
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Experimental Therapeutics, Preclinical Pharmacology |
Lung Cancer Program of the University of Colorado Cancer Center [D. C. ., L. G., J. M. S., B. H., T. L. Z., P. A. B.] and the Departments of Medicine [D. C. C., B. H., T. L. Z., P. A. B.] and Biochemistry [L. G., J. M. S.], University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado 80262; College of Pharmacy, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, Ohio 43210 [W. Y. F., K. K. C.]; the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland 20892 [J. M. C.]; and Carcinex Inc., Boulder, Colorado 80301 [D. C., L. G., J. M. S., P. A. B.]
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
q signaling and activating G
12,13 signaling. CU201 induced apoptosis and complete growth inhibition in various lung cancer and other cancer cell lines. CU201 was 10-fold more potent than substance P derivatives and was stable in serum for >7 days. In this study, we evaluated the ability of CU201 to produce additive or synergistic growth inhibition in combination with various antitumor agents used in lung cancer therapy. We found that CU201 produced additive or synergistic growth inhibition when combined with doxorubicin, etoposide, cisplatin, vinorelbine, and paclitaxel for SCLC lines and with paclitaxel and ZD1839, an epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, for non-SCLC cell lines. Pharmacokinetic parameters associated with the i.v. administration of CU201 were evaluated in normal mice, and the effects of CU201 on the growth of human lung cancer xenografts were evaluated in athymic nude mice. In CD2F1 mice given an i.v. bolus infusion of 5 mg/kg, the cmax was 5773 ng/ml (5 µM), and the decay was biexponential. When fitted to a two-compartment model, the t1/2
was 14.4 min, and the t1/2ß was 44.3 h, indicating a long terminal half-life consistent with the prolonged in vitro effects. CU201 inhibited the growth of human lung cancers in athymic nude mice by the intratumoral, s.c., and i.p. routes at a dose of 5 mg/kg/day. This dose is >10-fold less than the dose of substance P derivatives used to inhibit SCLC xenografts in nude mice. We conclude that CU201 should undergo further preclinical toxicology studies in its development as a novel targeted therapy for the treatment of lung cancers with neuroendocrine features. These studies are in progress through the NCI RAID mechanism. | INTRODUCTION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
SPDs were the first reported compounds to inhibit signal transduction by multiple peptides and to inhibit the growth of many SCLC cell lines (20)
. Subsequent studies showed that SPDs induced apoptosis in SCLC cell lines (21
, 22)
. We later showed that the SPDs blocked peptide-receptor activation of G
q, protein kinase C, and downstream events, leading to activation of c-jun and c-fos-induced proliferation (21)
. SPDs also stimulated G
12,13 proteins and downstream events, including Jun kinases, caspase-3, and apoptosis (21
, 22)
. The term "biased agonist" was defined by Jarpe et al. (21)
to describe this phenomenon in which the agent (SPD) discordinately inhibited the G
q pathway on one hand and stimulated the G
12,13 pathway on the other hand. Although SPDs inhibited the growth of SCLC cell lines, they did not inhibit the growth of NSCLC cell lines; in addition, the inhibition of SCLC lines required high concentrations, and the serum half-life was relatively short (20
, 21
, 23, 24, 25)
. Despite these limitations, the SPDs were introduced to clinical trials in humans, and a Phase I trial was completed (26)
.
The effectiveness of the SPDs in preclinical investigations led to the search for more potent and stable compounds. BK receptors were shown to be the most ubiquitously expressed receptors on both SCLCs and NSCLCs (9)
. Specific BK antagonist monomers failed to inhibit the growth of most SCLC cells lines (3
, 9
, 10) . However, we showed that a novel BK antagonist dimer, CU201, inhibited the growth of both SCLC and NSCLC cell lines in vitro (25)
. Similar to SPDs, this peptide dimer acted as a biased agonist by inhibiting G
q activation and downstream events and by stimulating G
12,13 and downstream events. The end result was induction of apoptosis and inhibition of growth (25)
. CU201 was 10-fold more potent than the SPDs in each of these actions, including the inhibition of growth, and its activity persisted for 7 days when incubated in human serum (25)
. In this study, CU201 inhibited a wide variety of SCLC cell lines (average IC50 = 2.1 µM), including both "classic" and "variant" cell lines and SCLC cell lines that expressed multidrug resistance protein or were made drug resistant (25)
. CU201 also inhibited the growth of five NSCLC, five breast cell lines, and five prostate cancer cell lines with IC50s ranging from 2.6 to 4.1 µM (25)
. CU201 also inhibited the in vitro growth of NSCLCs and breast and prostate cancer cell lines in the NCI panel. The in vitro activity of CU201 led to the studies reported here, in which CU201 was combined with other cytotoxic agents and human lung cancers were treated with CU201 in vivo in athymic nude mouse xenograft studies. Analyses of the distribution and elimination of CU201 in normal mice are also reported.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Chemicals.
Paclitaxel was kindly provided by Bristol Myers-Squibb (Princeton, NJ.) Cisplatin and etoposide were purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO). Vinorelbine was kindly provided by Glaxo-Wellcome (Research Triangle Park, NC.). AstraZeneca Inc. (London, Unite Kingdom) kindly provided the ZD1839. Doxorubicin was purchased from Cetus Oncology (Emeryville, CA). The CU201 (B201, B9870, NSC 710295) and its monomer CU202 (B202, B9430) were synthesized by two of the authors (L. G. and J. S.) according to previously described methods (27
, 28)
. The chemical structures of CU201 and CU202 are shown below: CU202, D-Arg-Arg-Pro-Hyp-Gly-Igl-Ser-D-Igl-Oic-Arg-COOH; CU201, SUIM-[D-Arg-Arg-Pro-Hyp-Gly-Igl-Ser-D-Igl-Oic-Arg-COOH]2, where SUIM is a bifunctional suberyl imidate cross-linker with six carbon chains. For the mouse studies, the CU201 was diluted in normal saline.
MTT Growth Assay.
Cell growth was assessed using a modified tetrazolium salt (MTT) assay (29)
. Briefly, 5,00010,000 viable cells were plated in 100 µl in 96-well plates (Corning, Ithaca, NY). After an overnight incubation, peptides and various cytotoxic chemotherapy agents were added in various concentrations and incubated for 6 days. After the 6 days, the tetrazolium salt was added at a concentration of 0.4 mg/ml to each well. The microtiter plates were incubated with the salt for 4 h at 37°C. At 4 h, the medium was aspirated off, leaving the dark blue formazan product in the bottom of the wells. The reduced MTT product was solubilized by the addition of 100 µl of 0.2 N HCl in 75% isopropanol-23% MilliQ water to each well. The contents of each well were thoroughly mixed with a Titertek multichannel pipettor (Flow Laboratories). The absorbency of each well was measured using an automated plate reader (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA). When cell lines were incubated with combinations of BK antagonists and chemotherapeutic agents, the combination effects were assessed with the isobologram method of Chou and Talalay (30)
.
Mouse Tumor Model.
NCI (nru) athymic nude mice 6 weeks of age were obtained from the NCI (Bethesda, MD) and maintained in pathogen-limited conditions. s.c. injections of 2 x 106 SHP-77 SCLC or 1 x 106 A549 NSCLC tumor cells in an equal volume of Matrigel (Collaborative Biomedical Products, Bedford, MA) were implanted into the mouse posterior flanks before the administration of CU201 by various routes. Tumor-bearing mice were randomly divided into five per group. The control group was treated with vehicle (saline solution), and the other groups were treated with various amounts of CU201 via specific routes as indicated in the text and figure legends. Bidimensional tumor measurements were made with calipers three times weekly until the tumors reached a volume of 3 cm3, at which time the mice were sacrificed. Tumor volume was calculated according to the formula: V =
(short diameter)2 (long diameter)/6. All animal studies were conducted with a protocol approved by the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
Pharmacokinetic Study.
CD2F1 mice (Harlan, Indianapolis, IN) weighing 21.027.4 g were used in the pharmacokinetic study. CU201 in normal saline was injected into each mouse through the tail vein, producing an i.v. bolus dose of 5 mg/kg. The animals were anesthetized with CO2, and the blood was removed from the heart through a thoracic opening according to a typical schedule of 0 (predose), 5, 10, 15, 30, 60, 120, 180, 210, 240, 480, 720, 1260, 1440 min after dosing. Blood was collected from four animals at each time point. The blood samples were centrifuged at 1000 x g for 5 min, and the plasma for each was collected and kept at -20°C until analysis. One hundred-µl aliquots from each of four animals per time point were pooled. A 200-µl aliquot of each pooled plasma sample was analyzed for CU201 by a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method reported previously (31)
. The pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated by fitting the plasma concentration-time data to a two-compartmental pharmacokinetic model with the WinNonlin computer software (Pharsight, Mountain View, CA; Ref. 32
).
Statistical Analysis.
In vivo tumor growth experiments were analyzed for statistical significance with a multivariate method described by Heitjan et al. (33)
. Tumor volumes and growth rates for each treatment were compared with those of the control groups and found to be statistically significant as determined by the Ps. No significant difference was found between the two treatment groups. All statistical analyses were carried out with the SAS MIXED procedure (SAS Software, Version 8.1; SAS Institute, Cary, NC).
| RESULTS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
1 indicates additive interactions, a CI <1 indicates synergy, and a CI
0.5 indicates strong synergy. The combination of CU201 with paclitaxel produced greater than additive or synergistic interactions at all concentrations of both agents. At paclitaxel concentrations
6 nM, synergy or strong synergy was noted (Fig. 1A)
0.5 for both paclitaxel and ZD1839.
|
60 nM, synergistic interactions were observed. In combination with doxorubicin, additive (CI
1.0) or synergistic (CI < 1) interactions were observed at all concentrations of both agents, with the interactions being strongly synergistic at low concentrations of both agents (Fig. 1D)
Growth Rates of SHP-77 SCLC Cells in Athymic Nude Mice Treated with CU201 Administered by Direct Intratumor Injections.
In our first experiment, we administered the CU201 via the intratumoral route. A daily dose of 5 mg/kg was selected on the basis of a comparison of in vitro activity between SPD and CU 201. CU201 has an IC50 that is 10-fold lower than that of SPD for in vitro growth inhibition (24)
. A dose of 5070 mg/kg SPD is required for in vivo efficacy in mice, so we chose 5 mg/kg for CU201. As shown in Fig. 2
, control group (vehicle) and CU201 injections began 21 days after tumor heterotransplantation, when the tumors were
200 mm3 in size, and continued daily for 3 weeks. At day 45, the tumors had reached >3000 mm3 in the control mice. CU201 produced a statistically significant growth delay (P = 0.025) relative to the control (vehicle). On day 45, the tumor volume was 1400 mm3 in the treated mice compared with 3000 mm3 in the controls. By the intratumor route, the doubling time was increased from 6.5 days to 7.6 days (Table 1)
, whereas the tumor growth rate was decreased from 155.5 mm3/day to 79.5 mm3/day, representing a 43% growth inhibition and a mean delay of 8.5 days (P = 0.025). There were no differences in the body weights of the treated or control groups (data not shown).
|
|
|
|
|
Growth Rates of A549 NSCLC Tumors in Athymic Nude Mice Treated with CU201 Administered by the i.p. Route.
The NSCLC cell line A549 has neuroendocrine features, including responsiveness to BK and bombesin. The growth of this cell line was not affected by SPD, but was inhibited by CU201 in vitro alone and in combination with paclitaxel and ZD1839 (Fig. 1)
. Thus, we evaluated the effects of CU201 on the growth of this NSCLC cell line in athymic mice. As shown in Fig. 6
, CU201 at daily i.p. doses of 5 mg/kg/day produced a statistically significant growth delay in the A549 tumors. On day 45, when the daily treatments were stopped, the control group had a tumor volume of 1400 mm3 compared with 600 mm3 in the CU201-treated group. By day 50, the control group had a tumor volume of 1800 mm3 compared with 1000 mm3 in the CU201-treated group. The effects of CU201 in this NSCLC model were similar to those observed in the SHP-77 SCLC model (Table 1)
. The doubling time increased from 8 days in the control group to 12.3 days in the CU201 group. The mean tumor growth delay was 9 days, and the tumor growth rate decreased from 42.5 mm3/day to 14.4 mm3/day. This difference was highly significant (P = 0.001). There were no differences in the body weights of the CU201-treated or control groups (data not shown).
|
of 14.4 min represents the distribution phase of the drug in the volume of distribution (631 mg/kg). CU201 has a long terminal half-life (t1/2ß) of 44.3 h. Additional pharmacokinetic profiles are being constructed for other routes of administration and with various doses in support of our NCI RAID project. The i.v. data suggest that daily i.p. administration should provide prolonged exposure to concentrations that are effective in vitro.
|
| DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
SCLCs have high initial response rates to various chemotherapeutic agents (8) . Unfortunately, few patients are cured, and relapse with drug-resistant cells develops in nearly all cases (8) . Thus, targeted agents with novel mechanisms of action are sorely needed. The neuroendocrine properties of SCLC tumors have been recognized for many years (2 , 3 , 8, 9, 10, 11) . These tumors produce a variety of neuropeptides and are growth stimulated by these peptides (8, 9, 10, 11) . Thus, the neuropeptides and their receptors are logical targets for novel therapeutic strategies. These observations led to the development of several specific peptide inhibitors, including monoclonal antibodies to the peptide, antibodies to the receptor, and peptide antagonists (2 , 3 , 18 , 19) . In many cases these specific peptide inhibitors were able to inhibit the growth of some SCLC cell lines in vitro and in athymic mice with human lung cancer xenografts (18 , 19 , 33) . However, a single specific inhibitor inhibited a minority of cell lines. For example, a monoclonal antibody to GRP, 2A11, inhibited the growth of the SCLC cell line NCI-H345, which is very sensitive to GRP (18 , 19) . However, this antibody did not inhibit many additional SCLC cell lines. 2A11 was evaluated in 12 patients with advanced SCLC, and 1 complete response was documented in a patient whose tumor expressed high levels of GRP receptor (19) . No response was noted in the other 11 patients.
SPDs were the first peptide inhibitors that blocked the effects of multiple peptides (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
. SPDs also inhibited the growth of many SCLC, but not NSCLC cell lines (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
. Initially, inhibition of proliferation was ascribed to the inhibition of binding of multiple peptides to their cognate receptors. Subsequent studies showed that induction of apoptosis was an essential characteristic of the SPD-induced growth inhibition (21, 22, 23)
. We showed that SPDs act as biased agonists for peptide receptor-G-protein interaction (21)
. In this way, SPDs blocked G
q activation as demonstrated by inhibition of activation of phospholipase C-ß and intracellular calcium flux in response to the peptides. SPDs stimulated G
12,13 and downstream events, including activation of c-Jun kinase and apoptosis (21
, 25) . The clinical development of SPDs is hampered by their low potency and short half-life. In Phase I trials, a concentration of 25 µM (the IC50 for in vitro growth inhibition) could be reached, and these concentrations were well tolerated and prevented the response to exogenous substance P infusion. However, the effective serum concentration disappeared within 1 h.
We developed a series of peptide antagonist dimers that overcome many of the deficiencies of the SPDs (25) . One of these dimers, CU201, was shown to act as a biased agonist for peptide receptor-G-protein interactions (25) . We previously found that CU201 retained in vitro activity in serum for a prolonged period (25) . In the present study we confirmed that the in vivo half-life is at least 44 h. In previous studies we found that CU201 was more potent that the SPDs and inhibited the growth of both SCLC and NSCLC cell lines (25) . In the present study we extended these observations to show that CU201 produced synergistic growth inhibition when combined with agents used routinely to treat both SCLC and NSCLC patients. The present study demonstrated that CU201 inhibits the growth of both SCLC and NSCLC xenografts in athymic mice via several routes and consistently at doses that should be practical to achieve in humans. The results of this study should lead to the further development of CU201 as a novel agent for the treatment of human cancers with neuroendocrine features.
| FOOTNOTES |
|---|
1 Supported in part by NIH Grant N01CM07019 (awarded to J. M. Stewart); and NCI Grants CA 46934, CA58187, RAID Grant 002, and 1R43CA86581-01 (to Carcinex Inc., Boulder, CO). ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at University of Colorado Cancer Center, Box B171, 4200 E. 9th Avenue, Denver, CO 80262. E-mail: Dan.Chan{at}UCHSC.edu ![]()
3 The abbreviations used are: EGFR, epidermal growth factor receptor; SCLC, small cell lung cancer; NSCLC, non-SCLC; GRP, gastrin-releasing peptide; SPD, substance P derivative; BK, bradykinin; NCI, National Cancer Institute; MTT, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide; CI, combination index. ![]()
4 Iressa is a trademark of the AstraZeneca group of companies. ![]()
Received 9/19/01; revised 1/14/02; accepted 1/16/02.
| REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
S. I. Seo, L. Gera, H. E. Zhau, W. P. Qian, S. Iqbal, N. A. Johnson, S. Zhang, M. Zayzafoon, J. Stewart, R. Wang, et al. BKM1740, an Acyl-Tyrosine Bisphosphonate Amide Derivative, Inhibits the Bone Metastatic Growth of Human Prostate Cancer Cells by Inducing Apoptosis Clin. Cancer Res., October 1, 2008; 14(19): 6198 - 6206. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
P. S. Hodkinson, A. MacKinnon, and T. Sethi Targeting Growth Factors in Lung Cancer Chest, May 1, 2008; 133(5): 1209 - 1216. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
P. A. Bunn Jr Diseases Desperate Grown J Natl Cancer Inst, April 16, 2008; 100(8): 520 - 521. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
Q. Zhang, N. E. Bhola, V. W. Y. Lui, D. R. Siwak, S. M. Thomas, C. T. Gubish, J. M. Siegfried, G. B. Mills, D. Shin, and J. R. Grandis Antitumor mechanisms of combined gastrin-releasing peptide receptor and epidermal growth factor receptor targeting in head and neck cancer Mol. Cancer Ther., April 1, 2007; 6(4): 1414 - 1424. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. M. Thomas, N. E. Bhola, Q. Zhang, S. C. Contrucci, A. L. Wentzel, M. L. Freilino, W. E. Gooding, J. M. Siegfried, D. C. Chan, and J. R. Grandis Cross-talk between G Protein-Coupled Receptor and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Signaling Pathways Contributes to Growth and Invasion of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cancer Res., December 15, 2006; 66(24): 11831 - 11839. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
T. Gudermann and S. Roelle Calcium-dependent growth regulation of small cell lung cancer cells by neuropeptides Endocr. Relat. Cancer, December 1, 2006; 13(4): 1069 - 1084. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
A. Reversi, V. Rimoldi, T. Marrocco, P. Cassoni, G. Bussolati, M. Parenti, and B. Chini The Oxytocin Receptor Antagonist Atosiban Inhibits Cell Growth via a "Biased Agonist" Mechanism J. Biol. Chem., April 22, 2005; 280(16): 16311 - 16318. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
L. M. F. Leeb-Lundberg, F. Marceau, W. Muller-Esterl, D. J. Pettibone, and B. L. Zuraw International Union of Pharmacology. XLV. Classification of the Kinin Receptor Family: from Molecular Mechanisms to Pathophysiological Consequences Pharmacol. Rev., March 1, 2005; 57(1): 27 - 77. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Cancer Research | Clinical Cancer Research |
| Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention | Molecular Cancer Therapeutics |
| Molecular Cancer Research | Cancer Prevention Research |
| Cancer Prevention Journals Portal | Cancer Reviews Online |
| Annual Meeting Education Book | Meeting Abstracts Online |