Inhibition of transcription factor nuclear factor-kappaB by a mutant inhibitor-kappaBalpha attenuates resistance of human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma to TNF-alpha caspase-mediated cell death.

Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is a cytokine that can induce cell death of different cancers via a cellular cascade of proteases, the caspases. However, TNF-alpha has been detected in tumour and serum of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), and tumour cell lines derived from this environment often exhibit resistance to TNF-alpha-induced cell death. Cell death mediated by TNF-alpha and caspases may be inhibited by cytoprotective genes regulated by transcription factor nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB). We recently showed that NF-kappaB is constitutively activated in HNSCC, and that inhibition of NF-kappaB by expression of a nondegradable mutant inhibitor of NF-kappaB, IkappaBalphaM, markedly decreased survival and growth of HNSCC cells in vivo. In the present study, we examined the TNF-alpha sensitivity and response of HNSCC with constitutively active NF-kappaB, and of HNSCC cells in which NF-kappaB is inhibited by stable expression of a dominant negative mutant inhibitor, IkappaBalphaM. Human lines UM-SCC-9, 11B and 38, previously shown to exhibit constitutive activation of NF-kappaB, were found to be highly resistant to growth inhibition by up to 10(4)U/ml of TNF-alpha in 5 day MTT assay. These TNF-alpha resistant HNSCC lines expressed TNF receptor I, and exhibited constitutive and TNF-alpha-inducible activation of NF-kappaB as demonstrated by nuclear localization of NF-kappaB p65 by immunohistochemistry. UM-SCC-9 I11 cells which stably expressed an inhibitor of NF-kappaB, IkappaBalpham, were susceptible to TNF-alpha-induced growth inhibition. DNA cell cycle analysis revealed that TNF-alpha induced growth inhibition was associated with accumulation of cells with sub-G0/G1 DNA content. Cell death was demonstrated by trypan blue staining, and was blocked by caspase inhibitor. We conclude that HNSCC that exhibit constitutive and TNF-alpha-inducible activation of transcription factor NF-kappaB are resistant to TNF-alpha, and that inhibition of NF-kappaB sensitizes HNSCC to TNF-alpha caspase-mediated cytotoxicity. The demonstration of the role of activation of NF-kappaB in resistance of HNSCC to TNF-alpha may be helpful in the identification of potential targets for pharmacological, molecular and immune therapy of HNSCC.

Constitutive activation of transcription factors NF-(kappa)B, AP-1, and NF-IL6 in human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cell lines that express pro-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic cytokines.

We previously reported that human head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) express the pro-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic cytokines interleukin (IL)-1alpha, IL-6, IL-8, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor in vitro and in vivo. The promoter region of the genes encoding these cytokines include binding sites for the transcription factors nuclear factor (NF) kappaB/Rel A, activator protein-1 (AP-1), and CCAAT enhancer-binding protein beta (C/EBPbeta, or NF-IL6), which have been reported to contribute to activation of these cytokine genes. In the study presented here, we examined the activation, composition, and function of these transcription factors in HNSCC cell lines that express pro-inflammatory cytokines, by using electrophoretic mobility shift and reporter-gene assays. Constitutive activation of NF-kappaB, AP-1, and NF-IL6 DNA-binding proteins was detected. Supershift analysis with antibodies specific for NF-kappaB, AP-1, and NF-IL6 binding proteins showed that the NF-kappaB-binding protein included p65/Rel A and p50; AP-1 activity included c-jun, junB, junD, and Fra-1; and NF-IL6 included C/EBPbeta. Mutational analysis of the NF-kappaB, AP-1, and NF-IL6 sites in the IL-8 promoter region showed that NF-kappaB and AP-1 sites contributed to constitutive IL-8 reporter activity in HNSCC. HNSCC lines that exhibited increased IL-8 secretion relative to simian virus 40-immortalized and primary keratinocyte cell lines also demonstrated a concordant increase in NF-kappaB reporter activity relative to nonmalignant keratinocytes. We concluded that the early transcription factors NF-kappaB, AP-1, and NF-IL6 are constitutively activated in human HNSCC cell lines and that NF-kappaB and AP-1 promote expression of the pro-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic cytokine IL-8 in HNSCC. The demonstration of the activation of these transcription factors will be helpful in defining the identity and role of these and other early gene products that contribute to pathogenesis of the malignant phenotype in HNSCC and in defining potential targets for pharmacologic and molecular therapy of HNSCC. Mol. Carcinog. 26:119-129, 1999. Published 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.