Lipid imaging for visualizing cilastatin amelioration of cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity.

Nephrotoxicity is a major limitation to cisplatin antitumor therapies. Cilastatin, an inhibitor of renal dehydropeptidase-I, was recently proposed as a promising nephroprotector against cisplatin toxicity, preventing apoptotic cell death. In this work, cilastatin nephroprotection was further investigated in a rat model, with a focus on its effect on 76 renal lipids altered by cisplatin, including 13 new cisplatin-altered mitochondrial cardiolipin species. Lipid imaging was performed with MALDI mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) in kidney sections from treated rats. Cilastatin was proved to significantly diminish the lipid distribution alterations caused by cisplatin, lipid levels being almost completely recovered to those of control samples. The extent of recovery of cisplatin-altered lipids by cilastatin turned out to be relevant for discriminating direct or secondary lipid alterations driven by cisplatin. Lipid peroxidation induced by cisplatin was also shown to be reduced when cilastatin was administered. Importantly, significant groups separation was achieved during multivariate analysis of cortex and outer-medullary lipids, indicating that damaged kidney can be discerned from the nephroprotected and healthy groups and classified according to lipid distribution. Therefore, we propose MALDI-MSI as a powerful potential tool offering multimolecule detection possibilities to visualize and evaluate nephrotoxicity and nephroprotection based on lipid analysis.

Dual Internal Standards with Metals and Molecules for MALDI Imaging of Kidney Lipids.

The quest for internal standards useful in MALDI imaging studies goes on to get not only lateral distribution but also reliable relative quantitative information. We developed a method based on application of matrix and dual internal standards to allow intra- and intersample normalization of lipids intensities in kidney sections of control and cisplatin-treated Wistar rats. An inkjet printer was used to deposit a custom-prepared ink with DHB as MALDI matrix, a primary lipids-based internal standard, and a spiked lanthanide as a secondary internal standard. We applied different laser energy and varied the amounts of matrix-internal standards mixture to evaluate the normalization potential of the internal standards. Successful correction of intensity artifacts caused by instrumental drifts was possible, but not those resulting from uneven matrix application. ICP-MS absolute quantification of the lanthanide in the printed layer ensured the reproducibility of the matrix and internal standards application with RSD of 10-15%. Internal standard-normalized data allowed intrasample modification of the MALDI image to make it compatible with the optical image. Normalization to internal standards corrected a 2-fold difference in lipids intensity, which allowed a meaningful comparison of tissue lipids in control and cisplatin-treated kidneys. More importantly, normalization of lipid relative abundances based on the same adduct type (H+, Na+, and K+) for analyte and internal standard corrected for different ionization efficiencies showing a realistic signal level and enabling reliable comparison of different samples on relative quantitative basis.

MALDI-LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometry imaging for lipidomic analysis in kidney under cisplatin chemotherapy.

Imaging techniques for mapping molecular distributions in tissue sections can reveal valuable information on biomolecules involved in relevant biochemical processes. A method has been developed for comprehensive, reproducible and sensitive lipid imaging by matrix-assisted laser/desorption ionization-LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometry in kidney sections, showing the benefits of exact mass determination. Matrix deposition parameters for positive and negative lipid ion imaging using different matrices such as 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB), 9-aminoacridine (9-AA) or α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA) have been optimized for the broadest detection and identification of renal lipids. The combination of 9-AA and DHB was found as the most suitable for negative and positive ion mode lipid imaging, respectively. Lipid mapping and related identification strategies and limitations have also been discussed. Production of 100-µm resolution images was proved to be enough for discerning lipid distribution in kidney substructures. Imaging reproducibility was assessed on parallel kidney slices with time. This method has been applied to the lipidomics analysis on kidney sections from rats treated with the antitumor drug cisplatin and compared to healthy control rats. Up to 66 different renal lipids out of 450 extracted ion images (mainly phospholipid species, in addition to sulfatides and cholesterol sulfate) have been found and identified showing a modified distribution pattern due to cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity. These lipid species reflect either topographic, signaling or structural processes in damaged kidney and could potentially be used for nephrotoxicity assessment or as therapeutic targets. This is, to our knowledge, the first imaging lipidomics study for nephrotoxicity assessment of cisplatin chemotherapy.

Synthesis of some new pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine derivatives of expected anticancer and radioprotective activity.

On the account of the reported anticancer activity of pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines, a new series of pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine derivatives were synthesized and tested for in-vitro anticancer activity against Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) cell line. Moreover, one of the target products was evaluated for in-vivo radioprotective activity. The reaction of o-aminoester 1 with benzylamine in presence of triethylorthoformate yielded the corresponding 5-benzylpyrazolopyrimidine derivative 2. The N-amino derivative 3 was used to synthesize new derivatives of pyrazolopyrimidines 4-7. The corresponding 1,3,4-oxadiazolopyrazolopyrimidine derivatives 12 and 14 were obtained via reaction of compound 9 with reagent 10 and/or triethylorthoformate. Thiophosgenation of compound 1 furnished the corresponding 5-isothiocyanate derivative 15, which was reacted with o-phenylenediamine, thiosemicarbazide and anthranilic acid to give benzimidazolopyrazolopyrimidine, 17, pyrazolotriazolopyrimidine, 19 and pyrazolopyrimidobenzoxazine, 20 respectively. The structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by microanalyses, IR, NMR, and mass spectral data. Compounds 2 and 9 showed intermediate anticancer activity compared to doxorubicin as positive control with IC50 values of 90 and 100 microg/ml, respectively. On the other hand, compound 5 showed significant radioprotective effect.

Synthesis, anticancer and radioprotective activities of some new pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines containing amino acid moieties.

Various isomeric structural purine analogues possessing the pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine nucleus bearing amino acid moieties have been synthesized. The structures of the synthesized compounds were elucidated by spectral data. Preliminary testing for in vitro anticancer activity of the synthesized compounds against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells was carried out. 2-(1-Phenyl-1H-pyrazolo [3,4-d]pyrimidin-4-ylamino)-propanoic acid (3 d), 4-methyl-2-(1-phenyl-1H-pyrazolo [3,4-d] pyrimidin-4-ylamino)-pentanoic acid (3 d), 4-methylthlo-2-(1-phenyl-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidin-4-ylamino)-butanoic acid (3e) and phenyl-2-(1-phenyl-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidin-4-ylamino)propanoic acid (3f) were the most active compounds. Moreover, compounds 3e and 1-(1-phenyl-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidin-4-yl)-pyrrolidine-2-carboxylic acid (4) exhibited significant in vivo radioprotective activity.