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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 279, Issue 47, 48836-48845, November 19, 2004
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From the
International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw, 02-109 Warsaw, Poland, the ¶Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland, the ||Department Chemie, Technische Universitat Munchen, 85-747 Garching, Germany, and the **Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland
Received for publication, July 7, 2004 , and in revised form, September 8, 2004.
| ABSTRACT |
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-isoform as well as bovine brain Hsp90 were purified to homogeneity. Both of these molecular chaperones displayed ATPase activity and the ability to refold heat-inactivated luciferase in a geldanamycin- and radicicol-sensitive manner, suggesting that post-translational modifications are not involved in the modulation of Hsp90
activity. We show that the incubation of recombinant p53 at 37 °C decreases the level of its wild-type conformation and strongly inhibits the in vitro binding of p53 to the p21 promoter sequence. Interestingly, Hsp90 in an ATP-dependent manner can positively modulate p53 DNA binding after incubation at physiological temperature of 37 °C. Other recombinant human chaperones from Hsp70 and Hsp40 families were not able to efficiently substitute Hsp90 in this reaction. Consistent with our in vivo results, geldanamycin can suppress Hsp90 ability to regulate in vitro p53 DNA binding to the promoter sequence. In summary, the results presented in this article state that chaperone activity of Hsp90 is important for the transcriptional activity of genotypically wild-type p53. | INTRODUCTION |
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In the response to various stresses, such as ionizing radiation, UV and hypoxia, p53 is activated, stabilized, and imported into the nucleus, where it promotes transcription of several genes whose products induce cell cycle arrest, DNA repair, or apoptosis (14). In a non-stress situation, the level of p53 in the cells is mainly regulated at the post-translational level by MDM2 (12, 1517).
Hsp90 is an abundant molecular chaperone important for protecting cells from stress, such as high temperature. Additionally, Hsp90 regulates many signaling pathways. Hsp90 is found in a complex with several oncoproteins, including v-Src, c-Erb2, Raf-1, Akt, Bcr-Abl, and tumor suppressor p53 (1822). The Hsp90 inhibitor 17-allylaminogeldanamycin (17-AAG) is currently in phase II of clinical trials as a potential anti-tumor drug. Hsp90 inhibitors usually induce ubiquitination and degradation of Hsp90 client proteins (23). In tumor cells, Hsp90 exists in a functionally distinct conformational form that is much more efficiently recognized by 17-AAG. This form of Hsp90, which possesses elevated ATPase activity, is found in a multichaperone complex with cochaperones: p23, Hop, and probably others (24).
It has been known for years that genotypically mutant p53 co-immunoprecipitates with members of the Hsp70 and Hsp90 families (19). Such interactions lead to the formation of a p53 multichaperone complex that is responsible for the stabilization and sequestration of p53 in the cytoplasm (2527). Binding of molecular chaperones to mutant p53 inhibits the ability of MDM2 to promote p53 ubiquitination and degradation, resulting in the stabilization of both p53 and MDM2 (28, 29). It also has been shown that Hsp90 directly associates with the MDM2 protein (30). Hsp90 inhibitors can partially disrupt these interactions, which results in the degradation of mutant p53 (31, 32). With the use of highly purified proteins, we have identified intermediate reactions that lead to the assembly of molecular chaperone complex with p53 protein possessing wild-type or mutant sequence. The presence of Hsp90 in a complex with wt-p53 inhibits binding of Hsp40 and Hsc70 to p53. However, the conformational mutant of p53, which possesses low affinity toward Hsp90, can form a stable multichaperone complex in which Hsp90 is bound to mutant p53 indirectly (mut p53-Hsp40-Hsc70-Hop-Hsp90). Several independent methods, such as surface plasmon resonance, immunoprecipitation, ELISA, and cross-linking were used to demonstrate that Hsp90 directly, in the absence of any other co-chaperones, can associate with genotypically wt-p53 but not with mutant p53 protein (33). The accompanying article by Muller et al. (34) supports our findings. Moreover, it has been shown by NMR that Hsp90 associates with a truncated version of wt-p53. It was suggested that the p53 core domain bound to Hsp90 is predominantly unfolded and lacking helical or sheet secondary structure (35).
Wild-type p53 is a structurally unstable protein, which undergoes conformational changes at elevated temperatures (36, 37). We have proposed that during heat shock, cytoplasmic p53 possessing the wild-type sequence could temporarily adopt a mutant conformation, subsequently initiating the formation of a multichaperone complex that could partially stabilize wt-p53 (19). Results from a recently published article by Wang and Chen (38) support our hypothesis. They found that heat shock inhibited p53 ubiquitination and initiated the accumulation of p53 at the post-translational level. Two factors influence these events during heat stress: 1) ATM-dependent phosphorylation of p53 and 2) formation of the chaperone complex with genotypically wt-p53, which adopts a conformation characteristic to that of a mutant protein (38). The evidence for Hsp90 binding to mutant p53 is conclusive, whereas the exact nature of cellular interactions between Hsp90 and genotypically wt-p53 possessing either wild-type or mutant conformation still remains to be elucidated.
In this study, we demonstrate that the chaperone activity of Hsp90 is required for wt-p53-dependent transcriptional activity. Specific Hsp90 inhibitors, geldanamycin and radicicol, inhibit p53 activity as the transcription factor by dissociation of p53 from its target DNA promoter sequence sites. Results from the reconstituted in vitro system clearly show that Hsp90 positively regulates p53 DNA binding to a specific promoter sequence after incubation at physiological temperature of 37 °C. Moreover, this Hsp90 activity is ATP-dependent and inhibited by geldanamycin.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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For Western blot, the cells were seeded at 50% confluence in Costar 6-well plates. At the indicated times, the cells were lysed directly on the plate in Laemmli sample buffer, and proteins resolved by SDS-PAGE. Immunoblotting was performed using the following antibodies: p53, DO-1 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology), 1:6000; phospho-p53 (Ser-15), 9284 (Cell Signaling Technology), 1:1000; p21, sc-397 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology), 1:100; tubulin: Tub 2.1 (Sigma), 1:2000. Densitometry was performed using the Quantity One software (Bio-Rad).
Real-time RT-PCRK15 cells were seeded in 60-mm plates, and total RNA was isolated using the Macherey-Nagel NucleoSpin kit. RNA was examined by agarose gel electrophoresis to confirm equal amounts in all samples and lack of degradation. First-strand cDNA synthesis was done using the Fermentas RevertAid kit with oligo(dT) primers. Real-Time PCR was performed using LightCycler (Roche Applied Science) as follows: p53, RT-p53-U, ACCTACCAGGGCAGCTACGG, RT-p53-L, GCTGCACAGGGCAGGTCTTG, annealing temperature 55 °C, 1 mM MgCl2; p21, RT-p21-U, GGACCTGTCACTGTCTTGTA, RT-p21-L, GGCTTCCTCTTGGAGAAGAT, 53 °C, 1 mM MgCl2; GAPDH, RT-GAPDH-U, GAAGGTGAAGGTCGGAGTCA, RT-GAPDH-L, GAAGATGGTGATGGGATTTC, 51 °C, 2 mM MgCl2. Detection was performed using SYBR-Green.
Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP)ChIP assay was done as described in Ref. 39 with minor modifications. Briefly, K15 cells were cultured in 100-mm plates. After the experimental treatment, the cells were cross-linked with 1% formaldehyde and cross-linking was stopped by addition of glycine. The cells were lysed in radioimmune precipitation assay buffer, and DNA was disrupted into pieces of 500600 bp by sonication. The lysate was cleared by centrifugation and protein A-Sepharose beads were added to the lysate together with 1 µl of anti-p53 antibody (DO-1, Santa Cruz Biotechnology). After overnight incubation at 4 °C, the beads were washed, cross-linking was reversed, and DNA was purified on silica gel columns (A&A Biotechnology). Real-time PCR was performed to detect the p21 promoter fragment using the following primers: p21-ChIP-U, GTGGCTCTGATTGGCTTTCTG, p21-ChIP-L, CTGAAAACAGGCAGCCCAAG, annealed at 55 °C with 1 mM MgCl2.
Protein PurificationHuman Hsp90
fused with MBP (plasmid pMALc2x-aHsp90, a kind gift from P. Csermely) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL 21 RIL DE3 strain at 37 °C for 3 h after induction with 0.1 mM isopropyl-1-thio-
-D-galactopyranoside. Cells were harvested by centrifugation at 10,000 x g for 10 min and frozen in liquid nitrogen. Bacteria pellet was lysed in buffer A (40 mM Tris, pH 7.5, 0.1%
-mercaptoethanol, 5% glycerol, 0.5 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride) containing 1 mg/ml lysozyme for 1 h at 4 °C with constant stirring, then the centrifugation proceeded for 1 h at 100,000 x g.
Supernatant was loaded onto a Q-Sepharose column equilibrated with buffer A and bound proteins eluted with linear gradient of 00.5 M KCl in buffer A. Fractions containing Hsp90 were salted out with 30% (NH4)2SO4 following centrifugation at 70,000 x g for 20 min. The supernatant was loaded onto a butyl-Sepharose column, which had been equilibrated with buffer A containing 30% (NH4)2SO4 and bound proteins were eluted with linear gradient from 30 to 0% (NH4)2SO4. Hsp90
-MBP was applied onto amylose resin (NEB) and eluted with 10 mM maltose. MBP tag was cleaved with factor Xa protease (NEB) according to the manufacturer's suggestions. Hsp90
protein of more than 95% purity was concentrated on a Resource Q FPLC column and dialyzed against buffer B: 25 mM Hepes, pH 7.5, 10% glycerol, 150 mM KCl, 1 mM DTT.
Bovine brain Hsp90 was purified as described (40). Human recombinant Hsc70 (HSPA8), and Hdj1 were overexpressed and purified as described (33). Human recombinant Hsp70 (HSPA1A) was purified exactly as Hsc70, after overexpression in BL21 RIL E. coli strain from pET11b-Hsp70 construct, a kind gift from Prof. R. Morimoto. pMALc2x-hdj2 and pET30a-hdj3, constructs encoding human Hdj2 and Hdj3 were kind gift of Prof. K. Terada. Both proteins were purified from E. coli as previously described (41, 42). All these chaperones tested positive for activity by the luciferase refolding assay (see below). p53 human recombinant protein was purified essentially as described (43).
ATPase AssayATPase activity was measured as previously described (44). 10 µM Hsp90 was incubated in 20 µl of buffer: 40 mM Hepes pH 7.5, 150 mM KCl, 5 mM MgCl2, 10 mM ATP, 0.5 µCi of [
-32P]ATP/100 µl reaction buffer. Geldanamycin at a concentration of 500 µM was added where indicated, and the reaction was carried out at 37 °C. At time points 0120 min, 1-µl samples were spotted on PEI-cellulose plates. Plates were resolved in 1 M LiCl: 1 M HCOOH, 1:1, dried and spots corresponding to non-hydrolyzed ATP and free phosphate were cut out, and radioactivity was measured in a liquid scintillation counter (Packard Bioscience). All results were corrected to the spontaneous ATP hydrolysis.
Luciferase Refolding AssayLuciferase refolding assay was a modified version of the one described (45). 10 µM Hsp90 was incubated for 30 min at room temperature in the buffer: 25 mM Tris, pH 7.8, 8 mM MgSO4, 1% BSA, 10% glycerol, 0.25% Triton X-100, containing 2 mM ATP or geldanamycin (concentration ranging from 0.0 to 100 µM). Luciferase (Promega, 12.66 mg/ml) was diluted 400 times in this mixture and incubated for 5 min at 50 °C. After cooling down the denatured luciferase mix was diluted 6-fold with a renaturation buffer: 10 mM Tris, pH 7.5, 3 mM MgCl2, 50 mM KCl, 2 mM DTT, 8 mM CP, 0.02 u/µl CK, 2 mM ATP, 4 µM Hsc 70, 2.0 µM Hdj 1. Renaturation was carried out at room temperature. At time points 0-120 min, 5-µl aliquots were taken, and the activity of renatured luciferase was measured in a luminometer (BMG Labtechnologies) after addition of the Bright-Glo substrate (Promega).
p53 DNA Binding AssayThe DNA binding activity of p53 was quantified by EMSA (gel-shift) assay. 50 ng of human recombinant p53 was diluted in the final volume of 5 µl of EMSA buffer: 50 mM Tris pH 7.5, 5% glycerol, 50 mM KCl, 5 mM MgCl2, and 2 mM DTT. Samples were supplemented optionally with up to 5 µg of Hsp90 (human recombinant
or from bovine brain), other chaperones (see Fig. 5C) or BSA and 020 mM ATP. Such 5-µl samples were then incubated at 4 or 37 °C for 1 h in a thermocycler. The activation step followed that included addition of 15 µl of mixture containing: 1x EMSA buffer, 0.2 Mdpm of 32P-labeled p21 sequence (below), 1 µg of nonspecific 44-bp dsDNA (sequence below, usage based on Ref. 46), and 100 ng of the antibody pAb421 (Ab-1; Oncogene). 20-µl samples with the specific p21 DNA were afterward incubated for 510 min at room temperature, loaded onto a 4% native polyacrylamide Tris borate gel and electrophoresed at 15 mA for 2 h at 4 °C. Gels were dried and exposed overnight to the Biomax MS-1 Kodak film (Sigma).
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For testing the nonspecific p53 DNA binding activity, 0.2 Mdpm of nonspecific, radiolabeled 44-bp dsDNA (below) was used per sample instead of labeled p21 sequence in the activation step. The remaining part of the experiment was performed as described before for specific DNA but no additional unlabeled DNA, antibody, or CKII was used in this case.
Best results with geldanamycin in the EMSA assay were obtained when prior to the addition of p53, Hsp90 was preincubated with 83500 µM GA in the presence of 1x EMSA buffer for 30 min at room temperature. After the addition of p53 and ATP in 1x EMSA buffer, the final GA concentrations were 25150 µM. Since the stock solution of GA contained 100% Me2SO, in GA titration experiments all samples were supplemented with the same amount of Me2SO as added with GA.
Sequences used in EMSA: p21 promoter-derived sequences, 5'-TGGCCATCAGGAACATGTCCCAACATGTTGAGCTCTGGCA-3' and 5'-TGCCAGAGCTCAACATGTTGGGACATGTTCCTGATGGCCA-3'; nonspecific 44-bp DNA, 5'-GCTTCGAGATGTTCCGAGAGGCGAATGAGGCCTTGGAACTCAAG-3' and 5'-CTTGAGTTCCAAGGCCTCATTCGCCTCTCGGAACATCTCGAAGC-3'.
Sequences were annealed to form double-stranded DNA in a thermocycler using the following program: 5 min 94 °C, 5 min. 50 °C, 4 °C. Presence of the dsDNA was tested with a 16% polyacrylamide Tris borate gel electrophoresis. Sequences used in the EMSA assay were labeled with the T4 polynucleotide kinase (PNK; Fermentas) as described in the producer's manual.
ELISAInvestigation of the p53 conformation was carried out using a two-site ELISA. First the wells were coated with wt-p53 conformation specific pAb1620 monoclonal antibody or DO-1 (both of mouse origin, Oncogene Science) at 50 ng per well in carbonate buffer pH 9.2 at 4 °C for 16 h. The wells were blocked for 1 h at room temperature with 100 µl of blocking wash buffer (25 mM Hepes-KOH pH 7.6, 5 mM DTT, 150 mM KCl, and 2 mg/ml BSA). This was followed by titration of increasing amounts of human recombinant p53, either kept at 4 °C or incubated at 37 °C for 1 h. The p53 dilutions were done in ELISA reaction buffer (25 mM Hepes-KOH pH 7.6, 5 mM MgCl2 0.05% Triton X-100, 5 mM DTT, 150 mM KCl, 2 mg/ml BSA). Detection of p53 protein was carried out using the FL-393 antibody (rabbit origin, Santa Cruz Biotechnology) for 1 h diluted in blocking wash buffer at room temperature. This was followed by addition of anti-rabbit IgG-horseradish peroxidase secondary antibodies (Santa Cruz Biotechnology). Analysis of bound antibodies was performed by colorimetric detection with the TMB peroxidase EIA substrate kit (Bio-Rad), followed by absorbance measurements with a microplate reader (Bio-Rad) at 450 nm.
| RESULTS |
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irradiation (Fig. 1 and data not shown).
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To test whether Hsp90 indeed can influence the transcriptional activity of p53, we analyzed the binding of p53 to the p21 promoter by ChIP. As shown in Fig. 1C, the camptothecin-induced binding of p53 to the p21 promoter was almost completely disrupted by geldanamycin. The ChIP experiment for p21 promoter was also successfully performed using anti-Hsp90 antibodies, suggesting a functional interaction between wt-p53 and Hsp90.2 Further, we have shown by real-time RT-PCR that geldanamycin or radicicol strongly inhibit the expression of p21 mRNA following the camptothecin treatment (Fig. 1D). This decrease in the p21 level could also be observed by Western blot (Fig. 1A). Taken together, described results suggest that while to some extent Hsp90 stabilizes genotypically wt-p53 protein level, a stronger effect is visible on the transcriptional activity of the wt-p53. These phenomena evidently depend on ATP, since both drugs effectively compete with ATP for binding to Hsp90.
ATPase and Chaperone Activities of Hsp90 Can Be Inhibited in VitroTo answer the question, how does Hsp90 affect the transcriptional activity of p53, we used a reconstituted in vitro system, with highly purified recombinant proteins, to monitor p53 DNA binding to the p21 promoter sequence. For these tests, we used the human recombinant Hsp90
isoform, and for control experiments, we also purified Hsp90 from bovine brain. Purified recombinant Hsp90
as well as bovine Hsp90 possess the ATPase activity, which is inhibited by geldanamycin (Fig. 2A) and radicicol (results not shown). To test the molecular chaperone activity of purified Hsp90 proteins, we used a modified version of a previously described luciferase refolding assay (45). When Hsp90
or bovine Hsp90 was present during heat denaturation of luciferase (5 min, 50 °C), the efficient refolding of luciferase was observed at reduced temperatures in the presence of Hsc70 and Hsp40 (Fig. 2B). This refolding reaction was dependent on the presence of Hsp90 during the denaturation process and was severely inhibited when geldanamycin was preincubated with Hsp90
or bovine prior to heat denaturation of luciferase (Fig. 2B).
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It has been previously shown that p53 protein can exist in a constant state of equilibrium between wild-type and mutant conformation (52, 53). It is possible that elevated temperatures could shift this equilibrium toward a mutant conformation, hence the amount of p53 possessing the wild-type conformation should be decreased. Indeed, purified human recombinant wt-p53 protein loses its wild-type conformation upon incubation at 37 °C and higher temperatures (Fig. 3 and results not shown). The immunoprecipitation of the wt-p53 by pAb 1620, specifically recognizing the wt-p53 conformation, is significantly reduced following incubation of wt-p53 at 37 °C (Fig. 3A). The same effect was also observed using the modified ELISA test. In this case less p53 was detected by the conformation-specific pAb 1620 whereas comparable amount of the protein was detected by DO-1 at both temperatures (Fig. 3B). Consistent with these experiments, 1-h incubation at 37 °C completely abolished the DNA binding activity of the genotypically wt-p53, as tested by the gel-shift assay (Fig. 4A, lane 2). The presence of increasing amounts of Hsp90 during this incubation step at 37 °C significantly enhances the binding of p53 to the p21 promoter sequence (Fig. 4A). This regulation of p53 DNA binding by Hsp90 was found to be ATP-dependent, with at least 3 mM ATP required for the distinct effect (Fig. 4B). When we used poly(dI-dC), as a nonspecific competitor, the ATP dependence of this reaction was less pronounced (results not shown).
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and bovine Hsp90 indicate that both preparations possess ATP-dependent chaperone activity. Similarly, both Hsp90
and bovine Hsp90 enhanced p53 DNA binding to the promoter sequence (Fig. 5A). We also determined whether GTP could substitute for ATP in that reaction in order to rule out the involvement of a second, recently proposed nucleotide binding site on Hsp90 (54). GTP was unable to substitute for ATP during Hsp90-dependent binding of p53 to the promoter sequence (Fig. 5B). In addition, geldanamycin, which blocks the N-terminal nucleotide-binding site of Hsp90, inhibits the Hsp90-dependent binding of p53 to the p21 promoter DNA (Fig. 6). Other recombinant human chaperones from Hsp70 and Hsp40 families were not able to efficiently substitute Hsp90 in this reaction (Fig. 5C), neither alone (results for Hdj proteins not shown) nor in different Hsp/c70-Hdj combinations, known to refold denatured luciferase (41, 42) and suspected to alter the activity of such chaperone machines (55).
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| DISCUSSION |
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In this article we show the effect of geldanamycin and radicicol on the activity of genotypically wt-p53 in human fibroblasts. Whereas the presence of geldanamycin or radicicol had minor effects on the cellular wt-p53 level and its phosphorylation at Ser-15, these Hsp90 inhibitors dramatically influenced p53 activity as the transcription factor, measured by chromatin immunoprecipitation as well as quantitative analysis of p21 mRNA and protein levels. The observed effect of Hsp90 inhibitors on the p53 transcriptional activity is not caused by the inhibition of the nuclear transport of p53 (results not shown). These in vivo data suggest that Hsp90 may play a role in the regulation of p53-promoted transcription. To examine the possible effects of Hsp90 on p53 DNA binding activity, in vitro DNA binding studies were performed with purified human Hsp90
recombinant protein and Hsp90 purified from a bovine brain (a mixture of bovine
and
Hsp90 isoforms). Both Hsp90 protein preparations displayed similar ATPase and luciferase refolding activities that were inhibited by geldanamycin.
The gel shift assay was used to monitor in vitro p53 binding to the p21 promoter DNA sequence. A wt-p53 conformation, recognized by pAb 1620, is essential for this activity. Incubation of the p53 protein encoded by the non-mutated sequence, at 37 °C decreases the amount of p53 protein found in an immunocomplex with pAb 1620 as well as the p53 DNA binding. In fact, incubation of wt-p53 for 1 h at 37 °C completely abolished p53 binding to the p21 promoter-derived sequence. Interestingly, the presence of increasing amounts of Hsp90 during the incubation of p53 at 37 °C can positively regulate p53 DNA binding to the promoter sequence, whereas other human recombinant chaperone proteins from Hsp70 and Hsp40 families were not able to substitute for Hsp90 activity. This activity is ATP-dependent and can be inhibited by geldanamycin. These effects correlate with our in vivo results, where geldanamycin inhibited p53 binding to the chromatin as well as transcription from the p21 promoter. In order to examine the possibility that transient Hsp90 interactions are required for positive regulation of p53 DNA binding to the promoter sequence at 37 °C, we monitored the direct binding of Hsp90 to p53 in the presence or absence of ATP. Similar to Hsp70-substrate complex formation (61, 62), the presence of ATP shifted the binding/dissociation equilibrium toward dissociation. These results suggest that the influence of Hsp90 on p53 DNA binding cannot be explained by the passive protection of wt-p53 conformation, caused by static association with Hsp90. We showed that the presence of ATP, which induces dissociation of Hsp90 from p53, also promotes the ability of p53 to bind to the DNA promoter sequence at 37 °C.
The concentrations of geldanamycin and radicicol, which are sufficient to inhibit Hsp90-dependent in vivo transcriptional activity of p53 are lower than the concentration of Hsp90 inhibitors used in our in vitro assays, suggesting that we are only reconstituting the minimum Hsp90 chaperone systems in vitro. We are in the process of testing the hypothesis that the presence of Hsp90 co-chaperones could influence the inhibitors' affinity to Hsp90 and Hsp90-dependent p53 binding to the promoter sequence. However, our results already indicate that the influence of Hsp90 on wt-p53 activity should be taken into consideration while using Hsp90 inhibitors in the therapeutic treatment of cancer, especially if cancer cells possess wt-p53.
There are at least two possibilities of explaining the mechanism for Hsp90 positive regulation of p53 DNA binding to the promoter sequence at 37 °C. First, Hsp90 inhibits p53 aggregation or catalyzes the disaggregation of p53 protein at elevated temperatures. Such a mechanism was previously discovered for chaperones belonging to prokaryotic (57, 58) and eukaryotic (63) Hsp70 families; and now is shown for Hsp90 in presence of p53 by Muller et al. (34). Second, the Hsp90 association with wt-p53 could induce the partial unfolding of p53. Following the dissociation of this Hsp90-p53 complex in the presence of ATP, p53 could spontaneously refold back into a wild-type conformation with a high affinity for the p21 promoter sequence. A similar mechanism of molecular chaperone action was proposed in the case of Hsp100 involved in protein folding and proteolysis (64). The unfoldase activity of Hsp100 molecular chaperone was eventually demonstrated by a subsequent study (65). Recent data from the Ted Hupp laboratory (30) suggest that Hsp90 in the presence of MDM2 could indeed partially unfold p53. We propose that partial unfolding of p53 could be catalyzed by Hsp90, and the subsequent spontaneous refolding of p53 back into a wild-type-like conformation may prevent p53 aggregation thus increasing p53 DNA binding to the promoter sequence (see Fig. 9). More importantly, these chaperone-mediated actions would decrease the probability for the formation of kinetically trapped, mutant-like intermediates and that would allow a shift in the conformational equilibrium toward the active, wt-p53 conformation. These events would ultimately promote the p53 transcriptional activity and allow for the ubiquitination and degradation of p53 protein. In addition, the retention of p53 in a wild-type conformation by transient Hsp90 interaction would also inhibit the formation of a multichaperone-p53 complex, which prevents p53 degradation and import to the nucleus (Fig. 9).
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| FOOTNOTES |
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These authors contributed equally to this work and are recipients of a scholarship from the Postgraduate School of Molecular Medicine affiliated with the Medical University of Warsaw. ![]()

Present address: Cancer Research Institute, University of California San Francisco, CA. ![]()

To whom correspondence should be addressed: International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw, Trojdena 4 St., 02-109 Warsaw, Poland. Tel.: 48-22-668-50-86; Fax: 48-22-668-50-57; E-mail: zylicz{at}iimcb.gov.pl.
1 The abbreviations used are: wt-p53, wild-type p53; Hsp90, heat shock protein 90; AMP-PNP, adenylyl-imidodiphosphate; ChIP, chromatin immunoprecipitation; ELISA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; EMSA, electrophoretic mobility shift assay; GA, geldanamycin; mut p53, p53 in mutant conformation; R, radicicol; DTT, dithiothreitol; BSA, bovine serum albumin. ![]()
2 A. Helwak, unpublished results. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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, Ted Hupp for plasmid constructs for p53 overexpression, Harm Kampinga for the kind gift of the K15 cell line, Richard Morimoto for pET11b plasmid encoding human Hsp70, and Kazutoyo Terada for constructs for Hdj2 and Hdj3 overexpression. | REFERENCES |
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