Beschreibung: Background To evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of copanlisib, a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor, in patients with advanced solid tumors or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Patients and methods Phase I dose-escalation study including patients with advanced solid tumors or NHL, and a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Patients received three weekly intravenous infusions of copanlisib per 28-day cycle over the dose range 0.1–1.2 mg/kg. Plasma copanlisib levels were analyzed for pharmacokinetics. Biomarker analysis included PIK3CA , KRAS , BRAF , and PTEN mutational status and PTEN immunohistochemistry. Whole-body [ 18 F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography ( 18 FDG-PET) was carried out at baseline and following the first dose to assess early pharmacodynamic effects. Plasma glucose and insulin levels were evaluated serially. Results Fifty-seven patients received treatment. The MTD was 0.8 mg/kg copanlisib. The most frequent treatment-related adverse events were nausea and transient hyperglycemia. Copanlisib exposure was dose-proportional with no accumulation; peak exposure positively correlated with transient hyperglycemia post-infusion. Sixteen of 20 patients treated at the MTD had reduced 18 FDG-PET uptake; 7 (33%) had a reduction 〉25%. One patient achieved a complete response (CR; endometrial carcinoma exhibiting both PIK3CA and PTEN mutations and complete PTEN loss) and two had a partial response (PR; both metastatic breast cancer). Among the nine NHL patients, all six with follicular lymphoma (FL) responded (one CR and five PRs) and one patient with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma had a PR by investigator assessment; two patients with FL who achieved CR (per post hoc independent radiologic review) were on treatment 〉3 years. Conclusion Copanlisib, dosed intermittently on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28-day cycle, was well tolerated and the MTD was determined to be 0.8 mg/kg. Copanlisib exhibited dose-proportional pharmacokinetics and promising anti-tumor activity, particularly in patients with NHL. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00962611; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00962611 .

Beschreibung: Background Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) play important roles in multiple cancers by supporting tumor growth and angiogenesis. FP-1039 (GSK3052230) is a FGF ligand trap consisting of the extracellular domain of FGF receptor 1 (FGFR1) fused with the Fc region of IgG 1 . FP-1039 binds and neutralizes multiple FGFs that normally bind FGFR1. The primary objective of this phase I study was to evaluate the safety and tolerability of FP-1039. Patients and methods Eligible patients with metastatic or locally advanced solid tumors for which standard treatments were ineffective were treated with weekly doses of FP-1039 for 4 weeks, followed by 2 weeks observation. Results Thirty-nine subjects received a mean of 6 infusions of FP-1039 at doses ranging from 0.5 to 16 mg/kg weekly, with no maximally tolerated dose identified. Grade 3 or greater treatment emergent adverse events were uncommon. Four dose-limiting toxicities were reported at doses of 0.75 mg/kg (urticaria), 1 mg/kg (intestinal perforation and neutropenia), and 16 mg/kg (muscular weakness). Drug exposure was dose proportional, and the terminal elimination half-life was 2.6–3.9 days following a single dose. Target engagement as measured by low free plasma FGF2 levels was achieved. FGF pathway dysregulation was uncommon. No objective responses were observed. Conclusion In nonselected cancer patients with advanced disease, treatment with FP-1039 was well tolerated and toxicities associated with small molecule drugs that inhibit FGFR tyrosine kinases, including hyperphosphatemia, were not observed. Further studies of FP-1039 in patients selected for FGF pathway dysregulation, who are most likely to benefit, are now underway.

Beschreibung: Non-proliferating cells oxidize respiratory substrates in mitochondria to generate a protonmotive force (Δp) that drives ATP synthesis. The mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ), a component of Δp, drives release of mitochondrial ATP4− in exchange for cytosolic ADP3− via the electrogenic adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT) located in the mitochondrial inner membrane, which leads to a high cytosolic ATP/ADP ratio up to 〉100-fold greater than matrix ATP/ADP. In rat hepatocytes, ANT inhibitors, bongkrekic acid (BA), and carboxyatractyloside (CAT), and the F1FO-ATP synthase inhibitor, oligomycin (OLIG), inhibited ureagenesis-induced respiration. However, in several cancer cell lines, OLIG but not BA and CAT inhibited respiration. In hepatocytes, respiratory inhibition did not collapse ΔΨ until OLIG, BA, or CAT was added. Similarly, in cancer cells OLIG and 2-deoxyglucose, a glycolytic inhibitor, depolarized mitochondria after respiratory inhibition, which showed that mitochondrial hydrolysis of glycolytic ATP maintained ΔΨ in the absence of respiration in all cell types studied. However in cancer cells, BA, CAT, and knockdown of the major ANT isoforms, ANT2 and ANT3, did not collapse ΔΨ after respiratory inhibition. These findings indicated that ANT did mediate mitochondrial ATP/ADP exchange in cancer cells. We propose that suppression of ANT contributes to low cytosolic ATP/ADP, activation of glycolysis, and a Warburg metabolic phenotype in proliferating cells.

Beschreibung: VOLUME 291 (2016) PAGES 19642–19650During the copyediting of this article, an error was introduced in the abstract. “These findings indicated that ANT did mediate mitochondrial ATP/ADP exchange in cancer cells” should read as follows: “These findings indicated that ANT was not mediating mitochondrial ATP/ADP exchange in cancer cells.”

Beschreibung: Respiratory substrates and adenine nucleotides cross the mitochondrial outer membrane through the voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC), comprising three isoforms — VDAC1, 2, and 3. We characterized the role of individual isoforms in mitochondrial metabolism by HepG2 human hepatoma cells using siRNA. With VDAC3 to the greatest extent, all VDAC isoforms contributed to the maintenance of mitochondrial membrane potential, but only VDAC3 knockdown decreased ATP, ADP, NAD(P)H, and mitochondrial redox state. Cells expressing predominantly VDAC3 were least sensitive to depolarization induced by increased free tubulin. In planar lipid bilayers, free tubulin inhibited VDAC1 and VDAC2 but not VDAC3. Erastin, a compound that interacts with VDAC, blocked and reversed mitochondrial depolarization after microtubule destabilizers in intact cells and antagonized tubulin-induced VDAC blockage in planar bilayers. In conclusion, free tubulin inhibits VDAC1/2 and limits mitochondrial metabolism in HepG2 cells, contributing to the Warburg phenomenon. Reversal of tubulin-VDAC interaction by erastin antagonizes Warburg metabolism and restores oxidative mitochondrial metabolism.

Beschreibung: Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a major repair pathway that recognizes and corrects various lesions in cellular DNA. We hypothesize that damage recognition is an initial step in NER that senses conformational anomalies in the DNA caused by lesions. We prepared three DNA duplexes containing the carcinogen adduct N -(2'-deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-7-fluoro-2-acetylaminofluorene (FAAF) at G 1 , G 2 or G 3 of Nar I sequence (5'-CCG 1 G 2 CG 3 CC-3'). Our 19 F-NMR/ICD results showed that FAAF at G 1 and G 3 prefer syn S- and W-conformers, whereas anti B-conformer was predominant for G 2 . We found that the repair of FAAF occurs in a conformation-specific manner, i.e. the highly S/W-conformeric G 3 and -G 1 duplexes incised more efficiently than the B-type G 2 duplex (G 3 ~G 1 〉 G 2 ). The melting and thermodynamic data indicate that the S- and W-conformers produce greater DNA distortion and thermodynamic destabilization. The N -deacetylated N -(2'-deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-7-fluoro-2-aminofluorene (FAF) adducts in the same Nar I sequence are repaired 2- to 3-fold less than FAAF: however, the incision efficiency was in order of G 2 ~G 1 〉 G 3 , a reverse trend of the FAAF case. We have envisioned the so-called N -acetyl factor as it could raise conformational barriers of FAAF versus FAF. The present results provide valuable conformational insight into the sequence-dependent UvrABC incisions of the bulky aminofluorene DNA adducts.

Beschreibung: The environmental arylamine mutagens are implicated in the etiology of various sporadic human cancers. Arylamine-modified dG lesions were studied in two fully paired 11-mer duplexes with a -G*C N - sequence context, in which G* is a C8-substituted dG adduct derived from fluorinated analogs of 4-aminobiphenyl (FABP), 2-aminofluorene (FAF) or 2-acetylaminofluorene (FAAF), and N is either dA or dT. The FABP and FAF lesions exist in a simple mixture of ‘stacked’ (S) and ‘B-type’ (B) conformers, whereas the N -acetylated FAAF also samples a ‘wedge’ (W) conformer. FAAF is repaired three to four times more efficiently than FABP and FAF. A simple A- to -T polarity swap in the G*C A /G*C T transition produced a dramatic increase in syn -conformation and resulted in 2- to 3-fold lower nucleotide excision repair (NER) efficiencies in Escherichia coli . These results indicate that lesion-induced DNA bending/thermodynamic destabilization is an important DNA damage recognition factor, more so than the local S/B-conformational heterogeneity that was observed previously for FAF and FAAF in certain sequence contexts. This work represents a novel 3'-next flanking sequence effect as a unique NER factor for bulky arylamine lesions in E. coli .

Beschreibung: Eya proteins are essential co-activators of the Six family of transcription factors and contain a unique tyrosine phosphatase domain belonging to the haloacid dehalogenase family of phosphatases. The phosphatase activity of Eya is important for the transcription of a subset of Six1-target genes, and also directs cells to the repair rather than apoptosis pathway upon DNA damage. Furthermore, Eya phosphatase activity has been shown to mediate transformation, invasion, migration, and metastasis of breast cancer cells, making it a potential new drug target for breast cancer. We have previously identified a class of N-arylidenebenzohydrazide compounds that specifically inhibit the Eya2 phosphatase. Herein, we demonstrate that these compounds are reversible inhibitors that selectively inhibit the phosphatase activity of Eya2, but not Eya3. Our mutagenesis results suggest that this class of compounds does not bind to the active site and the binding does not require the coordination with Mg2+. Moreover, these compounds likely bind within a site on the opposite face of the active site, and function as allosteric inhibitors. We also demonstrate that this class of compounds inhibits Eya2 phosphatase-mediated cell migration, setting the foundation for these molecules to be developed into chemical probes for understanding the specific function of the Eya2 phosphatase and to serve as a prototype for the development of Eya2 phosphatase specific anti-cancer drugs.

Beschreibung: Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a dominantly inherited neuromuscular disorder resulting from expression of RNA containing an expanded CUG repeat (CUG exp ). The pathogenic RNA is retained in nuclear foci. Poly-(CUG) binding proteins in the Muscleblind-like (MBNL) family are sequestered in foci, causing misregulated alternative splicing of specific pre-mRNAs. Inhibitors of MBNL1-CUG exp binding have been shown to restore splicing regulation and correct phenotypes in DM1 models. We therefore conducted a high-throughput screen to identify novel inhibitors of MBNL1-(CUG) 12 binding. The most active compound was lomofungin, a natural antimicrobial agent. We found that lomofungin undergoes spontaneous dimerization in DMSO, producing dilomofungin, whose inhibition of MBNL1–(CUG) 12 binding was 17-fold more potent than lomofungin itself. However, while dilomofungin displayed the desired binding characteristics in vitro , when applied to cells it produced a large increase of CUG exp RNA in nuclear foci, owing to reduced turnover of the CUG exp transcript. By comparison, the monomer did not induce CUG exp accumulation in cells and was more effective at rescuing a CUG exp -induced splicing defect. These results support the feasibility of high-throughput screens to identify compounds targeting toxic RNA, but also demonstrate that ligands for repetitive sequences may have unexpected effects on RNA decay.

Beschreibung: Background This phase Ib trial investigated the safety, tolerability, and recommended phase II dose and schedule of the MEK inhibitor trametinib in combination with the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor everolimus. Secondary objectives included pharmacokinetic (PK) characterization and evaluation of clinical activity. Patients and methods A total of 67 patients with advanced solid tumors were enrolled in this open-label, single-arm, dose-escalation study. Dose escalation followed a 3 + 3 design. Patients were assigned to one of 10 different cohorts, involving either daily dosing with both agents or daily dosing with trametinib and intermittent everolimus dosing. This included an expansion cohort comprising patients with pancreatic tumors. PKs samples were collected predose, as well as 1, 2, 4, and 6 h post-dose on day 15 of the first treatment cycle. Results Concurrent treatment with trametinib and everolimus resulted in frequent treatment-related adverse events, including mucosal inflammation (40%), stomatitis (25%), fatigue (54%), and diarrhea (42%). PK assessment did not suggest drug–drug interactions between these two agents. Of the 67 enrolled patients, 5 (7%) achieved partial response (PR) to treatment and 21 (31%) displayed stable disease (SD). Among the 21 patients with pancreatic cancer, PR was observed in 1 patient (5%) and SD in 6 patients (29%). Conclusions This study was unable to identify a recommended phase II dose and schedule of trametinib in combination with everolimus that provided an acceptable tolerability and adequate drug exposure.