Inhibition of CRL-NEDD8 pathway as a new approach to enhance ATRA-induced differentiation of acute promyelocytic leukemia cells

The cullin-RING ligase (CRL)-NEDD8 pathway maintains essential cellular processes, including cell cycle progression, apoptosis, autophagy, DNA repair, antigen processing and signal transduction. Growing evidence demonstrates that the alteration of the CRL-NEDD8 pathway in some cancers constitutes an attractive target for therapeutic intervention, but the roles of CRL-NEDD8 pathway in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is still unclear. In the present study, we found that ATRA could decrease the expression of NEDD8-activating enzyme E1 (NAE1) and inhibit the neddylation of cullin1 and cullin3 in the APL cell line NB4. Inactivation of cullin neddylation promoted self-degradation of F-box proteins (Skp2, KLHL20, βTrCP) and up-regulated the protein expression of p27(kip), DEPTOR and DAPK1. MLN4924, a novel inhibitor of NAE1, significantly suppressed cell growth and enhanced apoptosis of APL cells by blocking cullin neddylation and subsequent accumulation of CRL E3 substrates. Furthermore, MLN4924 effectively enhanced ATRA-induced differentiation of APL cells by promoting autophagy. Our findings not only provide further insights into the mechanism of the CRL-NEDD8 axis, but also provide a better understanding of this pathway as a potential target for therapeutic intervention in APL.