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The indolocarbazole antibiotics staurosporine and rebeccamycin (1) are potent antitumor drugs targeting protein kinase C and topoisomerase I, respectively. To obtain staurosporine analogues from rebeccamycin, different structural modifications were performed: coupling of the sugar moiety to the second indole nitrogen, dechlorination and then reduction of the imide function to amide. The newly synthesized compounds (3-6) were tested for their abilities to bind to DNA and to inhibit topoisomerase I and protein kinase C. Their antiproliferative effects in vitro against B16 melanoma and P388 leukemia (including the related P388CPT cell line resistant to camptothecin) as well as their anti-HIV-1 and antimicrobial activities against various strains of microorganisms were determined. The cytotoxicity of the dechlorinated imide analogue 5 correlates well with its DNA binding and anti-topoisomerase I activities. These findings provide guidance for the development of new topoisomerase I-targeted antitumor indolocarbazoles equipped with a carbohydrate attached to the two indole nitrogens.

We describe the effect strongly influencing the biological activity of some camptothecin (CPT) drugs, the inhibitors of DNA topoisomerase I (topo I), namely, the formation of J-type aggregates in an aqueous buffer solution. These aggregates were built up under certain dilution conditions of the stock DMSO solutions of 20-S-camptothecin (20(S)CPT), 10,11-methylenedioxy-CPT (10,11-CPT) and 7-ethyl-10-hydroxy-CPT (SN38). The aggregates were found to be stereospecific, not being detectable for the 20(R)-stereoisomer of CPT. They were formed by the stacking interaction between quinoline rings of CPT chromophores with the inverse position of the nitrogen atoms. The aggregates were stable at acidic and neutral pHs, but dissociated at basic pHs. Self-aggregation prevented hydrolysis of the lactone ring at neutral pHs, thus preserving the drugs in a biologically active form. Addition of BSA did not induce either disaggregation or hydrolysis of the lactone ring, whereas the monomeric form of the drugs was shown to undergo rapid conversion to an inactive carboxylate form in the presence of human serum albumin [5]. The drugs did not form the aggregates in the presence of topo I. Moreover, rapid dissociation of the aggregates was observed if a self-aggregated drug solution was added to topo I alone or to the DNA-topo I cleavage assay. Neither DNA alone nor oligonucleotides derived from the sequences of the CPT-enhanced or topo I-induced cleavage sites in SV40 plasmid DNA induces changes in the aggregation state of the drugs. These observations are indicative of interaction between the aggregates and topo I. The aggregates were found to penetrate within the cells with much higher efficiency than a monomeric form of the drugs. Cellular uptake of aggregated and nonaggregated species correlated well with cytotoxic effects produced by the drug. In this manner, CPT's self-aggregation should be regarded as a favourable phenomenon producing species with a more stable biologically active structure of the lactone ring and exhibiting enhanced cellular uptake levels relative to the monomeric forms of medications.

A series of amidoethylamino-anthraquinone derivatives bearing either one or two salen (bis(salicylidene)ethylenediamine) moieties complexed with CuII or NiII have been synthesized, and their DNA-binding and cleaving properties examined. The effects of the mono- and di-substituted anthracenedione-salen conjugates on DNA cleavage mediated by topoisomerases I and II have also been determined, as well as their cytotoxicity toward human KB cells. The anthraquinone-salen. NiII conjugates bind to GC-rich sequences in DNA, but do not cleave the macromolecule. By contrast, the anthraquinone-salen. CuII hybrids do not recognize particular nucleotide sequences but efficiently induce single-strand breaks in DNA after activation. The 5,8-dihydroxy-anthraquinone conjugates are more cytotoxic and more potent toward topoisomerase II than the non-hydroxylated analogues, but they are less cytotoxic than the salen-free anthraquinones. The attachment of a salen. CuII complex to the anthraquinone chromophore can confer DNA cleaving properties in vitro, but this is at the expense of cytotoxic activity. Anthraquinone-salen. CuII complexes may find useful employ as footprinting probes for investigating ligand-DNA interactions.

Two distamycin-ellipticine conjugates were examined for their ability to modulate topoisomerase I and topoisomerase II-DNA cleavable complex formation in vitro. Hybrid molecules Distel (1+) and Distel (2+) both contain a DNA-intercalating chromophore and a tris-pyrrole element capable of binding within the minor groove of DNA. The two drugs differ only in the nature of the side chain attached to the distamycin moiety. The monocationic hybrid Distel (1+) is a dual topoisomerase I and II inhibitor with characteristics differing from those of the parent compounds distamycin and ellipticine. By contrast, the biscationic hybrid Distel (2+) exerts no significant effects on either topoisomerase I or II. The cytotoxic properties of the two drugs towards P388 leukaemic cells sensitive and resistant to camptothecin correlate with topoisomerase inhibitory properties but not with DNA-binding properties.

The antileukemic alkaloid, fagaronine, is a potent differentiation inducer of various hematopoietic cell lines. We show here that fagaronine is a DNA base-pair intercalator with a K(app) of 2.1 x 10(5) M-1 for calf thymus DNA. Fagaronine inhibits the catalytic activity of purified calf thymus topoisomerase I as shown by relaxation of supercoiled plasmid DNA followed by electrophoresis in neutral as well as in chloroquine-containing gels. The catalytic activity of topoisomerase I is inhibited at concentrations above 30 microM. Fagaronine also inhibits the catalytic activity of purified calf thymus topoisomerase II at concentrations above 25 microM as shown by decatenation of kinetoplast DNA. Fagaronine stabilizes the covalent DNA-enzyme reaction intermediate (the cleavable complex) between topoisomerase I and linear pBR322 DNA at concentrations up to 1 microM. Further increase of the fagaronine concentration leads to a progressive decrease in the cleavable complex formation, which is totally inhibited at 100 microM. In contrast, up to 1 microM fagaronine has no effect on cleavable complex formation between purified calf thymus topoisomerase II and linear pBR322 DNA, whereas cleavable complex formation is inhibited at higher concentrations. Exposure to fagaronine results in an increase in DNA-protein complex formation in intact P388 murine leukemia cells. P388CPT5 cells, which have an altered topoisomerase I activity, are 4-fold resistant to the growth inhibitory effects of fagaronine compared to the parental cell line. Similarly, DC-3F/9-OH-E Chinese hamster fibrosarcoma cells, which have an altered topoisomerase II activity, are about 5-fold resistant to the growth inhibitory effects of fagaronine. We conclude that fagaronine is an inhibitor of both DNA topoisomerase I and II and propose that this might play a role in the cytotoxic activity.

We examined the expression of the genes encoding topoisomerases I and II and those associated with V(D)J [variable(diversity)joining] recombination in two human T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T.ALL) cell lines, CEM and CEM/DOX. In CEM/DOX cells, which are resistant to doxorubicin, the topoisomerase I gene was found to be 4-fold overexpressed and nuclear topoisomerase I relaxation activity was 2-fold greater in CEM/DOX than in CEM cells. Furthermore, the cleavable complex reaction induced by camptothecin, a specific topoisomerase I inhibitor, was found to be 2.5-increased in the presence of topoisomerase I extracted from CEM/DOX, in comparison to that in CEM cells. Conversely, the topoisomerase II mRNA levels, nuclear decatenation activities and (mAMSA) 4'(9-acridinylamino)methanesulfon-m-anisidide-induced cleavable complex formation in CEM/DOX were similar to those of the doxorubicin-sensitive cells. The results indicate that topoisomerase I activity is elevated in CEM/DOX cells. Nevertheless, CEM/DOX cells were 11-fold more resistant to camptothecin than were CEM cells, and cross-resistance to camptothecin was not reversed by verapamil. Furthermore, using an intact cell assay for DNA-protein complexes, we found that camptothecin-stimulated cleavable complexes formed in CEM/DOX cells were increased in correlation with the elevated topoisomerase I activity. These results suggest that camptothecin resistance in CEM/DOX cells is due to different mechanism(s) than topoisomerase- or P-glycoprotein-associated multidrug resistance. The recombination activating gene, RAG1, which is one of the components of the site-specific V(D)J recombination complex, was 20-fold overexpressed in CEM/DOX cells. In contrast, RAG2 and T160 gene transcripts, other components of the V(D)J complex, were at best poorly detected in both sensitive and resistant cells. No specific V(D)J recombinase activity was found in CEM or CEM/DOX cells when the pJH201 transfection assay was used. The results indicate that CEM/DOX cells failed to generate V(D)J recombination although RAG1 gene is overexpressed. The mechanism of the RAG1 gene activation was not gene amplification, and no rearrangement was detected in the RAG1 gene locus. RAG1 presents homology with the yeast gene HPR1, itself homologous to yeast topoisomerase I and responsible for the control of recombination in somatic cells. Since DNA topoisomerases are themselves involved in the control of DNA topology, recombination and DNA repair, the possible coactivation of RAG1 and topoisomerase I genes in CEM/DOX cells is discussed.

The DNA-topoisomerase I (Topo I) inhibitor, camptothecin (CPT), is a plant alkaloid with an important antitumor activity. In order to investigate the cellular mechanism leading to the development of the resistance to this agent, we have established by progressive adaptation a P388 subline resistant to CPT. After 5 months of continuous drug exposure, the resistance index reached a value of 20 and the resistant cell line, P388CPT0.3, was maintained in the presence of CPT. CPT-induced single strand breaks measured by alkaline elution were found drastically reduced in the resistant cell line. Topo I activity and CPT-induced DNA cleavage were measured on cells at different steps of resistance. We first observed that the Topo I activity was strongly decreased. In addition, the resistant cells recovered the ATP-independent relaxation activity after 3 months of exposure to CPT, but still kept a reduced CPT-induced DNA cleavage. Further evaluations at the final stage of the resistance induction have indicated that cells presented a CPT-resistant form of Topo I. Rearranged Topo I gene on one allele and a reduced Topo I transcription were also observed in resistant cells. The putative role of the rearrangement was discussed. These data show that the resistance mechanism has evolved from a decreased Topo I activity to an altered form of the enzyme, and suggest that multiple mechanisms of Topo I modifications could contribute to CPT resistance.

Resistance to 0.8 microM 4'-(9-acridinylamino)methanesulphon-m-anisidide (m-AMSA) was induced by stepwise increases of drug concentration in the human tumor cell line CALc18 originating from a breast adenocarcinoma. The resistant cell line CALc18/AMSA exhibited a resistance index of 10 and a cross-resistance to other topoisomerase II inhibitors. A 3-fold decrease in the levels of topoisomerase II decatenating activity was found in CALc18/AMSA cells. By contrast, topoisomerase I activity was increased by about 3-fold in resistant cells. Interestingly this line was hypersensitive to camptothecin, a specific inhibitor of topoisomerase I. Restriction endonuclease patterns of the topoisomerase I and topoisomerase II loci were found to be identical in CALc18/AMSA and CALc18 with no evidence of gene amplification and rearrangements. Alkaline elution of m-AMSA-treated cells showed that DNA single strand breaks and DNA-protein crosslinks were decreased in CALc18/AMSA. The DNA lesions also obtained in m-AMSA-treated nuclei indicated that no drug uptake modification occurred in both cells. Moreover, the in vitro m-AMSA-induced DNA cleavage per unit of decatenating activity and the inhibitory effects of antitumoral drugs on decatenation were not found to be different with topoisomerase II from sensitive or resistant cells. However the specific cleavage induced by m-AMSA/per mg of crude protein from resistant cells was 2 to 3 times decreased. Multidrug resistance gene transcripts were not detected while levels of acidic glutathione S transferase mRNA were found to be 8 to 10-fold greater in resistant than in sensitive cell line with no amplification of the gene. In conclusion, the diminution of topoisomerase II activity and the increase of both topoisomerase I and acidic glutathione S transferase transcripts could contribute to the resistant phenotype of these breast cancer cells.

In an attempt to get an insight into the activity of mAMSA (a DNA topoisomerase II-mediated drug) on the human proto-oncogene c-myc, an in vitro system consisting of purified calf thymus DNA topoisomerase II and a c-myc DNA inserted in lambda phage was utilized. The occurrence of discrete bands, detected by hybridization of Southern blots with appropriate c-myc probes, indicated the presence of cleavage sites in the sole presence of DNA topoisomerase II. The band intensity increased in the presence of mAMSA, while no significant difference occurred in the cleavage pattern. The location of the cleavage sites along the c-myc locus revealed a striking correspondence with that of some DNase hypersensitive sites. These results indicate that DNA topoisomerase II is most certainly implicated in the mAMSA activity and that the drug stimulates the topoisomerase II cleaving activity at specific sites, which may be involved in the biological activity of the drug.

Ellipticine derivatives have been shown to induce DNA strand breaks by trapping DNA-topoisomerase II (Topo II) in an intermediary covalent complex between Topo II and DNA which could be related to their cytotoxic effects. We report here that Celiptium and Detalliptinium, two ellipticine derivatives clinically used for their antitumoral properties against breast cancer, exhibit the highest in vitro activity on Topo II DNA cleavage reaction and decatenation among a series of 14 ellipticine derivatives. The in vitro cleavage site specificity in pBR 322 plasmid DNA and in a human c-myc gene inserted in a lambda phage DNA is identical for both ellipticines, but different from m-AMSA, another Topo II related antitumoral agent. Recently, it has been shown that the ellipticine derivative Celiptium presents a strong cytotoxic activity in vitro on different human tumors including small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC). However, the studies that involved Topo II as a target for ellipticine derivatives have been performed only by using animal tumor cell lines. Therefore we have studied the in vivo DNA cleavage activity of Celiptium and Detalliptinium on a human SCLC cell line, NCI N417, comparatively to that obtained with m-AMSA. The respective IC50 on cell growth are 9, 8 and 1 microM for Celiptium, Detalliptinium and m-AMSA, respectively. Using the alkaline elution technique, we have observed that Celiptium and Detalliptinium exhibit a weak cleavage activity on genomic DNA from whole cells. The ellipticines are about 50 times less potent than m-AMSA in inducing DNA strand breaks. Analysis of in vivo c-myc gene cleavage by Southern blot hybridization also demonstrates a lack of activity of the ellipticine derivatives as no gene cleavage could be detected up to 50 microM of the drug. With m-AMSA, c-myc gene cleavage is detected at a concentration of 0.2 microM, which indicates that this methodology is less sensitive in detecting DNA strand breaks than is the alkaline elution. Further studies of the drug effect on isolated nuclei by alkaline elution also show that the DNA cleavage activity of Celiptium and Detalliptinium is increased when compared to whole cells. Our data indicate that these two drugs have a weaker cytotoxic effect than m-AMSA on NCI N417 cell line, due to a limited access to the cell nucleus rather than to a lack of activity on Topo II as assessed by in vitro and isolated nuclei experiments.

Aza-ellipticines are DNA intercalative ellipticine analogues with antitumor activity that induce protein-linked DNA breaks in NIH 3T3 cells in culture. The effects of two aza-ellipticine congeners (BD-40 and BR-76) on the activity of purified Calf Thymus type II topoisomerase were studied using pUC13 DNA as substrate. DNA cleavage was stimulated by both molecules at those doses required for inducing lethal effects in cells (DE5O). This effect was reversed by high salt treatment, indicating that it was actually mediated by Topo II. Mapping of cleavage sites on linearized and 3' end-labelled pUC13 DNA showed that ellipticine and aza-ellipticines stimulated the same sites, which differed from those stimulated by m-AMSA. Decatenating activity of Topo II on Trypanosoma cruzi kDNA was both inhibited by ellipticine and BD-40 at concentrations much higher than DE50 concentrations. Activity of aza-ellipticines was also investigated on isolated nuclei. Unlike ellipticine which promoted DNA-breaking activity, BD-40 and BR-76 were repeatedly inactive. Prior treatment of DNA by Proteinase K did not reveal hidden breaks which are formed in intact cells treated with BD-40 (Vilarem et al., 1984, Nucleic Ac. Res. 12, 8653). Concordant with these data, BD-40 did not impair DNA-synthetic activity in isolated nuclei, while Ellipticine largely decreased it. These results indicate that lesions induced in DNA by Aza-ellipticines are mediated by Topo II. The absence of effect of these drugs on isolated nuclei compared to that of Ellipticine may be due to some specific features of the association between Topo II and Aza-ellipticines or reflect a bioactivation step as a prerequisite for in vivo activity.