aphidicolin and Leukemia--Myeloid--Acute

Topics: Animals; Aphidicolin; Arabinofuranosylcytosine Triphosphate; Binding, Competitive; Cell Line; Cell Survival; Centrifugation, Density Gradient; Cytarabine; Diterpenes; DNA; DNA Repair; DNA Replication; Fibroblasts; Granulocytes; Humans; Kinetics; Leukemia L1210; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Nucleic Acid Synthesis Inhibitors; Templates, Genetic; Vidarabine

To gain a better understanding of the mechanism of chromosomal translocations in cancer, we investigated the spatial proximity between CBFB and MYH11 genes involved in inv(16)(p13q22) found in patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Previous studies have demonstrated a role for spatial genome organization in the formation of tumorigenic abnormalities. The nonrandom localization of chromosomes and, more specifically, of genes appears to play a role in the mechanism of chromosomal translocations. Here, two-color fluorescence in situ hybridization and confocal microscopy were used to measure the interphase distance between CBFB and MYH11 in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), where inv(16)(p13q22) is believed to occur, leading to leukemia development. The measured distances in HSCs were compared with mesenchymal stem cells, peripheral blood lymphocytes, and fibroblasts, as spatial genome organization is determined to be cell-type specific. Results indicate that CBFB and MYH11 are significantly closer in HSCs compared with all other cell types examined. Furthermore, the CBFB-MYH11 distance is significantly reduced compared with CBFB and a control locus in HSCs, although separation between CBFB and the control is ∼70% of that between CBFB and MYH11 on metaphase chromosomes. HSCs were also treated with fragile site-inducing chemicals because both the genes contain translocation breakpoints within these regions. However, treatment with fragile site-inducing chemicals did not significantly affect the interphase distance. Consistent with previous studies, our results suggest that gene proximity may play a role in the formation of cancer-causing rearrangements, providing insight into the mechanism of chromosomal abnormalities in human tumors.

Topics: 2-Aminopurine; Aphidicolin; Cell Nucleus; Cells, Cultured; Chromosome Fragile Sites; Core Binding Factor beta Subunit; Diminazene; Fibroblasts; Hematopoietic Stem Cells; Humans; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; Interphase; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Leukocytes, Mononuclear; Mesenchymal Stem Cells; Microscopy, Confocal; Myosin Heavy Chains; Translocation, Genetic

To modulate in vitro cytarabine (ara-C) resistance we combined ara-C with six potential resistance modifiers in 10 paediatric acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patient samples (methyl thiazol tetrazolium assay). Drug interactions were determined by median drug effect analysis. Co-incubation of ara-C/aphidicolin showed strong synergism. The combinations of ara-C/cladribine and ara-C/gemcitabine were synergistic. Nearly additive and moderately synergistic interactions were observed between ara-C/flavopiridol and ara-C/UCN-01. The combination of ara-C/decitabine was antagonistic. In conclusion, favourable interactions were observed between ara-C and aphidicolin, cladribine, gemcitabine and also with flavopiridol and UCN-01, supporting the evaluation of these combinations in clinical trials with AML patients.

Topics: Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic; Aphidicolin; Azacitidine; Child; Cyclin-Dependent Kinases; Cytarabine; Decitabine; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; Drug Synergism; Humans; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Leukocytes, Mononuclear; Nucleic Acid Synthesis Inhibitors; Ribonucleotide Reductases

Treatment failure in AML is often attributed to P-glycoprotein-associated multidrug resistance. However, the importance of increased DNA repair in resistant cells is becoming more apparent. In order to investigate the ability of the DNA repair inhibitor aphidicolin to modulate drug resistance, we continually exposed blasts cells, isolated from 22 patients with AML, to a variety of agents +/- 15 microM aphidicolin for 48 hours. Cell survival was measured using the MTT assay. Overall, there was no significant effect of aphidicolin on sensitivity to daunorubicin, doxorubicin, etoposide or fludarabine. However, there was a marked increase in sensitivity to ara-C with a median 4.75-fold increase overall (range 0.8-80-fold;P< 0.005). The effect of aphidicolin was significantly greater in blast cells found resistant in vitro to ara-C (8.9-fold compared to 2.12-fold, P< 0.01). This observation was further validated by the correlation between ara-C LC(50)and extent of modulation effect (P< 0.05). Cells isolated from 10 cord blood samples were also tested in order to establish the haematological toxicity of combining ara-C and aphidicolin. The therapeutic index (LC(50)normal cells/tumour cells) for ara-C + aphidicolin was higher than that for ara-C alone suggesting no increased myelotoxicity for the combination. Increased cytotoxicity without increased haematotoxicity makes the combination of ara-C plus aphidicolin ideal for inclusion in future clinical trials.

Topics: Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic; Aphidicolin; Cell Survival; Cytarabine; DNA; Drug Resistance; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; Enzyme Inhibitors; Fetal Blood; Formazans; Humans; Lethal Dose 50; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Tetrazolium Salts; Tumor Cells, Cultured

Drug resistant cells often have an increased capacity to repair their DNA after damage by cytotoxic agents. Aphidicolin can inhibit this DNA repair. We describe a study of the effect of aphidicolin to modulate the sensitivity to cytotoxic drugs of blast cells from 13 patients with AML, 11 with de novo disease on presentation and 2 secondary to MDS. Three patients had relapsed following previous therapy and samples were received from 1 patient both on presentation and relapse. Blast cells were exposed to anthracyclines, antimetabolites or etoposide +/- aphidicolin (15 microM) for 48 hours. The MTT assay was used to measure cell survival and the LC50 (concentration of drug required for 50% cell kill) was calculated. Overall, there was a significant increase in sensitivity to ara-C on co-incubation with aphidicolin in 12/14 samples (p = 0.007). The median increase in sensitivity was 3.88-fold (range 1.26- to 80-fold). Interestingly, when patients were grouped according to in vitro sensitivity to ara-C, cells from resistant patients demonstrated the greatest increase in sensitivity (median 14-fold compared to 2-fold for the sensitive group, p = 0.02). Despite the documented evidence for altered DNA repair as a mechanism of resistance to the topoisomerase II inhibitors, we found no significant increase in sensitivity to daunorubicin, doxorubicin or etoposide on co-incubation with aphidicolin. Nevertheless, we believe the unparalleled modulation of ara-C warrants further investigation.

Topics: Antibiotics, Antineoplastic; Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic; Antineoplastic Agents; Aphidicolin; Blast Crisis; Bone Marrow Cells; Cell Survival; Cytarabine; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; Drug Synergism; Etoposide; Humans; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Tumor Cells, Cultured

The relation between the expression of common fragile sites and chromosomal breakpoints in neoplastic cells in the same patients has not been well studied. In the present study, the frequency and distribution of aphidicolin-induced breaks on chromosomes 8 and 21 in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) taken from three patients with acute myeloid leukemia, French-American-British classification type M2, having chromosomal translocation t(8;21)(q22;q22) (M2t) were studied prior to any initial treatment. Seven patients with other types of acute leukemia without t(8;21) and 13 healthy people were also studied. In PBL from patients with M2t, the numbers of chromosomal breaks were 1, 7 and 3/216 metaphasees at bands 8q21, 8q22 and 8q24, respectively; the frequencies at 8q22 and 8q24 being significantly higher than those for patients with the other leukemias and for the healthy subjects (p less than 0.001 and p less than 0.01, respectively). These results suggest that the fragility on chromosome 8q21-24 is related to a predisposition to this particular type of leukemia.

Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aphidicolin; Child; Chromosome Banding; Chromosome Fragile Sites; Chromosome Fragility; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 21; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 8; Diterpenes; Humans; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Lymphocytes; Middle Aged; Translocation, Genetic

New information is revealed concerning the frequency of expression and distribution of aphidicolin-induced fragile sites in eight leukaemic patients, namely, four chronic myeloid leukaemic patients (CML), three acute lymphocytic leukaemic (ALL) patients, and one acute myeloid leukaemic (AML) patient. The cytogenetic data demonstrate a statistically significant (p less than 10(-6] increase in the frequency of aphidicolin-induced fragile sites in seven of the eight leukaemic patients compared with healthy age-matched and sex-matched controls. The chromosomal band locations of the aphidicolin-induced fragile sites from 400 metaphase spreads of these leukaemic patients reveal a nonrandom distribution in the karyotype. Some aphidicolin-induced fragile sites in these leukaemic patients were located at chromosome bands known to be induced specifically by folic acid, distamycin A, bromodeoxyuridine or azacytidine. The cross-induction of fragile sites in the leukaemic patients may be indicative of shared molecular homology in the sequence composition of nonrandom chromosomal DNA.

Topics: Aphidicolin; Cells, Cultured; Chromosome Fragile Sites; Chromosome Fragility; Diterpenes; Humans; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Male; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma

The relationships between replicative DNA synthesis and retinoic acid (RA)-induced differentiation of human promyelocytic leukaemic (HL-60) cells are evaluated with the use of Aphidicolin, a specific and reversible inhibitor of DNA polymerase alpha (alpha). Addition of a sublethal concentration of Aphidicolin (0.4 microM) in culture for 3 days suppresses DNA synthesis to a similar level of the resting stage (day 8) in control cultures. DNA synthesis is reactivated to the level observed in the growing stage of control cultures once Aphidicolin is removed after 3 days in culture. The level of DNA synthesis at the early stage of RA-induction (day 3) is suppressed by only 17% when compared to control cultures. The inhibitory effect of Aphidicolin on DNA synthesis in both control cultures and RA-induced cell cultures is similar. However, no reactivation of DNA synthesis is observed after removal of Aphidicolin on day 3 from RA-induced cell cultures. Flow cytometric analysis of DNA content on day 3 reveals that cells accumulate in G1 and early S phases of the cell cycle after exposure to Aphidicolin with or without RA. Of interest is the fact that, while Aphidicolin alone did not induce cells to differentiate, neither did it interfere with RA-induced cell differentiation (the rate of RA-induced cell differentiation in the presence of Aphidicolin is similar to that of RA-treated cultures in the absence of Aphidicolin). These results suggest that the combined use of Aphidicolin and RA may inhibit leukaemic cell proliferation more effectively without causing severe cytotoxicity and without interfering with RA-induced cell differentiation.

Topics: Antibiotics, Antineoplastic; Aphidicolin; Cell Differentiation; Cell Division; Cell Line; Diterpenes; DNA Replication; Drug Interactions; Flow Cytometry; Humans; Kinetics; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Tretinoin

Numerous agents induce differentiation and maturation of neoplastic and dysplastic myeloid cells in vitro and some of these agents have been used with limited success in the treatment of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and myeloid leukaemias. We recently proposed that physiological and pharmacological agents which enhance differentiation and maturation in vitro act by two fundamentally different routes: (1) by hastening the progression through various differentiation/maturation steps; (2) by slowing proliferation (usually by inhibition of DNA synthesis). In order to test this thesis we looked for synergistic effects on differentiation using pairs of agents from the two groups in cultures of cells from myelodysplastic and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients and from normal marrow donors. The results with three MDS, two AML and three normal samples show that combinations of differentiation inducing agents (retinoic acid, N-methylformamide) with DNA synthesis inhibitors (6-mercaptopurine, cytosine arabinoside and aphidicolin) produce a differentiation inducing effect equivalent to that of 10-100, or even 1000 fold higher concentrations of single agents. Myelotoxic effects in vitro were not synergistic. The use of these synergistic combinations should greatly enhance the usefulness of differentiation inducers in the therapy of MDS and myeloid leukaemia.

Topics: Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols; Aphidicolin; Bone Marrow; Bone Marrow Diseases; Cell Differentiation; Cells, Cultured; Cytarabine; Diterpenes; DNA; Drug Synergism; Formamides; Humans; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Mercaptopurine; Preleukemia; Syndrome; Tretinoin

Induction of differentiation of the HL-60 human promyelocytic leukemia cell line by retinoic acid or 1 alpha,25(OH)2D3 was analyzed under the condition in which cellular DNA synthesis was inhibited by several antimetabolites or blocked by thymidine. The results demonstrate that differentiation occurs in the absence of DNA synthesis and that some inhibitors of DNA synthesis may enhance the differentiation of HL-60 cells by the above inducers. Among the antimetabolites used, the enhancement of induction of differentiation by hydroxyurea was shown to be more effective than that of Ara-C or aphidicolin. The effect of thymidine blockage was similar to that of hydroxyurea. These different effects may be due to the different points at which the cell cycle is blocked by these agents. These results seem to be common in both the differentiation of the granulocytic line induced by retinoic acid and of the macrophage line induced by 1 alpha,25(OH)2D3. The present study also suggests that combination treatment with the inhibitor of DNA synthesis and the inducer of differentiation could be beneficial in the clinical therapy of leukemia. The mode of action of clinical low-dose Ara-C treatment is also discussed.

Topics: Antibiotics, Antineoplastic; Aphidicolin; Calcitriol; Cell Differentiation; Cell Division; Cell Line; Cytarabine; Diterpenes; DNA Replication; Humans; Hydroxyurea; Kinetics; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Tretinoin

The HL-60 human leukemic promyelocyte can be induced to mature into terminally differentiated cells using certain nucleosides and chemotherapeutic agents. The mechanisms responsible for this induction of differentiation, however, remain unclear. We have monitored the effects of two specific inhibitors of DNA synthesis to determine whether slowing of DNA polymerization can induce HL-60 differentiation. The results demonstrate that cytosine arabinoside (ara-C) induces nonspecific esterase activity in HL-60 cells and increases surface expression of the monocyte antigen MY-4. The results also demonstrate that aphidicolin, an inhibitor of DNA polymerase which is not incorporated in DNA, induces similar phenotypic changes. The induction of differentiation by both agents was accompanied by loss of clonogenic potential as monitored by colony formation in methylcellulose. These observations suggest that terminal differentiation of HL-60 cells can be induced by drugs known to inhibit DNA synthesis.

Topics: Aphidicolin; Cell Line; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; Clone Cells; Cytarabine; Depression, Chemical; Diterpenes; DNA; DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase; Humans; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Nucleosides