In this study, 2-aminophenoxazine-3-one (Phx-3) exhibited a potent cell growth inhibitory effect with apoptotic features in a dose-dependent manner in various cancer cell lines tested. Comparison of the expression profiles of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-related genes in U266 multiple myeloma cells after treatment with Phx-3 and the ER stress inducers tunicamycin (TNM) and thapsigargin (TPG) indicated that although TNM and TPG potently induced pro-apoptotic transcription factor CHOP (GADD153) within 8 h of treatment, Phx-3 induced almost no CHOP within 48 h of treatment in U266 cells. However, murine embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cells and other cancer cell lines (e.g. A549 lung cancer cells and HL-60 acute leukemia cells) exhibited up-regulation of CHOP after treatment with Phx-3. The potency of CHOP induction in response to Phx-3 appeared to be partially correlated with the cytotoxic sensitivity of Phx-3 among various cell lines tested. MEF cells derived from CHOP knockout mice were more resistant to Phx-3 than wild-type MEF cells. Since Phx-3 has been shown to induce activation of NF-κB, a transcription factor functioning as a repressor of CHOP, we further treated U266 cells with a combination of Phx-3 and NF-κB inhibitors (e.g. BAY11-7082 or parthenolide). This enhanced cytotoxicity along with up-modulation of CHOP in U266 cells. These data suggest that ER stress-mediated CHOP induction by Phx-3 is involved in the cytotoxic effect. Regulation of CHOP expression appears to be a potent therapeutic target for cancer treatment.

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