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Molecular and Cellular Biology, November 2003, p. 7920-7925, Vol. 23, No. 21
0270-7306/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/MCB.23.21.7920-7925.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
and Myles Brown*
Department of Molecular Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
Received 23 April 2003/ Returned for modification 7 July 2003/ Accepted 5 August 2003
| ABSTRACT |
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60 min. In contrast, the chemopreventative AHR ligand 3,3'-diindolylmethane promotes AHR nuclear translocation and p160 coactivator recruitment but, remarkably, fails to recruit Pol II or cause histone acetylation. This novel mechanism of receptor antagonism may account for the antitumor properties of chemopreventative compounds targeting the AHR. | INTRODUCTION |
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Although structurally unrelated, AHR activity shares several features with members of the nuclear receptor superfamily. These transcription factors recruit a host of cofactor proteins to gene promoters in order to regulate transcription. Several nuclear receptor coactivators also interact with the AHR, including ERAP140 (22), RIP140 (20), p300, CBP (16), BRG-1 (34), and the three members of the p160 family of coactivators: NCoA1 (SRC-1), NCoA2 (GRIP-1 and TIF-2), and NCoA3 (AIB-1, p/CIP, and ACTR) (1). AHR interacts with these factors via its C-terminal transactivation domain (19), and ARNT may also be involved in recruiting cofactors to the promoter. The cofactors are involved in recruiting of additional proteins, ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling, and acetylation of promoter histones. The net effect of these activities is to relax chromatin, reposition nucleosomes, and facilitate recruitment of RNA polymerase II (Pol II).
AHR and its agonists have been implicated in the initiation and progression of cancers in multiple organs (25). However, data from cultured cells and animal models indicate that AHR ligands can inhibit formation and proliferation of breast tumors (10, 17). This antitumorigenic activity has led to proposals that AHR ligands could be used in treatment of breast cancer (11, 28). Of these ligands, 3,3'-diindolylmethane (DIM) has drawn significant interest, because DIM and related compounds are naturally occurring chemopreventative agents found in cruciferous vegetables (2). DIM inhibits proliferation of estrogen-responsive breast cancer cells via the AHR but is a weak partial agonist for CYP1A1 induction that antagonizes the effect of full AHR agonists (4, 5). Due to these properties, DIM has been labeled a selective AHR modulator (27), analogous to selective estrogen receptor modulators used in breast cancer treatment. The mechanism for selectivity of response to DIM is unknown.
We have used chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) to monitor recruitment of AHR, coactivators, and Pol II to, and acetylation of histones on, the CYP1A1 promoter in vivo. The results show that an AHR agonist causes cycles of receptor and cofactor recruitment leading to gene transcription. In contrast, the selective AHR modulator DIM recruited a subset of cofactors but failed to cause histone acetylation or effective polymerase recruitment. These results suggest a mechanism for the chemopreventative activity of DIM and related compounds.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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-naphthoflavone (ANF), were from Sigma (St. Louis, Mo.).
ChIP.
MCF-7 cells in 150-mm-diameter dishes were treated with compounds for the times indicated in the figures, rinsed with 37°C phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), and cross-linked with 1% formaldehyde in PBS at 37°C for 10 min. Cells were then rinsed twice with ice-cold PBS, scraped into 1 ml of ice-cold PBS with protease inhibitors (Roche, Mannheim, Germany), and pelleted. Pellets were rinsed with 1 ml of ice-cold PBS with protease inhibitors, centrifuged again, and lysed in 300 µl of lysis buffer (1% sodium dodecyl sulfate [SDS], 5 mM EDTA, 50 mM Tris [pH 8.1], protease inhibitors) for 10 min on ice. This solution was sonicated three times for 15 s each with a Dismembrator 300 (Fisher). The sonication had been shown to yield DNA fragments averaging
1 kb in length (31). The soluble chromatin was then centrifuged at 16,000 x g for 10 min at 4°C, and 100-µl aliquots were diluted to 1 ml in dilution buffer (1% Triton X-100, 2 mM EDTA, 20 mM Tris, 150 mM NaCl, protease inhibitors). An aliquot of soluble chromatin was also set aside as the input fraction. Diluted chromatin was precleared with protein-A/G agarose (45 µl of a 50% slurry; Santa Cruz), 2 µg of sheared salmon sperm DNA, and 5 µl of preimmune serum at 4°C with agitation for 2 h. Protein-A/G agarose beads were pelleted, the supernatant was transferred to a new tube, and 1 µg of antibody was added for immunoprecipitation overnight at 4°C with agitation. Protein-A/G agarose and 2 µl of salmon sperm DNA were added for 1 h, and the pellets were washed sequentially for 10 min at 4°C with buffer I (0.1% SDS, 2 mM EDTA, 20 mM Tris, 150 mM NaCl), buffer II (0.1% SDS, 2 mM EDTA, 20 mM Tris, 500 mM NaCl), buffer III (1% LiCl, 1% NP-40, 1% deoxycholate, 1 mM EDTA, 10 mM Tris), and Tris-EDTA buffer. The resulting pellets were resuspended in 100 µl of elution buffer (1% SDS, 0.1 M sodium bicarbonate, 0.2 M NaCl) and heated at 65°C for 6 h or overnight (input samples were included). DNA was purified using a PCR purification kit (Qiagen) and eluted in 50 µl. DNA content was quantified using the PicoGreen double-stranded-DNA kit (Molecular Probes, Eugene, Oreg.).
PCR and real-time PCR. ChIP DNA (5 µl) was amplified by PCR with primers 5'CACCCGCCACCCTTCGACAGTTCT3' and 5'CTCCCGGGGTGGCTAGTGCTTTGA3' (amplifying the region from 784 to 1,156 bp upstream of the CYP1A1 transcription start site) by using the following cycles: 95°C for 3 min; 40 cycles of 95°C for 45 s, 58°C for 45 s, and 70°C for 1 min; and 70°C for 5 min. Nonspecific primers, amplifying a region from 3,152 to 3,528 bp 5' of the start site, were used as a negative control (5'AGACGCTCCTCACTTTCCAGACTG3' and 5'CGCCGCCACGCCTGACTG3'). For real-time PCR, SYBR Green master mix (Applied Biosystems, Bedford, Mass.) was used to amplify a smaller sequence (5'ACGCAGACCTAGACCCTTTGC3' and 5'CGGGTGCGCGATTGAA3') in an ABI 7700 sequence detection system. CYP1A1 promoter content was normalized to DNA content for each sample and then normalized to time zero (no ligand) or DMSO-treated cells. Between-replicate standard errors within real-time PCR experiments were always less than 5% of the mean.
Real-time RT-PCR. Total RNA was isolated from MCF-7 cells in 100-mm-diameter dishes by using an RNeasy kit (Qiagen), with on-column DNase treatment to remove contaminating genomic DNA. Real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) was performed on 500 ng of RNA by using SYBR Green master mix and MultiScribe reverse transcriptase (Applied Biosystems) according to the manufacturer's protocol. For CYP1A1 mRNA, the primers used were 5'CGGCCCCGGCTCTCT3' and 5'GTGTCGGAAGGTCTCCCAGGAT3', and for hnRNA, the primers were 5'TTGTGATCCCAGGCTCCAAGA3' and 5'GGAGGCACCAAAATGTTCCTTT3'. Expression was normalized to the time zero sample. Amplification of specific targets was verified by gel electrophoresis and dissociation curves. Controls without reverse transcriptase confirmed the absence of DNA.
| RESULTS |
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1 h, is similar to results for the estrogen receptor in the same cells (31). The timing of the first peak in occupancy (for both AHR and cofactors) (see below) varies slightly between experiments and depends on the method of treatment (data not shown). BNF selectively increased occupancy of the region of the promoter containing active XREs compared to that of a region further upstream and to treatment with a solvent (Fig. 1B).
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Coincident with recruitment of the AHR and cofactors to the CYP1A1 promoter, Pol II is recruited (Fig. 3). Like that of AHR and the cofactors, association of Pol II with the promoter is cyclic. Transcription of CYP1A1 mRNA, measured by RT-PCR of unprocessed hnRNA (9), follows Pol II recruitment and peaks when Pol II is absent from the promoter. Accumulation of processed mRNA over time reflects the rate of transcription, as shown by the comparison between the calculated integration of hnRNA and the measured level of mRNA (Fig. 3, bottom panel).
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| DISCUSSION |
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AHR and cofactor recruitment seen here agrees with findings of previous reports. Rapid association of AHR with the XRE coincides with results of a study showing that green fluorescent protein-tagged AHR is mostly nuclear 15 min after treatment with an agonist and is forming nuclear foci by 30 min (8). Each of the three p160 coactivators interacts with the mouse CYP1A1 promoter in vivo (1), although ChIP was performed at a single time point after treatment, so it is not clear whether mouse AHR and cofactors also show cycles of association. Concomitant recruitment of p160 coactivators and p300 has been seen with the estrogen, androgen, and thyroid hormone receptors (31-33). Transient, single-cycle association of p300 with the promoter is also a common factor among these receptors.
The results presented in Fig. 2 appear to show that NCoA1, NCoA2, and NCoA3 are each present on the promoter simultaneously. However, since ChIP examines a population of cells, with only
20% of the total promoters recovered following immunoprecipitation (Hestermann and Brown, unpublished results), these results do not demonstrate whether multiple members of the p160 family are recruited to the same promoter. Furthermore, with many XREs present, it is possible that individual AHR (or ARNT) proteins recruit separate p160s to different response elements on the same promoter. With DNA sheared to an average of 1 kb, ChIP lacks sufficient resolution to determine occupancy of individual, closely spaced response elements.
Ligand-induced transcription factor antagonists act through a variety of mechanisms. Ligands for both the estrogen (30, 31) and androgen (32) receptors cause recruitment of corepressors and histone deacetylases, rather than that of coactivators and HATs, to promoters, leading to active repression of transcription. The glucocorticoid receptor suppresses NF-
B-mediated responses by inhibiting phosphorylation of the C-terminal domain, rather than recruitment, of Pol II (23). Several flavone antagonists of the AHR block translocation to the nucleus in vivo and XRE binding in vitro (13). In contrast, DIM was able to recruit AHR and some cofactors to the promoter but failed to bring about histone acetylation or Pol II recruitment. Taken together, the results indicate that these transcription factors are susceptible to interference at multiple steps in the transcriptional regulation pathway, presenting several opportunities for therapeutic intervention.
Our work suggests a novel mechanism of AHR antagonism. Dramatic differences between the transcriptional outcomes of exposure to AHR agonists and exposure to antagonists occur at a step after ligand binding, nuclear translocation, and p160 coactivator recruitment but before recruitment of HATs, histone acetylation, and recruitment of Pol II. Since local histone acetylation may be required for Pol II recruitment, it is most likely that failure to recruit critical HATs is the key difference between agonistic and antagonistic effects. Our data suggest that ligand-dependent changes in AHR conformation, either alone or with p160 coactivators, affect the stability of HAT, specifically CBP, binding. Failure to acetylate histone H4 reflects the role of CBP in specifically acetylating lysines 8 and 12 of H4 (21). A lack of histone H4 acetylation has also been correlated with inhibition of CYP1A1 induction by NF-
B activation (15).
Ligands like DIM that allow DNA binding and coactivator recruitment but inhibit CYP1A1 transcription likely interfere with carcinogenesis through parallel pathways. First, they inhibit tumor initiation by blocking CYP1A1 induction (and enzymatic activity [5]) and thus preventing metabolism by CYP1A1 of procarcinogens into genotoxic forms. Second, proliferation of estrogen-dependent tumors is also inhibited because AHR interferes with estrogen receptor-mediated transcription and cell proliferation through competition for promoter binding sites (29) and/or common cofactors (26). Mechanism-based design of compounds that specifically block HAT recruitment by AHR in a gene- and/or target cell-specific manner may allow new cancer chemopreventative agents targeting AHR, analogous to the selective estrogen receptor modulators that have proven to be of great clinical value in the treatment of breast cancer.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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We thank David Livingston for providing antibodies and Mitch Lazar and Mark Hahn for suggestions on the manuscript.
| FOOTNOTES |
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Present address: Biology Department, Furman University, Greenville, SC 29613. ![]()
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