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Tumor-stromal interactions induce expression of matrix metalloproteinases and serine proteases and, as shown recently, the cysteine protease cathepsin B. We speculate that such interactions upregulate the transcription factor Ets1, resulting in increased cathepsin B expression. This would be consistent with the observed concomitant upregulation of matrix metalloproteinases and serine proteases as well as with the ability of extracellular matrices and their binding partners to alter cathepsin B expression and secretion. Using a confocal assay to analyze the contribution of tumor-stromal interactions to proteolysis, we have been able to confirm enhanced degradation of extracellular matrices by all three classes of proteases.

Prostate cancers metastasize to bone leading to osteolysis. Here we assessed proteolysis of DQ-collagen I (a bone matrix protein) and, for comparison, DQ-collagen IV, by living human prostate carcinoma cells in vitro. Both collagens were degraded, and this degradation was reduced by inhibitors of matrix metallo, serine, and cysteine proteases. Because secretion of the cysteine protease cathepsin B is increased in human breast fibroblasts grown on collagen I gels, we analyzed cathepsin B levels and secretion in prostate cells grown on collagen I gels. Levels and secretion were increased only in DU145 cells—cells that expressed the highest baseline levels of cathepsin B. Secretion of cathepsin B was also elevated in DU145 cells grown in vitro on human bone fragments. We further investigated the effect of the bone microenvironment on cathepsin B expression and activity in vivo in a SCID-human model of prostate bone metastasis. High levels of cathepsin B protein and activity were found in DU145, PC3, and LNCaP bone tumors, although the PC3 and LNCaP cells had exhibited low cathepsin B expression in vitro. Our results suggest that tumor-stromal interactions in the context of the bone microenvironment can modulate the expression of the cysteine protease cathepsin B.

Cathepsin B and in particular cell-surface and secreted cathepsin B has been implicated in the invasive and metastatic phenotype of numerous types of cancer. We describe here a method to easily survey cancer cell lines for cathepsin B activity using the highly selective substrate Z-Arg-Arg-AMC. Intact human U87 glioma cells hydrolyze Z-Arg-Arg-AMC with a Km of 460 microM at pH 7.0 and 37 degrees C. This is nearly the same as the Km of 430 microM obtained with purified cathepsin B assayed under the same conditions. The pericellular (i.e. both cell-surface and released) cathepsin B activity was inhibited by the cysteine protease inhibitors E-64, leupeptin, Mu-Np2-HphVS-2Np, Mu-Leu-HpHVSPh and the cathepsin B selective inhibitor Mu-Tyr(3,5 I2)-HphVSPh with IC50 values similar to those observed for the inhibition of purified human liver cathepsin B. Other human cancer cell lines with measurable pericellular cathepsin B activity included HT-1080 fibrosarcoma, MiaPaCa pancreatic, PC-3 prostate and HCT-116 colon. Cathepsin B activity correlated with protein levels of cathepsin B as determined by immunoblot analysis. Pericellular cathepsin B activity was also detected in the rat cell lines MatLyLu prostate and Mat B III adenocarcinoma and in the murine lines B16a melanoma and Lewis lung carcinoma. The ability to determine pericellular cathepsin B activity will be useful in selecting appropriate cell lines for use in vivo when analyzing the effects of inhibiting cathepsin B activity on tumor growth and metastasis.

The skeleton is the most common site of metastasis in patients with advanced prostate cancer. Despite many advances in targeting skeletal metastases, the mechanisms behind the attraction of prostate cancer cells to the bone are not known. Osteoclast cathepsin K, due to its ability to effectively degrade bone matrix collagen I, has been implicated in colonization and growth of prostate tumours in the bone. Identification of new cathepsin K substrates in the bone microenvironment and the recent findings demonstrating its involvement in obesity and inflammation suggest additional roles for this enzyme in skeletal metastases of prostate cancer.

Prolactin (PRL) stimulates mitogenesis and differentiative processes in a variety of cell types. Not all of the molecules involved in PRL signaling, which follows an initial PRL-receptor interaction, have been identified. In the present studies, PRL is shown to stimulate the differential tyrosyl phosphorylation of three isoforms (ERK-1, 2, and 4) of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAP kinase) in a rat pre-T lymphoma cell line (Nb2). Evidence also suggests that PRL stimulates the tyrosyl phosphorylation of ERK-3, a MAP kinase isoform recently identified. When G1-arrested Nb2 cells are treated with 50 ng/ml oPRL, ERK-1 through 3 become tyrosyl phosphorylated within minutes (an indication of enzyme activation) and then become dephosphorylated within 30 min. Conversely, ERK-4 is rapidly tyrosyl phosphorylated by 5 min, and remains in this state for at least 1 hr.