Antiglioma activity of GoPI-sugar, a novel gold(I)-phosphole inhibitor: chemical synthesis, mechanistic studies, and effectiveness in vivo.

Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor, has a poor prognosis and a high risk of recurrence. An improved chemotherapeutic approach is required to complement radiation therapy. Gold(I) complexes bearing phosphole ligands are promising agents in the treatment of cancer and disturb the redox balance and proliferation of cancer cells by inhibiting disulfide reductases. Here, we report on the antitumor properties of the gold(I) complex 1-phenyl-bis(2-pyridyl)phosphole gold chloride thio-ß-d-glucose tetraacetate (GoPI-sugar), which exhibits antiproliferative effects on human (NCH82, NCH89) and rat (C6) glioma cell lines. Compared to carmustine (BCNU), an established nitrosourea compound for the treatment of glioblastomas that inhibits the proliferation of these glioma cell lines with an IC50 of 430µM, GoPI-sugar is more effective by two orders of magnitude. Moreover, GoPI-sugar inhibits malignant glioma growth in vivo in a C6 glioma rat model and significantly reduces tumor volume while being well tolerated. Both the gold(I) chloro- and thiosugar-substituted phospholes interact with DNA albeit more weakly for the latter. Furthermore, GoPI-sugar irreversibly and potently inhibits thioredoxin reductase (IC50 4.3nM) and human glutathione reductase (IC50 88.5nM). However, treatment with GoPI-sugar did not significantly alter redox parameters in the brain tissue of treated animals. This might be due to compensatory upregulation of redox-related enzymes but might also indicate that the antiproliferative effects of GoPI-sugar in vivo are rather based on DNA interaction and inhibition of topoisomerase I than on the disturbance of redox equilibrium. Since GoPI-sugar is highly effective against glioblastomas and well tolerated, it represents a most promising lead for drug development. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Thiol-Based Redox Processes.

The redox systems of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax: comparison, in silico analyses and inhibitor studies.

Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for the most severe form of human malaria. P. vivax, in contrast, is the most widespread malaria parasite with an enormous impact on health and economy, since the infection is characterized by high rates of relapses. Due to the mild course of malaria tertiana and complicated in vitro culturing conditions of P. vivax, most of the research on malaria parasites has focused on P. falciparum so far. The redox metabolism of P. falciparum is a promising target for novel antimalarial drugs, since maintaining a redox equilibrium is of fundamental importance for the parasite. P. falciparum contains a cytosolic glutathione and thioredoxin system, as well as redox systems in the apicoplast and the mitochondrion. In contrast to P. falciparum, little is known about the redox processes in P. vivax so far. This review summarizes the current knowledge of the redox metabolism in malaria parasites and provides a detailed in silico comparison of the known and mostly well characterized redox enzymes from P. falciparum and the largely unknown redox proteins from P. vivax. Known antimalarials at least partially mediating their antiparasitic activity by influencing the redox balance of Plasmodium, including dehydroepiandrosterone, Mannich bases, methylene blue, and naphthoquinones, are discussed. Furthermore, we present novel inhibitors identified via screening of a compound library from the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, Jena that are active against the redox-related enzymes thioredoxin reductase, glutathione reductase, glutathione-S-transferase, and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase 6- phosphoglucono- lactonase from P. falciparum.