Physicochemical interaction of antitumor acridinone derivatives with DNA in view of QSAR studies

The acridinone derivatives with antitumor activity and ability with respect to noncovalent DNA binding were investigated for their quantitative structure–activity relationships (QSAR). Multiple regression analysis was used to model relationships between molecular descriptors and antileukemia activity, or between molecular descriptors and DNA-duplexes stabilization. Studies were performed on molecular modeling using HyperChem and Dragon computer programs, and molecular geometry optimization using MM+ molecular mechanics and semi-empirical AM1 method. Two multiple regression equations were derived and characterized as good and with statistically significant correlations, R = 0.9384 and R = 0.8388, for quantitative structure–antitumor activity relationships and quantitative structure–ability to DNA-duplexes stabilization relationships, respectively. Moreover, hydrophobic and total molecular symmetry properties are important for antitumor activity of acridinone derivatives, and electronic and topological properties are important for physicochemical (noncovalent) DNA-duplexes stabilization of these compounds. The obtained equations can be used for prediction of acridinone derivatives’ activity and their ability to noncovalent interaction with DNA which, as it was shown earlier, play important role in the antitumor mechanism of action of these compounds.

The COXEN principle: translating signatures of in vitro chemosensitivity into tools for clinical outcome prediction and drug discovery in cancer

Substantial effort has been devoted to in vitro testing of candidate chemotherapeutic agents. In particular, the United States National Cancer Institute Developmental Therapeutics Program (NCI-DTP) Human Tumor Cell Line Screen has screened hundreds of thousands of compounds and extracts, for which data on more than 40,000 compounds tested on a panel of 60 cancer cell lines (NCI-60) are publically available. In tandem, gene expression profiling has brought about a sea change in our understanding of cancer biology, allowing discovery of biomarkers or signatures able to characterize, classify, and prognosticate clinical behavior of human tumors. Recent studies have used tumor profiling matched to clinical trial outcome data to derive gene expression models predicting therapeutic outcomes, though such efforts are costly, time-consuming, tumor type-specific, and not amenable to rare diseases. Furthermore, addition of new or established drugs to multidrug combinations in which such models are already available requires the entire model to be re-derived. Can the aforementioned in vitro testing platform, coupled to the universal language of genomics, be used to develop, a priori, gene expression models predictive of clinical outcomes? Recent advances, including the CO-eXpression ExtrapolatioN (COXEN) algorithm, suggest that development of these models may be possible and raise important implications for future trial design and drug discovery.

Structural determinants of imidazoacridinones facilitating antitumor activity are crucial for substrate recognition by ABCG2

Symadex is the lead acridine compound of a novel class of imidazoacridinones (IAs) currently undergoing phase II clinical trials for the treatment of various cancers. Recently, we have shown that Symadex is extruded by ABCG2-overexpressing lung cancer A549/K1.5 cells, thereby resulting in a marked resistance to certain IAs. To identify the IA residues essential for substrate recognition by ABCG2, we here explored the ability of ABCG2 to extrude and confer resistance to a series of 23 IAs differing at defined residue(s) surrounding their common 10-azaanthracene structure. Taking advantage of the inherent fluorescent properties of IAs, ABCG2-dependent efflux and drug resistance were determined in A549/K1.5 cells using flow cytometry in the presence or absence of fumitremorgin C, a specific ABCG2 transport inhibitor. We find that a hydroxyl group at one of the R1, R2, or R3 positions in the proximal IA ring was essential for ABCG2-mediated efflux and consequent IA resistance. Moreover, elongation of the common distal aliphatic side chain attenuated ABCG2-dependent efflux, thereby resulting in the retention of parental cell sensitivity. Hence, the current study offers novel molecular insight into the structural determinants that facilitate ABCG2-mediated drug efflux and consequent drug resistance using a unique platform of fluorescent IAs. Moreover, these results establish that the IA determinants mediating cytotoxicity are precisely those that facilitate ABCG2-dependent drug efflux and IA resistance. The possible clinical implications for the future design of novel acridines that overcome ABCG2-dependent multidrug resistance are discussed.