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1 Department of Urology, Brady Urologic Institute
2 Department of Oncology, The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Room 1M43, 1650 Orleans Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21231, USA
(Correspondence should be addressed to J T Isaacs; Email: isaacjo{at}jhmi.edu)
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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| Licensing of DNA replication |
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Since these seminal studies it has been established that, in mammalian cells, the rate of replication at any one replication fork is
50 nucleotides per second. This means that in order for DNA (i.e.
3x109 bps in human genome) to be replicated during the 8–12 h of S-phase, DNA synthesis must occur simultaneously and bi-directionally starting from one-to-two thousand origins of replication sites spaced 30 000–300 000 bps apart within the genome. Critically, such DNA replication must be restricted so that only a single duplication of the genome occurs per S-phase. These two conditions are maintained by the process known as DNA licensing. Following mitosis, the genome of the daughter cells is un-licensed for DNA replication. With the appropriate signaling, such post mitotic cells re-enter the cell cycle and progress into G1. During a critical period in early-to-middle G1, the temporally-coordinated binding of a series of licensing factors, which include origin recognition complex (Orc1–6), cell division cycle 6 homolog (Cdc6), chromatin licensing and DNA replication factor 1 (Cdt1), and mini chromosome maintenance (Mcm2–7) proteins, forms pre-replication complexes (pre-RC) at specific origins of replication sites in the DNA (Bell & Dutta 2002, Tabancay & Forsburg 2006). Origin sites are sequence specific in Saccharomyces cerevisiae but metazoans, including Drosophila, Xenopus, and humans, lack canonically defined origin consensus sequences (Bell 2002, Tabancay & Forsburg 2006).
Distributed stochastically throughout the eukaryotic genome, origins are first bound by the highly conserved Orc1–6 ATPase protein complex. ATP hydrolysis by ORC is required for loading of subsequent pre-RC factors Cdc6, Cdt1, and Mcm2–7 (Blow & Dutta 2005; Fig. 2). In human cells, Orc1 is chromatin-bound in late-M to G1 as the pre-RC forms; but, as cells progress from G1 to S-phase and cyclin A/cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (cdk2) levels accumulate Orc1 dissociates from ORC, is phosphorylated and subsequently recognized by the E3 ubiquitin ligase, SCFSKP2, polyubiquitinated and degraded via the proteasome (Mendez et al. 2002). By contrast, Orc2–6 levels remain stable throughout the cell cycle in human cells (Mendez et al. 2002, DePamphilis 2005).
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Recruited by Cdc6, Cdt1 binds to pre-RCs in mid-G1 and serves in recruiting Mcm2–7 helicase complexes to the DNA. In human cells, Cdt1 expression is under very tight, yet complex, cell cycle-dependent regulation. Owing to APC/CCdh1 repression of cyclins and the Cdt1 negative regulator geminin (Fujita 2006), Cdt1 is stably bound to chromatin in late M through G1 (Nishitani et al. 2001, Woo & Poon 2003). After DNA becomes fully licensed and cells transition from G1 into S-phase, geminin expression increases and inhibits Cdt1 by inducing Cdt1 ubiquitination and degradation (Fig. 2), however, after successful DNA replication and progression through G2 into mitosis, geminin appears to protect Cdt1 from ubiquitin-associated proteolysis (Ballabeni et al. 2004). These steps ensure timely and accurate pre-RC formation in G1 while preventing re-licensing in S-phase. It has also been demonstrated that cdk2 and cdk4 interact with and phosphorylate human Cdt1, leading to ubiquitination by SCFSKP2 and proteosomal degradation (Liu et al. 2004). However, the predominant mechanism responsible for CDT1 degradation, which ultimately prevents premature re-licensing, is the ubiquitin ligase CUL4-DDB1-CDT2 (Fig. 2). Recruited to the DNA polymerase processivity factor, PCNA, CUL4-DDB1-CDT2-dependent ubiquitination of Cdt1 effectively links Cdt1 degradation to initiated DNA replication, therefore reducing the chances of aberrant re-licensing during DNA replication (Arias & Walter 2006, Jin et al. 2006, Nishitani et al. 2006, Senga et al. 2006).
The recruitment of MCM proteins to origins of replication in G1 completes pre-RC formation, thereby fully licensing DNA for replication. Origin-bound Mcm2–7 has been described as the putative DNA helicase that unwinds DNA for replication in S-phase, therefore functioning in DNA synthesis as well as DNA licensing (Tabancay & Forsburg 2006). However, as DNA is unwound and replicated in a bi-directional manner, one would expect no more than two MCM complexes bound at each origin, but studies have detected roughly 10–40 MCM bound per origin site, suggesting additional functions associated with MCM-DNA association (Edwards et al. 2002, Blow & Dutta 2005). In terms of licensing control, several studies suggest that certain MCM proteins undergo phosphorylation-associated regulation, in turn switching off helicase activity (Woo & Poon 2003); however, there exists no experimental evidence that Mcm2–7 is subjected to direct negative regulation in human cells (Arias & Walter 2007).
A key mechanism for inhibition of aberrant re-replication involves CDK-induced degradation of Orc1 and Cdt1, inactivation and nuclear export of Cdc6, and inactivation of MCM proteins following G1 (Ballabeni et al. 2004, Takeda & Dutta 2005, Cvetic & Walter 2006, Arias & Walter 2007). A few members of the pre-RC remain associated with origins of replication during G2 to prevent DNA re-licensing and then are removed to permit re-licensing of the DNA, in late-M to early-G1, thus allowing for only one round of DNA replication per cycle (Takeda & Dutta 2005). In carcinogenesis, recent studies discovered altered expression of pre-RC proteins in a variety of cancers, including breast, prostate, oral, colorectal, ovarian, renal, and hematological cancers (Gonzalez et al. 2005, Williams & Stoeber 2007). Specifically, altered levels of Mcm2–7 may serve as a marker of increased proliferative capacity, whereas Cdc6 and Cdt1 may function more so as oncogenes ultimately effecting genome instability in cells (Blow & Gillespie 2008). Additionally, studies focusing on oncogenes such as cyclin D1 and v-Ha-ras Harvey rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (HRAS) have uncovered that oncogene induction can disrupt DNA licensing resulting in DNA re-replication and genomic instability (Blow & Gillespie 2008). Having discussed the role of AR as an oncogene in prostate cancer, these findings suggest a link between AR function and DNA licensing in cancer development and progression.
| AR as a licensing factor for AR-expressing prostate cancer cells |
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| Therapeutic vulnerability of AR as a licensing factor |
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The realization that AR functions in DNA replication licensing in malignant prostate cells provides an explanation for a long standing experimental paradox with regard to the biphasic acute dose–response of AR-expressing prostate cancer cells to androgen. When prostate cancers are placed in an androgen-depleted environment, the most consistent molecular change is a two to fourfold up-regulation of AR expression (Chen et al. 2004, D'Antonio et al. 2008). Paradoxically, however, prostate cancer cells expressing high levels of AR protein are growth inhibited when the level of androgen is raised acutely above a critical threshold (Langeler et al. 1993, Kokontis et al. 1998). These observations are consistent with the fact that androgen ligand stabilizes AR protein from degradation but also down-regulates AR transcription (Quarmby et al. 1990, Krongrad et al. 1991, Kemppainen et al. 1992), thus when androgen levels are raised acutely, AR protein is stabilized to a point where it is not degraded sufficiently during mitosis. Excessive ligand-dependent stabilization thus results in a fraction of AR protein remaining associated with origins of replication sites, which were licensed and used during the previous cell cycle, such that these origins of replication cannot re-license in G1 of the subsequent cell cycle in the daughter cells. Although this situation allows the daughter cells to progress into S-phase, it prevents them from completely replicating the full content of their genomic DNA, which induces early S-phase growth arrest (Vander Griend et al. 2007).
Several novel therapeutic approaches for prostate cancer can be imagined based upon this new revelation concerning the role and consequence of AR as a licensing factor. For example, the time dependence for AR adaptation provides a theoretical rationale for improving intermittent androgen deprivation therapy (IADT). Presently, such intermittent therapy involves giving ADT for a limited time followed by a relief period to allow recovery to a physiological level of testosterone (Mottet et al. 2005). From this, we hypothesize that during each cycle of ADT, AR protein is slowly up-regulated to compensate for diminished ligand, and when ADT is stopped, the rate at which tissue androgen levels return determines whether adaptive changes have sufficient time to down-regulate the elevated level of AR to prevent re-licensing problems. Theoretically, therefore, the efficacy of IADT can be enhanced by maintaining the patient on androgen ablation with a long acting depot (i.e. 6 months–1 year) of an LHRH analog interrupted by episodic (e.g. every 3–4 months) administration of pharmacologically high doses of androgen given acutely for only a limited period (i.e. 1 week). In this way, there is insufficient time to completely down-regulate AR during each androgen restoration cycle resulting in DNA replication re-licensing problems that inhibit the growth of the prostate cancer cells.
Additional ways exist to maximize the re-licensing problems in prostate cancer cells. One alternative is to take advantage of the fact that mitotic degradation of AR protein (Litvinov et al. 2006) and the growth of AR-expressing prostate cancer cell lines (Williams et al. 2003, Papandreou et al. 2004) are inhibited with proteasome inhibitors. A novel approach would combine proteasome inhibitors with high dose androgen in patients who have failed previous ADT treatments.
A further approach is not to abnormally stabilize the AR/licensing to produce re-licensing problems in AR-expressing prostate cancer cells, but to screen for compounds that down-regulate the levels of AR protein needed for DNA replication, proliferation, and cancer cell survival. Along these lines, we have identified the SERCA pump inhibitor, Thapsigargin, which induces an ER-stress response (Sohoel et al. 2006) resulting in the down-regulation of AR protein and apoptotic death of prostate cancer cells. Presently, Thapsigargin analogs covalently linked to carrier peptides to make Smart Bomb prodrugs are in drug development based upon the fact that they can be given systemically since they are water soluble and therefore impermeable to cells until hydrolyzed to cell-permeable toxic moieties by prostate cancer-restricted proteases (Denmeade et al. 2003).
| Concluding remarks |
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| Declaration of interest |
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| Funding |
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| Acknowledgements |
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| References |
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