Classification of polyene antibiotics according to chemical structure and biological effects.

Fourteen polyene antibiotics and six of their semisynthetic derivatives were compared for their effects on potassium (K(+)) leakage and lethality or hemolysis of either Saccharomyces cerevisiae or mouse erythrocytes. These polyene antibiotics fell into two groups. Group I antibiotics caused K(+) leakage and cell death or hemolysis at the same concentrations of added polyene. In this group fungistatic and fungicidal levels were indistinguishable. Group I drugs included one triene (trienin); tetraenes (pimaricin and etruscomycin); pentaenes (filipin and chainin); one hexaene (dermostatin); and one polyene antibiotic with unknown chemical structure (lymphosarcin). Group II antibiotics caused considerable K(+) leakage at low concentrations and cell death or hemolysis at high concentrations. The fungistatic levels were clearly separable from fungicidal. This group included the heptaenes (amphotericin B, candicidin, aureofungin A and B, hamycin A and B), and five of their semisynthetic derivatives (amphotericin B methyl ester, N-acetyl-amphotericin B, hamycin A and B methyl esters, and N-acetyl-candicidin). Nystatin, classified as a tetraene, and its derivative, N-acetyl nystatin, also were in this group.

Amphotericin B and filipin effects on L and HeLa cells: dose response.

Amphotericin B (AmB) and filipin effects on L and HeLa cells were compared by monitoring drug-induced potassium leakage from cells, changes in radioactive uridine incorporation into cellular ribonucleic acid, protein leakage from cells, and cell viability. L cells were much more susceptible to both AmB and filipin than were HeLa cells, but the overall dose response was similar. For AmB, the various effects were easily separable. Potassium leakage occurred at the lowest concentrations of AmB and was reversible. Inhibition of uridine incorporation and loss of viability occurred at intermediate levels, and protein loss occurred at higher levels. In contrast, filipin was much more potent; its effects on potassium leakage were only minimally reversible, and the separation of the permeabilizing effects from complete cell lysis was possible only over a limited concentration range and for a short time.

Characterization of the binding of amphotericin B to Saccharomyces cerevisiae and relationship to the antifungal effects.

Based on the enhanced fluorescence of amphotericin B in acid solutions, a quantitative assay for this polyene antibiotic has been developed that is sensitive and linear in the range of 0.1 to 10.0 muM. The binding of amphotericin B to Saccharomyces cerevisiae was assayed under various conditions as the amount bound to cells in a dialysis chamber or after centrifugation. Two types of binding were defined: weak, reversible binding occurred at 0 C or higher temperatures and even in the presence of inhibitors of energy metabolism, whereas strong, irreversible binding did not occur at 0 C and was inhibited when energy metabolism was blocked. Only strong binding was correlated with cell killing. Weak binding probably involves the outer layer of the membrane; strong binding probably requires disruption of hydrophobic regions of the cell membrane.

Molecular basis for the selective toxicity of amphotericin B for yeast and filipin for animal cells.

Among the polyene antibiotics, many, like filipin, cannot be used clinically because they are toxic; amphotericin B, however, is useful in therapy of human fungal infections because it is less toxic. Both the toxicity of filipin and the therapeutic value of amphotericin B can be rationalized at the cellular and molecular level by the following observations: (i) these polyene antibiotics showed differential effects on cells; filipin was more potent in lysing human red blood cells, whereas amphotericin B was more potent in inhibiting yeast cell growth; and (ii) the effects of filipin were more efficiently inhibited by added cholesterol, the major membrane sterol in human cells, whereas the effects of amphotericin B were more efficiently inhibited by ergosterol, the major membrane sterol in yeast. The simplest inference is that the toxicity and effectiveness of polyenes are determined by their relative avidities for the predominant sterol in cell membranes.

Kinetics of insulin release from the perfused rat pancreas caused by glucose, glucosamine, and galactose.

Under appropriate conditions, not only glucose but also glucosamine and galactose can serve as potent stimulants for insulin release from the isolated, perfused rat pancreas. Since galactose and, probably, glucosamine are not metabolized in the islets, and since these three compounds have in all likelihood common sites of action, it is postulated that a glucoreceptor of broad specificity is involved in the mechanism of insulin release, and that metabolism of glucose is not an essential part of the releasing action of this sugar.