Benzyl Isothiocyanate potentiates p53 signaling and antitumor effects against breast cancer through activation of p53-LKB1 and p73-LKB1 axes

Sci Rep. 2017 Jan 10:7:40070. doi: 10.1038/srep40070.

Abstract

Functional reactivation of p53 pathway, although arduous, can potentially provide a broad-based strategy for cancer therapy owing to frequent p53 inactivation in human cancer. Using a phosphoprotein-screening array, we found that Benzyl Isothiocynate, (BITC) increases p53 phosphorylation in breast cancer cells and reveal an important role of ERK and PRAS40/MDM2 in BITC-mediated p53 activation. We show that BITC rescues and activates p53-signaling network and inhibits growth of p53-mutant cells. Mechanistically, BITC induces p73 expression in p53-mutant cells, disrupts the interaction of p73 and mutant-p53, thereby releasing p73 from sequestration and allowing it to be transcriptionally active. Furthermore, BITC-induced p53 and p73 axes converge on tumor-suppressor LKB1 which is transcriptionally upregulated by p53 and p73 in p53-wild-type and p53-mutant cells respectively; and in a feed-forward mechanism, LKB1 tethers with p53 and p73 to get recruited to p53-responsive promoters. Analyses of BITC-treated xenografts using LKB1-null cells corroborate in vitro mechanistic findings and establish LKB1 as the key node whereby BITC potentiates as well as rescues p53-pathway in p53-wild-type as well as p53-mutant cells. These data provide first in vitro and in vivo evidence of the integral role of previously unrecognized crosstalk between BITC, p53/LKB1 and p73/LKB1 axes in breast tumor growth-inhibition.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases
  • Antineoplastic Agents / metabolism*
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Humans
  • Isothiocyanates / metabolism*
  • Phosphoproteins / analysis
  • Phosphorylation
  • Protein Processing, Post-Translational
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / metabolism*
  • Proteome / analysis
  • Signal Transduction / drug effects*
  • Tumor Protein p73 / metabolism*
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / metabolism*

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Isothiocyanates
  • Phosphoproteins
  • Proteome
  • TP53 protein, human
  • TP73 protein, human
  • Tumor Protein p73
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53
  • benzyl isothiocyanate
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases
  • STK11 protein, human
  • AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases