Colorectal cancer is a significant health problem, and the advanced stages of the disease have a low response rate to chemotherapy and easily acquire chemoresistance. HIV-1 viral protein R (Vpr) has been shown to possess inhibitory effects on various malignant cells in vivo and in vitro. In this study, an Ad-Vpr construct was used to infect the multidrug-resistant human colorectal cancer HCT-8/5-FU(MDR) cell line in vitro for cell viability, apoptosis, gene expression and gene activity using the MTT, flow cytometry, immunoblotting and gel shift assays, respectively. The data showed that Ad-Vpr significantly reduced HCT-8/5-FU(MDR) cell viability in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Ad-Vpr infection promoted HCT-8/5-FU(MDR) cells to undergo apoptosis and to arrest at the G2 phase of the cell cycle. The G2 cell cycle protein Cyclin B1 accumulated in the cells after Ad-Vpr infection. Furthermore, Ad-Vpr induced activation of caspase-3 and -9, but not caspase-8, in HCT-8/5-FU(MDR) cells. Ad-Vpr suppressed expression of the Bcl-xl protein, but upregulated Bax expression and cytochrome c release from the mitochondria in HCT-8/5-FU(MDR) cells. Ad-Vpr infection also resulted in a time-dependent decrease in nuclear translocation of NF-κB/p65 protein and p65 DNA-binding activity in HCT-8/5-FU(MDR) cells. The data from the current study provide mechanistic insights into understanding the molecular basis and utility of Ad-Vpr as a novel anticancer agent for multidrug resistance in human colorectal cancer.

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