P-TEFb promotes cell survival upon p53 activation by suppressing intrinsic apoptosis pathway. Issue 4 (2nd February 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Zhijia; Mačáková, Monika; Bugai, Andrii; Kuznetsov, Sergey G; Hassinen, Antti; Lenasi, Tina; Potdar, Swapnil; Friedel, Caroline C; Barborič, Matjaž
• Is Part Of: Nucleic acids research. Volume 51:Issue 4(2023)
• Page Start: 1687
• Page End: 1706
• Publication Date: 2023-02-02
• Subjects: Nucleic acids -- Periodicals; Molecular biology -- Periodicals; 572.805
• DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkad001
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-1048

Abstract

Abstract: Positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb) is the crucial player in RNA polymerase II (Pol II) pause release that has emerged as a promising target in cancer. Because single-agent therapy may fail to deliver durable clinical response, targeting of P-TEFb shall benefit when deployed as a combination therapy. We screened a comprehensive oncology library and identified clinically relevant antimetabolites and Mouse double minute 2 homolog (MDM2) inhibitors as top compounds eliciting p53-dependent death of colorectal cancer cells in synergy with selective inhibitors of P-TEFb. While the targeting of P-TEFb augments apoptosis by anti-metabolite 5-fluorouracil, it switches the fate of cancer cells by the non-genotoxic MDM2 inhibitor Nutlin-3a from cell-cycle arrest to apoptosis. Mechanistically, the fate switching is enabled by the induction of p53-dependent pro-apoptotic genes and repression of P-TEFb-dependent pro-survival genes of the PI3K-AKT signaling cascade, which stimulates caspase 9 and intrinsic apoptosis pathway in BAX/BAK-dependent manner. Finally, combination treatments trigger apoptosis of cancer cell spheroids. Together, co-targeting of P-TEFb and suppressors of intrinsic apoptosis could become a viable strategy to eliminate cancer cells.