In vivo degradation of N-myc in neuroblastoma cells is mediated by the 26S proteasome

N-myc is a short-lived transcription factor, frequently amplified in human neuroblastomas. The ubiquitin-proteasome system is involved in the degradation of many short-lived cellular proteins and previous studies have shown that ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis is implicated in the turn-over of N-myc in vitro. However, calpain has also been implicated in N-myc degradation in vitro. Here we report that, in vivo, N-myc is a sensitive substrate for the 26S proteasome in N-myc amplified neuroblastoma cells. We observed that inhibition of the 26S proteasome with two inhibitors, ALLnL and lactacystin, led to an elevation of the N-myc protein steady-state and increased N-myc protein polyubiquitination, as revealed by ubiquitin Western blotting. Pulse-chase experiments have shown that the increased N-myc levels resulted from stabilization of the protein. In contrast treatment with several calpain and cathepsin inhibitors failed to block N-myc degradation in vivo. Furthermore, fluorescence microscopy of ALLnL-treated cells localized N-myc exclusively to the nuclear compartment, suggesting the absence of a requirement for transport to the cytoplasm prior to degradation.