This review focuses on the chemical and enzymatic aspects of the reductive activation of mitomycin C, its disulfide analogs KW-2149 and BMS-181174, and, in less detail, FR66979 and FR900482, newly discovered antitumor antibiotics related to mitomycins. Furthermore, structural aspects of DNA damage induced by these drugs in vitro and in vivo are described, including the chemical and conformational characteristics of DNA interstrand and intrastrand cross-links and monofunctional alkylation products, with emphasis on DNA adducts of mitomycin C. The DNA sequence specificity of the damage and its mechanism is reviewed. The relationship between the chemical and structural properties of the DNA damage on the one hand, and the antitumor and other biological activities of the mitomycins on the other, is discussed.

Alkylation↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Antisense sequence-directed cross-linking of DNA oligonucleotides by mitomycin C.

Oligodeoxyribonucleotides (ODNs) conjugated with mitomycin C (MC) via (-CH2-)n tethers of different lengths (n = 6, 12) to their terminal 5'-phosphate were synthesized, and their interaction with target complementary single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides was investigated. MC, a clinically used natural anticancer drug, is known to act as a bioreductive alkylating agent of duplex DNA with a remarkable preference for 5'-d(CG) sequences. The usual enzymatic bioreductive techniques known to trigger MC to alkylate DNA were employed in the reaction between the MC-oligonucleotide conjugates and their targets radiolabeled by 32P at their 5'-phosphate. A slow-moving radiolabeled product, detected by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis using phosphorimaging techniques, was obtained in 15-25% yield with complementary DNA as target. Formation of these products was dependent upon complementary duplex formation. Evidence is presented that the DNA target is alkylated by the mitomycin C moiety of the ODN conjugate at the 2-amino group of a guanine base. These findings suggest that the MC-ODN conjugates may be useful specific inhibitors of cellular or viral gene expression. To our knowledge this is the first report on ODN conjugates of a reductively activated drug of known therapeutic value.

Base Sequence↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Conjugation of glutathione and other thiols with bioreductively activated mitomycin C. Effect of thiols on the reductive activation rate.

Mitomycin C (MC), a clinically used natural antitumor agent, was shown to form three monoconjugates (11a-13a) and two bisconjugates (14a, 15a) with GSH upon reductive activation by rat liver microsomes, purified NADPH-cytochrome c reductase, or NADH-cytochrome c reductase or chemical reduction using H2/PtO2. Rat liver cytosol/NADH activated MC only at acidic pH (5.8), resulting in the formation of a single GSH-MC monoconjugate, 13a. The reductase responsible for cytosolic activation of MC to form this conjugate was DT-diaphorase. GSH itself did not reduce MC, and unreduced MC did not form conjugates with GSH. A moderate catalytic effect by glutathione S-transferase was demonstrated on the cytosol-activated reaction. Mercaptoethanol and N-acetylcysteine gave analogous sets of five MC-thiol conjugates under cytochrome c reductase or H2/PtO2 activation conditions. The structures of all 15 MC-thiol conjugates (five each with GSH, mercaptoethanol, and N-acetylcysteine, respectively) were determined, using 1H-NMR, UV, and mass spectroscopies, combined with analytical chemical and radiolabeling methods. The mechanism of formation of the conjugates features SN2 displacement of the carbamate of the reduced MC by GS-. The MC-GSH conjugates were noncytotoxic to the tumor cells tested. The conjugation of GSH with activated MC is likely to represent detoxication in mammalian cells. As another effect, GSH accelerates the rate of reduction of MC by "slow" reducing agents such as cytochrome c reductases and H2/PtO2. A mechanism is proposed to explain this effect, which involves further reduction of the initially formed MC semiquinone free radical by GSH.

Acetylcysteine↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of glutathione on alkylation and cross-linking of DNA by mitomycin C. Isolation of a ternary glutathione-mitomycin-DNA adduct.

Mitomycin C (MC), a clinically used antitumor antibiotic, is known to alkylate DNA monofunctionally, and to generate DNA interstrand cross-links by bifunctional alkylation. Both processes are dependent on the reductive activation of MC. Glutathione (GSH) was shown here to cause three types of changes in the pattern of alkylation of DNA by MC: (i) GSH caused a decrease of both the overall covalent binding ratio of MC to Micrococcus luteus DNA and the extent of interstrand cross-linking of 32P-pBR322 DNA, as the concentration of GSH was increased in the reaction media. Approximately 50% inhibition of cross-linking was observed at 20 mM GSH. It is likely that the inhibition is caused by the formation of MC-GSH conjugates competing with DNA alkylation, since both processes are triggered by reductive activation of MC [Sharma, M., and Tomasz, M. (1994) Chem. Res. Toxicol. (preceding paper in this issue)]. (ii) GSH causes a switch from monofunctional to bifunctional activation of MC by the prototype "monofunctional" MC-activating agents H2/PtO2 and NADPH:cytochrome c reductase/NADPH. This was seen by the predominance of bisadducts (i.e., cross-linked adducts) instead of the usual monoadducts in the enzymatic digests of MC-DNA complexes formed in the presence of GSH, as analyzed by HPLC. This finding suggests that GSH participates in the bifunctional activation of MC in vivo. (iii) A ternary MC-GSH-DNA adduct (6) was formed in the presence of GSH both with M. luteus DNA and with a synthetic duplex oligonucleotide; in this adduct the mitosene C1 is linked to N2 of guanine and the mitosene C10 is linked to GSH via sulfur.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Alkylation↗