hTERT Transduction Extends the Lifespan of Primary Pediatric Low-Grade Glioma Cells While Preserving the Biological Response to NGF.

The neurotrophin nerve growth factor (NGF) modulates the growth of human gliomas and is able to induce cell differentiation through the engagement of tropomyosin receptor kinase A (TrkA) receptor, although the role played in controlling glioma survival has proved controversial. Unfortunately, the slow growth rate of low-grade gliomas (LGG) has made it difficult to investigate NGF effects on these tumors in preclinical models. In fact, patient-derived low-grade human astrocytoma cells duplicate only a limited number of times in culture before undergoing senescence. Nevertheless, replicative senescence can be counteracted by overexpression of hTERT, the catalytic subunit of telomerase, which potentially increases the proliferative potential of human cells without inducing cancer-associated changes. We have extended, by hTERT transduction, the proliferative in vitro potential of a human LGG cell line derived from a pediatric pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) surgical sample. Remarkably, the hTERT-transduced LGG cells showed a behavior similar to that of the parental line in terms of biological responses to NGF treatment, including molecular events associated with induction of NGF-related differentiation. Therefore, transduction of LGG cells with hTERT can provide a valid approach to increase the in vitro life-span of patient-derived astrocytoma primary cultures, characterized by a finite proliferative potential.

Genome-wide allelic imbalance analysis of pediatric gliomas by single nucleotide polymorphic allele array.

Using single nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) allele arrays, we analyzed 28 pediatric gliomas consisting of 14 high-grade gliomas and 14 low-grade gliomas. Most of the low-grade gliomas had no detectable loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in any of the 11,562 SNP loci; exceptions were two gangliogliomas (3q and 9p), one astrocytoma (6q), and two subependymal giant cell astrocytomas (16p and 21q). On the other hand, all high-grade gliomas had various degrees of LOH affecting 52 to 2,168 SNP loci on various chromosomes. LOH occurred most frequently in regions located at 4q (54%), 6q (46%), 9p (38%), 10q (38%), 11p (38%), 12 (38%), 13q (69%), 14q (54%), 17 (38%), 18p (46%), and 19q (38%). We also detected amplifications of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRalpha) in a few of the 13 cases of glioblastoma multiforme analyzed. Interestingly, the amplified EGFR and PDGFRalpha were located within regions of LOH. SNP loci with LOH and copy number changes were validated by sequencing and quantitative PCR, respectively. Our results indicate that, in some pediatric glioblastoma multiforme, one allele each of EGFR and PDGFRalpha was lost but the remaining allele was amplified. This may represent a new molecular mechanism underlying tumor progression.

Variolin B and its derivate deoxy-variolin B: new marine natural compounds with cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor activity.

Variolin B (VAR-B) is a natural product isolated from the sponge Kirkpatrickia variolosa, found in Antarctica. VAR-B has been shown previously to possess potent pro-apoptotic activity. This study was undertaken to investigate the mechanism of action of chemically synthesised VAR-B and its analogue deoxy-variolin B (dVAR-B). In different human cancer cell lines both compounds inhibited colony formation, caused cell cycle perturbations and induced apoptosis at concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 2 microM. LoVo/Dx cells over-expressing Pgp were equally sensitive as the parental cell line to VAR-B and dVAR-B, indicating that variolins are not substrates of Pgp. Although variolins induced an increase in the levels of p53 with an increase in p21, their cytotoxicities did not appear to be dependent on p53 status as their potency was comparable in cells with wild-type p53, or in sub-lines with inactivated p53. Both VAR-B and dVAR-B prevent the cells from entering S phase, blocking cells in G1 and cause an accumulation of cells in G2. The apoptosis induced by VAR-B and dVAR-B occurs very rapidly in some cell lines (e.g., Jurkat leukaemia cells) and is already evident 4h after the beginning of treatment. Although intercalation of dVAR-B in DNA has been demonstrated, neither VAR-B nor dVAR-B produce detectable breaks in DNA. These results are consistent with the in vitro biochemical assays that also demonstrated that dVAR-B is not topoisomerase I or II poison. Instead, each of these variolins appears to inhibit cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) in the muM range. CDK1-cyclin B, CDK2-cyclin A and CDK2/cylin E complexes were inhibited in a range of concentrations lower than those required to inhibit the activity of CDK4/cyclin D or CDK7/cyclin H complexes. In conclusion, these variolins are a new class of CDK inhibitors that activate apoptosis in a p53-independent fashion and thus they may be effective against tumours with p53 mutations or deletions.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel diaziridinylquinone-acridine conjugates.

The synthesis and biological evaluation of a homologous series of conjugates (9-13) of 2,5-diaziridinylbenzoquinone (DZQ) and 9-carbonylacridine, a DNA intercalating moiety, via a polymethylene unit (n=2-6) are described. In addition, the non-acridine compound 14, analogous to compound 12, and the 5-methyl-DZQ derivatized conjugate 15, an analog of compound 10, were also prepared. Through a Comet assay, compounds 9-13 were shown to produce DNA interstrand cross-links at submicromolar concentrations, consistent with K562 leukemia cells accumulating in the G2/M stage in the cell cycle. The cytotoxicity of compounds 9-15 was examined using a MTT assay on several human cancer cell lines, including chronic myeloid leukemia K562, the non-small cell lung cancers H596 and H460, and colon carcinoma cells BE and HT29. H460 and HT29 are rich in DT-diaphorase (DTD), and H596 and BE cells have negligible amounts of functional DTD. Under continuous exposure of drugs, except to the non-aziridine compound 19b, the IC50 values of all other compounds were determined to be in the range of 0.3-11.3 nM. Compound 10, which has a propyl linker group, was subjected to in vivo studies. When BDF1 mice with established mouse mammary carcinoma were treated with compound 10 (2 mg/kg at day 1 and 5 mg/kg at day 7), a significant delay (9-10 days) in cancer growth was recorded when compared to untreated controls. Furthermore, administration of compound 10 to nu/nu BDF1 mice bearing human lung cancer H460 xenograft (1.5 mg/kg for 10 for five consecutive days from day 13 and 17) also showed a significant reduction in tumor growth compared to untreated controls. The half-life of compound 10 in the presence of five different peptidases (porcine esterase, carboxypeptidase A, B and Y, and pepsin) was determined to be between 30 and 60 h.