Arsenic is a natural contaminant of drinking water in many parts of the world, is a known human carcinogen and is #1 on the EPA list of hazardous chemicals. Cancers most often associated with chronic arsenism are squamous and basal cell carcinomas of the skin. How arsenic causes cancer is unknown. However, the National Research Council Report on Arsenic in Drinking Water concluded that the most likely mode of action is induction of numerical and structural chromosomal abnormalities. Arsenite, the carcinogenic form of arsenic found in drinking water, disrupts mitosis causing an anaphase delay and induces aneuploidy in normal diploid human fibroblasts and peripheral blood lymphocytes, and mitotic arrest associated apoptosis (MAAA) in p53 deficient human fibroblasts. The sensitivity of p53 deficient human cells to arsenite induced MAAA suggests that the mechanism of arsenite carcinogenesis is different than sunlight induced skin carcinogenesis in which p53 mutation is an early and common event. The hypothesis to be investigated is that p53 relieves the arsenite-induced anaphase block by activation of the G2 checkpoint response which inactivates cyclin B/cdc2 and derepresses the mitotic exit network and allow the cells to escape arsenite induced MAAA. It is the prevention of apoptosis in arsenic intoxicated cells that allows genetic instability (aneuploidy) after mitotic disruption. Identification of the cellular factors that interact with p53 or the p53 regulated genes to prevent mitotic arrest associated apoptosis and to allow cells to proceed through mitosis with a delay will provide valuable information regarding the mode of action of arsenite.
The specific aims proposed are: 1.) Determine activation of the G2 checkpoint pathway in p53(+) and p53(-) cells arrested by arsenite in mitosis;2.) Test by overexpression and targeted knockdown of G2 checkpoint proteins the role of G2 checkpoint activation in the escape from arsenite induced anaphase block;3.) Test whether arsenic associated skin tumors are p53 wild type or mutant. The results of these studies will identify players mediating release from arsenite induced mitotic arrest, and will provide valuable information on the mechanism of arsenic induced carcinogenesis, clues to the usefulness of arsenite as a chemotherapeutic agent and valuable information on the mode of action of mitosis disrupting drugs in killing human cells.
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