The anticancer agent 3-bromopyruvate: a simple but powerful molecule taken from the lab to the bedside.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, 3-bromopyruvate (3BP), a simple alkylating chemical compound was presented to the scientific community as a potent anticancer agent, able to cause rapid toxicity to cancer cells without bystander effects on normal tissues. The altered metabolism of cancers, an essential hallmark for their progression, also became their Achilles heel by facilitating 3BP's selective entry and specific targeting. Treatment with 3BP has been administered in several cancer type models both in vitro and in vivo, either alone or in combination with other anticancer therapeutic approaches. These studies clearly demonstrate 3BP's broad action against multiple cancer types. Clinical trials using 3BP are needed to further support its anticancer efficacy against multiple cancer types thus making it available to more than 30 million patients living with cancer worldwide. This review discusses current knowledge about 3BP related to cancer and discusses also the possibility of its use in future clinical applications as it relates to safety and treatment issues.

The origin of the high sensitivity of muscle fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase towards AMP.

Adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) inhibits muscle fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase (FBPase) about 44 times stronger than the liver isozyme. The key role in strong AMP binding to muscle isozyme play K20, T177 and Q179. Muscle FBPase which has been mutated towards the liver enzyme (K20E/T177M/Q179C) is inhibited by AMP about 26 times weaker than the wild-type muscle enzyme, but it binds the fluorescent AMP analogue, 2',3'-O-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl)adenosine 5'-monophosphate (TNP-AMP), similarly to the wild-type liver enzyme. The reverse mutation of liver FBPase towards the muscle isozyme significantly increases the affinity of the mutant to TNP-AMP. High affinity to the inhibitor but low sensitivity to AMP of the liver triple mutant suggest differences between the isozymes in the mechanism of allosteric signal transmission.

Cyclic AMP controls the plasma membrane H+-ATPase activity from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The thermosensitive G1-arrested cdc35-10 mutant from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, defective in adenylate cyclase activity, was shifted to restrictive temperature. After 1 h incubation at this temperature, the plasma membrane H+-ATPase activity of cdc35-10 was reduced to 50%, whereas that in mitochondria doubled. Similar data were obtained with cdc25, another thermosensitive G1-arrested mutant modified in the cAMP pathway. In contrast, the ATPase activities of the G1-arrested mutant cdc19, defective in pyruvate kinase, were not affected after 2 h incubation at restrictive temperature. In the double mutants cdc35-10 cas1 and cdc25 cas1, addition of extracellular cAMP prevented the modifications of ATPase activities observed in the single mutants cdc35-10 and cdc25. These data indicate that cAMP acts as a positive effector on the H+-ATPase activity of plasma membranes and as a negative effector on that of mitochondria.

Interactions between the gene products of pma1 encoding plasma membrane H(+)-ATPase, and pdr1 controlling multiple drug resistance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the pma1 mutations controlling the vanadate resistance of the H(+)-ATPase activity from the plasma membrane, map on chromosome VII in the vicinity of pdr1 mutations controlling multiple drug resistance. However, the pma1-1 mutants exhibit a genotype and a multidrug resistant phenotype quite different from those obtained for pdr1 mutants. Quantitative modifications of cycloheximide and N,N'-(p-xylylidene)-bis-aminoguanidine-2HCl resistance are observed in diploids containing the pma1 and pdr1 genes in trans configuration. Each of the pdr1 mutations interacts with pma1 as shown by a decrease in the ATPase activity in pdr1/pma1 diploids. The in vitro resistance of ATPase activity to vanadate is totally or partially suppressed in pdr1 mutants in haploid double mutants. These results suggest that the expression of PMA1 might be controlled by the PDR1 gene product.

Specificity and origin of the Mod2- mutation which restores respiratory sufficient phenotype in some pet mutants in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

It has been found that Mod2- mutation restores respiratory sufficient phenotype in cytochrome b less mutant MB127-20C. Mod2- gene when present in the same haploid cell with mutant gene pet25 causing deficiency in cytochromes a+a3 and b seems to be responsible for reappearance of cytochrome b in the cytochrome spectrum as well partial respiratory activity. However, the restored respiratory activity seems to be inefficient as growth on unfermentable carbon sources is still impossible. Evidences are presented that the Mod2- mutation originates from respiratory sufficient strain 18-27 in which op1 mutation has been induced.

Genetic and molecular mapping of the pma1 mutation conferring vanadate resistance to the plasma membrane ATPase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the pma1 mutations confers vanadate-resistance to H+-ATPase activity when measured in isolated plasma membranes. In vivo, the growth of pma1 mutants is resistant to Dio-9, ethidium bromide and guanidine derivatives. This phenotype was used to map the pma1 mutation adjacent to LEU1 gene on chromosome VII. From a cosmid library of a wild-type Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome, a large 30 kb DNA fragment was isolated by complementation of a leu1-pma1 double mutant. A 5kb HindIII fragment was subcloned and it restored both Leu+ and Pma+ phenotypes after integrative transformation. The restriction map of the 5 kb HindIII fragment and Southern blot analysis reveal that the cloned fragment contains the entire structural gene for the plasma membrane ATPase and the 5' end of the adjacent LEU1 gene. The pma1 mutation conferring vanadate-resistance is thus located in the structural gene for the plasma membrane ATPase.

Light effects in yeast: relation between the respiratory deficiency and light sensitivity in yeast.

Visible light of 5,000 lux intensity has been shown to photokill yeast cells at 12 degrees C. In the present report some of isogenic respiratory deficient mit- and nuclear mutants were compared for their sensitivity to light. No close correlation between the cytochromes spectra and light resistance was observed. Although, the nuclear and rho- mutants which lack cytochromes a + a3 and b are as a rule light resistant. Photokilling effect in yeast seems to be dependent both on the sufficiency of respiratory chain and on protein synthesis probably on cytoplasmic level.

Modified plasma-membrane ATPase in mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Mutations affecting the plasma membrane ATPase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were obtained by selecting mutants resistant to Dio-9. In a plasma-membrane-enriched fraction of the mutant MG2130, the ATPase activity was resistant to vanadate (50% inhibition by 26 microM in the mutant compared to 1.3 microM in the parental strain). Several catalytic properties of the membrane-bound ATPase were modified by 60-120% in the mutant which had a higher Km for MgATP and was more heatstable, less sensitive to mercurials, and more stimulated by monovalent cations than the parental type. A single mutation is responsible for the phenotypes of four independent allelic mutants. Resistance to Dio-9 in vivo and resistance to vanadate in vitro segregated together in three tetrads issued from a cross between the wild type and mutant. The mutation is semi-dominant as shown by expression of the mutant phenotype in a heterozygous diploid resulting from the cross between the wild type and mutant. It is concluded that the pma locus, affected by these mutations, is the structural gene either for the 100000-Mr subunit of plasma membrane ATPase or for a protein which tightly controls the conformation of the plasma-membrane ATPase within the membrane.

Genetic mapping of nuclear mucidin resistance mutations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A new pdr locus on chromosome II.

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, two nuclear pleiotropic drug resistance mutations pdr3-1 (former designation mucPR) and pdr3-2 (former designation DRI9/T7) have been selected as resistant to mucidin and as resistant to chloramphenicol plus cycloheximide, respectively. The pdr3 mutations were found not to affect the plasma membrane ATPase activity measured in a crude membrane fraction. Meiotic mapping using strains with standard genetic markers revealed that mutation pdr3-1 is centromere linked on the left arm of chromosome II at a distance of 5.9 +/- 3.3 cM from its centromere and 11.6 +/- 3.1 cM from the marker pet9. The centromere linked pdr3-2 mutation exhibited also genetic linkage to pet9 with a map distance of 9.8 +/- 3.2 cM. These results indicate that pdr3-1 and pdr3-2 are alleles of the same pleiotropic drug resistance locus PDR3 which is involved in the control of the plasma membrane permeability in yeast.

A new mutation for multiple drug resistance and modified plasma membrane ATPase activity in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

The mutant JV66 was selected from the wild type strain of S. pombe 972h- ade7-413 by its ability to grow on solid rich medium containing 200 micrograms Dio-9/ml. The single nuclear mutation, designated pma1 gives resistance towards diguanidines and several other positively charged compounds. The pma1 mutation also decreases plasma membrane ATPase activity and confers resistance of ATPase to vanadate. The pma1 locus is localized on chromosome I at 5.3 map units from cyh1-C7 and at about 20.7 map units from the centromere. This new mutation is genetically and phenotypically different from the mutation cyh3 and cyh4 previously described (Johnston and Coddington 1983).

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae ACR3 gene encodes a putative membrane protein involved in arsenite transport.

The cluster of three genes, ACR1, ACR2, and ACR3, previously was shown to confer arsenical resistance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The overexpression of ACR3 induced high level arsenite resistance. The presence of ACR3 together with ACR2 on a multicopy plasmid was conducive to increased arsenate resistance. The function of ACR3 gene has now been investigated. Amino acid sequence analysis of Acr3p showed that this hypothetical protein has hydrophobic character with 10 putative transmembrane spans and is probably located in yeast plasma membrane. We constructed the acr3 null mutation. The resulting disruptants were 5-fold more sensitive to arsenate and arsenite than wild-type cells. The acr3 disruptants showed wild-type sensitivity to antimony, tellurite, cadmium, and phenylarsine oxide. The mechanism of arsenical resistance was assayed by transport experiments using radioactive arsenite. We did not observe any significant differences in the accumulation of 76AsO33- in wild-type cells, acr1 and acr3 disruptants. However, the high dosage of ACR3 gene resulted in loss of arsenite uptake. These results suggest that arsenite resistance in yeast is mediated by an arsenite transporter (Acr3p).

Mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae resistant to a quaternary ammonium salt.

Three quaternary ammonium salts were compared in respect of their ability to select resistant mutants of S. cerevisiae. The mutants tolerating slightly higher IM compound concentration were analysed. They appeared to be the products of nuclear gene mutation segregating monogenically but strongly influenced by genetic background. The mutant IMR when transformed to rho degrees lost resistance below the level of minimal inhibitory concentration of original strain. Possible hypothesis explaining this phenomenon is presented.

A second transport ATPase gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

A second transport ATPase gene from Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been identified by hybridization to a PMA1 probe and sequenced. The gene called PMA2 encodes a polypeptide of Mr = 102,157, which, with the exception of the 144 amino-terminal residues, is highly homologous to the structural gene PMA1 for the H+-ATPase. It is localized on the chromosome XVI at 16.7 centimorgan from gal4 and is not essential for haploid growth. Comparison between the upstream, noncoding DNA regions of PMA1 and PMA2 indicates that the two genes are controlled differently. The extensive amino acid sequence homology with the fungal H+-ATPases described so far indicates that the PMA2-encoded protein is also able to function as a H+ pump. This is supported by the observation that in pma1 mutants with reduced plasma membrane ATPase activity, disruption of the PMA2 gene confers the ability to grow under alkaline pH conditions. Slower development of diploids is also observed on normal minimal medium after bilateral disruption of PMA2 in the two parents.

Membrane damage associated with inositol-less death in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The effect of inositol deficiency was studied on fermentation, respiration, and sugar and amino acid transport. It was found that the loss of fermetnation and respiration and sugar transport activity parallel the loss of cell viability. The loss of sugar transport activity is associated with the development of cell membrane damage. It is concluded that the ultimate cause of cell death is cell membrane leakiness.

The lethal effects of some onolophosphate insecticides on yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Thre enolophosphate insecticides (chlorphenvinphos: 0-/-/2',4'-dichlorophenyl/-2-chlorovinyl/diethyl phosphate, bromphenvinphos: 0-/1-/2',4'-dichlorophenyl/-2-bromovinyl/diethyl phosphate, mebromvinphos: 0-/1-/2',4'-dichlorophenyl/-2-bromovinyl/dimethyl phosphate) have been tested for their biological activity in baker's yeast. The results indicate that the chemicals exert an immediate hibitory effect on amino acid transport system, respiration, fermentation and ell growth. Consequently the effect of precipitous cell death also occurred. Furthermore the direct destroying action of the studied chemicals on protoplast as also observed. The main cause of cell death is the development of membrane leakiness. It was found that the loss of sugar transport activity parallels the loss of cell viability. All the studied insecticides showed negligible netic activity.

Physical, transcriptional and genetical mapping of a 24 kb DNA fragment located between the PMA1 and ATE1 loci on chromosome VII from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

A physical map of a contiguous DNA fragment of 60 kb, extending from the centromere to TRP5 on the left arm of the chromosome VII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, strain IL125-2B, was established. Within a 31 kb region from PMA1 towards TRP5, a total of 12 transcription products ranging from 0.6 to 3.6 kb were identified in cells grown exponentially on rich medium. Near 87% of the DNA investigated was transcribed and on average one transcript, of 2.3 kb average length, was detected every 2.7 kb of DNA. The physical and genetical distances between the markers CEN7, pma1, leu1, pdr1 and trp5 were compared. A recombination frequency of 1 cM corresponds to an average distance of 3.3 kb between alleles in this region of chromosome VII.

N, N' (p-Xylylidene)-bis-aminoguanidine (2HCI) resistant mutants in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and their relation to the amino acid transport system.

N,N'-(p-Xylylidene)-bis-aminoguanidine 2HCl proved to be an efficient inducer of non-chromosomal petite mutation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae in either growing or non-growing conditions. A mutant Agr-7 resistant to this compound was obtained. Resistance proved to dominate over its XBAG-sensitive allele in the diploid formed in cross. Mutant Agr-7 is characterized by slow growth rate on YEPG or minimal medium and small colony size. Studies on uptake of amino acids and sugars indicate that the phenomenon of resistance is involved in alteration of the general amino acid permease activity.

Isolation of three contiguous genes, ACR1, ACR2 and ACR3, involved in resistance to arsenic compounds in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

A 4.2 kb region from Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome XVI was isolated as a yeast fragment conferring resistance to 7 mM-sodium arsenite (NaAsO2), when put on a multicopy plasmid. Homology searches revealed a cluster of three new open reading frames named ACR1, ACR2 and ACR3. The hypothetical product of the ACR1 gene is similar to the transcriptional regulatory proteins, encoded by YAP1, and YAP2 genes from S. cerevisiae. Disruption of the ACR1 gene conduces to an arsenite and arsenate hypersensitivity phenotype. The ACR2 gene is indispensable for arsenate but not for arsenite resistance. The hypothetical product of the ACR3 gene shows high similarity to the hypothetical membrane protein encoded by Bacillus subtilis ORF1 of the skin element and weak similarity to the ArsB membrane protein of the Staphylococcus aureus arsenical-resistance operon. Overexpression of the ACR3 gene confers an arsenite- but not an arsenate-resistance phenotype. The presence of ACR3 together with ACR2 on a multicopy plasmid expands the resistance phenotype into arsenate. These findings suggest that all three novel genes: ACR1, ACR2 and ACR3 are involved in the arsenical-resistance phenomenon in S. cerevisiae.

The multidrug resistance gene PDR1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene PDR1, responsible for pleiotropic drug resistance, was isolated from a genomic DNA cosmid library by hybridization to the flanking LEU1 gene, followed by subcloning the drug-sensitive phenotype into the transformed pdr1-1, pdr1-2, and pdr1-3 drug-resistant mutants. A RNA molecule of 3.5 kilobases was identified as the PDR1 transcript. The nucleotide sequence of the complementing DNA fragment contained a 3192-nucleotide open reading frame. Disruption of the pdr1 and PDR1 genes restored or increased drug sensitivity. Analysis of the PDR1 deduced amino acid sequence revealed several homologies to four different regulatory proteins involved in the control of gene expression, including a cysteine-rich motif suggested to be a metal-binding domain for DNA recognition. A model is proposed of a general transcriptional control by PDR1 of several target genes encoding proteins from plasma, mitochondria, and possibly other permeability barriers.