Cytotoxic, analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity of colchicine and its C-10 sulfur containing derivatives.

10-Alkylthiocolchicines have been obtained and characterized by spectroscopic methods and their biological activities as: cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities have been tested. Cytotoxic activity against SKOV-3 ovarian cell line for 10-alkylthiocolchicine analogues was reported and tested compounds showed to be more active than commonly used doxorubicin. Some of tested C-10 alkylthiolated colchicines have been found to exhibit cytotoxicity at levels comparable to that of the natural product-colchicine. 10-Methylthiocolchicine has IC50 = 8 nM and 10-ethylthiocolchicine has IC50 = 47 nM in comparison to colchicine IC50 = 37 nM. Moreover for 10-alkylthioderivatives apoptosis test, cyclin B1 and cell cycle tests were performed. 10-n-Butylthiocolchicine was tested for anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities it showed to produce analgesic rather than anti-inflammatory effect.

Antifungal, anticancer, and docking studies of colchiceine complexes with monovalent metal cation salts.

Complexes of colchiceine with monovalent cation perchlorates and iodides have been obtained and characterized by spectroscopic methods. DFT and spectroscopic studies reveal that the dihedral angle ω1-1a-12-12a , crucial for colchicine biological mechanism of action, that is, binding to tubulins depends on the diameter of the complexed metal cation. Biological tests indicated no antifungal properties of colchicine (it was active only toward A.pullulans), in contrast to its derivative-(colchiceine). Complexation of colchiceine with metal cations improved significantly the antifungal potency, even below MIC <1 µg/ml. The colchiceine complexes were more potent than colchiceine, and some of them were even more potent than the fungicidal standard IPBC. The highest potency of colchiceine complexes was noted against A. pullulans (MIC = 0.5 µg/ml). In contrast to the findings concerning antifungal potency, the anticancer studies showed complexes of colchicine more active (~IC50  = 2 nM) than those of colchiceine (~IC50  = 6 µM). MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines and human lung fibroblasts CCD39Lu were also tested.

7-Deacetyl-10-alkylthiocolchicine derivatives - new compounds with potent anticancer and fungicidal activity.

A series of new semi-synthetic 7-deacetyl-10-alkylthiocolchicne derivatives with ethyl, n-propyl, i-propyl and n-butyl substituents were synthesised and characterised by spectroscopic methods, elemental analysis, DFT calculations and molecular docking simulations. All the synthesized compounds have been tested for fungicidal and anticancer activities against SKOV-3, LoVo, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and the lung-derived fibroblast CCD39Lu. All the new colchicine derivatives exhibit significantly higher cytotoxicity towards the SKOV-3 tumour cell line than the natural product - colchicine. The most effective cytotoxic agents were 7-deacetyl-10-n-buthylthiocolchicine and 7-deacetyl-10-i-propylthiocolchicine. Among all the compounds tested, 7-deacetyl-10-n-buthylthiocolchicine exhibited the highest fungicidal activity. Molecular modeling indicated that several mutations found in the ß-tubulin unit of the tested fungal strains are crucial for antifungal activity and selectivity of 7-deacetyl-10-n-buthylthiocolchicine. The obtained results may be useful for the development of selective colchicine derivatives as effective fungicidal and/or anticancer drugs.

DMU-212 inhibits tumor growth in xenograft model of human ovarian cancer.

DMU-212 has been shown to evoke a mitochondrial apoptotic pathway in transformed fibroblasts and breast cancer. However, recently published data indicated the ability of DMU-212 to evoke apoptosis in both mitochondria- and receptor-mediated manner in two ovarian cancer cell lines, namely A-2780 and SKOV-3, which showed varied sensitivity to the compound tested. The pronounced cytotoxic effects of DMU-212 observed in A-2780 cells were related to the execution of extracellular apoptosis pathway and cell cycle arrest in G2/M phase. In view of the great anticancer potential of DMU-212 against A-2780 cell line, the aim of the current study was to assess antiproliferative activity of DMU-212 in xenograft model of ovarian cancer. To evaluate in vitro metabolic properties of cells that were to be injected into SCID mice, uptake and decline of DMU-212 in A-2780 ovarian cancer cell line was investigated. It was found that the concentration of the test compound in A-2780 cells was growing within first eight hours, and then the gradual decline was observed. A-2780 cells stably transfected with pcDNA3.1/Zeo(-)-Luc vector were subcutaneously inoculated into the right flanks of SCID mice. After seven days of the treatment with DMU-212 (50mg/kg b.w), tumor growth appeared to be suppressed in the animals treated with the compound tested. At day 14 of the experiment, tumor burden in mice treated with DMU-212 was significantly lower, as compared to untreated controls. Our findings suggest that DMU-212 might be considered as a potential anticancer agent used in ovarian cancer therapy.

Different susceptibility of colon cancer DLD-1 and LOVO cell lines to apoptosis induced by DMU-212, a synthetic resveratrol analogue.

The cytotoxic activity of DMU-212 has been shown to vary in cell lines derived from the same type of cancer, i.e. ovarian, breast and colorectal ones. However, the molecular mechanism of DMU-212 cytotoxicity has not been clarified in colon cancer cells. This study aims to elucidate the mechanism of antitumor effects of DMU-212 in two human colon cancer cell lines, DLD-1 and LOVO. We showed the stronger cytotoxic activity in DLD-1 cells in which DMU-212 evoked a greater pro-apoptotic effect as compared to that of LOVO cells. The analysis of the expression pattern of 84 apoptosis-related genes indicated transcripts specific to the mitochondria-mediated apoptosis pathway in both colon cancer cell lines used. We found that DMU-212 caused up-regulation of pro-apoptotic Bak1, Bok, Bik, Noxa, Bad, Bax, p53 and Apaf1 transcripts level in DLD-1 cell line, whereas anti-apoptotic Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and Bag1 mRNA expression was decreased. Changes in apoptosis-related genes expression were less pronounced in LOVO cells which did not express CYP1B1 protein and showed lower expression of CYP1A1 protein level than that in DLD-1 cells. Our results suggest that anticancer activity of DMU-212 is closely related to its biotransformation catalysed by these cytochrome P450 isoenzymes.

Resveratrol analogue 3,4,4',5-tetramethoxystilbene inhibits growth, arrests cell cycle and induces apoptosis in ovarian SKOV-3 and A-2780 cancer cells.

In the screening studies, cytotoxicity of 12 methylated resveratrol analogues on 11 human cancer cell lines was examined. The most active compound 3,4,4'5-tetramethoxystilbene (DMU-212) and two ovarian cancer cell lines A-2780 (IC(50)=0.71 µM) and SKOV-3 (IC(50)=11.51 µM) were selected for further investigation. To determine the mechanism of DMU-212 cytotoxicity, its ability to induce apoptosis was examined. DMU-212 arrested cell cycle in the G2/M or G0/G1 phase which resulted in apoptosis of both cell lines. The expression level of 84 apoptosis-related genes was investigated. In SKOV-3 cells DMU-212 caused up-regulation of pro-apoptotic Bax, Apaf-1 and p53 genes, specific to intrinsic pathway of apoptosis, and a decrease in Bcl-2 and Bcl 2110 mRNA expressions. Conversely, in A-2780 cells an increased expression of pro-apoptotic genes Fas, FasL, TNF, TNFRSF10A, TNFRSF21, TNFRSF16 specific to extracellular mechanism of apoptosis was observed. There are no data published so far regarding the receptor mediated apoptosis induced by DMU-212. The activation of caspase-3/7 was correlated with decreased TRAF-1 and BIRC-2 expression level in A-2780 cells exposed to DMU-212. DMU-212 caused a decrease in CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 mRNA levels in A-2780 by 50% and 75%, and in SKOV-3 cells by 15% and 45%, respectively. The protein expression was also reduced in both cell lines. It is noteworthy that the expression of CYP1B1 protein was entirely inhibited in A-2780 cells treated with DMU-212. It can be suggested that different CYP1B1 expression patterns in either ovarian cell line may affect their sensitivity to cytotoxic activity of DMU-212.