The mechanism of epipodophyllotoxin-induced thymocyte apoptosis: possible role of a novel Ca(2+)-independent protein kinase.
The epipodophyllotoxins, etoposide (VP-16) and teniposide (VM-26), inhibit topoisomerase II activity by stabilization of the cleavable complex between the enzyme and DNA and formation of protein-bound double-stranded DNA breaks. While it is thought that these agents are cytotoxic by preventing cells from completing the S phase or undergoing mitosis, recent evidence suggests that these agents are also potent inducers of programmed cell death or apoptosis in both normal and malignant cells. We have examined the intracellular pathway leading to epipodophyllotoxin-induced apoptosis in normal mouse thymocytes. Epipodophyllotoxin-induced apoptosis may proceed via a mechanism that is independent of inhibition of topoisomerase activity per se because novobiocin and coumermycin, which inhibit the ATPase subunit of topoisomerase II, were relatively inefficient inducers of apoptosis in these cells, under conditions where strong apoptosis by the epipodophyllotoxins and dexamethasone could be observed. In addition, camptothecin, which inhibits topoisomerase I by stabilization of the cleavable complex between that enzyme and DNA, was also a poor inducer of apoptosis in these cells. Our data suggest that epipodophyllotoxin-induced mouse thymocyte apoptosis, like that induced by dexamethasone, proceeds via a mechanism that involves protein kinase C (PKC) or a similar enzyme. Apoptosis induced by VM-26 or by dexamethasone was inhibited by 1-(5-isoquinolinylsulfonyl)-2- methylpiperazine dihydrochloride (H7), an inhibitor of both PKC and cAMP-dependent protein kinases, but was relatively unaffected by N-(2-guanidinoethyl)-5-isoquinolinesulfonamide (HA1004), a more specific inhibitor of cAMP-dependent protein kinases. A more specific inhibitor of PKC, sangivamycin, also inhibited both VM-26-induced and dexamethasone-induced apoptosis. Both VM-26- and dexamethasone-induced apoptosis were unaffected by EGTA, a calcium (Ca2+) chelator, under conditions that inhibited apoptosis induced by the Ca2+ ionophore A23187. Moreover, while strong increases in intracellular Ca2+ were observed in thymocytes treated with A23187, we failed to detect increases in intracellular Ca2+ in cells induced to apoptose with either VM-26 or dexamethasone within the first 2 hr of culture. These results suggest that in mouse thymocytes there are at least two intracellular pathways leading to apoptosis: one, utilized by glucocorticoid and the epipodophyllotoxins, that proceeds in the absence of detectable increases in intracellular Ca2+ and possibly requires a novel Ca(2+)-independent PKC-like enzyme and another, utilized by Ca2+ ionophores, that is at least partially dependent on increased intracellular Ca2+.