Statistics, Department of

 

Date of this Version

5-2012

Citation

Journal of Biological Chemistry, advance online publication. First Published on May 17, 2012, doi: 10.1074/jbc.M112.375725

Comments

Copyright 2012 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc. Used by permission.

Abstract

Tumor suppressor genes are frequently silenced in cancer cells by enzymes catalyzing epigenetic histone modifications. The peptidylarginine deiminase family member PAD4 (also called PADI4) is markedly overexpressed in a majority of human cancers, suggesting that PAD4 is a putative target for cancer treatment. Here, we have generated novel PAD inhibitors with low micromolar IC50 in PAD activity and cancer cell growth inhibition. The lead compound YW3-56 alters the expression of genes controlling the cell cycle and cell death, including SESN2 that encodes an upstream inhibitor of the mTORC1 signaling pathway. Guided by the gene expression profile analyses with YW3-56, we found that PAD4 functions as a corepressor of p53 to regulate SESN2 expression by histone citrullination in cancer cells. Consistent with the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) inhibition by SESN2, the phosphorylation of its substrates including p70S6K and 4E-BP1 was decreased. Furthermore, macroautophagy is perturbed after YW3-56 treatment in cancer cells. In a mouse xenograft model, YW3-56 demonstrates cancer growth inhibition activity with little if any detectable adverse effect to vital organs, while a combination of PAD4 and HDAC inhibitors further decreases tumor growth. Taken together, our work found that PAD4 regulates the mTORC1 signaling pathway and PAD inhibitors are potential anticancer reagents that activate tumor suppressor gene expression alone or in combination with HDAC inhibitors.