Colonic tumor CEA, CSAp and MUC-1 expression following radioimmunotherapy or chemotherapy.

Understanding the changes in tumor biology following cytotoxic therapy may lead to a better understanding of the properties of surviving tumor cell populations and to an improved ability to target and treat these cells. This report addressed the time-dependent dynamic alterations in the expression of three tumor-associated antigens: carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), colon-specific antigen (CSAp) and mucin-1 (MUC-1) following chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or radioimmunotherapy (RAIT; (131)I-labeled anti-CEA IgG) in human colonic tumor xenografts. Immunoassay results show that CEA and MUC-1 expression all increase rapidly after either 5-FU or RAIT. GW-39 tumors show a 2.7-fold increase in CEA expression after a maximum tolerated dose of RAIT, being highest after 21 days, while LS174T and HT-29 tumors maximally increase expression 8.3- and 2.6-fold on day 7 after RAIT, respectively. The change in LS174T is short-term, whereas the change in HT-29 is maintained for at least 4 weeks. Serum CEA levels in these tumor- bearing mice also increase in parallel to the changes observed in tumor. MUC-1 increases 2.5-fold by day 5-7 following RAIT in LS174T tumors and 6-fold by day 14 following RAIT in GW-39 tumors, with a corresponding increase in serum MUC-1. Dramatic increases in CSAp after RAIT were also demonstrated in GW-39 tissue by immunohistochemistry. Thus, these data indicate that the response of tumor cells to low-dose-rate radiation from RAIT or to chemotherapy is associated with an increase of CEA, MUC-1 and CSAp.

Sphingomyelin potentiates chemotherapy of human cancer xenografts.

We propose that one manifestation of altered sphingolipid metabolism within tumor cells may be a reduced sensitivity to anti-cancer therapies because of an inability to produce a sufficient apoptotic signal via sphingomyelin hydrolysis to ceramide. If so, then sphingomyelin administration could reverse this effect and increase a tumor's sensitivity to chemotherapy. In vivo, intravenous sphingomyelin (10 mg/day, 7 days) potentiated 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy (0.45 mg/day, 5 days) when co-administered to HT29 human colonic xenograft-bearing nude mice. In vitro, sphingomyelin (SM) at its maximum tolerated concentration increased 5-fluorouracil and doxorubicin sensitivity of HCT15 and MOSER (1 mg/ml SM) and LS174T and SW480 human colonic tumor cells (0.1 mg/ml) approximately 100-300%. At 1 mg/ml SM, however, no effect was seen using HT29, LoVo and WiDr cells. There was no sensitization of normal human umbilical cord endothelial cells. Thus, sphingomyelin co-administration may be one method to improve the selective efficacy of chemotherapy in some tumors, possibly through enhancement of the apoptotic response.

Emergence of different mechanisms of resistance in the evolution of multidrug resistance in murine erythroleukemia cell lines.

We examined the genetic and biochemical bases for drug resistance and the order of appearance of different mechanisms underlying the increasingly more resistant murine erythroleukemia cell lines established in Adriamycin (ADR). In the first-step low-level resistant cell line PC4-A5 (able to grow in 5 ng/mL ADR), there was a 2-fold reduction in topoisomerase IIalpha and topoisomerase IIbeta mRNA levels, as well as topoisomerase IIalpha protein and activity levels as compared with the parental cell line. The topoisomerase IIalpha activity levels remained reduced as the cells became increasingly more resistant. In contrast, the topoisomerase II mRNA and protein levels returned to approximately the parental levels in resistant cells growing in higher drug concentrations (40-160 ng/mL). Parental cells expressed the multidrug resistance protein (MRP), but beginning with PC4-A5 MRP expression decreased and remained reduced in increasingly resistant cell lines. At high levels of ADR resistance, the cells expressed the mdr3 gene concomitant with the appearance of vincristine resistance and energy-dependent daunomycin and vincristine efflux. Glutathione levels, internal pH, and expression of the major vault protein (MVP) remained unchanged in all cell lines. Fluorescence microscopy revealed no alterations in daunomycin distribution or vesicle numbers between the parental and resistant cell lines. Different resistance mechanisms emerge sequentially as cells become more resistant to ADR; the mechanisms are retained during the development of multidrug resistance (MDR). In intermediate-level MDR cell lines (PC4-A10 and PC4-A20), resistance involves an as yet undetermined mechanism(s).

Conformational features of bovine heart mitochondrial transhydrogenase.

Both purified and functionally reconstituted bovine heart mitochondrial transhydrogenase were treated with various sulfhydryl modification reagents in the presence of substrates. In all cases, NAD+ and NADH had no effect on the rate of inactivation. NADP+ protected transhydrogenase from inactivation by 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB) in both systems, while NADPH slightly protected the reconstituted enzyme but stimulated inactivation in the purified enzyme. The rate of N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) inactivation was enhanced by NADPH in both systems. The copper-(o-phenanthroline)2 complex [Cu(OP)2] inhibited the purified enzyme, and this inhibition was substantially prevented by NADP+. Transhydrogenase was shown to undergo conformational changes upon binding of NADP+ or NADPH. Sulfhydryl quantitation with DTNB indicated the presence of two sulfhydryl groups exposed to the external medium in the native conformation of the soluble purified enzyme or after reconstitution into phosphatidylcholine liposomes. In the presence of NADP+, one sulfhydryl group was quantitated in the nondenatured soluble enzyme, while none was found in the reconstituted enzyme, suggesting that the reactive sulfhydryl groups were less accessible in the NADP+-enzyme complex. In the presence of NADPH, however, four sulfhydryl groups were found to be exposed to DTNB in both the soluble and reconstituted enzymes. NEM selectively reacted with only one sulfhydryl group of the purified enzyme in the absence of substrates, but the presence of NADPH stimulated the NEM-dependent inactivation of the enzyme and resulted in the modification of three additional sulfhydryl groups. The sulfhydryl group not modified by NEM in the absence of substrates is not sterically hindered in the native enzyme as it can still be quantitated by DTNB or modified by iodoacetamide.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)