Inhibitory effects of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein on mammalian DNA topoisomerase II.

Tyrosine phosphorylation plays a crucial role in cell proliferation and cell transformation which suggests that tyrosine kinase-specific inhibitors might be used as anticancer agents. When the cytotoxic effect of the potent tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein on various cell lines was studied, we observed that 9-hydroxyellipticine-resistant Chinese hamster lung cells (DC-3F/9-OH-E) were markedly more resistant to genistein than the parental cell line (DC-3F). The DC-3F/9-OH-E cells have been shown to have an altered DNA topoisomerase II activity. We therefore examined the effects of genistein on DNA topoisomerase II-related activities of nuclear extracts from DC-3F cells as well as on purified DNA topoisomerase II from calf thymus. Our results show that genistein (a) inhibits the decatenation activity of DNA topoisomerase II and (b) stimulates DNA topoisomerase II-mediated double strand breaks in pBR322 DNA on sites different from those of 4'-(9-acridinylamino)methanesulfon-m-anisidide, etoposide, and 2-methyl-9-hydroxyellipticinium. Structure-activity studies with six chemically related compounds show that only genistein has an effect on the cleavage activity of DNA topoisomerase II in the concentration range studied. Finally, genistein treatment of DC-3F cells results in the occurrence of protein-linked DNA strand breaks as shown by DNA filter elution. Viscometric (lengthening) studies demonstrate that genistein is not a DNA intercalator. Genistein is therefore an interesting compound because it induces cleavable complexes without intercalation. Taken together, our results show that genistein is an inhibitor of both protein tyrosine kinases and mammalian DNA topoisomerase II. This could be accounted for by the sharing of a common structure sequence between the two proteins at the ATP binding site.

Differences between the electronic environments of reduced and oxidized Escherichia coli DsbA inferred from heteronuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

DsbA is the strongest protein disulfide oxidant yet known and is involved in catalyzing protein folding in the bacterial periplasm. Its strong oxidizing power has been attributed to the lowered pKa of its reactive active site cysteine and to the difference in thermodynamic stability between the oxidized and the reduced form. However, no structural data are available for the reduced state. Therefore, an NMR study of DsbA in its two redox states was undertaken. We report here the backbone 1HN, 15N, 13C(alpha) 13CO, 1H(alpha), and 13Cbeta NMR assignments for both oxidized and reduced Escherichia coli DsbA (189 residues). Ninety-nine percent of the frequencies were assigned using a combination of triple (1H-13C-15N) and double resonance (1H-15N or 1H-13C) experiments. Secondary structures were established using the CSI (Chemical Shift Index) method, NOE connectivity patterns, 3(J)H(N)H(alpha) and amide proton exchange data. Comparison of chemical shifts for both forms reveals four regions of the protein, which undergo some changes in the electronic environment. These regions are around the active site (residues 26 to 43), around His60 and Pro 151, and also around Gln97. Both the number and the amplitude of observed chemical shift variations are more substantial in DsbA than in E. coli thioredoxin. Large 13C(alpha) chemical shift variations for residues of the active site and residues Phe28, Tyr34, Phe36, Ile42, Ser43, and Lys98 suggest that the backbone conformation of these residues is affected upon reduction.

The catalytic activities of DNA topoisomerase II are most closely associated with the DNA cleavage/religation steps.

DNA topoisomerase II regulates the three-dimensional organisation of DNA and is the principal target of many important anticancer and antimicrobial agents. These drugs usually act on the DNA cleavage/religation steps of the catalytic cycle resulting in accumulation of covalent DNA-topoisomerase II complexes. We have studied the different steps of the catalytic cycle as a function of salt concentration, which is a classical way to evaluate the biochemical properties of proteins. The results show that the catalytic activity of topoisomerase II follows a bell-shaped curve with optimum between 100 and 225 mM KCl. No straight-forward correlation exists between DNA binding and catalytic activity. The highest levels of drug-induced covalent DNA-topoisomerase II complexes are observed between 100 and 150 mM KCl. Remarkably, at salt concentrations between 150 mM and 225 mM KCl, topoisomerase II is converted into a drug-resistant form with greatly reduced levels of drug-induced DNA-topoisomerase II complexes. This is due to efficient religation rather than to absence of DNA cleavage as witnessed by relaxation of the supercoiled DNA substrate. In the absence of DNA, ATP hydrolysis is strongest at low salt concentrations. Unexpectedly, the addition of DNA stimulates ATP hydrolysis at 100 and 150 mM KCl, but has little or no effect below 100 mM KCl in spite of strong non-covalent DNA binding at these salt concentrations. Therefore, DNA-stimulated ATP hydrolysis appears to be associated with covalent rather than non-covalent binding of DNA to topoisomerase II. Taken together, the results suggest that it is the DNA cleavage/religation steps that are most closely associated with the catalytic activities of topoisomerase II providing a unifying theme for the biological and pharmacological modulation of this enzyme.

Aurintricarboxylic acid, a putative inhibitor of apoptosis, is a potent inhibitor of DNA topoisomerase II in vitro and in Chinese hamster fibrosarcoma cells.

Aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA) is a polyanionic, polyaromatic compound which has been shown to inhibit apoptotic cell death in various cell types induced by a variety of factors. Since ATA is known to be a general inhibitor of nuclease activities in vitro (ID50S ranging from 2 to 50 microM), the in vivo effects are usually attributed to inhibition of endogenous endonuclease activities. We show herein that ATA is a potent inhibitor of the nuclear enzyme DNA topoisomerase II. ATA inhibits the catalytic activity of purified yeast topoisomerase II with an ID50 of approx. 75nM as measured by relaxation assays. ATA does not stabilize the covalent DNA-topoisomerase II reaction intermediate ("cleavable complex") as do other inhibitors of this enzyme such as 4'-(9-acridinylamino)-methane sulfon-m-anisidide (amsacrime), 4'-demethyl-epipodophyllotoxin-9-(4,6-O-ethylidine-beta-D-gluco pyr anoside) (etoposide) and ellipticines. In contrast, cleavable complex formation induced by amsacrine and etoposide is trongly inhibited in the presence of ATA. ATA also prevents the binding of topoisomerase II to DNA and inhibits topoisomerase II-catalysed ATP hydrolysis. The ability of ATA to interfere with more than one step in t he catalytic cycle of DNA topoisomerase II may explain its unusual potency as an inhibitor of this enzyme. ATA reduces the number of amsacrine-induced DNA-protein complexes in intact DC-3F Chinese hamster fibrosarcoma cells and protects these cells from the cytotoxic action of amsacrine. The effects of ATA on DNA-protein complex formation in living cells appear to be due to the direct interaction of the drug with topoisomerase II, since similar results are found when nuclei from untreated DC-3F cells are exposed to amsacrine after a short preincubation with ATA. Cells resistant to 9-hydroxyellipticine, which have been shown to possess altered topoisomerase II activity, are approx. 5-fold more resistant to ATA than the sensitive parental cells as shown by colony formation essays. We conclude that ATA is a potent inhibitor of topoisomerase II and that the drug interacts with topoisomerase II in living cells. Our findings raise the possibility that the protective effects of ATA towards apoptotic cell death might, at least in part, involve DNA topoisomerase II.

The antileukemic alkaloid fagaronine is an inhibitor of DNA topoisomerases I and II.

The antileukemic alkaloid, fagaronine, is a potent differentiation inducer of various hematopoietic cell lines. We show here that fagaronine is a DNA base-pair intercalator with a K(app) of 2.1 x 10(5) M-1 for calf thymus DNA. Fagaronine inhibits the catalytic activity of purified calf thymus topoisomerase I as shown by relaxation of supercoiled plasmid DNA followed by electrophoresis in neutral as well as in chloroquine-containing gels. The catalytic activity of topoisomerase I is inhibited at concentrations above 30 microM. Fagaronine also inhibits the catalytic activity of purified calf thymus topoisomerase II at concentrations above 25 microM as shown by decatenation of kinetoplast DNA. Fagaronine stabilizes the covalent DNA-enzyme reaction intermediate (the cleavable complex) between topoisomerase I and linear pBR322 DNA at concentrations up to 1 microM. Further increase of the fagaronine concentration leads to a progressive decrease in the cleavable complex formation, which is totally inhibited at 100 microM. In contrast, up to 1 microM fagaronine has no effect on cleavable complex formation between purified calf thymus topoisomerase II and linear pBR322 DNA, whereas cleavable complex formation is inhibited at higher concentrations. Exposure to fagaronine results in an increase in DNA-protein complex formation in intact P388 murine leukemia cells. P388CPT5 cells, which have an altered topoisomerase I activity, are 4-fold resistant to the growth inhibitory effects of fagaronine compared to the parental cell line. Similarly, DC-3F/9-OH-E Chinese hamster fibrosarcoma cells, which have an altered topoisomerase II activity, are about 5-fold resistant to the growth inhibitory effects of fagaronine. We conclude that fagaronine is an inhibitor of both DNA topoisomerase I and II and propose that this might play a role in the cytotoxic activity.

[Ocular manifestations in patients affected by Morquio syndrome (MPS IV)]. / Manifestations ophtalmologiques de la maladie de Morquio.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the ocular manifestations in patients suffering from Morquio syndrome. METHODS: We reviewed the hospital records of 20 patients who underwent ophthalmological follow-up at hôpital Femme-Mère-Enfant, Bron, France, between December 2008 and February 2010. RESULTS: This retrospective study included 20 patients: 12 males and eight females. The mean age at the beginning of the retrospective study was 23 years. The most common ocular manifestations encountered, in order of frequency, were: corneal opacification (13/20), astigmatism (12/20) and the presence of punctate cataract (6/20). Visual acuity after optical correction was over 7/10 on average. The average best corrected visual acuity was estimated to be over 0.7. CONCLUSION: Although ocular complications in Morquio syndrome appeared to be associated with relatively well preserved visual acuity, ophthalmological follow-up is recommended to identify potentially curable complications such as astigmatism or lens opacities.

Suramin is an inhibitor of DNA topoisomerase II in vitro and in Chinese hamster fibrosarcoma cells.

The antitrypanosomal and antifiliarial drug suramin is currently under investigation for treatment of advanced malignancies including prostatic cancer, adrenocortical cancer, and some lymphomas and sarcomas. Here we show that suramin is a potent inhibitor of the nuclear enzyme DNA topoisomerase II. Suramin inhibited purified yeast topoisomerase II with an IC50 of about 5 microM, as measured by decatenation or relaxation assays. Suramin did not stabilize the covalent DNA-topoisomerase II reaction intermediate ("cleavable complex"), whereas other inhibitors of this enzyme, such as amsacrine, etoposide, and the ellipticines, are known to stabilize the intermediate. In contrast, the presence of suramin strongly inhibited the cleavable-complex formation induced by amsacrine or etoposide. Accumulation of the endogenous cleavable complex was also inhibited. Suramin entered the nucleus of DC-3F Chinese hamster fibrosarcoma cells exposed to radiolabeled suramin for 24 hr as shown by both optic and electron microscopy. The suramin present in the nucleus seemed to interact with topoisomerase II, since suramin reduced the number of amsacrine-induced protein-associated DNA strand breaks in DC-3F cells and protected these cells from the cytotoxic action of amsacrine. Cells resistant to 9-hydroxyellipticine, which have been shown to have an altered topoisomerase II activity, are about 7-fold more resistant to suramin than the sensitive parental cells as shown by 72-hr growth inhibition assay. Our results suggest that DNA topoisomerase II is a target of suramin action and that this action may play a role in the cytotoxic activity of suramin.

Investigation of the DsbA mechanism through the synthesis and analysis of an irreversible enzyme-ligand complex.

Approaching the molecular mechanism of some enzymes is hindered by the difficulty of obtaining suitable protein-ligand complexes for structural characterization. DsbA, the major disulfide oxidase in the bacterial periplasm, is such an enzyme. Its structure has been well characterized in both its oxidized and its reduced states, but structural data about DsbA-peptide complexes are still missing. We report herein an original, straightforward, and versatile strategy for making a stable covalent complex with a cysteine-homoalanine thioether bond instead of the labile cystine disulfide bond which normally forms between the enzyme and polypeptides during the catalytic cycle of DsbA. We substituted a bromohomoalanine for the cysteine in a model 14-mer peptide derived from DsbB (PID-Br), the membrane partner of DsbA. When incubated in the presence of the enzyme, a selective nucleophilic substitution of the bromine by the thiolate of the DsbA Cys(30) occurred. The major advantage of this strategy is that it enables the direct use of the wild-type form of the enzyme, which is the most relevant to obtain unbiased information on the enzymatic mechanism. Numerous intermolecular NOEs between DsbA and PID could be observed by NMR, indicating the presence of preferential noncovalent interactions between the two partners. The thermodynamic properties of the DsbA-PID complex were measured by differential scanning calorimetry. In the complex, the values for both denaturation temperature and variation in enthalpy associated with thermal unfolding were between those of oxidized and reduced forms of DsbA. This progressive increase in stability along the DsbA catalytic pathway strongly supports the model of a thermodynamically driven mechanism.