Protein kinase A activation by retinoic acid in the nuclei of HL60 cells

Bioorthogonal chemical reporters for profiling retinoic acid-modified and retinoic acid-interacting proteins

Vitamin A and its primary active derivative, all-trans retinoic acid (RA), are endogenous signaling molecules essential for numerous biological processes, including cell proliferation, differentiation, and immune modulation. Owing to its differentiation-inducing effect, RA was the first differentiating agent approved for the clinical treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. While the classical mechanisms of RA signaling involve nuclear receptors, such as retinoic acid receptors (RARs), emerging evidence suggests that RA also engages in non-covalent and covalent interactions with a broader range of proteins. However, tools for thoroughly characterizing these interactions have been lacking, and a comprehensive understanding of the landscape of RA-modified and RA-interacting proteins remains limited. Here, we report the development of two RA-based chemical reporters, RA-yne and RA-diazyne, to profile RA-modified and RA-interacting proteins, respectively, in live cells. RA-yne features a clickable alkyne group for metabolic labeling of RA-modified proteins, while RA-diazyne incorporates a photoactivatable diazirine and an alkyne handle for crosslinking and capturing RA-interacting proteins. Using quantitative proteomics, we demonstrate the high-throughput identification of these proteins, revealing that non-covalent interactions are more prevalent than covalent modifications. Our global profiling also uncovers a large number of RA-interacting proteins mainly enriched in pathways related to mitochondrial processes, ER homeostasis, and lipid metabolism. Overall, this work introduces new RA-derived chemical reporters, expands the resource for studying RA biology, and enhances our understanding of RA-associated pathways in health and disease.

[Prevention and Treatment of Cancer with Vitamin A and Its Derivatives: Cell Differentiation and Proliferation]

Normal differentiation and proliferation of cells are essential for maintaining homeostasis. Following the successful completion of whole genome sequencing, protein modification has been attracted increasing attention in order to understand the roles of protein diversification in protein function and to elucidate molecular targets in mechanisms of signal transduction. Vitamin A is an essential nutrient for health maintenance. It is present as β-carotene in green and yellow vegetables and retinyl ester in animal products and absorbed into the body from the intestines. After ingestion, it is converted to retinol and oxidized in target cells to retinal, which plays critical roles in vision. It is then further oxidized to retinoic acid (RA), which exhibits a number of effects prior to being metabolized by cytochrome P450 and excreted from the body. Since RA exhibits cell differentiation-inducing actions, it is used as a therapeutic agent for patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia. The current paper describes: (1) HL60 cell differentiation and cell differentiation induction therapy by RA; (2) roles played by RA and retinal and their mechanisms of action; (3) retinoylation, post-translational protein-modified by RA, a novel non-genomic RA mechanism of action without RA receptor; (4) new actions of β-carotene and retinol in vivo and (5) potent anticancer effects of p-dodecylaminophenol (p-DDAP), a novel vitamin A derivative created from the RA derivative fenretinide. We propose that nutritional management of vitamin A can be effective at preventing and treating diseases, and that p-DDAP is a promising anticancer drug.

Acyclic retinoid peretinoin reduces hemorrhage-associated brain injury in vitro and in vivo

Peretinoin is an acyclic retinoid that stimulates retinoic acid receptors (NR1Bs) and produces therapeutic effects on hepatocellular cancer. We have previously shown that NR1B agonists such as Am80 and all trans-retinoic acid suppress pathogenic events in intracerebral hemorrhage. The present study addressed the actions of peretinoin and Am80 against cytotoxicity of a blood protease thrombin on cortico-striatal slice cultures obtained from neonatal rat brains. Application of 100 U/ml thrombin to the slice cultures for 72 h caused cell death in the cortical region and tissue shrinkage in the striatal region. Peretinoin (50 μM) and Am80 (1 μM) counteracted these cytotoxic effects of thrombin, and the effect of peretinoin and Am80 was blocked by LE540, an NR1B antagonist. A broad-spectrum kinase inhibitor K252a (3 μM) attenuated the cytoprotective effect of peretinoin in the cortical region, whereas a specific protein kinase A inhibitor KT5720 (1 μM) attenuated the protective effect of peretinoin in the cortical and the striatal regions. On the other hand, nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) inhibitors such as pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (50 μM) and Bay11-7082 (10 μM) prevented thrombin-induced shrinkage of the striatal region. Peretinoin and Am80 as well as Bay11-7082 blocked thrombin-induced nuclear translocation of NF-κB in striatal microglia and loss of striatal neurons. We also found that daily administration of peretinoin reduced histopathological injury and alleviated motor deficits in a mouse model of intracerebral hemorrhage. These results indicate that NR1B agonists including peretinoin may serve as a therapeutic option for hemorrhagic brain injury.

A splicing factor phosphorylated by protein kinase A is increased in HL60 cells treated with retinoic acid

Retinoic acid (RA) induces the differentiation of human promyelocytic leukemia HL60 cells into granulocytic cells and inhibits proliferation. Certain of actions of RA are mediated by RA nuclear receptors that regulate gene expression. However, it is also known that direct protein modification by RA (retinoylation) can occur. One such retinoylated protein in HL60 cells is a regulatory subunit of protein kinase A (PKA), which is increased in the nucleus following RA treatment and which then increases phosphorylation of other nuclear proteins. However, a complete understanding of which nuclear proteins are phosphorylated is lacking. In the current study, we employed mass spectrometry to identify one of the PKA-phosphorylated proteins as a serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 1 (SF2, SRSF1). We found that RA treatment increased the level of PKA-phosphorylated SF2 but decreased the level of SF2. While SF2 regulates myelogenous cell leukemia-1 (Mcl-1, anti-apoptotic factor), RA treatment reduced the level of Mcl-1L (full-length Mcl-1 long) and increased the level of Mcl-1S (Mcl-1 short; a short splicing variant of the Mcl-1). Furthermore, treatment with a PKA inhibitor reversed these effects on Mcl-1 and inhibited RA-induced cell differentiation. In contrast, treatment with a Mcl-1L inhibitor enhanced RA-induced cell differentiation. These results indicate that RA activates PKA in the nucleus, increases phosphorylation of SF2, raises levels of Mcl-1S and lowers levels of Mcl-1L, resulting in the induction of differentiation. RA-modified PKA may play an important role in inducing cell differentiation and suppressing cell proliferation.

Vitamin A in health care: Suppression of growth and induction of differentiation in cancer cells by vitamin A and its derivatives and their mechanisms of action

Vitamin A is an important micro-essential nutrient, whose primary dietary source is retinyl esters. In addition, β-carotene (pro-vitamin A) is a precursor of vitamin A contained in green and yellow vegetables that is converted to retinol in the body after ingestion. Retinol is oxidized to produce visual retinal, which is further oxidized to retinoic acid (RA), which is used as a therapeutic agent for patients with promyelocytic leukemia. Thus, the effects of retinal and RA are well known. In this paper, we will introduce (1) vitamin A circulation in the body, (2) the actions and mechanisms of retinal and RA, (3) retinoylation: another RA mechanism not depending on RA receptors, (4) the relationship between cancer and actions of retinol or β-carotene, whose roles in vivo are still unknown, and (5) anti-cancer actions of vitamin A derivatives derived from fenretinide (4-HPR). We propose that vitamin A nutritional management is effective in the prevention of cancer.

Changes in the levels of α-actinin-4 in differentiating human myeloid leukemia cells induced by retinoic acid

Retinoic acid (RA) induces granulocytic differentiation and inhibits the growth of human promyelocytic leukemia HL60 cells. α-Actinin-4 is a member of the α-actinin family, which exhibits unique mechanosensory regulation. Herein, we elucidated the effects of RA on α-actinin-4 expression during cell differentiation. RA increased the levels of α-actinin-4 protein significantly, while mRNA expression remained unchanged. In addition, RA treatment altered the intracellular localization of α-actinin-4 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Cells pretreated with RA, maintained α-actinin-4 protein levels after cycloheximide treatment as compared with control cells. The amount of ubiquitylated α-actinin-4 protein in RA-treated cells was less than in control cells. These results indicate that RA may inhibit nuclei transport and proteasomal degradation of α-actinin-4 protein. α-Actinin-4 may play a significant role in RA-induced differentiation, including the promotion of cytomorphology changes.