B-cell lymphoma 2 inhibitor ABT-737 induces Beclin1- and reactive oxygen species-dependent autophagy in Adriamycin-resistant human hepatocellular carcinoma cells

ABT-737, a B-cell lymphoma 2 homology 3 mimetic, not only induces cell apoptosis by inhibiting the interaction of B-cell lymphoma 2 and Bax but also induces cell autophagy by interrupting the interaction of B-cell lymphoma 2 and Beclin1. Several recent studies have reported that ABT-737 has antitumor efficacy in diverse cancers. However, another study showed that hepatocellular carcinoma cells with high B-cell lymphoma 2 expression were resistant to ABT-737 compared to hepatocellular carcinoma cells with low B-cell lymphoma 2 expression. It was also found that ABT-737-induced autophagy is crucial for drug resistance. Here, we observed that of B-cell lymphoma 2 expression in Adriamycin-resistant human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2/ADM cells is higher than that in human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells. Therefore, we further confirmed the mechanism and effect of autophagy induced by ABT-737 on apoptosis in HepG2/ADM cells with high B-cell lymphoma 2 expression. Our results showed that ABT-737 induced apoptosis and autophagy in time- and dose-dependent manner in HepG2/ADM cells, and this ABT-737-induced autophagy was Beclin1-dependent. In addition, we demonstrated that ABT-737 induced reactive oxygen species-mediated autophagy, and the reactive oxygen species-inhibitor N-acetyl-l-cysteine suppressed the reactive oxygen species-induced autophagy and ABT-737-induced increase in HepG2/ADM cell apoptosis. Furthermore, autophagy inhibitors increased HepG2/ADM cell apoptosis. In conclusion, our study further confirms that Beclin1- and reactive oxygen species-dependent autophagy induced by ABT-737 also plays a protective function in HepG2/ADM cells, which show B-cell lymphoma 2 expression higher than that in HepG2 cells.