Spatial characterization and quantification of CD40 expression across cancer types.

BACKGROUND: CD40, a TNF receptor family member, is expressed by a variety of immune cells and is involved in the activation of both adaptive and innate immune responses. Here, we used quantitative immunofluorescence (QIF) to evaluate CD40 expression on the tumor epithelium of solid tumors in large patient cohorts of lung, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers. METHODS: Tissue samples from nine different solid tumors (bladder, breast, colon, gastric, head and neck, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), ovarian, pancreatic and renal cell carcinoma), constructed in tissue microarray format, were initially assessed for CD40 expression by QIF. CD40 expression was then evaluated on the large available patient cohorts for three of the tumor types demonstrating high CD40 positivity rate; NSCLC, ovarian and pancreatic cancer. The prognostic impact of CD40 expression on tumor cells was also investigated. RESULTS: CD40 expression on tumor cells was found to be common, with 80% of the NSCLC population, 40% of the ovarian cancer population, and 68% of the pancreatic adenocarcinoma population displaying some degree of CD40 expression on cancer cells. All of three of these cancer types displayed considerable intra-tumoral heterogeneity of CD40 expression, as well as partial correlation between expression of CD40 on tumor cells and on surrounding stromal cells. CD40 was not found to be prognostic for overall survival in NSCLC, ovarian cancer, or pancreatic adenocarcinoma. CONCLUSIONS: The high percentage of tumor cells expressing CD40 in each of these solid tumors should be considered in the development of therapeutic agents designed to target CD40.

In Vitro Resistance Development to Nemonoxacin in Streptococcus pneumoniae: A Unique Profile for a Novel Nonfluorinated Quinolone.

Selection of resistant strains in Streptococcus pneumoniae was studied in vitro with nemonoxacin, a novel nonfluorinated quinolone (NFQ), in comparison with quinolone benchmarks, ciprofloxacin, garenoxacin, and gatifloxacin. In stepwise resistance selection studies, a 256-fold loss of potency was observed after three to four steps of exposure to ciprofloxacin or garenoxacin. In contrast, the loss of potency was limited to eightfold after three steps of exposure to nemonoxacin and repeated attempts to isolate highly resistant organisms after four steps of exposure yielded isolates that could not be subcultured in liquid medium. The quinolone resistance-determining regions of the target genes, parC, parE, gyrA, and gyrB, were analyzed through DNA sequencing. Known mutations, especially in the hotspots of parC and gyrA, were selected with exposure to garenoxacin, ciprofloxacin, and gatifloxacin. In contrast, mutations selected with nemonoxacin were limited to GyrA, GyrB, and ParE, sparing ParC, which is known as a key driver of resistance in clinical isolates of S. pneumoniae. This observation is consistent with previous data using other NFQs, which showed no loss of potency due to ParC mutations in clinical isolates. This apparently unique feature of nemonoxacin is potentially attributable to the structural uniqueness of the NFQs, distinguishing them from the fluoroquinolones that are commonly prescribed for infections by S. pneumoniae.

Development of a screening assay to measure the loss of antibacterial activity in the presence of proteins: its use in optimizing compound structure.

An assay quantifying the loss of antibacterial potency of compounds, originally identified via target-based screening, in the presence of increasing albumin concentration was developed and used as a technique to measure potential association of compounds with proteins unrelated to their molecular target. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of test compounds were measured against Staphylococcus aureus strain ATCC 6538 in the presence of 0-12 muM bovine serum albumin (BSA). The linear regression coefficient r(2) for the correlation between MIC and BSA concentration was >/= 0.9 for 49 and > 0.5 for 62 out of a total of 69 compounds tested. The slope of these correlations varied widely from < 1 to 99, suggesting that the loss of potency due to a given concentration of BSA could vary from compound to compound due to wide variation in the apparent stoichiometry for protein-ligand association. Follow-up experiments using additional proteins and a fatty acid, oleic acid, showed that this compound:BSA association was not protein specific, but was likely driven by hydrophobicity. The method described in this report can be used to optimize compound design and minimize this undesirable effect.

Development and use of a high-throughput bacterial DNA gyrase assay to identify mammalian topoisomerase II inhibitors with whole-cell anticancer activity.

A high-throughput screen (HTS) was developed and used to identify inhibitors of bacterial DNA gyrase. Among the validated hits were 53 compounds that also inhibited mammalian topoisomerase II with IC(50) values of <12.5 micro g/mL for 51 of them. Using computational methods, these compounds were subjected to cluster analysis to categorize them according to their chemical and structural properties. Nine compounds from different clusters were tested for their whole-cell inhibitory activity against 3 cancer cell lines-NCI-H460 (lung), MCF7 (breast), and SF-268 (CNS)-at a concentration of 100 micro M. Five compounds inhibited cell growth by >50% for all 3 cell lines tested. These compounds were tested further against a panel of 53 to 57 cell lines representing leukemia, melanoma, colon, CNS, ovarian, renal, prostate, breast, and non-small cell lung cancers. In this assay, PGE-7143417 was found to be the most potent compound, which inhibited the growth of all the cell lines by 50% at a concentration range of 0.31 to 2.58 micro M, with an average of 1.21 micro M. An additional 17 compounds were also tested separately against a panel of 10 cell lines representing melanoma, colon, lung, mammary, ovarian, prostate, and renal cancers. In this assay, 4 compounds-PGE-3782569, PGE-7411516, PGE-2908955, and PGE-3521917-were found to have activity with concentrations for 50% cell growth inhibition in the 0.59 to 3.33, 22.5 to 59.1, 7.1 to >100, and 24.7 to >100 micro M range.

Non-fluorinated quinolones (NFQs): new antibacterials with unique properties against quinolone-resistant gram-positive pathogens.

Wide variations in the antibacterial potency and spectrum of quinolones are presumably attributable, in part, to their variable potency against the molecular targets, DNA gyrase and topoisomerase i.v. In addition, susceptibility of quinolones to resistance development via known point mutations in the target genes gyrA and parC/grlA varies depending on the effective affinities of the compounds toward the mutated targets. Using a medicinal chemistry approach, a series of 8-methoxy, Non-Fluorinated Quinolones (NFQs), with fluorine in the R6 position of the traditional fluoroquinolones replaced with hydrogen, were designed to retain potency against DNA gyrase and/or topoisomerase i.v. with point mutations in the serine-aspartate/glutamate hotspots. This resulted in compounds with antibacterial activity against a broad-spectrum of bacterial species, including multidrug-resistant gram-positive pathogens, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (PRSP). The efficacy of the NFQs was also demonstrated in a murine septicemia model. Furthermore, the design of the NFQs resulted in lower acute intravenous (i.v.) toxicity and clastogenicity relative to their 6-fluorinated counterparts. Use of the non-fluorinated quinolone nucleus allowed exploration of new structure-activity space and generation of a series of NFQs with unique combinations of affinities toward the wild type and mutated forms of the molecular targets.