Aphidicolin potentiates apoptosis induced by arabinosyl nucleosides in human myeloid leukemia cell lines

Long intracellular retention of 4'-thio-arabinofuranosylcytosine 5'-triphosphate as a critical factor for the anti-solid tumor activity of 4'-thio-arabinofuranosylcytosine

4'-Thio-arabinofuranosylcytosine (T-araC) is a new cytosine analog, which exhibits excellent antitumor activity against various solid tumor xenografts in mice. T-araC is a structural analog of arabinofuranosylcytosine (araC), which is known to be marginally active against solid tumors. We have continued to study the biochemical pharmacology of T-araC in solid tumor cells to further characterize the mechanism of action of this new agent and to elucidate why these compounds show a profound difference in antitumor activity against solid tumors. AraC was a slightly more potent inhibitor of cell growth than T-araC when cells were continuously exposed to the drugs. However, T-araC was markedly more cytotoxic than araC when high concentrations of the compounds were given for short periods of time. Despite the fact that T-araC is a much poorer substrate, as compared to araC, for deoxycytidine kinase (the rate-limiting step in the formation of the triphosphates), similar intracellular concentrations of T-araC-5'-triphosphate (T-araCTP) and araCTP were formed in cells at these high, pharmacologically relevant concentrations due to similar Vmax's. The major difference in the metabolism of araC and T-araC was that the half-life of T-araCTP was tenfold longer than that of araCTP and much higher levels of T-araCTP were sustained in cells for long durations after exposure to T-araC. Inhibition of cytidine deaminase, deoxycytidylate deaminase, or DNA replication did not affect the half-life of either araCTP or T-araCTP. In addition, the rates of disappearance of the mono- and tri-phosphates of araC and T-araC in crude cell extracts were similar. These results indicated that these enzymes were not rate-limiting in the degradation of the respective triphosphates. However, the rate of phosphorylation of T-araC-5'-monophosphate (T-araCMP) in crude cell extracts was about tenfold greater than that of araCMP. The results of this work suggested that the longer intracellular retention of T-araCTP was responsible for the superior activity of T-araC against solid tumors in vivo, and that the greater activity of T-araCMP as a substrate of UMP/CMP kinase was responsible for the long intracellular half-life of T-araCTP.

Circumvention of ara-C resistance by aphidicolin in blast cells from patients with AML

Treatment failure in AML is often attributed to P-glycoprotein-associated multidrug resistance. However, the importance of increased DNA repair in resistant cells is becoming more apparent. In order to investigate the ability of the DNA repair inhibitor aphidicolin to modulate drug resistance, we continually exposed blasts cells, isolated from 22 patients with AML, to a variety of agents +/- 15 microM aphidicolin for 48 hours. Cell survival was measured using the MTT assay. Overall, there was no significant effect of aphidicolin on sensitivity to daunorubicin, doxorubicin, etoposide or fludarabine. However, there was a marked increase in sensitivity to ara-C with a median 4.75-fold increase overall (range 0.8-80-fold;P< 0.005). The effect of aphidicolin was significantly greater in blast cells found resistant in vitro to ara-C (8.9-fold compared to 2.12-fold, P< 0.01). This observation was further validated by the correlation between ara-C LC(50)and extent of modulation effect (P< 0.05). Cells isolated from 10 cord blood samples were also tested in order to establish the haematological toxicity of combining ara-C and aphidicolin. The therapeutic index (LC(50)normal cells/tumour cells) for ara-C + aphidicolin was higher than that for ara-C alone suggesting no increased myelotoxicity for the combination. Increased cytotoxicity without increased haematotoxicity makes the combination of ara-C plus aphidicolin ideal for inclusion in future clinical trials.

T cell receptor-induced activation and apoptosis in cycling human T cells occur throughout the cell cycle

Previous studies have found conflicting associations between susceptibility to activation-induced cell death and the cell cycle in T cells. However, most of the studies used potentially toxic pharmacological agents for cell cycle synchronization. A panel of human melanoma tumor-reactive T cell lines, a CD8+ HER-2/neu-reactive T cell clone, and the leukemic T cell line Jurkat were separated by centrifugal elutriation. Fractions enriched for the G0-G1, S, and G2-M phases of the cell cycle were assayed for T cell receptor-mediated activation as measured by intracellular Ca(2+) flux, cytolytic recognition of tumor targets, and induction of Fas ligand mRNA. Susceptibility to apoptosis induced by recombinant Fas ligand and activation-induced cell death were also studied. None of the parameters studied was specific to a certain phase of the cell cycle, leading us to conclude that in nontransformed human T cells, both activation and apoptosis through T cell receptor activation can occur in all phases of the cell cycle.

Inhibition of thymocyte apoptosis by berberine

To find anti-apoptotic substances in plant resources, a microassay method for estimating DNA fragmentation was established using fluorochrome 3,5-diaminobenzoic acid dihydrochloride. Examination was made of various herbal medicines for inhibitory effects on glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis in thymocytes. Several Kampo medicines, e.g. Oren-gedoku-to and San'o-shashin-to, were found to inhibit dexamethasone-induced apoptosis in murine thymocytes. Some of these medicines contain Coptidis rhizoma (CR) as the major constituent, and the CR extract showed the most potent inhibitory activity on thymocyte apoptosis of more than 200 species of herbal extracts. The inhibition of apoptosis by CR extract was confirmed by the trypan blue exclusion test, lactate dehydrogenase release measurement, and morphological evaluation by electron microscopy. The benzodioxolo-benzoquinolizine alkaloid, berberine, and five berberine-type alkaloids, isolated from CR extract, had an inhibitory effect, whereas no effect was noted for the aporphin-type alkaloid magnoflorine. The inhibitory action of berberine was also demonstrated on etoposide- and camptothecin-induced apoptosis.

Augmentation by aphidicolin of 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine-induced c-jun and NF-kappa B activation in a human myeloid leukemia cell line: correlation with apoptosis

1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (ara-C) (2 microM) can induce apoptosis in a human myeloid leukemia cell line, U937, after 4 h of incubation. Pretreatment of cells with aphidicolin (2 microM) augments ara-C-induced apoptosis, since it was first observed at 0.4 microM ara-C and became more intense at 2 and 10 microM. Although aphidicolin itself had a marginal effect on c-jun expression, it significantly augmented ara-C induced c-jun upregulation by shortening the lag time and lowering ara-C concentrations necessary for the induction of detectable c-jun transcripts. Aphidicolin and ara-C acted synergistically to increase NF-kappa B DNA binding activity as determined by an electrophoretic mobility shift assay. Expression of c-myc was slightly increased through the DNA degradative phase, and was then downregulated. Thus, the activation of NF-kappa B and c-jun expression seems to be well correlated with the potentiation by aphidicolin of ara-C-induced apoptosis.