Ha-Ras sensitizes transformed mouse skin cells to Anisomycin-induced apoptosis

Efforts have been made to develop a chemoprevention that selectively triggers apoptosis in malignant cancer cells. Here, we demonstrated that a mutated Ha-Ras activity is required in Anisomycin-induced apoptosis in transformed keratinocytes. Anisomycin stimulates JNK activity and apoptosis in oncogenic Ha-Ras positive cells, but not in normal keratinocytes. This effect was demonstrated in stably transfected cells with dominant negative Ha-Ras, that protected transformed cells, and oncogenic Ha-Ras that sensitized non-transformed cells to Anisomycin-induced apoptosis. Lastly, the treatment of cells with inhibitors of the JNK displayed resistance to Anisomycin induced apoptosis. These data suggests that the oncogenic Ha-Ras is important for Anisomycin-induced JNK activation and apoptosis in transformed keratinocytes.