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Experimental Therapeutics, Preclinical Pharmacology |
Departments of Radiation Oncology [D. M. P., J. M. P., Z. V., M. W. D.] and Radiology [H. C. C.], Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, and Departments of Companion Animal and Special Species Medicine [R. L. P.] and Anatomy, Physiological Sciences and Radiology [D. E. T.], North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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The magnitude and the direction of pHgrad across the tumor cell membrane may be important for certain kinds of therapy. For example, it has been speculated that pHgrad may affect intracellular accumulation of weakly acidic or basic drugs, thereby affecting the efficacy of such agents (2 , 4 , 5) . A low pHe enhances the uptake of weakly acidic drugs (8, 9, 10) and topoisomerase I inhibitors (11) . It increases the activation of bioreductive agents (12 , 13) and potentiates the interaction of alkylating agents and platinum-containing drugs with DNA (14 , 15) . However, a low pHe reduces the uptake of mitoxantrone (16 , 17) and the cytotoxicity of weakly basic drugs, such as doxorubicin (15) . It has also been shown that the probability of thermoradiotherapy response of human tumors is higher when pHe is relatively acidic (18) , as well as when pHi is more basic (19) . All of these results suggest that the magnitude and direction of the pH gradient may be important factors that can determine and predict treatment response. Although pH gradients have been measured in murine tumors, there has not been any systematic attempt to measure them in spontaneous tumors in either humans or dogs. This report presents such data on a series of 31 tumor-bearing canine patients.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Anesthesia.
The dogs were anesthetized with diazepam (0.2 mg/kg, i.v.) and sodium
thiopental (12 mg/kg, i.v.). They were intubated, and anesthesia was
maintained with inhalation of isoflurane (1.5%) in 100% oxygen. Heart
rate, indirect blood pressure, and respiratory rate were monitored
every 5 min. Throughout the anesthetic procedure, body temperature was
monitored using rectal temperature measurements. To reduce heat loss
during the study, animals were kept warm by heating blankets. No
significant body temperature loss was observed during the procedure.
Lactated Ringers solution (10 ml/kg/h, i.v.) was given for
maintenance fluid administration. Prior to entering the MR suite, the
tumor was clipped of any surface hair.
Sequence of pHi and pHe Measurements.
MRI and MRS studies were performed first, as described below. The MRI
scan data were used to assist in placement of pH electrodes in tumor
and to direct location of probes away from necrotic areas.
pHe Measurements.
Extracellular pH was determined using combination interstitial needle
electrodes (Microelectrode, Inc., Londonderry, NH; Agulian, Hamden,
CT), following previously published protocols (20)
. Prior
to each study, the electrodes were calibrated using buffered solutions
of pH 6.0, 7.0, 7.4, and 8.0. All tumor measurements were
corrected using a calibration curve generated at each study. The
calibration was repeated after the study to verify the performance of
the pH microelectrode.
The tumor was aseptically prepared. The needle electrode was inserted into the tumor, and pHe was measured at 0.51.0-cm intervals as the needle was advanced. Information from the MR images was used to assist in localization of measurement sites. Several locations were measured in each tumor site and were averaged to obtain mean and SE values for each individual.
pHi Measurements.
In tumor-bearing animals, T2 MRI and
31P-MRS scans were done to determine tumor
location, volume, and pHi. After obtaining
T1 and T2 weighted MR
imaging studies at 1.5 Tesla (Signa Spectrometer, General
Electric Medical Systems, Milwaukee, WI), the tumor region was
identified and local magnetic field homogeneity was adjusted using the
AUTOSHIM capability of the Signa system using DC offsets applied
to the x, y, and z gradients.
31P spectroscopy was carried out using a 6-cm
home-built surface coil of distributed capacitance design. Spatial
localization of the spectral information was accomplished with
image-correlated chemical shift imaging (21)
and with
repetition time = 1500 ms and total acquisition time =
1325 min. The data matrix was 512 complex points in the chemical
shift dimension and 8*8*8 in the three spatial dimensions with a
FOV of 24 cm, yielding nominal 27-ml volume elements.
The spectroscopic data were transferred to an off-line system (SUN
Microsystems, Milpitas, CA) operating the SAGE/IDL software
(General Electric Medical Systems, Milwaukee, WI) for reconstruction
and extraction of spectroscopic parameters in each volume element
(voxel). The data were processed by application of a decaying
exponential filter in the chemical shift domain, zero padding to 1024
complex points in the chemical shift domain, and Fourier
reconstruction. Frequency independent and linear phase corrections were
applied automatically to obtain the real (absorption) component of the
spectrum. Baseline correction was accomplished using a sinc
deconvolution to account for the time delay for magnetic field gradient
encoding. Parameterization was automated, by best fit of lorentzian or
lorentzian/gaussian lines (phosphomonoester, inorganic phosphate,
phosphodiester, phosphocreatine,
NTP,
NTP, and ßNTP) to the
extracted real frequency spectrum using a Marquardt algorithm in the
SAGE/IDL software. Tissue pH was determined by the frequency difference
between the inorganic phosphate and phosphocreatine resonances.
pHi was calculated for each tumor containing voxel and averaged
for each dog. The results are reported as averages and SE. These
methods have been described previously (19)
.
pH gradient and Calculation of Drug Concentration Ratios.
The pH gradient (intracellular versus extracellular) was
calculated for each tissue examined using the following equation.
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The effect of pHgrad on
intracellular/extracellular concentration ratios for drugs with
pKa values of 6.0 and 8.0 were calculated according
to the equation developed by Gerweck and Seetharaman (4)
.
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| RESULTS |
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Means of tumor pHi and pHe were 7.29 (SD, 0.19) and
7.03 (SD, 0.21), respectively. There was no relationship between either
tumor grade or tumor volume and pHe, pHi, or
pHgrad (Table 1)
. The means of pHe,
pHi, and pHgrad for high/intermediate
versus low grade tumors were 7.03 (SD, 0.22), 7.27 (0.24),
0.24 (0.36) and 7.01 (0.22), 7.28 (0.14), and 0.27 (0.29),
respectively.
There was no relationship between pHi and pHe measured
in individual tumors (Fig. 1)
. For the
majority of tumors (except two), however, pHi was maintained at
pH 7 or greater, and pHgrad was
0. There
were some exceptions, however, in which the gradient was negative.
There was considerable variation in the magnitude and direction of
pHgrad between tumors (Table 1)
.
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One way to improve the intracellular concentration of weakly acidic
drugs in tumors would be to transiently drop pHe. The induction
of hyperglycemia has been shown to reduce human tumor pHe by
0.10.2 pH units (22)
. In animal studies using
meta-iodobenzylguanidine in combination with moderate
hyperglycemia tumor pHe was reduced by 0.7 units (23
, 24)
. If one recalculates Ci/Ce ratios for the
weakly acidic drug chlorambucil, assuming a preferential drop of
0.10.4 pH units in tumor, this increases the predicted mean
concentration ratio quite favorably and decreases the fraction of
tumors with nonpreferential weakly acidic drug uptake into tumor cells
(Fig. 2)
. At the assumed pH decrement of
0.6 units, predicted CPT and TPT uptake from our model appear to
coincide with the observed intracellular drug uptake in the previously
published in vitro studies (11)
. However, at a
larger pHe decrement, our model predicts higher drug uptake
(Fig. 3)
.
| DISCUSSION |
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It has been demonstrated previously that pH gradients exist in rodent tumors, and it has been suggested that this physiological characteristic of tumors could be used to therapeutic advantage (4) . Furthermore, the magnitude and direction of pH gradients could represent a source for chemotherapeutic treatment resistance, depending on the pKa of the drug being used (5) . Clinical utilization of this information will depend on how reproducible the pH gradient is in individual tumors.
The majority of these tumors had relatively acidic extracellular pH, but there were exceptions. In addition, the magnitude of the gradient varied widely. These two features of the tumor population led to a wide range of expected drug concentration ratios, from values less than 1 to greater than 8 for a drug with a pKa of 6.0.
Based on pH measurements in this study, we have predicted an increase
in CPT and TPT intracellular uptake in spontaneous canine tumors and
compared them to intracellular drug uptake observed in the experiments
in vitro (11)
. At smaller pHe
decrements, our predicted drug uptake is not different from the uptake
in the in vitro studies (Fig. 3)
. However, at larger
pHe decrements, our model predicts higher drug uptake. We
hypothesized that observed differences between in vitro and
in vivo studies are due to differences in the time of
acidification. Previously published in vitro studies have
used acute acidification. In the clinical scenario, however,
pHe is chronically low, and pHi is maintained nearer a
physiological level, as shown in the present study (Table 1)
. Acute
acidification studies could therefore underestimate effect of pH
gradient on drug uptake in the clinical setting of a chronically acidic
tumor environment.
Some additional advantage in drug uptake could be gained if strategies could be implemented that would acutely and preferentially acidify the extracellular space in tumors. A sample calculation suggested that a 0.2 pHe unit drop in tumors would create favorable drug concentration ratios in the majority of cases. Acute acidification of human and murine tumors has been accomplished by induction of hyperglycemia alone or in combination with the mitochondrial inhibitor meta-iodobenzylguanidine, and the degree of acidification has been near 0.2 pH units (22 , 25) . In humans, this effect does not occur in normal s.c. tissue (22) . However, the effects of hyperglycemia on pHe of other normal tissues have not been reported. Additional strategies to lower pHe, such as use of respiratory inhibitors (23) and/or tumor blood flow reduction, could prove useful to further enhance the pHgrad in tumors.
The pH data from this paper compare favorably to the average pHi for human soft tissue sarcomas reported from our institution (7.24 ± 0.15; Ref. 19 ), the mean pHi for human sarcomas reported by Vaupel et al. (Ref. 1 ; pHi = 7.19; range, 6.97.35), the mean pHe for human soft tissue sarcomas reported by Engin et al. (Ref. 26 ; pHe = 7.01 ± 0.21), and mean pHe for human sarcomas reported by et al. (Ref. 1 ; pHi = 6.69; range, 6.26.9). Similarity in pHi and pHe between the human and canine tumors suggests that this tumor type has physiological characteristics that are similar to the human counterpart. Further attesting to this conjecture is our prior report demonstrating a relationship between pHi and treatment outcome in both human and canine soft tissue sarcomas treated with hyperthermia and radiation therapy (19) . Thus, one might expect that the range of pHgrad described in this paper would be representative of the range seen in human sarcomas.
Most of the dogs in this study are part of thermoradiotherapy trials, in which local control and disease-free survival are the primary end points. In future analyses, we intend to investigate whether there are relationships between pHe, pHi, and/or pHgrad and treatment outcome.
Cautionary notes arise from this study as well. The lack of direct correlation between pHe and pHi suggests that one cannot predict the value of pHi based on measurement of pHe alone. Thus, the estimation of drug concentration ratios for any tumor will be dependent on direct measurement of both pH parameters. Caution should also be used in extrapolation of these data to tumors other than sarcomas. For example, Engin et al. (26) reported variation in pHe values between tumors of different histological types. Additional studies are needed to verify the magnitude and direction of pH gradients in other histological types.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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1 Supported by National Cancer Institute, NIH,
Grant PO1 CA42745. ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be
addressed, at Department of Radiation Oncology, Box 3455, Duke
University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710. Phone: (919) 684-4180;
Fax: (919) 684-8718; E-mail: dewhirst{at}radonc.duke.edu ![]()
3 The abbreviations used are: MR, magnetic
resonance; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; MRS, magnetic resonance
spectroscopy; CPT, camptothecin; NTP, nucleoside triphosphate;
TPT, topotecan. ![]()
Received 11/ 1/99; revised 3/ 6/00; accepted 3/ 7/00.
| REFERENCES |
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