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Novel Analogues of CC-1065 and the Duocarmycins for the Use in Targeted Tumour Therapies
In recent years, a series of new and highly cytotoxic analogues of CC-1065 and the duocarmycins have been developed that can be transformed into much less toxic prodrugs for the use in antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT), gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (GDEPT) and prodrug monotherapy (PMT) of cancer. In all these approaches, a relatively non-toxic prodrug is applied and subsequently converted selectively in the tumour tissue into a highly cytotoxic drug, thus reducing undesired side effects accompanying conventional chemotherapy. Here, the design and biological evaluation of prodrugs based on analogues of CC-1065 and the duocarmycins for the use in tumour selective cancer therapies is reviewed. The advantage of this approach is the excellent therapeutic index of some of the new prodrugs of over 5000 and the high cytotoxicity of the corresponding drugs with IC(50) values of as low as 16 pM (IC(50): concentration required for 50 % growth inhibition of target cells). In addition, a novel method for the correlation of the alkylation efficiency and the cytotoxicity based on mass spectrometry is described
Novel Analogues of CC-1065 and the Duocarmycins for the Use in Targeted Tumour Therapies
In recent years, a series of new and highly cytotoxic analogues of CC-1065 and the duocarmycins have been developed that can be transformed into much less toxic prodrugs for the use in antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT), gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (GDEPT) and prodrug monotherapy (PMT) of cancer. In all these approaches, a relatively non-toxic prodrug is applied and subsequently converted selectively in the tumour tissue into a highly cytotoxic drug, thus reducing undesired side effects accompanying conventional chemotherapy. Here, the design and biological evaluation of prodrugs based on analogues of CC-1065 and the duocarmycins for the use in tumour selective cancer therapies is reviewed. The advantage of this approach is the excellent therapeutic index of some of the new prodrugs of over 5000 and the high cytotoxicity of the corresponding drugs with IC(50) values of as low as 16 pM (IC(50): concentration required for 50 % growth inhibition of target cells). In addition, a novel method for the correlation of the alkylation efficiency and the cytotoxicity based on mass spectrometry is described
Probing the mechanism of action of potential anticancer agents at a molecular level using electrospray ionisation Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry
Treating cancer without harming healthy tissue is an important goat in modern medicine. Our research group has developed a series of novel, relatively non-toxic glycosidic prodrugs that are activated to give the corresponding highly cytotoxic drugs selectively in the tumour tissue. Our first investigations have shown a high duplex DNA alkylation efficiency of the drugs, whereas the prodrugs showed almost no tendency for alkylation of duplex DNA. Herein we report on novel investigations of the mode of action of the anti-cancer drugs on a molecular level. Using high-resolution mass spectrometry, we determined the reactivity of these drugs as well as of other drugs of similar structure against different nucleophiles such as RNA and the tripeptide glutathione. In addition, the new drugs were also tested for their interaction with duplex DNA. All compounds show a high reactivity against duplex DNA, whereas the alkylation efficiency regarding RNA and glutathione is only poor. Furthermore, the alkylation of duplex DNA correlates qualitatively but not quantitatively with the cytotoxicity of the drugs. Consequently, other factors besides the alkylation efficiency such as the stability of the drugs seem to influence their biological activity. Altogether the results show that high-resolution mass spectrometry constitutes a powerful method for studying the mode of action of drugs on a molecular level
Antibody‐Directed Enzyme Prodrug Therapy: A Promising Approach for a Selective Treatment of Cancer Based on Prodrugs and Monoclonal Antibodies
The antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy allows a selective liberation of cytotoxic agents from non-toxic prodrugs in cancerous tissue by targeted antibody-enzyme conjugates. We have developed a series of novel glycosidic prodrugs based on the natural antibiotic CC-1065 and the duocarmycins, which are up to 4800 times less toxic than the drugs liberated from these prodrugs in the presence of the activating enzyme (e.g., beta-d-galactosidase). Furthermore, the drugs show very high cytotoxicities with IC(50) values of as low as 4.5 pm. In this report, we summarize our recent results on the development and biological evaluation of these novel third-generation prodrugs with higher water solubility, higher difference in cytotoxicity between the prodrugs and the corresponding drugs and improved cytotoxicity of the drugs as compared with previous compounds
CD-Spectroscopy As a Powerful Tool for Investigating the Mode of Action of Unmodified Drugs in Live Cells
Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy is a well-known method for the analysis of chiral chemical compounds and is often used for studying the structure and interaction of proteins, DNA and bioactive compounds in solution. Here we demonstrate that CD spectroscopy is also a powerful tool for investigating the cellular uptake and mode of action of drugs in live cells. By means of CD spectroscopy, we identified DNA as the cellular target of several novel anticancer agents based on the highly cytotoxic natural antibiotic CC-1065. Furthermore, time-dependent changes in the CD spectra of drug-treated cells enabled us to rationalize differences in drug cytotoxicity. The anticancer agents rapidly penetrate the cell membrane and bind to cellular DNA as their intracellular target. Thereby, the formation of a reversible noncovalent complex with the DNA is followed by a covalent binding of the drugs to the DNA and the more toxic compounds show a higher stability and a lower alkylation rate. Since no drug manipulation is necessary for this kind of investigation and achiral compounds bound to chiral biomolecules may also show induced CD signals, CD spectroscopy of live cells is not limited to the study of analogues of CC-1065. Thus, it constitutes a general approach for studying the mode of action of bioactive compounds on the cellular and molecular level
Synthesis of a novel pentagastrin-drug conjugate for a targeted tumor therapy
The synthesis of the novel pentagastrin seco-CBI conjugate 3, which is based on the highly cytotoxic antitumor antibiotic (+)-duocarmycin SA (1), is reported. A key step in the synthesis is the palladium -catalyzed carbonylation of aryl bromide 7 to give the benzyl ester 16, which is transformed into the new seco-CBI derivative, 21 bearing a carboxylic acid ester moiety. Subsequent transformation of 21 into an activated ester followed by the introduction of beta-alanine and tetragastrin led to the new pentagastrin drug 3 that contains a peptide moiety for targeting cancer cells expressing CCK-B/gastrin receptors
Synthesis and Biological Studies of Different Duocarmycin Based Glycosidic Prodrugs for Their Use in the Antibody-Directed Enzyme Prodrug Therapy
The synthesis and biological evaluation of novel prodrugs for use in the antibody directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT) of cancer based on the cytotoxic antibiotic duocarmycin SA (1) are described. In this approach, we investigated the influence of the sugar moiety of the glycosidic prodrug on the QIC(50) values as well as on the stability and the water solubility. The best result was found for prodrug 22 containing an alpha-mannoside moiety with a QIC(50) value of 4500
Investigation of the transformations of a novel anti-cancer agent combining HPLC, HPLC–MS and direct ESI–HRMS analyses
One of the main problems of anti-cancer therapy is an insufficient differentiation between normal and malignant cells by the known anti-proliferant agents. The antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy is a promising approach for a selective treatment of cancer, in which a non-toxic prodrug is enzymatically converted into a highly cytotoxic drug at the surface of malignant cells by a targeted antibody-enzyme conjugate. The transformations and the stability of a very promising novel prodrug and its corresponding cytotoxic derivative were now investigated in detail by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-mass spectrometry (MS). In order to determine the time-dependent DNA alkylation efficiency and the sequence selectivity of the novel compounds, DNA binding studies using direct electrospray-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance-MS (ESI-FTICR-MS) have been performed. These measurements were accompanied by HPLC analyses followed by MS of the separated species to confirm the results of the direct ESI-FTICR-MS measurements. The sites of DNA alkylation could be identified unambiguously by the mass spectrometric fragmentation pattern of the alkylated oligodeoxynucleotides as well as by the results of HPLC followed by MS. A combination of all techniques applied led to a better understanding of the mode of action of the new therapeutics and might be used for an estimation of the cytotoxicity of different prodrugs and drugs since the alkylation efficiency correlates with the bioactivity of the compounds in cell culture investigations
Glycosidic Prodrugs of Highly Potent Bifunctional Duocarmycin Derivatives for Selective Treatment of Cancer
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; Fonds der Chemischen Industri
Selective treatment of cancer: Synthesis, biological evaluation and structural elucidation of novel analogues of the antibiotic CC-1065 and the duocarmycins
Novel diastereomerically pure beta-D-galactosidic prodrugs (+)-12a-e of the cytotoxic antibiotics CC-1065 and the duocarmycins were prepared for an antibody directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT) using 4 as a substrate via a radical cyclization to give rac-5 and rac-6 followed by a chromatographic resolution of the enantiomers of rac-5, glycosidation and linkage to the DNA-binding units 10a-e. These only slightly toxic compounds can be toxified enzymatically by an antibody-p-D-galactosidase conjugate at the surface of malignant cells to give the cytotoxic drugs, which then alkylate DNA. The new prodrugs were tested in in vitro cytotoxicity assays showing excellent QIC(50) values of 4800 and 4300 for (+)-12a and (+)-12b, respectively. The absolute configuration of precursor (+)-5 was determined by comparison of the experimental CD spectrum with the theoretically predicted CD spectra and by X-ray structure analysis
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