The Relationship Between the Regulation of TOB1 Gene with Cell Proliferation, Apoptosis and Cell Cycle in BCR-ABL Positive Cells

Abstract 5125

The TOB1 gene is a transcription factor responsible for the transduction of the gene ERBB2. It is a member of a family of cell suppressor proliferation proteins called TOB/BTG1 family; also, this gene operates on the inhibition of neoplastic transformation. The TOB1 gene presents a decreased expression in several types of cancer such as lung, breast, thyroid and stomach cancer. However, the function of this gene in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) remains unknown. Aiming to evaluate the inhibition of gene TOB1 into BCR-ABL positive cells and trying to elucidate the molecular mechanisms associated with the inhibition of this gene in the CML we proceed to a more detailed study of this gene. The inhibition of this gene in K562 cells was performed using specific lentivirus. The effect of silencing TOB1 in the proliferation of K562 cells was assessed by the MTT assay after 48 hours of culture; in shTOB1 the proliferation was increased in comparison with shControl cells. To evaluate the synergistic effect between the inhibition of kinase tyrosine activity of BCR-ABL and the inhibition of TOB1 we performed a treatment with different concentrations of imatinib (0. 1, 0. 5 and 1μM), but we observed the decrease in cell proliferation of shTOB1 cells to similar levels of shControl cells only at the 1μM concentration. Therefore, the TOB1 silencing increased the proliferation of K562 cells without an additional effect of a treatment with Imatinib. To analyze the clonogenicity, we performed a formation of colonies assay, in methylcellulose, to determine whether silencing TOB1 could cause a change in the clonal growth of positive BCR-ABL cells. There was no significant change in the number of colonies that grew in cell culture shTOB1 compared to shControl cells. These results suggest that silencing TOB1 in K562 cells may not change the clonogenicity. In the assessment of cell cycle, the flow cytometry analysis revealed a significant accumulation of K562 cells in S phase, with consequent reduction of cells in the G2 phase of the cell cycle in cells shTOB1 compared to cells shControl. The TOB1 gene silencing in K562 cells kept the cells in the S phase and prevented the entry of cells in the G2 phase showing that the inhibition of gene TOB1 induced an increase in proliferation of K562 BCR-ABL cells. The level of apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometry after labeling the cells with anexin-V/PI. The Imatinib treatment presented dose-response in the induction of apoptosis as expected. However, a cumulative effect with TOB1 silencing was not observed. Furthermore, the apoptosis was also assessed by assays of caspases 3, 8 and 9, which showed an increase of the caspase activity of shControl cells in relation of the shTOB1 cells, showing that inhibition of this gene also changes the level of apoptosis. These results corroborate the literature data that report the relationship of this tumour suppressor gene in signalling pathways related to angiogenesis, carcinogenesis, apoptosis and metastasis. When we relate the results obtained with the LMC, we can consider the possibility of TOB1 regulation changes be related to modification of important signalling pathways such as AKT, PI3K, STAT3 and STAT5, among others. Furthermore, the inhibition of TOB1 may be related with an increase on the number of BCR-ABL positive cells and subsequent disease progression. In conclusion, this study confirmed literature data showing that TOB1 gene works as a tumour suppressor protein in cells of many types of cancer. From this work we can infer that in CML the expression of this gene is transformed, resulting in changing of the capacity of induction of apoptosis, decrease tumour necrosis and increase cell proliferation. This work was supported by FAPESP and INCT.