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Tuhin MTH, Liang D, Liu F, Aldawod H, Amin TU, Ho JS, Emara R, Patel AD, Felmlee MA, Park MS, Uchizono JA, Alhamadsheh MM. Peripherally restricted transthyretin-based delivery system for probes and therapeutics avoiding opioid-related side effects. Nat Commun 2022; 13:3590. [PMID: 35739116 PMCID: PMC9226319 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31342-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2022] [Accepted: 06/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Several investigations into the sites of action of opioid analgesics have utilized peripherally acting mu-opioid receptor antagonists (PAMORAs), which have been incorrectly assumed to possess limited permeability across the blood-brain barrier. Unfortunately, the poor pharmacokinetic properties of current PAMORAs have resulted in misunderstandings of the role of central nervous system and gastrointestinal tract in precipitating side effects such as opioid-induced constipation. Here, we develop a drug delivery approach for restricting the passage of small molecules across the blood-brain barrier. This allows us to develop naloxone- and oxycodone-based conjugates that display superior potency, peripheral selectivity, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy in rats compared to other clinically used PAMORAs. These probes allow us to demonstrate that the mu-opioid receptors in the central nervous system have a fundamental role in precipitating opioid-induced constipation. Therefore, our conjugates have immediate use as pharmacological probes and potential therapeutic agents for treating constipation and other opioid-related side effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Md Tariqul Haque Tuhin
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, 95211, US
| | - Dengpan Liang
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, 95211, US
| | - Fang Liu
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, 95211, US
| | - Hala Aldawod
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, 95211, US
| | - Toufiq Ul Amin
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, 95211, US
| | - Joshua S Ho
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, 95211, US
| | - Rasha Emara
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, 95211, US
| | - Arjun D Patel
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, 95211, US
| | - Melanie A Felmlee
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, 95211, US
| | - Miki S Park
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, 95211, US
| | - James A Uchizono
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, 95211, US
| | - Mamoun M Alhamadsheh
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, 95211, US.
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2
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Gorur A, Patiño M, Shi T, Corrales G, Takahashi H, Rangel R, Gleber-Netto FO, Pickering C, Myers JN, Cata JP. Low doses of methylnaltrexone inhibits head and neck squamous cell carcinoma growth in vitro and in vivo by acting on the mu-opioid receptor. J Cell Physiol 2021; 236:7698-7710. [PMID: 34038587 DOI: 10.1002/jcp.30421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2020] [Revised: 05/05/2021] [Accepted: 05/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
The Mu-opioid receptor (MOR) has been implicated in tumorigenesis and metastasis. Methylnaltrexone (MNTX), an antagonist of MOR, has shown to inhibit tumor growth and metastasis in lung cancer cell lines. The effect of MNTX on other cell lines such as head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) has not been investigated. We measured the expression and activity of the receptor in different HNSCC cell lines. Then, we evaluated the impact of modulating the expression MOR and the effect of MNTX on the proliferation, clonogenic activity, invasion, and migration of two HNSCC (FaDu and MDA686Tu) cell lines expressing MOR and one cell line (UMSCC47) not expressing the receptor. We also evaluated the impact of MNTX on tumor growth and metastasis formation in vivo. Activation of the receptor with [d-Ala2,N-Me-Phe4, Gly5-ol] (DAMGO) caused a significant reduction in cyclic adenosine monophosphate levels in FaDu cells. Knockdown of MOR inhibited in vitro aggressive cell behaviors on FaDu and MDA686Tu cells and correlated with a reduction in markers of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. In vitro studies showed that MNTX strongly inhibited the proliferation, clonogenic activity, invasion, and migration of FaDu and MDA686Tu cells but has no effect on UMSCC47 cells. In vivo experiments demonstrated that MNTX suppresses tumor growth in HNSCC cell tumor-bearing mice. Our studies indicate that MOR could be considered as a therapeutic target to treat HNSCC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aysegul Gorur
- Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
- Anesthesiology and Surgical Oncology Research Group, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Miguel Patiño
- Department of Anesthesiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Ted Shi
- Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
- Anesthesiology and Surgical Oncology Research Group, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - German Corrales
- Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Hideaki Takahashi
- Department of Head and Neck Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Roberto Rangel
- Department of Head and Neck Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Frederico O Gleber-Netto
- Department of Head and Neck Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Curtis Pickering
- Department of Head and Neck Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Jeffrey N Myers
- Anesthesiology and Surgical Oncology Research Group, Houston, Texas, USA
- Department of Head and Neck Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Juan P Cata
- Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
- Anesthesiology and Surgical Oncology Research Group, Houston, Texas, USA
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3
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Spetea M, Schmidhammer H. Recent Chemical and Pharmacological Developments on 14-Oxygenated- N-methylmorphinan-6-ones. Molecules 2021; 26:5677. [PMID: 34577147 PMCID: PMC8464912 DOI: 10.3390/molecules26185677] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2021] [Revised: 09/09/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Adequate pain management, particularly chronic pain, remains a major challenge associated with modern-day medicine. Current pharmacotherapy offers unsatisfactory long-term solutions due to serious side effects related to the chronic administration of analgesic drugs. Morphine and structurally related derivatives (e.g., oxycodone, oxymorphone, buprenorphine) are highly effective opioid analgesics, mediating their effects via the activation of opioid receptors, with the mu-opioid receptor subtype as the primary molecular target. However, they also cause addiction and overdose deaths, which has led to a global opioid crisis in the last decades. Therefore, research efforts are needed to overcome the limitations of present pain therapies with the aim to improve treatment efficacy and to reduce complications. This review presents recent chemical and pharmacological advances on 14-oxygenated-N-methylmorphinan-6-ones, in the search of safer pain therapeutics. We focus on drug design strategies and structure-activity relationships on specific modifications in positions 5, 6, 14 and 17 on the morphinan skeleton, with the goal of aiding the discovery of opioid analgesics with more favorable pharmacological properties, potent analgesia and fewer undesirable effects. Targeted molecular modifications on the morphinan scaffold can afford novel opioids as bi- or multifunctional ligands targeting multiple opioid receptors, as attractive alternatives to mu-opioid receptor selective analgesics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariana Spetea
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Pharmacy and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University of Innsbruck, Innrain 80-82, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria;
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Wang X, Zhang R, Wu T, Shi Y, Zhou X, Tang D, Yu W, So EC, Wu X, Pan Z, Tian J. Successive treatment with naltrexone induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition and facilitates the malignant biological behaviors of bladder cancer cells. Acta Biochim Biophys Sin (Shanghai) 2021; 53:238-248. [PMID: 33410473 DOI: 10.1093/abbs/gmaa169] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Naltrexone is widely used for alleviating opioid-related side effects in cancer patients. However, the effects of naltrexone on cancer progression are controversial in the literature. The present study was carried out to investigate the effects of successive treatment with clinically relevant doses of naltrexone on the malignant biological behaviors of bladder cancer cells. The human bladder cancer T24 cells and mouse bladder cancer MB49 cells were treated with naltrexone. Cell proliferation, migration, and invasion abilities were analyzed. Morphological changes of the cells were confirmed by F-actin immunofluorescence staining. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related markers and transcriptional factors, as well as activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K)/AKT signaling pathway, were analyzed. Results showed that, compared with the control group, successive treatment with naltrexone significantly promoted the proliferation and decreased the apoptosis of bladder cancer cells, together with increase in cell migration and invasion ability. Continuous treatment with naltrexone also significantly reduced the expression of epithelial markers (E-cadherin and cytokeratin 19), increased the expression of mesenchymal markers (N-cadherin and vimentin) and EMT-inducing transcription factors (Snail and Slug), and further shifted the morphological phenotype of bladder cancer cells to a mesenchymal phenotype. The PI3K/AKT signaling pathway was activated by successive treatment with naltrexone. Notably, incubation with the specific PI3K inhibitor LY294002 together with naltrexone reversed the naltrexone-induced EMT progression. In conclusion, successive treatment with naltrexone may be favorable for the progression of bladder tumors by activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and inducing EMT. Long-term exposure to naltrexone should be used cautiously in patients with bladder cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoqiang Wang
- Department of Anesthesiology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China
| | - Ruirui Zhang
- Department of Anesthesiology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China
| | - Tong Wu
- Department of Anesthesiology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China
| | - Yumiao Shi
- Department of Anesthesiology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China
| | - Xiao Zhou
- Department of Intensive Care, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China
| | - Dan Tang
- Department of Anesthesiology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China
| | - Weifeng Yu
- Department of Anesthesiology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China
| | - Edmund Cheung So
- Department of Anesthesia, An Nan Hospital, China Medical University, Tainan 709010
| | - Xiaodan Wu
- Department of Anesthesiology, Fujian Provincial Hospital, Fujian Provincial Clinical Medical College, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350001, China
| | - Zhiying Pan
- Department of Anesthesiology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China
| | - Jie Tian
- Department of Anesthesiology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China
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Argueta DA, Aich A, Lei J, Kiven S, Nguyen A, Wang Y, Gu J, Zhao W, Gupta K. β-endorphin at the intersection of pain and cancer progression: Preclinical evidence. Neurosci Lett 2020; 744:135601. [PMID: 33387660 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2020.135601] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2020] [Revised: 12/21/2020] [Accepted: 12/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
We examined the association between endogenous opioid β-endorphin, cancer progression and pain in a transgenic mouse model of breast cancer, with a rat C3(1) simian virus 40 large tumor antigen fusion gene (C3TAg). C3TAg mice develop ductal epithelial atypia at 8 weeks, progression to intra-epithelial neoplasia at 12 weeks, and invasive carcinoma with palpable tumors at 16 weeks. Consistent with invasive carcinoma at 4 months of age, C3TAg mice demonstrate a significant increase in hyperalgesia compared to younger C3TAg or control FVBN mice without tumors. Our data show that the growing tumor contributes to circulating β-endorphin. As an endogenous ligand of mu opioid receptor, β-endorphin has analgesic activity. Paradoxically, we observed an increase in pain in transgenic breast cancer mice with significantly high circulating and tumor-associated β-endorphin. Increased circulating β-endorphin correlates with increasing tumor burden. β-endorphin induced the activation of mitogenic and survival-promoting signaling pathways, MAPK/ERK 1/2, STAT3 and Akt, observed by us in human MDA-MB-231 cells suggesting a role for β-endorphin in breast cancer progression and associated pain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Donovan A Argueta
- Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Anupam Aich
- Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Jianxun Lei
- Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Stacy Kiven
- Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Aithanh Nguyen
- Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Ying Wang
- Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Department of Anesthesia, Stark Neuroscience Research Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
| | - Joshua Gu
- Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; Department of Biological Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Weian Zhao
- Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; Department of Biological Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; Edwards Life Sciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Kalpna Gupta
- Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Southern California Institute for Research and Education, VA Medical Center, Long Beach, CA, USA.
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