Ras sensitizes colon cells to apoptosis by TRAIL 1 TRANSFORMATION BY ONCOGENIC RAS SENSITIZES HUMAN COLON CELLS TO TRAIL INDUCED APOPTOSIS BY UPREGULATING DR4 AND DR5 THROUGH A MEK- DEPENDENT PATHWAY

1 TRANSFORMATION BY ONCOGENIC RAS SENSITIZES HUMAN COLON CELLS TO TRAIL INDUCED APOPTOSIS BY UPREGULATING DR4 AND DR5 THROUGH A MEKDEPENDENT PATHWAY Konstantinos G. Drosopoulos , Michael L. Roberts, Lukas Cermak, Takehiko Sasazuki, Senji Shirasawa, Ladislav Andera and Alexander Pintzas Laboratory of Signal Mediated Gene Expression, Institute of Biological Research and Biotechnology, National Hellenic Research Foundation, 48 Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue, Athens 11635, Greece 2 Laboratory of Cell Signaling and Apoptosis, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Videnska 1083, CZ-14220 Prague 4, Czech Republic 3 Department of Pathology, International Medical Center of Japan, 1-21-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8655, Japan 4 Department of Pharmacy, University of Patras , 26500 Rio, Greece Running title: Ras sensitizes colon cells to apoptosis by TRAIL Address correspondence to: Alexander Pintzas, Laboratory of Signal Mediated Gene Expression, Institute of Biological Research and Biotechnology, National Hellenic Research Foundation, 48 Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue, Athens 11635, Greece Tel: 30 210 7273753 Fax: 30 210 7273755 Email: [email protected]