Natural Products and Their Derivatives as Inhibitors of the DNA Repair Enzyme Tyrosyl-DNA Phosphodiesterase 1

Tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 1 (TDP1) is an important repair enzyme that removes various covalent adducts from the 3' end of DNA. Particularly, covalent complexes of topoisomerase 1 (TOP1) with DNA stabilized by DNA damage or by various chemical agents are an examples of such adducts. Anticancer drugs such as the TOP1 poisons topotecan and irinotecan are responsible for the stabilization of these complexes. TDP1 neutralizes the effect of these anticancer drugs, eliminating the DNA adducts. Therefore, the inhibition of TDP1 can sensitize tumor cells to the action of TOP1 poisons. This review contains information about methods for determining the TDP1 activity, as well as describing the inhibitors of these enzyme derivatives of natural biologically active substances, such as aminoglycosides, nucleosides, polyphenolic compounds, and terpenoids. Data on the efficiency of combined inhibition of TOP1 and TDP1 in vitro and in vivo are presented.

Chemotherapeutic Drugs Inhibiting Topoisomerase 1 Activity Impede Cytokine-Induced and NF-κB p65-Regulated Gene Expression

Inhibitors of DNA topoisomerase I (TOP1), an enzyme relieving torsional stress of DNA by generating transient single-strand breaks, are clinically used to treat ovarian, small cell lung and cervical cancer. As torsional stress is generated during transcription by progression of RNA polymerase II through the transcribed gene, we tested the effects of camptothecin and of the approved TOP1 inhibitors Topotecan and SN-38 on TNFα-induced gene expression. RNA-seq experiments showed that inhibition of TOP1 but not of TOP2 activity suppressed the vast majority of TNFα-triggered genes. The TOP1 effects were fully reversible and preferentially affected long genes. TNFα stimulation led to inducible recruitment of TOP1 to the gene body of IL8, where its inhibition by camptothecin reduced transcription elongation and also led to altered histone H3 acetylation. Together, these data show that TOP1 inhibitors potently suppress expression of proinflammatory cytokines, a feature that may contribute to the increased infection risk occurring in tumor patients treated with these agents. On the other hand, TOP1 inhibitors could also be considered as a therapeutic option in order to interfere with exaggerated cytokine expression seen in several inflammatory diseases.