Copper-Binding Small Molecule Induces Oxidative Stress and Cell-Cycle Arrest in Glioblastoma-Patient-Derived Cells.

Transition metals are essential, but deregulation of their metabolism causes toxicity. Here, we report that the compound NSC319726 binds copper to induce oxidative stress and arrest glioblastoma-patient-derived cells at picomolar concentrations. Pharmacogenomic analysis suggested that NSC319726 and 65 other structural analogs exhibit lethality through metal binding. Although NSC319726 has been reported to function as a zinc ionophore, we report here that this compound binds to copper to arrest cell growth. We generated and validated pharmacogenomic predictions: copper toxicity was substantially inhibited by hypoxia, through an hypoxia-inducible-factor-1α-dependent pathway; copper-bound NSC319726 induced the generation of reactive oxygen species and depletion of deoxyribosyl purines, resulting in cell-cycle arrest. These results suggest that metal-induced DNA damage may be a consequence of exposure to some xenobiotics, therapeutic agents, as well as other causes of copper dysregulation, and reveal a potent mechanism for targeting glioblastomas.

High-Throughput Screening of Patient-Derived Cultures Reveals Potential for Precision Medicine in Glioblastoma.

Identifying drugs for the treatment of glioblastoma (GBM), a rapidly fatal disease, has been challenging. Most screening efforts have been conducted with immortalized cell lines grown with fetal bovine serum, which have little relevance to the genomic features found in GBM patients. Patient-derived neurosphere cultures, while being more physiologically relevant, are difficult to screen and therefore are only used to test a few drug candidates after initial screening efforts. Laminin has been used to generate two-dimensional cell lines from patient tumors, preserving the genomic signature and alleviating some screening hurdles. We present here the first side-by-side comparison of inhibitor sensitivity of laminin and neurosphere-grown patient-derived GBM cell lines and show that both of these culture methods result in the same pattern of inhibitor sensitivity. We used these screening methods to evaluate the dependencies of seven patient-derived cell models: three grown on laminin and four grown as neurospheres, against 56 agents in 17-point dose-response curves in 384-well format in triplicate. This allowed us to establish differential sensitivity of chemotherapeutic agents across the seven patient-derived models. We found that MEK inhibition caused patient-sample-specific growth inhibition and that bortezomib, an FDA-approved proteasome inhibitor, was potently lethal in all patient-derived models. Furthermore, the screening results led us to test the combination of the Bcl-2 inhibitor ABT-263, and the mTOR inhibitor AZD-8055, which we found to be synergistic in a subset of patient-derived GBM models. Thus, we have identified new candidate therapeutics and developed a high-throughput screening system using patient-derived GBM samples.

Solvent isotope-induced equilibrium perturbation for isocitrate lyase.

Isocitrate lyase (ICL) catalyzes the reversible retro-aldol cleavage of isocitrate to generate glyoxylate and succinate. ICL is the first enzyme of the glyoxylate shunt, which allows for the anaplerosis of citric acid cycle intermediates under nutrient limiting conditions. In Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the source of ICL for these studies, ICL is vital for the persistence phase of the bacterium's life cycle. Solvent kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) in the direction of isocitrate cleavage ((D2O)V = 2.0 ± 0.1, and (D2O)[V/K(isocitrate)] = 2.2 ± 0.3) arise from the initial deprotonation of the C2 hydroxyl group of isocitrate or the protonation of the aci-acid of the succinate product of the isocitrate aldol cleavage by a solvent-derived proton. This KIE suggested that an equilibrium mixture of all protiated isocitrate, glyoxylate, and succinate prepared in D2O would undergo transient changes in equilibrium concentrations as a result of the solvent KIE and solvent-derived deuterium incorporation into both succinate and isocitrate. No change in the isotopic composition of glyoxylate was expected or observed. We have directly monitored the changing concentrations of all isotopic species of all reactants and products using a combination of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Continuous monitoring of glyoxylate by ¹H NMR spectroscopy shows a clear equilibrium perturbation in D2O. The final equilibrium isotopic composition of reactants in D2O revealed dideuterated succinate, protiated glyoxylate, and monodeuterated isocitrate, with the transient appearance and disappearance of monodeuterated succinate. A model for the equilibrium perturbation of substrate species and their time-dependent isotopic composition is presented.

Structural, kinetic and chemical mechanism of isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the leading cause of death due to a bacterial infection. The success of the Mtb pathogen has largely been attributed to the nonreplicating, persistence phase of the life cycle, for which the glyoxylate shunt is required. In Escherichia coli, flux through the shunt is controlled by regulation of isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH). In Mtb, the mechanism of regulation is unknown, and currently, there is no mechanistic or structural information about ICDH. We optimized expression and purification to a yield sufficiently high to perform the first detailed kinetic and structural studies of Mtb ICDH-1. A large solvent kinetic isotope effect [(D2O)V = 3.0 ± 0.2, and (D2O)(V/Kisocitrate) = 1.5 ± 0.3] and a smaller primary kinetic isotope effect [(D)V = 1.3 ± 0.1, and (D)(V/K[2R-(2)H]isocitrate) = 1.5 ± 0.2] allowed us to perform the first multiple kinetic isotope effect studies on any ICDH and suggest a chemical mechanism. In this mechanism, protonation of the enolate to form product α-ketoglutarate is the rate-limiting step. We report the first structure of Mtb ICDH-1 to 2.18 Å by X-ray crystallography with NADPH and Mn(2+) bound. It is a homodimer in which each subunit has a Rossmann fold, and a common top domain of interlocking ß sheets. Mtb ICDH-1 is most structurally similar to the R132H mutant human ICDH found in glioblastomas. Similar to human R132H ICDH, Mtb ICDH-1 also catalyzes the formation of α-hydroxyglutarate. Our data suggest that regulation of Mtb ICDH-1 is novel.

Kinetic and chemical mechanism of malate synthase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Malate synthase catalyzes the Claisen-like condensation of acetyl-coenzyme A (AcCoA) and glyoxylate in the glyoxylate shunt of the citric acid cycle. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis malate synthase G gene, glcB, was cloned, and the N-terminal His(6)-tagged 80 kDa protein was expressed in soluble form and purified by metal affinity chromatography. A chromogenic 4,4'-dithiodipyridine assay did not yield linear kinetics, but the generation of an active site-directed mutant, C619S, gave an active enzyme and linear kinetics. The resulting mutant exhibited kinetics comparable to those of the wild type and was used for the full kinetic analysis. Initial velocity studies were intersecting, suggesting a sequential mechanism, which was confirmed by product and dead-end inhibition. The inhibition studies delineated the ordered binding of glyoxylate followed by AcCoA and the ordered release of CoA followed by malate. The pH dependencies of k(cat) and k(cat)/K(gly) are both bell-shaped, and catalysis depends on a general base (pK = 5.3) and a general acid (pK = 9.2). Primary kinetic isotope effects determined using [C(2)H(3)-methyl]acetyl-CoA suggested that proton removal and carbon-carbon bond formation were partially rate-limiting. Solvent kinetic isotope effects on k(cat) suggested the hydrolysis of the malyl-CoA intermediate was also partially rate-limiting. Multiple kinetic isotope effects, utilizing D(2)O and [C(2)H(3)-methyl]acetyl-CoA, confirmed a stepwise mechanism in which the step exhibiting primary kinetic isotope effects precedes the step exhibiting the solvent isotope effects. We combined the kinetic data and the pH dependence of the kinetic parameters with existing structural and mutagenesis data to propose a chemical mechanism for malate synthase from M. tuberculosis.