Effects of 12 beticolins, Cercospora beticola toxins, on proliferation of ras-transformed adrenocortical cell.

Aim: To explore different effects of 12 beticolins, Cercospora beticola toxins, on ras-transformed adrenocortical cell growth inhibition and their functional mechanism.

Methods: Beticolin-induced inhibition was measured with survival cell number determined by an automated photocolorimetric method. The penetration of beticolin was examined by confocal microscopy.

Characterization by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry of sterols in saccharomyces cerevisiae during autolysis.

Yeast autolysis affects membrane stability and induces a release of vacuolar enzymes into the cell cytoplasm. Consecutively, it was important to study the evolution of sterol content in Saccharomycescerevisiae for a fourteen day period of accelerated autolysis. Unesterified and esterified sterols were analyzed both in the biomass and in the autolysis medium.

Combination of the novel farnesyltransferase inhibitor RPR130401 and the geranylgeranyltransferase-1 inhibitor GGTI-298 disrupts MAP kinase activation and G(1)-S transition in Ki-Ras-overexpressing transformed adrenocortical cells.

To test the Kirsten-Ras (Ki-Ras) alternative prenylation hypothesis in malignant transformation, we used a novel farnesyltransferase inhibitor competitive to farnesyl-pyrophosphate, RPR130401, and a CaaX peptidomimetic geranylgeranyltransferase-1 inhibitor GGTI-298. In Ki-Ras-overexpressing transformed adrenocortical cells, RPR130401 at 1-10 microM inhibited very efficiently the [(3)H]farnesyl but not [(3)H]geranylgeranyl transfer to Ras. However, proliferation of these cells was only slightly sensitive to RPR130401 (IC(50)=30 microM).

Geranylgeranyl as well as farnesyl moiety is transferred to Ras p21 overproduced in adrenocortical cells transformed by c-Ha-rasEJ oncogene.

The ras-transformed newborn rat adrenocortical (RTAC) cells were obtained by transfection with the mutated c-Ha-rasEJ oncogene. They are proliferative and tumorigenic cells characterized by expression of the c-Ha-rasEJ oncogene and overexpression of a wild-type ras oncogene. The overproduced Ras p21 was identified here as Ki-Ras p21 by western blotting using a specific anti-Ki-Ras monoclonal antibody.

Inhibition of cellular growth and steroid 11 beta-hydroxylation in ras-transformed adrenocortical cells by the fungal toxins beticolins.

The proliferation of GM16 and 4CDT ras-transformed newborn rat adrenocortical (RTAC) cells and Y1 mouse adrenal tumor cells was inhibited by beticolins, the fungal toxins extracted from Cercospora beticola, at submicromolar concentrations in a dose-dependent manner. Inhibitory concentrations for half the maximum inhibition were 150, 75 and 25 nM for beticolin-1 and 230, 150 and 50 nM for beticolin-2 in GM16, 4CDT and Y1 cells respectively. Beticolins strongly inhibited the production of 11 beta-hydroxysteroids on the second and third days of treatment in a dose-dependent manner between 0.