In vitro and in vivo myelotoxicity of CAI to human and murine hematopoietic progenitor cells.

Carboxyamido-triazole (CAI), an agent that targets calcium-sensitive signal transduction pathways, has both antiproliferative and antimetastatic properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the myelotoxicity of CAI to normal human and murine hematopoietic cells. In vitro toxicity of CAI was determined by inhibition of myeloid [colony-forming unit-granulocyte/macrophage (CFU-gm)] and erythroid [burst-forming unit-erythroid (BFU-e)] colony formation in clonal assays. The effects of oral CAI on CD2F1 mouse marrow and splenic cellularity, marrow progenitor content, and peripheral blood cell counts were assessed in relation to plasma CAI levels. In vitro, CAI caused a concentration-dependent inhibition of CFU-gm and BFU-e colonies following continuous drug exposure. Murine CFU-gm and BFU-e were inhibited > 90% by 10 and 15 micrograms/mL CAI, respectively. However, suppression of human CFU-gm and BFU-e did not exceed 65% at the same concentrations. In vivo, CAI reduced the number of CFU-gm and BFU-e per femur after the initial dose and through day 4. Variations in colony inhibition paralleled changes in CAI plasma concentrations. While colony inhibition increased in vitro with escalating drug concentrations, this was not observed in vivo with additional CAI doses. The low toxicity of CAI in vivo combined with the significant difference between toxicity for human and mouse progenitors in vitro suggests a relatively low adverse potential to the bone marrow for this new signal transduction inhibitory agent.

In vivo efficacy of a novel inhibitor of selected signal transduction pathways including calcium, arachidonate, and inositol phosphates.

Aberrant signal transduction has been implicated in malignant transformation, growth, and progression. This has led to the proposal to use inhibitors of signal transduction pathways to treat cancer. One approach to circumventing potential toxicity and improving efficacy would be to target pathways upon which cancer cells selectively depend. Pathways associated with the malignant process involve calcium fluxes, the release of arachidonic acid, and the generation of phosphoinositides. In this report, CAI (L651582, NSC 609974), a substituted carboxyamido-imidazole and novel inhibitor of these selected signal transduction pathways, inhibits anchorage-dependent and -independent growth in a large series of human cancer cell lines. CAI pretreatment of HT-29 human colon cancer and 5R ras-transfected rat embryo fibroblast cells inhibits the formation and growth of experimental pulmonary metastases in nude mice. Oral administration of CAI in PEG-400 vehicle arrests growth and metastasis of transplanted human melanoma and ovarian cancer xenografts. No significant gross or histological toxicity was observed at CAI doses yielding blood levels in the concentration range demonstrated to inhibit select signal transduction pathways in vitro. These data indicate the feasibility and demonstrate a potential selectivity and sensitivity of using specific signal transduction inhibitors for the experimental treatment of cancer.

Reduced tumor incidence, metastatic potential, and cytokine responsiveness of nm23-transfected melanoma cells.

Reduced expression of the nm23 gene in certain rodent model systems and human breast tumors has been correlated with high tumor metastatic potential. To investigate the functional effects of nm23 expression, we have transfected a constitutive murine nm23-1 expression construct into highly metastatic K-1735 TK murine melanoma cells. TK clones expressing the exogenous nm23-1 construct exhibited a reduced incidence of primary tumor formation, significant reductions in tumor metastatic potential independent of tumor cell growth, and altered responses to the cytokine transforming growth factor beta 1 in soft agar colonization assays, compared with control-transfected TK clones. In contrast, nm23-1-transfected TK clones exhibited no significant differences in intrinsic tumor cell growth, i.e., primary tumor size in vivo, anchorage-dependent growth rate in vitro, and anchorage-independent colony formation in soft agar in vitro. The data demonstrate a suppressive effect of nm23 on several aspects of the cancer process, including tumor metastasis.