Bleomycin is a highly potent cytotoxic and genotoxic agent used in the chemotherapy of various types of tumors. It is a radiomimetic anticancer drug that produces single- and double-stranded DNA breaks in a catalytic way. Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system, we show that when a high amount of bleomycin molecules is internalized (100 micromol/L), morphological changes identical to those usually associated with apoptosis, i.e., a sub-G1 region peak, chromatin condensation, and very rapid DNA fragmentation into oligonucleosomal-sized fragments, are observed. The known bleomycin inhibitors cobalt and EDTA were able to prevent bleomycin nucleasic activity and thus apoptotic cell death. However, both oligomycin, a potent inhibitor of the mitochondrial F0F1-ATPase, and antimycin, a drug affecting mitochondria respiration, were unable to prevent the bleomycin-induced apoptotic-like cell death. These results suggest that high bleomycin concentrations induce an apoptosis-like mitochondria-independent cell death in yeast.

• PMID: 17464344
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Journal Article | Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Authors

Aouida M, Mekid H, Belhadj O, Mir LM, Tounekti O

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