1. Academic Validation
  2. Pharmacologic inhibition of the anaphase-promoting complex induces a spindle checkpoint-dependent mitotic arrest in the absence of spindle damage

Pharmacologic inhibition of the anaphase-promoting complex induces a spindle checkpoint-dependent mitotic arrest in the absence of spindle damage

  • Cancer Cell. 2010 Oct 19;18(4):382-95. doi: 10.1016/j.ccr.2010.08.010.
Xing Zeng 1 Frederic Sigoillot Shantanu Gaur Sungwoon Choi Kathleen L Pfaff Dong-Chan Oh Nathaniel Hathaway Nevena Dimova Gregory D Cuny Randall W King
Affiliations

Affiliation

  • 1 Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Abstract

Microtubule inhibitors are important Cancer drugs that induce mitotic arrest by activating the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), which, in turn, inhibits the ubiquitin Ligase activity of the anaphase-promoting complex (APC). Here, we report a small molecule, tosyl-L-arginine methyl ester (TAME), which binds to the APC and prevents its activation by Cdc20 and Cdh1. A prodrug of TAME arrests cells in metaphase without perturbing the spindle, but nonetheless the arrest is dependent on the SAC. Metaphase arrest induced by a Proteasome Inhibitor is also SAC dependent, suggesting that APC-dependent proteolysis is required to inactivate the SAC. We propose that mutual antagonism between the APC and the SAC yields a positive feedback loop that amplifies the ability of TAME to induce mitotic arrest.

Figures
Products