Restoration of wild-type p53 activity enhances the sensitivity of pleural metastasis to cisplatin through an apoptotic mechanism.

We attempted to develop a new strategy of gene transfer in human metastatic cells avoiding viral vectors. We demonstrated the feasibility of the nlsLacZ gene-liposome (DOTAP) complex transfection in lung cancer cell lines H358 and Calu-1 carrying homozygous deletion of p53 and in primary cultures of human pleural metastatic tumor cells (n = 10). The efficiency of transfection in pleural cells was high with a mean of 78 +/- 22% (range 40-100%) compared to H358 (30%) and Calu-1 cells (50%). In this study, we report that growth of pC53-SN3-transfected Calu-1 and pleural metastatic cells was greatly suppressed whereas neither liposomes or Neo-gene affected cells growth. We tempted to determine whether restoration of wtp53 increased the chemosensitivity of cells that normally lack p53 expression. The pC53-SN3 transfected cells (H358 and Calu-1) were more sensitive to CDDP than the parental cells by 14 and 1.2 fold, respectively. In addition, the sensitization ratio due to the transfection of wtp53 in pleural cells (n = 6) varied from 1.2 to 6 fold. This sensitization remained even 21 days after transfection and was accompanied by increase of p53 positive cells and of the proportion of apoptotic bodies. In conclusion our results suggested that DOTAP is an efficient vector for mediating gene transfer in pleural metastatic cells offering advantages compared to viral vectors, while tumor suppressor genes such as p53 may be good candidates in combination with conventional therapy with CDDP that could be further developed for their use in local cancer gene therapy.

Iloprost inhibits neutrophil-induced lung injury and neutrophil adherence to endothelial monolayers.

We hypothesized that Iloprost, a long-acting prostacyclin analog, would inhibit neutrophil (PMN)-induced lung injury and decrease PMN adherence to vascular endothelium. Human PMNs infused into isolated buffer-perfused rat lungs subsequently stimulated with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) resulted in lung injury as assessed by the accumulation of [125I]bovine serum albumin (125I-BSA) in lung parenchyma and alveolar lavage fluid. Addition of Iloprost to the lung perfusate, prior to activation of the PMNs, reduced lung injury as assessed by a decrease in the accumulation of 125I-BSA in the lung. This protective effect was not due to the vasodilatory effect of Iloprost. Protection by Iloprost was not linked to a reduction in PMA-induced PMN superoxide production since Iloprost did not reduce the amount of superoxide released into lung perfusate. In vitro, Iloprost caused a dose-dependent inhibition of PMA-stimulated PMN adherence to endothelial cells. Iloprost did not affect the number of Mo1 adhesion molecules constitutively expressed or the number of receptors expressed on the PMNs following PMA. Addition of cAMP or dibutyryl cAMP to the endothelial cells mimicked the effects of Iloprost, diminishing PMA-stimulated PMN adhesion. In separate experiments, addition of the phosphodiesterase inhibitor IBMX to Iloprost resulted in a greater inhibition of PMA-stimulated PMN adherence, while addition of an adenylate cyclase inhibitor, SQ 22,536, or cAMP antibodies with the Iloprost abolished Iloprost's inhibitory effect on PMN adhesion. Thus, Iloprost inhibits PMA-activated PMN-induced lung injury despite continued superoxide production. Iloprost inhibition of PMN adhesion is dependent on cAMP.

1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine metabolism and incorporation into DNA as determinants of in vivo murine tumor cell response.

In this study, 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine 5'-triphosphate (ara-CTP) formation, retention, and incorporation into DNA were simultaneously evaluated in vivo in mice bearing leukemia cells sensitive to 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (ara-C) (L1210/0), leukemia cells resistant to ara-C (L1210/R), P288, and lymphosarcoma P1798, namely cells characterized by differential sensitivity to ara-C. In L1210/R cells, resistance to ara-C was correlated with low deoxycytidine-cytidine kinase activity (0.04 nmol/mg protein/min), with a low level of intracellular accumulation of ara-CTP, with a low level of incorporation of ara-C into DNA, and with no significant inhibition of thymidine incorporation into DNA. Thus a simple measurement of the intracellular pool of total ara-C nucleotides is sufficient to identify cells with this type of resistance. In contrast, in cells with sufficient deoxycytidine-cytidine kinase activity (greater than 0.1 nmol/mg protein/min), the factors determining the quality of response to ara-C could be distinguished as follows: (a) those which are responsible for in vitro cytotoxicity (producing in vivo cytoreduction); and (b) those which are responsible for in vivo selectivity (producing long term survivors). In P288 cells which are sensitive in vitro to ara-C, the determining factor for this sensitivity is the amount of ara-CTP formed which produced greater than 80% inhibition of thymidine incorporation into DNA. The lack of antitumor activity in vivo, however, was due to similarities in ara-CTP retention in target tumor cells (P288) and normal bone marrow cells. In both cases, ara-CTP retention at 4 h was less than 10% of the value obtained at 30 min. In contrast, in cells such as L1210 and P1798 long term survivors (cures) were directly correlated with higher ara-CTP retention. For example, 4 h after drug administration, ara-CTP retentions were 20, 82, and 6% for L1210, P1798, and bone marrow cells, respectively. At 24 h, 20% ara-CTP was retained intracellularly by P1798 tumor cells. In summary, results presented herein demonstrate the importance of differential ara-CTP retention as the most critical determinant of response for the induction of long term survivors, and ara-C incorporation into DNA by tumor cells after in vivo treatment appears to be less significant. These data also demonstrate close correlation between ara-CTP pools, retention, and the extent of inhibition of recovery of thymidine incorporation into DNA.