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CP-115,953 [6,8-difluoro-7-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-1-cyclopropyl-4- quinolone-3-carboxylic acid] is a novel quinolone that is highly active against topoisomerase II in vitro and in mammalian cells in culture (M. J. Robinson, B. A. Martin, T. D. Gootz, P. R. McGuirk, M. Moynihan, J. A. Sutcliffe, and N. Osheroff, J. Biol. Chem. 266:14585-14592, 1991). However, the features of the drug that contribute to its activity towards mammalian systems have not been characterized. Therefore, CP-115,953 and a series of related quinolones were examined for their activity against calf thymus topoisomerase II and cultured mammalian cells. CP-115,953 stimulated DNA cleavage mediated by the type II enzyme with a potency that was approximately 600-fold greater than that of the antimicrobial quinolone ciprofloxacin and approximately 50-fold greater than that of the antineoplastic drug etoposide. As determined by the ability to enhance enzyme-mediated DNA cleavage, quinolone activity towards calf thymus topoisomerase II was enhanced by the presence of a cyclopropyl group at the N-1 ring position and by the presence of a fluorine at C-8. Furthermore, the 4'-hydroxyphenyl substituent at the C-7 position was critical for the potency of CP-115,953 towards the mammalian type II enzyme. In this regard, the aromatic nature of the C-7 ring as well as the presence and the position of the 4'-hydroxyl group contributed greatly to drug activity. Finally, the cytotoxicity of quinolones in the CP-115,953 series towards mammalian cells paralleled the in vitro stimulation of DNA cleavage by topoisomerase II rather than the inhibition of enzyme-catalyzed DNA relaxation. This correlation strongly suggests that these quinolones promote cell death by converting topoisomerase II to a cellular poison.

The effects of two novel quinolone derivatives, CP-67,804 and CP-115,953 (the 1-ethyl and 1-cyclopropyl derivatives of 6,8-difluoro-7-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-4-quinolone-3-carboxylic acid, respectively), on the enzymatic activities of Drosophila melanogaster topoisomerase II were examined. Both drugs enhanced the enzyme's pre- and post-strand passage DNA cleavage activities. CP-67,804 was nearly as potent an enhancer as etoposide, while CP-115,953 was approximately 2 times more potent than this topoisomerase II-targeted antineoplastic drug. In contrast to etoposide, which stabilizes enzyme-DNA cleavage complexes primarily by inhibiting topoisomerase II-mediated DNA religation, neither quinolone impaired the enzyme's ability to religate cleaved DNA. To further assess the characteristics of these unusual quinolone derivatives, the cytotoxic effects of CP-67,804 and CP-115,953 toward wild-type Chinese hamster ovary cells and VpmR-5 cells (an epipodophyllotoxin-resistant Chinese hamster ovary line) were examined. Both quinolones were cytotoxic to the wild-type cells. CP-115,953 was the more potent agent and displayed a level of cytotoxicity similar to that of etoposide. Finally, the VpmR-5 line showed cross-resistance to CP-67,804 (approximately 3.7-fold) and CP-115,953 (approximately 1.3-fold). Although quinolone cross-resistance was less pronounced than observed for etoposide (approximately 12-fold), it indicates that topoisomerase II is a physiological target for CP-67,804 and CP-115,953 in mammalian cells. These findings strongly suggest that these quinolone derivatives represent a novel class of topoisomerase II-targeted drugs which have potential as antineoplastic agents.