Intracellular uptake and inhibitory activity of aromatic fluorinated amino acids in human breast cancer cells.

Nonproteinogenic amino acids that either occur naturally or are synthesized chemically are becoming important tools in modern drug discovery. In this context, fluorinated amino acids have great potential in the development of novel pharmaceuticals and drugs. To assess whether different fluorinated aromatic amino acid analogues of phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan are potentially interesting as therapeutic drugs, we examined their cytostatic and cytotoxic effects on the growth of the human breast cancer cell line MCF-7. Of all the tested analogues L-4-fluorotryptophan, L-6-fluorotryptophan and L-p-fluorophenylalanine effectively and irreversibly inhibited cell growth with IC(50) values in the low micromolar range (3-15 microM). Additionally, using L-4-[14C]fluorotryptophan, and L-6-[14C]fluorotryptophan, we discovered that the cellular uptake of these fluorinated amino acids occurs through active transport with a 70-fold excess of intracellular over extracellular concentrations. We identified system L as the responsible amino acid transporter. Our findings fully support the idea that fluorinated aromatic amino acid analogues are promising chemotherapeutics with the potential for use in combination with classical cancer therapy, and as new cytotoxic drugs for certain tumor types such as melanoma.

A novel transport and delivery mechanism underpins the effectiveness of prolyl-m-sarcolysyl-p-fluorophenylalanine (PSF) in a human melanoma xenograft nude-mouse model.

The alkylating peptide PSF shows very promising results in vitro on different cancer cells but its efficacy in animals has not been assessed. Here we evaluate the efficacy of PSF in human melanoma-bearing nude mice and examine the underlying mechanism. In melanoma-bearing nude mice, escalating doses of PSF showed dose-dependent responses and reached tumor regression with an optimal dose of 20 mg/kg for 1 month. A comparison of PSF with its free moiety m-sarcolysin and melphalan showed a highly significant advantage of PSF. Furthermore, dose fractionation yielded an even better control of tumor regrowth. In vitro studies unraveled an original delivery mechanism based on the rapid binding of PSF mainly due to red blood cells to form a pro-drug complex and the subsequent release of active metabolites by tumor-associated proteolytic enzymes. Blood kinetics showed one major metabolite partially released over time, while in the presence of melanoma cells three additional metabolites are generated. Interestingly, tumor-shed proteases also induce the production of these metabolites and varying combinations of enzyme inhibitors indicate the involvement of metallo- and other families of proteases in the delivery process. This particular transport and delivery of such an alkylating agent may have several benefits, mainly lowering the drug-free moiety in plasma and at the same time increasing its concentration in protease rich areas such as tumors.

Generic models for radionuclide dosimetry: 11C-, 18F- or 75Se-labelled amino acids.

A generic biokinetic model was developed for use in the assessment of the internal dose received by human subjects injected with amino acids labelled with 11C (T1/2 = 0.34 h, beta+, gamma), 18F(T1/2 = 1.83 h, beta+, gamma) or 75Se (T1/2 = 119.8 d, beta-, gamma). This generic model was used in conjunction with the MIRDOSE 3 computer programme to calculate radiation doses to adults; these radiation doses were compared with those calculated using compound-specific models for two [11C]-, and eight [18F]-labelled amino acids and [75Se]selenomethionine. In general, the effective doses, as well as the organ and tissue doses, calculated using the generic model agreed within a factor of 2 or less, with those calculated using compound-specific models; the generic model tended to over-, rather than underestimate the organ and tissue doses. It was concluded that for 11C- and 18F-labelled amino acids and for 75Se-labelled amino acids or their analogues, the single generic biokinetic model could be applied for general radiation protection purposes.