Acquired Resistance to Tumor Necrosis Factor-Related Apoptosis- Inducing Ligand (TRAIL): Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors Resensitize TRAIL-Resistant Jurkat Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia Cells

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL or Apo2L) is a death-ligand from the TNF family. TRAIL induces programmed cell death by the cell-extrinsic p53-independent apoptotic pathway. A potential of TRAIL as cancer-specific therapeutic agent has been proposed and is preclinically and clinically tested. Development of TRAIL-resistant clones in the TRAIL-sensitive tumor cells may be a serious complication of TRAIL based cancer therapy. Jurkat acute lymphocytic leukemia cells are sensitive to TRAIL-induced apoptosis, as well as other apoptosis inducing ligands from TNF family, Fas and TNF-alpha. Jurkat cells express only one of the four receptors for TRAIL, death receptor 5 (DR5). Prolonged exposure of TRAIL-sensitive Jurkat cells to recombinant soluble TRAIL (1000 ng/mL) resulted in the establishment of three TRAIL-resistant (TR) Jurkat cell subclones, Jurkat TR1, TR2, and TR3. The Jurkat TR subclones were also resistant to TNF-alpha and Fas ligand, suggesting disruption of the extrinsic apoptotic pathway. TRAIL-resistant subclone TR1, but not TR2 and TR3, demonstrated decreased susceptibility to undergo apoptosis in response to histone-deacetylase inhibitors, valproic acid (VA), sodium butyrate (SB) and suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) and was resistant to fludarabine.

Flow cytometry analysis showed Jurkat TR subclones had unchanged expression of cell surface death receptor DR5, Fas, and receptors for TNF-alpha, TNF-R1 and TNF-R2, compared to TRAIL-sensitive Jurkat cells. Analysis of death-inducing signaling complex (DISC) formation by immunoprecipitation (anti-TRAIL, anti-DR5) and subsequent western blotting (anti-caspase 8, anti-FADD) clearly demonstrated that the DISC formation in response to TRAIL binding to DR5 was significantly decreased in subclones TR2 and TR3, but remained unchanged in subclone TR1 compared to TRAIL-sensitive Jurkat cells.

To gain further insight into potential molecular aletarations associated with acquired TRAIL resistance of Jurkat subclones, we measured gene expression of several key apoptotic regulators, including receptors for TRAIL, cFLIP, BCL2 family, IAP family, HSP family members in TRAIL-resistant and TRAIL-sensitive Jurkat cells and did not detect any significant (>2-fold) change. These results suggest acquired TRAIL resistance of Jurkat cells might be mediated by changes on the protein rather than mRNA level. We analyzed whether the TRAIL-resistant Jurkat cells could be resensitized to TRAIL-induced apoptosis by pretreatment with diverse inhibitors of important prosurvival pathways, including inhibitors of proteosynthesis (cycloheximid), inhibitors of transcription (actinomycin D), NFkB inhibitors (bortezomib, SN-50), PI3K-Akt-mTOR inhibitors (rapamycine, LY294002, Hsp90 inhibitor (17-AAG), cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (roscovitine), casein kinase II inhibitors (DRB), or histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi: SAHA, VA, SB). Pretreatment with HDAC inhibitors for 12 hour was able to resensitize all three TRAIL-resistant Jurkat subclones to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. The percentage of apoptotic cells of HDACi-pretreated subclones was 70–95% 24 h after the exposure to TRAIL compared to 5–15% apoptosis for HDACi-untreated TRAIL-exposed controls, and to 10–15% apoptosis for HDACi-treated TRAIL unexposed controls.

We established TRAIL-resistant subclones from the original TRAIL-sensitive Jurkat cells. Acquired resistance to TRAIL was not mediated by downregulation of TRAIL death receptor DR5 and was associated with (cross)resistance to TNFa and Fas ligand, suggesting disruption of cell-extrinsic apoptotic pathway. We assume diverse molecular mechanisms were involved in the development of TRAIL-resistant subclones upon exposure to TRAIL, as exemplified by disrupted formation of DISC in case of subclones TR2 and TR3 and normal DISC formation and fludarabine resistance in subclone TR1, suggesting deregulated apoptotic pathway downstream of DISC. Finally, we observed that HDACi resensitized the TRAIL-resistant subclones to TRAIL. The results provide substantiation for combinatorial approaches in the potential TRAIL-based therapies of hematological malignancies.