In this scholarly study, we expanded our recent work showing that ASCT2, a Na+-dependent neutral amino acid transporter that plays a major role in glutamine uptake in cancer cells, is physically associated with EGFR in human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells and in several other types of cancer cells. Co. The targeting sequences are as follows: sequence 1, CTGTATCAAGAATGATCTT; sequence 2, CCACAAATGGCCCTACTGA. The siRNA oligonucleotides targeting were Velcade kinase inhibitor described in our recent publication [26]. The siRNA oligonucleotides were transfected into the targeted cells with Lipofectamine 2000 (Life Technologies) according to the manufacturers instructions. 2.4. Construction of ASCT2-GFP fusion protein lentiviral vector ASCT2 cDNA was amplified from HN5 cells by RT-PCR. Primers were designed based on information at GenBank for human ASCT2 (“type”:”entrez-nucleotide”,”attrs”:”text”:”BC000062″,”term_id”:”33875173″,”term_text”:”BC000062″BC000062): forward primer, TAATACTAGTCACCATGGTGGCCGATCCTCCTCGAGACTCC; reverse primer, TAATGCGGCCGCACTTCCGTGATGGTGATGGTGATGCATGACTGATTCCTTCTCAG. The ASCT2 cDNA was fused in frame at the C-terminal with GFP cDNA. The fusion product was subcloned into pLex lentiviral vector (Open Biosystem). Lentivirus made up of ASCT2-GFP fusion cDNA was packaged in HEK 293T cells after transfection of the ASCT2-GFP fusion plasmid vector, along with psPAX2 and pMD.2D packaging plasmids, using Lipofectamine-2000 transfection. Conditioned medium from the transfected HEK 293T cells was used for infecting the cells of interest. 2.5. Western blotting and immunoprecipitation Cell lysates were prepared as we previously reported [26]. Western blot analysis was performed using the enhanced chemiluminescence detection kit (Amersham Biosciences) after incubation of the nitrocellulose membrane with various primary antibodies and horseradish peroxidase-labeled secondary antibodies [39C41]. Immunoprecipitation was performed by subjecting cell lysates to reaction with respective primary antibodies and protein Velcade kinase inhibitor A sepharose beads (Amersham Biosciences) at 4C overnight. The resulting immunoprecipitates were subjected to Western blotting with various primary antibodies. The primary antibodies and sources were as follows: ASCT2 (D7C12) and PARP, Cell Signaling Technology; ASCT2 (H-52) and AP1G1 (F10), Santa Cruz Biotechnology; EGFR (12020), BD Transduction Co.; and EGFR (F4) and -actin, Sigma-Aldrich Co. 2.6. Intracellular glutathione assay Intracellular glutathione was measured using a glutathione assay kit (Cayman Chemical) according to the manufacturers protocol as we previously described [26]. 2.7. ROS detection Intracellular ROS were detected by using Velcade kinase inhibitor a total ROS detection kit (Enzo Life Sciences) according to the manufacturers protocol as we previously described [26]. At the end of treatment, cells were stained with ROS detection solution at 37C for 1 h and then observed under a fluorescence microscope. 2.8. Immunocytochemistry Immunocytochemical staining was performed using the DAKO IHC staining Rabbit Polyclonal to AQP12 kit. Cells were first fixed with 95% acetone and 5% ethanol at 4C for 10 min. This step was followed by 1-h incubation with 1% rabbit serum to block nonspecific binding, overnight incubation with ASCT2 antibody (D7C12, 1:200) or a control antibody at 4C, and 1-h incubation with HRP-labeled goat anti-rabbit IgG at room temperature. The cells were rinsed with cold PBS between actions. Diaminobenzidine was used as a substrate of HRP for color development. Hematoxylin was used for cell nuclear counterstaining. ImageJ image processing tool was used to quantify relative ASCT2 expression in cells after various treatments [41C46]. 2.9. Cross-linking Cells were washed with PBS three times and then incubated with 2 mM disuccinimidyl suberate (DSS, Pierce Chemical Co.) in PBS for 30 min at 4C. The reaction was quenched by washing the cells three times with 20 mM Tris-buffered saline, pH 7.5. 2.10. Protein identification by mass spectrometry HN5 cell lysates were subjected to immunoprecipitation with cetuximab and ASCT2 antibody (D7C12), respectively. The immunoprecipitates were separated by SDS-PAGE. Coomassie blue-stained protein bands of interest were cut for protein identification by the Mass Spectrometry Proteomics Core of Baylor College of Medicine. 2.11. Endosome labeling and image processing CellLight Early Endosomes-RFP, BacMam 2.0 (Thermo Fisher Scientific), a fusion Velcade kinase inhibitor construct of Rab5a and TagRFP packaged in a recombinant insect baculovirus, was used for endosome labeling in cells of interest. Briefly, when a desired culture confluence was reached, the cells were incubated overnight in fresh medium made up of the CellLight reagent, the volume of which was based on the number of cells to be treated according to the manufacturers protocol. The cells were then counterstained with Hoechst 33258 before observation under a fluorescence microscope. 2.12. MTT cell proliferation assay For measurement of cell proliferation, cells were incubated in a 24-well plate with 1 mg/ml 3-(4,5-dimeth-ylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) for 2 h at the end of the desired treatments in cell culture [47C49]. Cells were then lysed with a lysis buffer (500 l/well) made up of 20% SDS in.