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Tumor cells activate DNA repair pathways to combat the oxidative damage induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS), contributing to their resistance to photodynamic therapy (PDT). Herein, a self-delivery photodynamic sensitizer is developed to enhance oxidative damage by blocking the DNA repair pathway through poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibition. Specifically, the photodynamic sensitizer (CeOla) is constructed based on the self-assembly of the photosensitizer chlorine e6 (Ce6) and the PARP inhibitor olaparib (Ola). Of note is that carrier free CeOla has a high drug content and favorable water stability, which could be effectively internalized by tumor cells for robust PDT upon light irradiation. Moreover, CeOla could inhibit the activation of PARP, promote the upregulation of γ-H2AX and reduce the expression of Rad51, thereby blocking the DNA repair pathway to sensitize tumor cells for PDT. As a consequence, the self-delivery CeOla greatly promotes the tumor cell apoptosis and shows a high antitumor performance with low side effects. It serves as a novel platform for the development of self-delivery nanomedicine to overcome oxidative resistance in tumor treatment.

Purpose: Irinotecan (CPT-11) induced diarrhea occurs frequently in patients with cancer and limits its usage. Bacteria β-glucuronidase (GUS) enzymes in intestines convert the nontoxic metabolite of CPT-11, SN-38G, to toxic SN-38, and finally lead to damage of intestinal epithelial cells and diarrhea. We previously reported amoxapine as a potent GUS inhibitor in vitro. To further understand the molecular mechanism of amoxapine and its potential for treatment of CPT-11-induced diarrhea, we studied the binding modes of amoxapine and its metabolites by docking and molecular dynamics simulation, and tested the in vivo efficacy on mice in combination with CPT-11., Experimental Design: The binding of amoxapine, its metabolites, 7-hydroxyamoxapine and 8-hydroxyamoxapine, and a control drug loxapine with GUS was explored by computational protocols. The in vitro potencies of metabolites were measured by Escherichia coli GUS enzyme and cell-based assay. Low-dosage daily oral administration was designed to use along with CPT-11 to treat tumor-bearing mice., Results: Computational modeling results indicated that amoxapine and its metabolites bound in the active site of GUS and satisfied critical pharmacophore features: aromatic features near bacterial loop residue F365' and hydrogen bond toward E413. Amoxapine and its metabolites were demonstrated as potent in vitro. Administration of low dosages of amoxapine with CPT-11 in mice achieved significant suppression of diarrhea and reduced tumor growth., Conclusions: Amoxapine has great clinical potential to be rapidly translated to human subjects for irinotecan-induced diarrhea., (©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.)

Multivalency is a powerful strategy for achieving high-affinity molecular binding of compounds to increase their therapeutic potency or imaging potential. In our study, multivalent non-peptide integrin αvβ3 antagonists (IA) were designed for antitumor therapy. Docking and molecular dynamics were employed to explore the binding modes of IA monomer, dimer, and trimer. In silico, one IA unit binds tightly in the active site with similar pose to native ligand RGD and other parts of dimer and trimer contribute extra binding affinities by interacting with residues in vicinity of the original site. In vitro studies demonstrated that increasing valency results in increasing antiproliferative and antiorganizational effects against endothelial cells (HUVECs), and a much weaker effect on melanoma B16F10 cells. The antitumor efficacies of the IA multivalent compounds were evaluated in subcutaneous B16F10 melanoma tumor-bearing mice. At 30 mg/kg dose, the mean masses of tumors harvested 18 days after inoculation were significantly reduced (p<10(-7)) by 36±9%, 49±8%, and 71±7% for the IA monomer, dimer, and trimer groups, relative to control. The importance of multivalency was demonstrated to be highly significant beyond the additive effect of the extra pharmacological sites (p=0.00011). These results suggest that the major target of these anti-αvβ3 compounds is the neovasculature rather than the cancer cells, and the success of a multivalent strategy depends on the details of the components and linker. This is the first integrin αvβ3 multivalent ligand showing clear enhancement in antitumor effectiveness.

Irinotecan (CPT‐11) is a cytotoxic drug that has wide applicability and usage in cancer treatment. Despite its success, patients suffer dose‐dependent diarrhea, limiting the drug's efficacy. No effective therapy is available for this unmet medical need. The bacterial β‐glucuronidase (β‐GUS) plays pivotal role in CPT‐11‐induced diarrhea (CID) via activating the non‐toxic SN‐38G to toxic SN‐38 inside intestine. By using structural‐based virtual screening, three old drugs (N‐Desmethylclozapine, Aspartame, and Gemifloxacin) were firstly identified as selective bacterial β‐GUS inhibitors. The IC50 values of the compounds in the enzyme‐based and cell‐based assays range from 0.0389 to 3.6040 and 0.0105 to 5.3730 μM, respectively. The compounds also showed good selectivity against mammalian β‐GUS and no significant cytotoxicity in bacteria. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations were performed to further investigate the binding modes of compounds with bacterial β‐GUS. Binding free energy decomposition revealed that the compounds formed strong interactions with E413 in catalytic trail from primary monomer and F365′ on the bacterial loop from the other monomer of bacterial β‐GUS, explaining the selectivity against mammalian β‐GUS. The old drugs identified here may be used as bacterial β‐GUS inhibitors for CID or other bacterial β‐GUS‐related disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Euphorbia factor L713283 is a new lathyrane diterpene isolated from Euphorbia lathyris and shows strong anticancer activity. By using molecular similarity analysis, β-tubulin was identified as one of the possible targets of L713283. We further investigated the binding modes of L713283 with β-tubulin using molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation methods. The results indicated that the binding site between β-tubulin and L713283 was composed of the four regions, that is, residues Phe20~Glu27, Leu225~Thr232, Phe270~Gly277, and Ile356~Met363. MM/GBSA method was used to calculate the binding free energy and determine the key residues for the association of L713283 with β-tubulin. It was found that nonpolar interactions made the major contributions for the binding. In addition, we compared the binding pocket and motion modes of L713283-free and L713283-bound β-tubulin systems. It is proposed that L713283 may bind to β-tubulin and favor the formation of αβ-tubulin dimmer. This work provides possible explanation for molecular mechanism of the anticancer agent L713283, and the strategy used here could benefit the investigation of possible target profile for those bioactive agents with unknown mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]