Novel triterpenoids suppress inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and inducible cyclooxygenase (COX-2) in mouse macrophages.

We have synthesized more than 80 novel triterpenoids, all derivatives of oleanolic and ursolic acid, as potential anti-inflammatory and chemopreventive agents. These triterpenoids have been tested for their ability to suppress the de novo formation of two enzymes, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and inducible cyclooxygenase (COX-2), using IFN-gamma-stimulated primary mouse macrophages or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated RAW 264.7 macrophages as assay systems. Two synthetic oleananes, 3,12-dioxoolean-1-en-28-oic acid (TP-69) and 3,11-dioxoolean-1,12-dien-28-oic acid (TP-72), were highly active inhibitors of de novo formation of both iNOS and COX-2. Both TP-69 and TP-72 blocked the increase in iNOS or COX-2 mRNA induced by IFN-gamma or LPS. In addition, TP-72 suppressed NF-KB activation in primary macrophages treated with the combination of IFN-gamma and LPS or IFN-gamma and tumor necrosis factor. The 3-alpha(axial)-epimer of ursolic acid suppressed de novo formation of COX-2, in contrast to naturally occurring 3-beta(equatorial)-ursolic acid. Inhibitory effects of TP-69 or TP-72 on iNOS formation were not blocked by the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU-486, indicating that these triterpenoids do not act through the glucocorticoid receptor, nor does TP-72 act as an iNOS or COX-2 enzyme inhibitor when added to RAW cells in which synthesis of these two enzymes in response to LPS has already been induced. It may be possible to develop triterpenoids as useful agents for chemoprevention of cancer or other chronic diseases with an inflammatory component.

Increased inhibition of proliferation of human B cell lymphomas following ligation of CD40, and either CD19, CD20, CD95 or surface immunoglobulin.

Non-Hodgkin's (NHL) B cell lymphomas are growth-inhibited by ligation of their CD40 molecules. This inhibition is not absolute in that approximately 50% of the cells are not inhibited. We conducted studies to see if other signals that have been reported to inhibit B cell lymphoma growth could be used in combination with anti-CD40 signaling to completely inhibit growth. Ligation of surface immunoglobulin (Ig), CD19, CD20, CD37 or CD95 with soluble antibody did not affect growth of the panel of NHL cells examined. Ligation of CD20, CD19 or CD95 was inhibitory for some NHL cell lines if the primary antibody was crosslinked with a secondary antibody. Combining anti-CD40 with anti-CD19, anti-CD20, or anti-Ig resulted in increased inhibition past that produced by anti-CD40 alone. The additive effect of anti-CD40 and other antibodies to selected surface markers was not observed in all NHL cell lines. Crosslinking of CD95 was also growth inhibitory for the majority of the NHL, and when combined with anti-CD40 under conditions that afforded crosslinking of the two receptors, increased inhibition was seen in three of the NHL cell lines. We found that cAMP or sodium butyrate (NaB) were also effective at inhibiting growth of the NHL cells; this was a profound inhibition (approaching 100%) compared to the 50% inhibition seen with anti-CD40 treatment. The potential for anti-CD40 and either cAMP or NaB to be additive was tested and not found to be the case. The ability to inhibit proliferation of the NHL was very dynamic with some antibody combinations being either inhibitory for multiple cells, not having an effect at all, or in some cases being stimulatory. This suggests that the NHL may represent unique stages of B cells that might serve as a model system which could be developed to precisely categorize patient NHL.

Anti-body-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) function of peripheral blood polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) after autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT).

Rapid recovery of the number and function of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) is critical to recovery from bone marrow transplantation. Although it is relatively easy to measure PMN number recovery, the evaluation of the functional recovery of these cells has not been adequately examined. The ability of peripheral blood PMNs to perform antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) was assessed in 25 patients undergoing autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT). PMNs were evaluated at a single cell level for ADCC function as measured by their ability to form plaques in antibody-sensitized ox erythrocyte (oxE) monolayers. The PMNs demonstrated low or absent ADCC function in the first week after completion of high-dose chemotherapy, regardless of primary diagnoses or myeloablative regimens. Although recovery to a neutrophil count of 500/microliters was prolonged in patients with AML (mean 40.2 days; range 25-67 days), functional activity of PMNs appeared much earlier (mean 19.6 +/- 6.1 days; range 2-65 days) in this group of patients compared to the group of patients with other diagnoses in which recovery to a neutrophil count of 500/microliters and the recovery of functional activity of PMNs occurred at roughly the same time. This single cell assay provided a useful method for determining ADCC functional ability of recovering PMNs post-BMT since few cells were required for each assay. This approach may also be useful in determining optimal timing of immune therapies post-ABMT, relying on myeloid cells as effector cells.

The effect of recombinant human interleukin-3 and recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor on Fc gamma receptor expression and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity of hematopoietic progenitor cells during in vitro myeloid maturation.

Enriched progenitor cell fractions from human bone marrow were induced to undergo myeloid maturation in culture using recombinant human interleukin-3 (rhIL-3) and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF). A negative selection method using the murine monoclonal antibodies (MABs) PM81 (anti-CD15), AML-2-23 (anti-CD14), PC251 (anti-CD33), OKT11 (anti-CD2), and SCCL-1 (anti-CD71) and immunomagnetic beads coated with sheep anti-mouse IgG (Dynal A.S., Oslo, Norway) was used to remove the more mature cellular components of mononuclear cells from normal donor bone marrow samples. The resulting fraction of cells contained 35 to 40% CD34-positive cells, and less than 1% of cells expressed the receptors for the constant portion of immunoglobulin G Fc gamma RI or Fc gamma RII. A small population (3-5%) expressed Fc gamma RIII on day 0, and these cells were found by two-color flow cytometry to be primarily natural killer (NK) cells. The level of Fc gamma R expression was determined every 2 to 3 days on aliquots of the differentiating cells. Thirteen percent of the cultured bone marrow cells expressed Fc gamma RII after 48 hours in liquid culture with rhIL-3 and rhGM-CSF. The percent of cells expressing Fc gamma RII increased to a peak of 78% of the gated population on day 10. The mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) remained low for the first 8 to 10 days of culture, but at that time the MFI more than doubled. Fc gamma RI and Fc gamma RIII expression remained low throughout the culture period. The ability of the differentiating cells to perform antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) was determined at a single-cell level in a modified plaque assay using monolayers of ox erythrocyte (oxE) target cells. The purified progenitor cells, when placed in oxE monolayers sensitized with polyclonal rabbit anti-oxE antibody (AB), showed no plaque formation over control oxE layers. No increase in ability to generate cytolytic plaques in antibody-sensitized oxE layers was seen compared with unsensitized oxE layers until after 10 days of incubation in liquid culture. At that time, the percent of cells forming plaques in the AB-sensitized oxE layers was 34.4 +/- 10.7% (average +/- standard error of the mean [SEM]; n = 4) compared with 10.0 +/- 0.7% on the control oxE layers. The peak plaque formation appeared to coincide with the increase in MFI of a large population of the cultured cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)