Laurence Hurley

PMID: 11814348;Abstract:

Bizelesin is the first anticancer drug capable of damaging specific regions of the genome with clusters of its binding sites T(A/T)4A. This study characterized the sequence- and region-specificity of a bizelesin analogue, U-78779, designed to interact with mixed A/T-G/C motifs. At the nucleotide level, U-78779 was found to prefer runs of A/Ts interspersed with 1 or 2 G/C pairs, although 25% of the identified sites corresponded to pure AT motifs similar to bizelesin sites. The in silico computational analysis showed that the preferred mixed A/T-G/C motifs distribute uniformly at the genomic level. In contrast, the secondary, pure AT motifs (A/T)6A were found densely clustered in the same long islands of AT-rich DNA that bizelesin targets. Mapping the sites and quantitating the frequencies of U-78779 adducts in model AT island and non-AT island naked DNAs demonstrated that clusters of pure AT motifs outcompete isolated mixed A/T-G/C sites in attracting drug binding. Regional preference of U-78779 for AT island domains was verified also in DNA from drug-treated cells. Thus, while the primary sequence preference gives rise to non-region-specific scattered lesions, the clustering of the minor pure AT binding motifs seems to determine region-specificity of U-78779 in the human genome. The closely correlated cytotoxic activities of U-78779 and bizelesin in several cell lines further imply that both drugs may share common cellular targets. This study underscores the significance of the genome factor in a drug's potential for region-specific DNA damage, by showing that it can take precedence over drug binding preferences at the nucleotide level.

PMID: 7217948;Abstract:

Reaction of anthramycin 11-methyl ether (AME) with trifluoroacetic acid results in formation of (1,11a)-didehydroanhydroanthramycin (DAA). Anthramycin biosynthetically labelled from DL-[3′RS(3′-³H)]; DL-[3′S(3′-³H)] and DL-[3′R(3′-³H)]tyrosine each lose approximately 50% of their tritium during this conversion to DAA confirming the labelling pattern of 3′-tritiated species of tyrosine in AME. As expected negligible losses of tritium occurred from AME biosynthetically labelled from L-[2- or 6-³H] or L-[3- or 5-³H]tyrosine. DAA did not form a stable adduct with DNA in accord with the postulated mechanism of action of anthramycin.

PMID: 16275994;Abstract:

Psorospermin is a natural product that has been shown to have activity against drug-resistant leukemia lines and AIDS-related lymphoma. It has also been shown to alkylate DNA through an epoxide-mediated electrophilic attack, and this alkylation is greatly enhanced at specific sites by topoisomerase II. In this article, we describe the synthesis of the two diastereomers of O⁵-methyl psorospermin and their in vitro activity against a range of solid and hematopoietic tumors. The diastereomeric pair (±)-(2′ R,3′ R) having the naturally occurring enantiomer (2′ R,3′ R) is the most active across all the cell lines and shows approximately equal activity in both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant cell lines. In subsequent studies using all four enantiomers of O⁵-methyl psorospermin, the order of biological potency is (2′ R,3′ R) > (2′ R,3′ S) = (2′ S,3′ R) > (2′ S,3′ S). This order of potency is also found in the topoisomerase II-induced alkylation of O⁵-methyl psorospermin and can be rationalized by molecular modeling of the psorospermin-duplex binding complex. Therefore, this study defines the optimum stereochemical requirements for both the topoisomerase II-induced alkylation of DNA and the biological activity by psorospermin and its O⁵-methyl derivatives. Finally, (2′ R,3′ R) psorospermin was found to be as effective as gemcitabine in slowing tumor growth in vivo in a MiaPaCa pancreatic cancer model. In addition, (2′ R,3′ R) psorospermin in combination with gemcitabine was found to show an at least additive effect in slowing tumor growth of MiaPaCa. Copyright © 2005 American Association for Cancer Research.

PMID: 15828838;Abstract:

The antileukemic xanthone psorospermin is a topoisomerase II-dependent DNA alkylator in advanced preclinical development. Efforts have been made to further understand the structural requirements of its mechanism of action through the synthesis of ring-constrained analogues, based on the skeleton of the bisfuranoxanthone natural products. Molecules were designed that contain the bisfuran and xanthone portions of naturally occurring psorofebrins, and molecular modeling was used to assess their DNA alkylating potential and to refine the structures. A short, diastereoselective synthetic process to access bisfuranoxanthones was developed, culminating in the first total synthesis of (±)-isohydroxypsorofebrin. Two compounds designed and synthesized were of particular interest, chlorohydrin 7 and epoxide 6, which are reactive analogues of the natural product isohydroxypsorofebrin. The chlorohydrin retains the psorospermin-like DNA alkylation characteristics despite its rigid structure and high innate affinity for DNA. Molecular modeling has been used to rationalize the increased activity of the chlorohydrin. The chlorohydrin and epoxide show increased cytotoxicity compared to isohydroxypsorofebrin against a range of human tumor cell lines. © 2005 American Chemical Society.