Suppression of granzyme B activity and caspase-3 activation in leukaemia cells constitutively expressing the protease inhibitor 9

Immune surveillance against malignant cells is mediated by cytotoxic T-lymphocytes and NK-cells (CTL/NK) that induce Apoptosis through the granzyme-B-dependent pathway. The Serine Protease Inhibitor serpinB9/protease inhibitor-9 (PI-9) is a known inhibitor of granzyme B. Ectopic expression of PI-9 in tumour cells has been reported. However, the impact of PI-9 on granzyme-B-induced Apoptosis in tumour cells remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of constitutive PI-9 expression in leukaemia cell lines on the activity of granzyme B and Apoptosis induction. PI-9 negative (lymphoblastic Jurkat cells; myeloblastic U937 cells) and PI-9-expressing cell lines (myeloblastic K562 cells, EBV-transformed LCL-1 and LCL-2 B-cells, lymphoblastic Daudi cells, AML-R cells f leukaemia and the U937 subclone U937PI-9(+)). For accurate granzyme B activity determination a quantitative substrate (Ac-IEPD-pNA) cleavage assay was established and Caspase-3 activation measured for Apoptosis assessment. Cells were treated with a cytotoxic granule isolate that has previously been shown to induce Apoptosis through granzyme B signalling. We found a robust correlation between constitutive PI-9 expression levels and the suppression of granzyme B activity. Further, inhibition of granzyme B translated into reduced Caspase-3 activation. We conclude, suppression of granzyme B initiated Apoptosis in PI-9-expressing cells could contribute to immune evasion and the measurement of granzyme B activity with our assay might be a useful predictive marker in immune-therapeutic approaches against Cancer.