T Andoh

The mechanism of inhibition of eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase II [DNA topoisomerase (ATP-hydrolyzing), EC 5.99.1.3] by a member of the bisdioxopiperazine family of anticancer drugs, ICRF-193, was investigated by using purified yeast DNA topoisomerase II. In the absence of ATP, ICRF-193 has little effect on the binding of the enzyme to various forms of DNA. In the presence of ATP, the drug converts the enzyme to a form incapable of binding circular DNA. Incubation of a preformed circular DNA-enzyme complex with ICRF-193 and ATP converts the complex to a form stable in molar concentrations of salt. These results can be interpreted in terms of the ATP-modulated protein-clamp model of type II DNA topoisomerases [Roca, J. & Wang, J. C. (1992) Cell 71, 833-840]; ICRF-193 can bind to the closed-clamp form of the enzyme and prevents its conversion to the open-clamp form. This interpretation is further supported by the finding that whereas both ATP and the drug are needed to form the salt-stable circular DNA-enzyme complex, ATP is not needed for maintaining this complex; furthermore, a signature of the closed-clamp form of the enzyme, Staphylococcus aureus strain V8 endoproteinase cleavage site at Glu-680, is observed if the enzyme is incubated with both ATP and ICRF-193. Inhibition of interconversion between the open- and closed-clamp forms of type II DNA topoisomerases offers a new mechanism in the selection and design of therapeutics targeting this class of enzymes.

Several recently developed derivatives of bis(2,6-dioxopiperazine) have been shown to be new antitumor agents and are currently under clinical trials. We found that the mother compound of the bis(2,6-dioxopiperazine)s, ICRF-154, and its derivatives, ICRF-159, ICRF-193, and MST-16, are all inhibitors of mammalian type II DNA topoisomerase. By decatenation assay using kinetoplast DNA from Crithidia fasciculata, inhibition of purified calf thymus topoisomerase II by these compounds was investigated. Potency of inhibition was in the following order: ICRF-193 greater than ICRF-154 = ICRF-159 greater than MST-16. The doses giving 50% inhibition were 2, 13, 30 and 300 microM, respectively, for these compounds. ICRF-193, the most potent inhibitor, however, did not inhibit topoisomerase I at concentrations up to 300 microM. Addition of excess enzyme, but not of the substrate DNA, overcame the inhibition by ICRF-193. The drug did not stimulate the formation of cleavable complex between DNA and the enzyme. Furthermore, ICRF-193 even inhibited the formation of enzyme-mediated DNA cleavage induced by etoposide or 4'-[9-acridinylamino)methanesulfon-m-anisidide. These observations, together with the finding that ICRF-193 did not intercalate into DNA, suggest that ICRF-154 and related compounds are specific inhibitors of topoisomerase II with different modes of action: i.e., they interfere with some step(s) before the formation of the intermediate cleavable complex in the catalytic cycle. This is a property quite distinct from previously known cleavable complex-forming type topoisomerase II-targeting antitumor agents such as acridines, anthracyclines, and epipodophyllotoxins, but rather, mechanistically similar to the recently reported group of inhibitors that includes merbarone, aclarubicin, and fostriecin.

DNA topoisomerase I was purified to near homogeneity from a clonal line of human lymphoblastic leukemia cells, RPMI 8402, that is resistant to camptothecin, a cytotoxic alkaloid from Camptotheca acuminata, and compared with that of the parent wild-type cells. As assayed by relaxation of the supercoiled plasmid DNA and by formation of enzyme-linked DNA breaks, the purified enzyme from the resistant cells was shown to be greater than 125-fold as resistant to camptothecin as the wild-type enzyme, comparable to a cellular resistance index of about 300. Therefore, the cellular resistance appears to be due to the resistance of the enzyme. The amount of the immunoreactive enzyme protein in whole extract appeared to be reduced to less than half that of the wild-type enzyme. These results establish that DNA topoisomerase I is the cellular target of camptothecin and that DNA topoisomerase I is essential for the survival of mammalian cells.

ICRF-193, a novel noncleavable, complex-stabilizing type topoisomerase (topo) II inhibitor, has been shown to target topo II in mammalian cells (Ishida, R., T. Miki, T. Narita, R. Yui, S. Sato, K. R. Utsumi, K. Tanabe, and T. Andoh. 1991. Cancer Res. 51:4909-4916). With the aim of elucidating the roles of topo II in mammalian cells, we examined the effects of ICRF-193 on the transition through the S phase, when the genome is replicated, and through the M phase, when the replicated genome is condensed and segregated. Replication of the genome did not appear to be affected by the drug because the scheduled synthesis of DNA and activation of cdc2 kinase followed by increase in mitotic index occurred normally, while VP-16, a cleavable, complex-stabilizing type topo II inhibitor, inhibited all these processes. In the M phase, however, late stages of chromosome condensation and segregation were clearly blocked by ICRF-193. Inhibition at the stage of compaction of 300-nm diameter chromatin fibers to 600-nm diameter chromatids was demonstrated using the drug during premature chromosome condensation (PCC) induced in tsBN2 baby hamster kidney cells in early S and G2 phases. In spite of interference with M phase chromosome dynamics, other mitotic events such as activation of cdc2 kinase, spindle apparatus reorganization and disassembly and reassembly of nuclear envelopes occurred, and the cells traversed an unusual M phase termed "absence of chromosome segregation" (ACS)-M phase. Cells then continued through further cell cycle rounds, becoming polyploid and losing viability. This effect of ICRF-193 on the cell cycle was shown to parallel that of inactivation of topo II on the cell cycle of the ts top2 mutant yeast. The results strongly suggest that the essential roles of topo II are confined to the M phase, when the enzyme decatenates intertwined replicated chromosomes. In other phases of the cycle, including the S phase, topo II may thus play a complementary role with topo I in controlling the torsional strain accumulated in various genetic processes.