A phase II trial of DA-125, a novel anthracycline, in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer

Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes for Assessment of Anticancer Drug-Induced Cardiotoxicity

Cardiotoxicity is a major cause of high attrition rates among newly developed drugs. Moreover, anti-cancer treatment-induced cardiotoxicity is one of the leading reasons of mortality in cancer survivors. Cardiotoxicity screening in vitro may improve predictivity of cardiotoxicity by novel drugs, using human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived-cardiomyocytes. Anthracyclines, including Doxorubicin, are widely used and highly effective chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of different forms of malignancies. Unfortunately, anthracyclines cause many cardiac complications early or late after therapy. Anthracyclines exhibit their potent anti-cancer effect primarily via induction of DNA damage during the DNA replication phase in proliferative cells. In contrast, studies in animals and hPSC-cardiomyocytes have revealed that cardiotoxic effects particularly arise from (1) the generation of oxidative stress inducing mitochondrial dysfunction, (2) disruption of calcium homeostasis, and (3) changes in transcriptome and proteome, triggering apoptotic cell death. To increase the therapeutic index of chemotherapeutic Doxorubicin therapy several protective strategies have been developed or are under development, such as (1) reducing toxicity through modification of Doxorubicin (analogs), (2) targeted delivery of anthracyclines specifically to the tumor tissue or (3) cardioprotective agents that can be used in combination with Doxorubicin. Despite continuous progress in the field of cardio-oncology, cardiotoxicity is still one of the major complications of anti-cancer therapy. In this review, we focus on current hPSC-cardiomyocyte models for assessing anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity and strategies for cardioprotection. In addition, we discuss latest developments toward personalized advanced pre-clinical models that are more closely recapitulating the human heart, which are necessary to support in vitro screening platforms with higher predictivity. These advanced models have the potential to reduce the time from bench-to-bedside of novel antineoplastic drugs with reduced cardiotoxicity.

Inhibitory effect of DA-125, a new anthracyclin analog antitumor agent, on the invasion of human fibrosarcoma cells by down-regulating the matrix metalloproteinases

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), zinc-dependent proteolytic enzymes, play a pivotal role in tumor metastasis by cleavage of extracellular matrix as well as non-matrix substrates. In this study, we examined the influence of DA-125, a new anthracyclin analog, on the gene expression of MMPs (MMP-2, MMP-9 and MT1-MMP), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP-1 and TIMP-2) and in vitro invasiveness of human fibrosarcoma cells. Dose-dependent decreases of MMPs and TIMPs mRNA levels were observed in DA-125-treated HT1080 human fibrosarcoma cells detected by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Gelatin zymography analysis also showed a significant down-regulation of MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression in HT1080 cells treated with DA-125 compared to controls. In addition, DA-125 inhibited the invasion, motility and cell migration, and colony formation of tumor cells. These data, therefore, provide direct evidence for the role of DA-125 as a potential cancer chemotherapeutic agent, which can markedly inhibit the invasive capacity of malignant cells. Further, to clarify the transcriptional regulatory pathway, we primarily investigated the role of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) in the expression of MMPs by DA-125 in HT1080 cells. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay demonstrated that DA-125 modulates the binding activity of NF-kappaB. Using the luciferase reporter gene assay, a dose-dependent down-regulation of NF-kappaB-mediated luciferase expression was also observed. These results suggest that DA-125 down-regulates MMPs expression in HT1080 cells through the NF-kappaB-mediated pathway.

DA-125, a new antitumor agent, inhibits topoisomerase ii as topoisomerase poison and dna intercalator simultaneously

DA-125, a novel derivative of adriamycin, is known for its anti-cancer activity. In this study, the inhibitory mechanism of DA-125 on topoisomerase was investigated in the simian virus 40 (SV40) replicating CV-1 cell by studying the SV40 DNA replication intermediates and DNA-topoisomerase complexes. DNA-protein complexes that were formed in the drug-treated cells were quantitated by using a glass filter assay. SV40 DNA replication intermediates that were accumulated in the drug-treated CV-1 cell were analyzed in a high resolution gel. DA-125 did not accumulate B-dimers of SV40 DNA replication intermediates which were found in the adriamycin-treated CV-1 cells. DA-125 induced a dose-dependent formation of the DNA-protein complexes, while adriamycin did not. When adriamycin and etoposide (VP16) were added to the SV40-infected cells at the same time, adriamycin blocked the formation of the DNA-protein complexes induced by VP16 in a dose-dependent manner. However, DA-125 blocked the formation of the DNA-protein complexes induced by VP16 up to the maximum level of the DNA-protein complexes that were induced by DA-125 alone. Adriamycin and DA-125 did not inhibit the formation of the DNA-protein complexes that were caused by camptothecin, a known topoisomerase I poison. DA-125 is bifunctional in inhibiting topoisomerase II because it simultaneously has the properties of the topoisomerase II poison and the DNA intercalator. As a topoisomerase II poison, DA-125 alone induced dose-dependent formation of the DNA-protein complexes. However, as a DNA intercalator, it quantitatively inhibited the formation of the DNA-protein complexes induced by a strong topoisomerase II poison VP16. Furthermore considering that the levels of the DNA-protein complex induced by VP16 were decreased by DA-125 in terms of the topoisomerase II poison, we suggest that DA-125 has a higher affinity to the drug-binding sites of DNA than VP16 has.