Mechanism of the regulation of thymidylate synthase levels associated with response to 5-fluorouracil in human gastric cancer cells

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Thymidylate synthase (TS) plays a major role in the response to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) by binding directly to the 5-FU metabolite, 5-fluoro-dUMP (FdUMP). The change in the TS expression levels after 5-FU administration was examined in parallel to 5-FU responsiveness in six human gastric adenocarcinoma cell lines to elucidate the source of variability of 5-FU sensitivity. MKN-1, SH-10-TC and MKN-74 cells were more resistant to 5-FU than MKN-28, KATO III and MKN-45 cells. Western-blotting analysis revealed that the 5-FU sensitivity of these cells did not correlate with the basal TS expression levels but did correlate with rapid detection of the TS-FdUMP complex after exposure to 5-FU. In 5-FU-resistant cells, very low levels of the TS-FdUMP complex early after 5-FU exposure were elevated by pretreatment with calpain inhibitors such as benzyloxycarbonyl-leucyl-leucinal (ZLLH) and benzyloxycarbonyl-leucyl-leucyl-leucinal (ZLLLH), but not by other protease inhibitors. In contrastd, ONO-3403, which causes calpain activation, stimulated downregulation of the TS-FdUMP complex in 5-FU-sensitive cells. The expression levels of calpastatin, an endogenous calpain inhibitor, were higher in 5-FU-sensitive cells than in 5-FU-resistant cells. ZLLH increased the 5-FU sensitivity of 5-FU-resistant cells, whereas ONO-3403 decreased the sensitivity of 5-FU-sensitive cells. In addition, knockdown of m-calpain by siRNA increased the 5-FU sensitivity in 5-FU-resistant cells, while knockdown of calpastatin reduced the sensitivity in 5-FU-sensitive cells. These results suggest that calpain might reduce the chemosensitivity of human gastric cancer cells to 5-FU possibly by rapid degradation of the TS-FdUMP complex, a finding that is considered to have novel therapeutic implications.