scholarly journals Ubiquitination and Degradation of Mutant p53

2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (23) ◽  
pp. 8284-8295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Lukashchuk ◽  
Karen H. Vousden

ABSTRACT While wild-type p53 is normally a rapidly degraded protein, mutant forms of p53 are stabilized and accumulate to high levels in tumor cells. In this study, we show that mutant and wild-type p53 proteins are ubiquitinated and degraded through overlapping but distinct pathways. While Mdm2 can drive the degradation of both mutant and wild-type p53, our data suggest that the ability of Mdm2 to function as a ubiquitin ligase is less important in the degradation of mutant p53, which is heavily ubiquitinated in an Mdm2-independent manner. Our initial attempts to identify ubiquitin ligases that are responsible for the ubiquitination of mutant p53 have suggested a role for the chaperone-associated ubiquitin ligase CHIP (C terminus of Hsc70-interacting protein), although other unidentified ubiquitin ligases also appear to contribute. The contribution of Mdm2 to the degradation of mutant p53 may reflect the ability of Mdm2 to deliver the ubiquitinated mutant p53 to the proteasome.

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leixiang Yang ◽  
Tanjing Song ◽  
Qian Cheng ◽  
Lihong Chen ◽  
Jiandong Chen

ABSTRACT Missense p53 mutants often accumulate in tumors and drive progression through gain of function. MDM2 efficiently degrades wild-type p53 but fails to degrade mutant p53 in tumor cells. Previous studies revealed that mutant p53 inhibits MDM2 autoubiquitination, suggesting that the interaction inhibits MDM2 E3 activity. Recent work showed that MDM2 E3 activity is stimulated by intramolecular interaction between the RING and acidic domains. Here, we show that in the mutant p53-MDM2 complex, the mutant p53 core domain binds to the MDM2 acidic domain with significantly higher avidity than wild-type p53. The mutant p53-MDM2 complex is deficient in catalyzing ubiquitin release from the activated E2 conjugating enzyme. An MDM2 construct with extra copies of the acidic domain is resistant to inhibition by mutant p53 and efficiently promotes mutant p53 ubiquitination and degradation. The results suggest that mutant p53 interferes with the intramolecular autoactivation mechanism of MDM2, contributing to reduced ubiquitination and increased accumulation in tumor cells.


Author(s):  
Chenxi Xu ◽  
Jianjian Zhuang ◽  
Xiaobo Zhang

P53 is a transcriptional factor that plays important roles in apoptosis and is mutated in more than 50% of tumor cells. However, the restoration of mutated p53 to the level similar to wild-type p53 by a natural compound has not been explored intensively. In this study, the 2-[(4-hydroxybenzyl) amino] phenol (HBAP) compound, obtained from deep-sea virus-challenged thermophile Geobacillus sp. E263, interacted specifically with the mutated p53 protein. HBAP was able to induce apoptosis of p53-mutated breast cancer cells, but not normal breast cells and p53-unmutated breast cancer cells. HBAP activated the mutant p53 transcriptional activity by restoring the function of mutant p53 to that of wild-type p53. Further analysis indicated that HBAP bound only to the DNA binding domain of mutant p53 and that the interaction was dependent on the HBAP hydroxyl groups. In vivo data demonstrated that HBAP was toxicity-free and could suppress tumor growth by inducing tumor cell apoptosis. Therefore our findings revealed that recovering mutated p53 function to that of wild-type p53 caused by HBAP triggered cancer cell apoptosis and that metabolites from deep-sea virus-challenged thermophiles could be a promising source of anti-tumor drugs.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1637
Author(s):  
Solida Long ◽  
Joana B. Loureiro ◽  
Carla Carvalho ◽  
Luís Gales ◽  
Lucília Saraiva ◽  
...  

The tumor suppressor p53 is inactivated by mutation in approximately 50% of human cancers. Small molecules that bind and stabilize those mutants may represent effective anticancer drugs. Herein, we report the tumor cell growth inhibitory activity of carbazole alkaloids and amino derivatives, as well as their potential activation of p53. Twelve aminocarbazole alkaloids were semi-synthesized from heptaphylline (1), 7-methoxy heptaphylline (2), and 7-methoxymukonal (3), isolated from Clausena harmandiana, using a reductive amination protocol. Naturally-occurring carbazoles 1–3 and their amino derivatives were evaluated for their potential effect on wild-type and mutant p53 activity using a yeast screening assay and on human tumor cell lines. Naturally-occurring carbazoles 1–3 showed the most potent growth inhibitory effects on wild-type p53-expressing cells, being heptaphylline (1) the most promising in all the investigated cell lines. However, compound 1 also showed growth inhibition against non-tumor cells. Conversely, semi-synthetic aminocarbazole 1d showed an interesting growth inhibitory activity in tumor cells expressing both wild-type and mutant p53, exhibiting low growth inhibition on non-tumor cells. The yeast assay showed a potential reactivation of mutant p53 by heptaphylline derivatives, including compound 1d. The results obtained indicate that carbazole alkaloids may represent a promising starting point to search for new mutp53-reactivating agents with promising applications in cancer therapy.


1992 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 1886-1898 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Bargonetti ◽  
I Reynisdottir ◽  
P N Friedman ◽  
C Prives

1992 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1357-1365
Author(s):  
J M Nigro ◽  
R Sikorski ◽  
S I Reed ◽  
B Vogelstein

Human wild-type and mutant p53 genes were expressed under the control of a galactose-inducible promoter in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The growth rate of the yeast was reduced in cells expressing wild-type p53, whereas cells transformed with mutant p53 genes derived from human tumors were less affected. Coexpression of the normal p53 protein with the human cell cycle-regulated protein kinase CDC2Hs resulted in much more pronounced growth inhibition that for p53 alone. Cells expressing p53 and CDC2Hs were partially arrested in G1, as determined by morphological analysis and flow cytometry. p53 was phosphorylated when expressed in the yeast, but differences in phosphorylation did not explain the growth inhibition attributable to coexpression of p53 and CDC2Hs. These results suggest that wild-type p53 has a growth-inhibitory activity in S. cerevisiae similar to that observed in mammalian cells and suggests that this yeast may provide a useful model for defining the pathways through which p53 acts.


1997 ◽  
Vol 186 (5) ◽  
pp. 695-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel P.M. Vierboom ◽  
Hans W. Nijman ◽  
Rienk Offringa ◽  
Ellen I.H. van der Voort ◽  
Thorbald van Hall ◽  
...  

The tumor suppressor protein p53 is overexpressed in close to 50% of all human malignancies. The p53 protein is therefore an attractive target for immunotherapy. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) recognizing a murine wild-type p53 peptide, presented by the major histocompatibility complex class I molecule H-2Kb, were generated by immunizing p53 gene deficient (p53 −/−) C57BL/6 mice with syngeneic p53-overexpressing tumor cells. Adoptive transfer of these CTLs into tumor-bearing p53 +/+ nude mice caused complete and permanent tumor eradication. Importantly, this occurred in the absence of any demonstrable damage to normal tissue. When transferred into p53 +/+ immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice, the CTLs persisted for weeks in the absence of immunopathology and were capable of preventing tumor outgrowth. Wild-type p53-specific CTLs can apparently discriminate between p53-overexpressing tumor cells and normal tissue, indicating that widely expressed autologous molecules such as p53 can serve as a target for CTL-mediated immunotherapy of tumors.


2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 457-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marijeta Kralj ◽  
Koraljka Husnjak ◽  
Tajana Körbler ◽  
Jasminka Pavelić

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Elston ◽  
Gareth J. Inman

Wild-type p53 and TGF-β are key tumour suppressors which regulate an array of cellular responses. TGF-β signals in part via the Smad signal transduction pathway. Wild-type p53 and Smads physically interact and coordinately induce transcription of a number of key tumour suppressive genes. Conversely mutant p53 generally subverts tumour suppressive TGF-β responses, diminishing transcriptional activation of key TGF-β target genes. Mutant p53 can also interact with Smads and this enables complex formation with the p53 family member p63 and blocks p63-mediated activation of metastasis suppressing genes to promote tumour progression. p53 and Smad function may also overlap during miRNA biogenesis as they can interact with the same components of the Drosha miRNA processing complex to promote maturation of specific subsets of miRNAs. This paper investigates the crosstalk between p53 and TGF-β signalling and the potential roles this plays in cancer biology.


1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 301-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
C A Finlay

Expression of a p53-associated protein, Mdm-2 (murine double minute-2), can inhibit p53-mediated transactivation. In this study, overexpression of the Mdm-2 protein was found to result in the immortalization of primary rat embryo fibroblasts (REFs) and, in conjunction with an activated ras gene, in the transformation of REFs. The effect of wild-type p53 on the transforming properties of mdm-2 was determined by transfecting REFs with ras, mdm-2, and normal p53 genes. Transfection with ras plus mdm-2 plus wild-type p53 resulted in a 50% reduction in the number of transformed foci (relative to the level for ras plus mdm-2); however, more than half (9 of 17) of the cell lines derived from these foci expressed low levels of a murine p53 protein with the characteristics of a wild-type p53. These results are in contrast to previous studies which demonstrated that even minimal levels of wild-type p53 are not tolerated in cells transformed by ras plus myc, E1A, or mutant p53. The mdm-2 oncogene can overcome the previously demonstrated growth-suppressive properties of p53.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document