Characterization of the effects of two polysulfonated distamycin A derivatives, PNU145156E and PNU153429, on HIV type 1 Tat protein

Angiogenesis and Cancer Control: From Concept to Therapeutic Trial

Background

There is extraordinary interest in developing angiosuppressive agents for cancer treatment. Several new agents appear promising for the treatment of a variety of human cancers. Current concepts and new agents in clinical trials are the focus of this article. In particular, the introduction of a new treatment for human brain tumors is presented in detail, using an antiangiogenic agent, penicillamine, and depletion of an obligatory cofactor of angiogenesis, copper.

Methods

The explosive increase in literature on antiangiogenesis is reviewed using computerized search, findings presented at the recent national cancer and angiogenesis meetings. A specific protocol, NABTT 97-04, “Penicillamine and Copper Reduction for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma,” is presented as an example of angiotherapeutic drug discovery.

Results

A number of promising molecular approaches are being introduced to suppress tumor angiogenesis. Major categories of angiogenesis antagonists include protease inhibitors, direct inhibitors of endothelial cell proliferation and migration, suppression of angiogenic growth factors, inhibition of endothelial-specific integrin/survival signaling, chelators of copper, and inhibitors with specific other mechanisms. The preliminary results of early trials offer a glimpse into how antiangiogenesis therapy will be integrated into future care of the patient with cancer.

Conclusions

Thirty-five antiangiogenesis therapies are currently being evaluated in clinical trials. As we learn more about the fundamental mechanisms of angiogenesis, eg, the role of copper in growth factor activation, effective methods of cancer control will be implemented.

Heparin/Heparan sulfate proteoglycans glycomic interactome in angiogenesis: biological implications and therapeutical use

Angiogenesis, the process of formation of new blood vessel from pre-existing ones, is involved in various intertwined pathological processes including virus infection, inflammation and oncogenesis, making it a promising target for the development of novel strategies for various interventions. To induce angiogenesis, angiogenic growth factors (AGFs) must interact with pro-angiogenic receptors to induce proliferation, protease production and migration of endothelial cells (ECs). The action of AGFs is counteracted by antiangiogenic modulators whose main mechanism of action is to bind (thus sequestering or masking) AGFs or their receptors. Many sugars, either free or associated to proteins, are involved in these interactions, thus exerting a tight regulation of the neovascularization process. Heparin and heparan sulfate proteoglycans undoubtedly play a pivotal role in this context since they bind to almost all the known AGFs, to several pro-angiogenic receptors and even to angiogenic inhibitors, originating an intricate network of interaction, the so called "angiogenesis glycomic interactome". The decoding of the angiogenesis glycomic interactome, achievable by a systematic study of the interactions occurring among angiogenic modulators and sugars, may help to design novel antiangiogenic therapies with implications in the cure of angiogenesis-dependent diseases.

Targeting HIV transcription: the quest for a functional cure

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) potently suppresses HIV-1 replication, but the virus persists in quiescent infected CD4(+)T cells as a latent integrated provirus, and patients must indefinitely remain on therapy. If ART is terminated, these integrated proviruses can reactivate, driving new rounds of infection. A functional cure for HIV requires eliminating low-level ongoing viral replication that persists in certain tissue sanctuaries and preventing viral reactivation. The HIV Tat protein plays an essential role in HIV transcription by recruiting the kinase activity of the P-TEFb complex to the viral mRNA's stem-bulge-loop structure, TAR, activating transcriptional elongation. Because the Tat-mediated transactivation cascade is critical for robust HIV replication, the Tat/TAR/P-TEFb complex is one of the most attractive targets for drug development. Importantly, compounds that interfere with transcription could impair viral reactivation, low-level ongoing replication, and replenishment of the latent reservoir, thereby reducing the size of the latent reservoir pool. Here, we discuss the potential importance of transcriptional inhibitors in the treatment of latent HIV-1 disease and review recent findings on targeting Tat, TAR, and P-TEFb individually or as part of a complex. Finally, we discuss the impact of extracellular Tat in HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders and cancers.

Impact of Tat Genetic Variation on HIV-1 Disease

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) promoter or long-terminal repeat (LTR) regulates viral gene expression by interacting with multiple viral and host factors. The viral transactivator protein Tat plays an important role in transcriptional activation of HIV-1 gene expression. Functional domains of Tat and its interaction with transactivation response element RNA and cellular transcription factors have been examined. Genetic variation within tat of different HIV-1 subtypes has been shown to affect the interaction of the viral transactivator with cellular and/or viral proteins, influencing the overall level of transcriptional activation as well as its action as a neurotoxic protein. Consequently, the genetic variability within tat may impact the molecular architecture of functional domains of the Tat protein that may impact HIV pathogenesis and disease. Tat as a therapeutic target for anti-HIV drugs has also been discussed.

Polyanionic drugs and viral oncogenesis: a novel approach to control infection, tumor-associated inflammation and angiogenesis

Polyanionic macromolecules are extremely abundant both in the extracellular environment and inside the cell, where they are readily accessible to many proteins for interactions that play a variety of biological roles. Among polyanions, heparin, heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) and glycosphingolipids (GSLs) are widely distributed in biological fluids, at the cell membrane and inside the cell, where they are implicated in several physiological and/or pathological processes such as infectious diseases, angiogenesis and tumor growth. At a molecular level, these processes are mainly mediated by microbial proteins, cytokines and receptors that exert their functions by binding to HSPGs and/or GSLs, suggesting the possibility to use polyanionic antagonists as efficient drugs for the treatment of infectious diseases and cancer. Polysulfated (PS) or polysulfonated (PSN) compounds are a heterogeneous group of natural, semi-synthetic or synthetic molecules whose prototypes are heparin and suramin. Different structural features confer to PS/PSN compounds the capacity to bind and inhibit the biological activities of those same heparin-binding proteins implicated in infectious diseases and cancer. In this review we will discuss the state of the art and the possible future development of polyanionic drugs in the treatment of infectious diseases and cancer.

Antiangiogenic drugs for chemotherapy of bladder tumours

BACKGROUND

Bladder cancers have different angiogenic pathways distinguishing not only papillary from solid tumours, but even papillary superficial from papillary invasive ones, thus representing selective targets for antiangiogenic drugs.

METHODS

The bacterial wall component tecogalan, inhibiting basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), the fumagillin derivative TNP-470, inhibiting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), the distamycin A derivative PNU153429, and the tetracycline minocycline were administered to nude mice injected with the human bladder cancer cell lines 639V, causing bFGF-expressing papillary superficial tumours, or T24, causing VEGF-expressing papillary invasive tumours.

RESULTS

Tecogalan had no effect even on 639V tumour growth, where bFGF was unaffected. TNP-470 only had an effect on T24 tumours, delaying tumour appearance and growth and lowering VEGF; these effects were augmented by adding minocycline. PNU153429 had no effect on 639V tumours, and a slight effect on T24 tumours.

CONCLUSION

TNP-470 may represent a selective drug for the treatment of VEGF-expressing invasive papillary bladder tumours.

The Sp1 transcription factor does not directly interact with the HIV-1 Tat protein

The role of Sp1 in regulating the trans-activating activity of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Tat protein has not yet been clearly defined. In fact, studies on the physical and functional interaction between Sp1 and Tat have yielded contradictory results. Here we investigated whether a physical interaction between Sp1 and Tat indeed occurs, exploiting both biochemical and genetic techniques that allow detection of direct protein-protein interactions. Studies performed with the yeast two-hybrid system indicate that Sp1 does not directly interact with the HIV-1 Tat protein. Control experiments demonstrated that both proteins are functionally expressed in the yeast cells. In vitro binding assays further confirmed that Sp1 does not physically bind Tat. These data suggest that in vivo Tat and Sp1 most likely take part of a multicomponent complex and thus encourage the search of the molecule(s) which mediate Tat-Sp1 interaction.

Interaction of Sp1 transcription factor with HIV-1 Tat protein: looking for cellular partners

The Tat protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) trans-activates HIV-1 transcription by functionally interacting with a number of cellular proteins, among which the Sp1 transcription factor. We recently demonstrated that Tat does not directly interact with Sp1 either in vitro or in vivo, and we suggested that other protein(s) could indirectly mediate Tat-Sp1 interaction. In keeping, here we showed that addition of HeLa cell nuclear extracts to purified Tat and Sp1 proteins allows the formation of a Tat/Sp1 complex in in vitro binding assays. In an attempt to identify the partner(s) that bridge Tat and Sp1, we developed a yeast multi-protein system, in which cellular proteins recently shown to play a relevant role in Tat function, namely TATA box-binding protein, cyclin T1, CDK9, and cyclin T1/CDK9 complex, were coexpressed, individually or in pair-wise combination, with Tat and Sp1 hybrids. We demonstrated that none of these candidate partners bridges Tat and Sp1. However, our yeast multi-protein system, which allows simple and rapid detection of interactions among up to four proteins, will be most helpful to further dissect the interaction of Tat and Sp1 with other candidate partners that participate in the assembly of transcriptionally active complexes at the HIV-1 LTR.

Inhibition of HIV-1 Tat activity correlates with down-regulation of bcl-2 and results in reduction of angiogenesis and oncogenicity

The Tat protein of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 promotes survival and growth and inhibits apoptosis of different cell types. These effects of Tat are attributed to the induction of bcl-2 gene expression. In this study we show that the blocking of both intracellular and extracellular Tat correlates with a decrease of bcl-2 transcripts, leading in vitro to a lower growth rate and attenuation of the transformed phenotype and in vivo to a reduced angiogenic and oncogenic activity of Tat-expressing cells. These results support the notion that bcl-2 is an effector of Tat-induced angiogenesis and oncogenesis and indicate that the blocking of Tat functions by immunoprophylactic, pharmacological, and gene therapy approaches may help to control oncogenesis during AIDS.

Pentosan polysulfate as an inhibitor of extracellular HIV-1 Tat

HIV-1 Tat protein, released from HIV-infected cells, may act as a pleiotropic heparin-binding growth factor. From this observation, extracellular Tat has been implicated in the pathogenesis of AIDS and of AIDS-associated pathologies. Here we demonstrate that the heparin analog pentosan polysulfate (PPS) inhibits the interaction of glutathione S-transferase (GST)-Tat protein with heparin immobilized to a BIAcore sensor chip. Competition experiments showed that Tat-PPS interaction occurs with high affinity (K(d) = 9.0 nm). Also, GST.Tat prevents the binding of [(3)H]heparin to GST.Tat immobilized to glutathione-agarose beads. In vitro, PPS inhibits GST.Tat internalization and, consequently, HIV-1 long terminal repeat transactivation in HL3T1 cells. Also, PPS inhibits cell surface interaction and mitogenic activity of GST.Tat in murine adenocarcinoma T53 Tat-less cells. In all assays, PPS exerts its Tat antagonist activity with an ID(50) equal to approximately 1.0 nm. In vivo, PPS inhibits the neovascularization induced by GST.Tat or by Tat-overexpressing T53 cells in the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane. In conclusion, PPS binds Tat protein and inhibits its cell surface interaction, internalization, and biological activity in vitro and in vivo. PPS may represent a prototypic molecule for the development of novel Tat antagonists with therapeutic implications in AIDS and AIDS-associated pathologies, including Kaposi's sarcoma.

Characterization of HIV-1 Tat proteins mutated in the transactivation domain for prophylactic and therapeutic application

Previous work from our group showed that genetic immunization of mice with HIV-1 tat genes (tat22 and tat22/37), encoding Tat proteins mutated in the transactivation domain and lacking Tat-transactivating activity, evoke an immune response to wild-type Tat, both humoral and cellular. In the present work we report that the mutated Tat proteins localize within the cells, are released and taken up by the cells in a fashion similar to wild-type Tat. Moreover, the exogenous mutated Tat proteins interfere with the transactivating function of extracellular wild-type Tat. These results support the notion that tat22 and tat22/37 genes may represent good candidates for the development of an anti-HIV-1 vaccine, especially for HIV-1 infected patients.

Antiangiogenic, antitumoural and antimetastatic effects of two distamycin A derivatives with anti-HIV-1 Tat activity in a Kaposi's sarcoma-like murine model

The antiangiogenic, antitumoural and antimetastatic effects of two novel sulphonic derivatives of distamycin A, PNU145156E and PNU153429, were studied in a Kaposi's sarcoma-like tumour model obtained by injecting nude mice with cells releasing extracellular HIV-Tat protein, derived from a tumour which developed in a BK virus/tat transgenic mouse. Both PNU145156E and PNU153429 were administered intraperitoneally every fourth day for three weeks at doses of 100 or 50 mg/kg of body weight respectively, starting one day after injecting the tumour cells. Both drugs delayed tumour growth in nude mice, preventing neovascularization induced by the Tat protein. PNU153429 also significantly reduced the number and size of spontaneous tumour metastases. Both effects on tumour growth and metastases were augmented by treating simultaneously nude mice with 7.5 mg/kg of body weight of minocycline given per os daily for four weeks starting four days after injecting the tumour cells. Neither acute nor chronic toxic side-effects were observed during the life span of treated nude mice. Due to their antiangiogenic and anti-Tat effects, these drugs are promising for the treatment of Kaposi's sarcoma in AIDS patients.