Blockage of TRAF6 by Dominant Negative Peptides to Inhibit Multiple Myeloma (MM) Cell Proliferation and Osteoclast Formation through NF-κB, JNK and AKT Signal Transduction Pathways

Abstract 4068

Several members of the tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor (TRAF) family, including TRAF1, TRAF2, TRAF3, TRAF5, and TRAF6 have been implicated in regulating signal transduction from various TRAF family members. However, the unique biological function of TRAF6 is largely determined by its TRAF-C domain, which does not interact with peptide motifs that are recognized by TRAF1, -2, -3 or -5. We have reported inhibition of MM cell proliferation and increase of apoptosis through regulation of the NF-κB and JNK pathways through silencing TRAF6 C-domain mRNA and the dominant negative peptide expression vector (Chen H. et al, Oncogene, 2006; Li M. et al, Blood 2009). TRAF6 have been recently found as a ligase for Akt ubiquitination (Yang WL et al, Science, 2009). Akt signaling plays a central role in many biological functions, such as cell proliferation and apoptosis. In this study, we first investigated whether TRAF6 is over-expressed in MM tumor cells. Twelve MM fresh bone marrow (BM) aspirates derived from MM patients were assessed using Western blot analysis and immunohistochemical staining with anti-TRAF6 antibody. We found that TRAF6 protein was highly expressed in tumor cells from MM patients compared to normal human BM samples. Based on TRAF6, CD40, and RANKL sequences and crystal structures, we targeted the TRAF6 C-domain binding residues. We found that TRAF6 dominant negative binding peptide (TRAF6dn) significantly inhibited MM cell proliferation maximally at 72 hours using the MTS cell proliferation assay whereas effects on inducing MM cell apoptosis were most prominent at 48 hours as assessed with Annexin V staining with flow cytometric analysis. The decrease in cell proliferation and increase in cell apoptosis occurred in a concentration peptide-dependent fashion. Furthermore, phosphorylation of both AKT and NF-κB were also reduced using our human TRAF6dn or decoy peptides. We also examined the effect of the TRAF6dn peptide on the JNK pathway since this signaling pathway is also associated with cell cycle effects in MM. We measured JUN kinase kinase (JNKK), which activates the MAP kinase homologues SAPK and JNK in response to IL-1 receptor stimulation. The results showed that the phosphorylation of JNKK is markedly reduced after treatment with the TRAF6dn peptide. Furthermore, we examined c-Jun, a component of the transcription factor complex AP-1, which binds and activates transcription at TRE/AP-1 elements. We evaluated the effect of TRAF6dn peptide on osteoclast formation using cells from human monocytes isolated by anti-CD14 micro-bead affinity column from MM patients' BM or peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The monocytes were cultured on slide-culture dishes (2 × 10⁵ cells/well).We found TRAF6dn markedly inhibited osteoclast cell formation from monocytes induced with RANKL and mCSF in a concentration- dependent fashion compared with a control group using tartrate resistant acid phosphatase staining. We further assessed whether TRAF6dn can reduce bone resorption using a dentin bone resorption assay. BM-derived monocytes were isolated as above and were cultured on dentin bone slides (4 × 10⁵ cells/slide). The cells treated with a TRAF6dn peptide or the control peptide, were incubated with 50ng/ml RANKL and 10ng/ml MCSF. All cells were cultured for 21 days. It was found that TRAF6dn significantly inhibited lacunar resorption in a concentration-dependent fashion. These studies suggest that TRAF6 is over-expressed in MM and our TRAF6dn peptide inhibits many signaling pathways critical to the growth of MM and formation of osteoclasts resulting in marked anti-MM effects and reduction in osteoclast formation resulting in marked inhibition of bone resorption. Thus, this novel approach may offer a new therapeutic approach to both treat multiple myeloma and reduce the clinical consequences resulting from enhanced bone loss that commonly occur in these patients.