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Acyclic nucleoside phosphonates PMEDAP and PMEG modulate expression of selected proangiogenic genes in SD-lymphoma bearing rats. Antiangiogenic efficacy of PMEDAP is relatively weak and is manifested mainly by down-regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptor VEGFR detectable 24 hours after treatment. Compound PMEG (an active metabolite of the prodrug GS-9219) down-regulates selected proangiogenic genes EGF, FGF, PDGF, VEGF, EGFR, FGFR, PDGFR and VEGFR much more efficiently. Its antiangiogenic potency persists and is more intensive 48 hours after treatment. Findings show that in vivo antitumour efficacy of both antimitotic acyclic nucleoside phosphonates PMEDAP and PMEG consequently affect the angiogenesis in T-cell lymphoma.

We investigated, whether the effects on paclitaxel, docetaxel or their combinations on T-cell lymphomas in Sprague-Dawley/Cub rats were mainly caused by their different efficiency or combination of different mechanism of action, or limited by metabolic inactivation by P450 enzymes or drug efflux caused by P-glycoprotein (P-gp). Docetaxel most effectively prolonged the survival of rats and the time of lymphoma appearance, inhibited their intravital size and weight after sacrifice. Paclitaxel was poorly effective and combined administration had intermediate effects. Blood levels of both drugs were similar. Repeated administration of paclitaxel, but not docetaxel, decreased its area under concentration, but the effect disappeared 6h after dosing and was not sufficient to explain lower effects of paclitaxel. The faster metabolism of docetaxel than paclitaxel in vitro did not limit its higher efficiency and repeated administration of paclitaxel did not induce its metabolism to decrease its blood levels sufficiently. Likewise, undetectable expression of P-gp protein in tumours could not explain lower effects of paclitaxel, which is a better substrate of P-gp. Docetaxel was three-fold more effective than paclitaxel against P388D1 lymphoma cell line, used as a model of the T-cell lymphoma and combined action was dominated by the effects of docetaxel. Thus, docetaxel was effective against T-cell lymphomas and may be a potential anticancer drug in similar indications.

A series of thymine phosphonomethoxyalkyl derivatives were evaluated for their ability to inhibit thymidine phosphorylase (dThdPase) purified from rat spontaneous T-cell lymphoma. A kinetic study of thymidine phosphorolysis catalyzed by dThdPase was performed with thymidine and/or inorganic phosphate as substrates. Data show that the substantial inhibitory effect of these acyclic nucleotide analogues is decreasing in the order of (R)-FPMPT>(S)-FPMPT>or=(R)-HPMPT>(S)-PMPT>(S)-HPMPT>PMET>or=(R)-PMPT. The inhibitory potency (K(i)/(dThd)K(m)) of the most efficient inhibitors from this series against T-cell lymphoma enzyme is 0.0026 for (R)-FPMPT and 0.0048 for (S)-FPMPT. The studied compounds do not inhibit Escherichia coli and human enzyme and possess lower inhibitory potency against rat liver thymidine phosphorylase.

Antitumour efficiency of combined therapy with N-9-[2-(phosphonomethoxy)ethyl]-2,6-diaminopurine (PMEDAP) and docetaxel (DTX) was studied in an in vivo model of s.c. transplanted Sprague-Dawley (SD/Cub) rat T-cell lymphoma (phenotype SD10/96). The effect of the combined treatment of DTX with PMEDAP was significantly higher than that of DTX or PMEDAP alone. The s.c. administration of DXT into the vicinity of growing lymphoma together with i.p. administration of PMEDAP was found to be the most efficient combination. In this case, two out of four rats did not develop any lymphoma and remained alive. An irregular expression of Bcl2 protein was found in untreated and treated lymphomas, while the expression of protein p53 as well as MDM2 was not observed. All three types of the above-mentioned treatments (PMEDAP, DXT, DXT+PMEDAP) increased significantly the number of p21-positive cells, compared with untreated tumours.

Antitumor effect of N-9-[2-(phosphonomethoxy) ethyl]-2,6-diaminopurine (PMEDAP) was studied in an in vivo model of s.c. transplanted Sprague-Dawley (SD/cub) rat T-cell lymphomas. Three individual SD/cub neoplasias (SD10/96, SD14/97, SD1/90) of different phenotypes were used. During the treatment, survival of the rats, increase of lymphoma mass, and DNA fragmentation detected by APO/BRDU kit, as well as Bcl2 and p53 protein expression, were followed. The study gives evidence of the positive therapeutic effect of PMEDAP in two of the three tested lymphomas, SD10/96 and SD14/97. Slowly growing SD1/90 lymphoma differs from the others in a uniform karyotype with trisomy of chromosome 11, CD4- immunophenotype, heterogeneous cellular morphology and constitutive expression of p53 protein found in some neoplastic cells. Thus, the diverse anticancer efficacy of PMEDAP treatment among SD/cub lymphomas could be associated with the different phenotypes of individual neoplasias.

Antitumor activity of the acyclic nucleotide analogs PMEDAP, PMEA, and PMEG was studied on a model of a spontaneous T-cell lymphoma in inbred SD/cub rats. Significant therapeutic effects were recorded after a treatment with 16 daily doses of PMEDAP at 5 mg/kg applied to the vicinity of the growing lymphoma. Identical administration of PMEA, or PMEG at a daily dose of 0.1 mg/kg did not affect the survival of lymphoma-bearing animals compared with untreated controls. A decrease in the lymphoma weight during PMEDAP administration was accompanied by the suppression of mitotic activity in neoplastic cells and increased chromatin condensation as witnessed by karyological examinations. Electron-microscopy showed the morphology of apoptotic cells (shrunken cells with condensed chromatin, apoptotic bodies) in lymphoma cell suspensions. An increase of nuclear DNA fragmentation was found during PMEDAP administration compared with spontaneous DNA fragmentation of untreated control lymphomas. These results indicate that PMEDAP application induces apoptosis in in vivo growing lymphomas. The antitumor effect of PMEDAP lasts only during the administration of the drug. After its cessation progression of neoplasia was reestablished.

Anticancer effect of heat shock, either alone or in combination with the drug PMEDAP, and cold water immersion stress were studied in an in vivo model of s.c. transplanted rat T-cell lymphomas in an inbred Sprague-Dawley rat line (SD/cub). Significant anticancer effect was induced by repeated sessions of heat shock; decrease of s.c. lymphoma weight and prolongation of survival time of treated rats was found to be dependent on the number of HS sessions. Much stronger therapeutic effect was observed after repeated heat shock in combination with PMEDAP administration. Light and electron microscopy studies were performed to characterize the alterations within the lymphomas. Morphologically, cellular alterations corresponding with apoptosis were observed in lymphoma cells after repeated heat shock. Indirect immunoperoxidase technique was used to detect HSP 72/73 protein(s), p53 and Bcl2 proteins in lymphomas heated directly or indirectly. The induction of HSP 72/73 protein(s) was found in the lymphoma tissues from autopsied animals exposed to heat shock; the intensity of its expression was dependent on the experimental design. The expression of p53 and BcL2 proteins was not changed in lymphoma cells of HS treated animals as compared to that of untreated lymphoma bearing controls; the Bcl2 protein was present in both treated and untreated lymphomas, and the p53 protein remained undetectable in all samples. Contrary to the heat shock, the cold stress did not suppress growth of lymphomas and, furthermore, accelerated the infiltration of parenchymatous organs with lymphoma cells.

PMEDAP and/or PMEA treatment of SD rat lymphomas significantly prolonged the mean survival time of tumor-bearing animals. Dose-dependent genotoxicity of both PMEDAP and PMEA was not observed in in vitro tests on stabilized diploid MRC-5 cell line. The mitotic activity of MRC-5 cells was completely inhibited after 48 hours exposure in culture medium containing PMEDAP (10 micrograms/ml), or PMEA (25 micrograms/ml), respectively. Significant concentration dependent inhibition of cell proliferation caused by PMEDAP and/or PMEA was also observed in murine splenocytes. The analogs specifically inhibit proliferation of mitogen-activated T-lymphocytes. Modulation of subpopulations of peripheral blood cells under in vivo conditions was found in inbred SD animals. Intraperitoneal administration of PMEDAP to young healthy SD animals induced the decrease of the CD4+/CD8+ value from 1.3-1.6 to 0.72 while i.p. application of PMEA caused a decrease of the same ratio to 0.62.

Spontaneous rat CD4+CD8-T-cell leukaemia transplanted in syngeneic recipients served as an experimental model system for IL-2 therapy. As a source of IL-2, supernatants from in vitro cultured plasmacytoma cell line X63-m-IL2 secreting constitutively recombinant murine IL-2 were utilized. Administration of IL-2, s.c. to the vicinity of the tumour inoculum, suppressed tumour growth. The tumour-inhibitory IL-2 effects were time- and dose-dependent. When the treatment has started 10 days after the challenge with 10(4) leukaemia cells, IL-2 inhibitory effects on the lymphoma growth in situ were demonstrated by lower tumour weight combined with necrotic changes. No histological signs of lymphoma generalization were found in parenchymatous organs of IL-2-treated rats in contrast to the untreated controls. No histological or functional injuries to the kidneys due to IL-2 administration were found. The results of effector cell phenotyping demonstrated the kinetics of the CD4+/CD8+ ratio characterized by CD4+ T-cell depletion and resulting increase in the percentage of CD8+ PBL.