadly used Chinese medicinal herb Stephaniae tetrandrae, exhibits potent antitumor effects and has the potential to be used as a cancer chemotherapeutic agent. We previously reported that high concentrations of tetrandrine induce apoptosis in liver cancer cells. Here, we found that in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells, a low dose of tetrandrine (5 mu M) induced the expression of LC3-II, resulted in the formation of acidic autophagolysosome vacuoles (AVOs), and caused a punctate fluorescence pattern with the GFP-LC3 protein, which all are markers for cellular autophagy. Tetrandrine induced the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), and treatment with ROS scavengers significantly abrogated the tetrandrine-induced autophagy. These results suggest that the generation of ROS plays an important role in promoting tetrandrine-induced autophagy. Tetrandrine-induced mitochondrial dysfunction resulted in ROS accumulation and autophagy. ROS generation activated the ERK MAP kinase, and the ERK signaling pathway at least partially contributed to tetrandrine-induced autophagy in HCC cells. Moreover, we found that tetrandrine transcriptionally regulated the expression of autophagy related gene 7 (ATG7), which promoted tetrandrine-induced autophagy. In addition to in vitro studies, similar results were also observed in vivo, where tetrandrine caused the accumulation of ROS and induced cell autophagy in a tumor xenograft model. Interestingly, tetrandrine treatment also induced autophagy in a ROS-dependent manner in C. elegans muscle cells. Therefore, these findings suggest that tetrandrine is a potent autophagy agonist and may be a promising clinical chemotherapeutic agent.

• 出版日期2012-10-12
• 单位武汉大学