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At least 973 records · Page 54Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Role of methotrexate polyglutamylation and cellular energy metabolism in inhibition of methotrexate binding to dihydrofolate reductase by 5-formyltetrahydrofolate in Ehrlich ascites tumor cells in vitro.

5-Formyltetrahydrofolate was found to reverse the binding of methotrexate to dihydrofolate reductase in the Ehrlich ascites tumor in vitro. When cells pretreated with methotrexate were resuspended in methotrexate-free buffer containing 5-formyltetrahydrofolate (or 5-methyltetrahydrofolate), net dissociation of the antifolate from the enzyme was observed. Methotrexate associated with the enzyme under these conditions was below the enzyme binding capacity. However, glucose or azide increased the fraction of dihydrofolate reductase associated with methotrexate and abolished the effect of tetrahydrofolates on this intracellular component. Addition of 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine had no effect on this response to the reduced folate, thereby precluding a direct role for the thymidylate synthase-dependent generation of dihydrofolate in this dissociation of methotrexate from dihydrofolate reductase. Enzyme-bound methotrexate could also be reduced by exposure to 5-formyltetrahydrofolate prior to uptake and efflux of free methotrexate. When cells were incubated under conditions which favored formation of methotrexate polyglutamate derivatives, subsequent treatment with 5-formyltetrahydrofolate had no effect on the binding of the conjugated antifolate to dihydrofolate reductase. These findings support a role for dihydrofolate reductase as a locus for competitive binding interactions between reduced folates and methotrexate that may be a basis for the ability of 5-formyltetrahydrofolate to prevent the biochemical effects of this antifolate. These data suggest that the presence of methotrexate polyglutamate derivatives and cellular energy metabolism may be critical determinants of the responsiveness of methotrexate-treated cells to reduced folates and may play important roles in the selectivity of 5-formyltetrahydrofolate rescue.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

In situ methotrexate polyglutamate formation in rat tissues.

Rats given a single i.p. injection of 10 mg/kg of methotrexate rapidly accumulate drug in several tissues, including liver, kidneys, testes, brain and red cells. Using a tissue extraction procedure which minimizes the breakdown of methotrexate polyglutamate derivatives and molecular sieve high-performance liquid chromatography, we examined the formation of methotrexate polyglutamates in these tissues throughout a period of 1 week after a single dose of drug. Higher polyglutamates (n greater than 3) were found in the brain, liver, kidneys and testes as early as 3 hr. The percentage of methotrexate polyglutamates increases slowly in the liver, kidney, testis and brain during the course of the week, concomitant with a decline of unconjugated tissue methotrexate and a low plasma concentration of drug. This is in contrast to the blood cells, which have little polyglutamate formation and a rapid half-life for methotrexate. The consistently high levels of methotrexate polyglutamate levels found in the liver, kidneys, testes and brain are in agreement with data showing little or no disappearance of methotrexate from these tissues for up to 26 days.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

A methotrexate-resistant human breast cancer cell line with multiple defects, including diminished formation of methotrexate polyglutamates.

Methotrexate (MTX)-resistant human breast cancer cells (MTXR ZR-75) were obtained following serial passage of the wild-type ZR-75-1 cells (wild-type ZR-75) in MTX. The resistant cell line contains neither quantitative nor qualitative changes in dihydrofolate reductase compared to the parental line. Resistance is associated with a 3-fold decrease in MTX transport into MTXR ZR-75 cells as well as a 3-fold decrease in the activity of thymidylate synthetase in the resistant subline. Moreover, marked differences were observed between the wild-type and MTXR ZR-75 cells in their ability to convert MTX to its polyglutamate derivatives. Wild-type ZR-75 cells accumulate significant intracellular levels of antifolates during prolonged (24 h) exposure to 2 microM MTX, due to the formation of MTX polyglutamates. In contrast, essentially no polyglutamates are formed in the MTXR cells even during conditions which result in a vast excess of free intracellular drug in these cells. This defect is not associated with any apparent change in the activity of the enzyme folylpolyglutamyl synthetase, nor is there any alteration in the apparent Km of this enzyme for MTX in the resistant cells. Further studies demonstrate that the MTXR ZR-75 cells are cross-resistant to antifolate analogues which can be converted to polyglutamate derivatives (aminopterin and dichloromethotrexate), yet they are relatively sensitive to antifolate analogues such as 2,4-diamino-5-(3',4'-dichlorophenyl)-6-methylpyrimidine, triazinate, and trimetrexate, which cannot be converted to polyglutamate forms. These studies identify a new mechanism (diminished accumulation of MTX polyglutamates) associated with resistance to MTX and lend additional support to the hypothesis that the formation of these derivatives is an important determinant of MTX cytotoxicity.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed1984

Hapten-specific T cell responses to 4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl acetyl. XIV. Carrier requirement for suppressor cell induction.

The carrier requirements for the induction of helper and suppressor T (Ts) cells were compared. Although H-2-linked Ir genes control the development of helper T cells and hapten-specific B cells, they do not influence Ts3 generation. That is, GL phi nonresponder C57BL/6 mice can generate NP-specific Ts3 cells after priming with NP-GL phi. The Ts3 cells generated under these conditions are functionally and phenotypically identical to the NP-specific Ts3 cells previously characterized. Furthermore, these Ts3 populations can be specifically depleted with a monoclonal anti-idiotope antibody prepared against monoclonal anti-NP antibodies. By using related polymers, carrier effects on Ts3 induction were noted. NP-D-GL and NP-Ficoll failed to induce Ts3 cells, whereas NP-L-GL induced this suppressor subset. The data demonstrate that Ts3 induction is independent of the carrier requirements involved in helper T cell induction and is not dependent upon B cell priming. The implications of these results with regard to the mechanisms of Ts3 induction are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

The reticulocytic rat: a model for analysis of methotrexate polyglutamate dynamics in situ.

The metabolism of the antifol methotrexate in rat erythrocytes in order to determine the basis for its persistence in this tissue was investigated. By using molecular sieve high-performance liquid chromatography and a methotrexate radioassay, we have detected methotrexate polyglutamates through the heptaglutamate in red cells of rats given a single i.p. injection of 10 mg/kg of methotrexate. Higher concentrations of methotrexate and its polyglutamates were found in blood from animals made reticulocytic with phenylhydrazine than in normal erythrocytes, lending credence to the hypothesis that red cell methotrexate polyglutamates arise from developing erythrocytes in the marrow. This was borne out in discrete populations of red cells and reticulocytes separated by density centrifugation through Percoll. Reticulocytes also were shown to have no significant gamma-glutamylcarboxypeptidase (conjugase) activity. We present the reticulocytic rat as an in vivo model for studying polyglutamate metabolism.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Differences in constitutive and post-methotrexate folylpolyglutamate synthetase activity in B-lineage and T-lineage leukemia.

Folylpolyglutamate synthetase (FPGS) is responsible for the metabolism of natural folates and a broad range of folate antagonists to polyglutamate derivatives. Recent studies indicated increased accumulation of methotrexate (MTX) polyglutamates (MTX-PG) in blast cells as a predictor of favorable treatment outcome in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). We determined the expression of FPGS activity in blasts from children with ALL at diagnosis and after treatment with MTX as a single agent, before conventional remission induction therapy. The levels of enzyme activity in ALL blasts at diagnosis (median of 689 pmol/h/mg protein) were significantly higher (P = .003) than those found in acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL) blasts (median of 181 pmol/h/mg protein). Comparable lineage differences in normal lymphoid versus nonlymphoid cells suggest a lineage-specific control of FPGS expression, FPGS activity increased in ALL blasts after in vivo exposure to MTX. The median increase in FPGS activity was significantly higher (P = .003) in B-lineage ALL (188%) than in T-lineage ALL (37%). Likewise, the percentage of intracellular long chain MTX-PG (Glu3-6) was significantly higher (P = .02) in B-lineage ALL (92%) than in T-lineage ALL (65%), consistent with higher FPGS activity in B-lineage blasts. This finding could explain, at least in part, the superior outcome in children with B-lineage ALL treated with antimetabolite therapy.

Burkitt Lymphoma↗
PubMed1993

[Twenty-eight-day repeated dose toxicity test of Ajicoat SPG and Bionole in Wistar rat].

A twenty-eight-day repeated dose toxicity test of Ajicoat at dose levels of 0, 0.05, 0.2 or 1.0% and Bionole at dose levels of 0.2, 1.0, or 5.0% in the feed was carried out in male and female Wistar rats. Three groups, at the dose levels of 1.0% of Ajicoat, 5.0% of Bionole and control groups, were used for investigation of recovery. No animals died during the administration period. There were no significant differences in body weight gain, food consumption and organ weight between the treated and control groups. No specific changes were observed in any parameters of hematological investigations. At doses higher than 1.0% of Ajicost and Bionole groups, a significant increase of BUN value in serum was observed in both sexes. The serum glucose value increased and NEFA value decreased in male at a dose of 1.0% of Ajicoat group. These changes observed at the end of the administration period were no longer detected after the recovery period, suggesting that these effects were reversible. On histopathological examination, no specific changes were observed in the Ajicoat and Bionole treated rats. Based on these results, the no-observed-effect level was 0.2% (174 mg/kg) for both Ajicoat and Bionole.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1995

Acute monocytic leukemia: a myeloid leukemia subset that may be sensitive to methotrexate.

Impaired polyglutamylation of methotrexate (MTX) and thus poor retention is believed to be the basis of intrinsic resistance in blasts from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) to MTX. We studied additional samples from patients with this disease, and confirmed that polyglutamylation of MTX was poor in ANLL blast cells. However, in one subset of ANLL, acute monocytic leukemia, (M5) leukemia blasts were found to be capable of accumulating and forming long-chain MTX polyglutamates. An acute monocytic leukemia cell line, THP-1 also was found to accumulate high levels of MTX polyglutamates and was relatively sensitive to MTX, strengthening the concept that M5 blasts may be sensitive to this drug. MTX may be an overlooked drug for the treatment of acute monocytic leukemia.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Decreased polyglutamylation of methotrexate in acute lymphoblastic leukemia blasts in adults compared to children with this disease.

We compared blast cells from adult and pediatric patients with untreated acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) (as separated groups of T-lineage cell and B-lineage cell ALL) to determine if methotrexate (MTX) polyglutamate formation in adult patients might be a contributing cause to the known difference in clinical outcome, since MTX is a key drug in chemotherapy regimens. Adult B-lineage cell ALL blasts and blasts from the patients with T-lineage cell ALL accumulated lower amounts of total MTX and polyglutamates, especially long-chain MTX polyglutamates (glu3-6) than pediatric B-lineage cell ALL blasts. In view of the importance of polyglutamylation of MTX as a determinant of cytotoxicity of this drug, decreased formation of MTX polyglutamates is likely a contributing cause to the lower cure rate in adult ALL and T-lineage cell ALL as compared to childhood B-lineage cell ALL.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

[Separation of methotrexate-polyglutamates by capillary electrophoresis and its application to the measurement of gamma-glutamyl hydrolase activity in human leukemia cells in culture].

We have applied capillary electrophoresis to the separation of methotrexate (MTX)-polyglutamates, and gamma-glutamyl hydrolase (GGH) activities in tumor cells were measured by using this new analytical method. MTX-polyglutamates were sufficiently separated in 15min by capillary electrophoresis with silica fused capillary (phi 50 microns x 75cm), being electrophoresed at 25kV and 30 degrees C in a buffer which contained 20mM sodium tetraborate, 20mM SDS and adjusted pH to 9.5. MTX-polyglutamates eluted were detected at 300nm UV. Cellular extracts obtained from the sensitive and antifolate-resistant human leukemia cell lines, MOLT-3 and K562, were incubated with MTX-glu5 at 37 degrees C for 1, 2 and 4 hr, and the amounts of the degradation products (glu1-glu4) were measured for GGH activity by capillary electrophoresis. There was no significant difference in the production of the metabolites between MOLT-3 and K562 cells (867 +/- 109 vs 799 +/- 56 pmol products/min/1 x 10(7) cells), however, the MTX-resistant MOLT-3 cells with a diminished polyglutamation of folates (MOLT-3/MTX.P-17) and the ZD1694-resistant K562 cells with the impaired membrane transport for reduced folates/MTX/ZD1694 (K562/ZD1694.C) showed decreased activities of GGH (519 +/- 52 and 680 +/- 99 pmol products/min/1 x 10(7) cells, respectively), suggesting the down-regulation of the enzyme in these antifolate-resistant cells concomitant with the intracellular substrate depletion. This study indicates that capillary electrophoresis is a rapid, cost-efficacious method with a sufficient reproducibility in the measurement of GGH activity and must be more suitable for the analysis of clinical samples than HPLC method which requires a large volume of the material.

Down-Regulation↗
PubMed1995

Evolution of drug resistance in CCRF-CEM human leukemia cells selected by intermittent methotrexate exposure.

A clinically relevant mechanism of acquired methotrexate (MTX) resistance is decreased MTX polyglutamate (MTXGn) synthesis (McCloskey et al. J. Biol. Chem. 266:6181, 1991) secondary to deficient folylpolyglutamate synthetase (FPGS) activity. Earlier studies showed that this mechanism resulted after intermittent MTX treatment, but did not define its evolution in populations or its clonal frequency of occurrence and heterogeneity. We thus studied evolution of resistance in CCRF-CEM human leukemia cell populations and clones after repeated treatment with 30 microM MTX for 24 h. In populations, MTX resistance was detectable after 1 treatment and increased in degree as total cycles increased to 7. Defective MTXGn synthesis in populations was the only resistance mechanism detected, and FPGS activity in extracts decreased with treatment cycle. After 1 treatment, defective MTXGn synthesis was the major (27/48 clones) form of resistance; 18 clones were sensitive, while 1 clone with a DHFR-related change, no clones with decreased MTX uptake, and 2 complex phenotypes were observed. Sporadic clones with DHFR-mediated resistance appeared up to cycle 4, but defective MTXGn synthesis remained the major resistance mechanism. The degree of clonal resistance tended to increase with treatment cycle, but 1 clone in cycle 2 was similar to the clones from cycle 7. No change in FPGS gene copy number or restriction pattern, or FPGS mRNA level or size (2.3 Kb) was detected in populations. Decreased FPGS activity must result from decreased translation, increased protein turnover, or a point mutation affecting catalysis.

Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic↗
PubMed1996

[Microtubules: functional polymorphisms of tubulin and associated proteins (structural and motor MAP's)].

In neuronal cells, microtubules are built from a very large number of alpha- and beta-tubulin variants. This diversity is due to the expression of a multigene family and to a combination of several original posttranslational modifications. Similarly, structural and motor microtubule-associated proteins, which regulate the assembly of microtubules, the modeling of their network and the mediation of their functions, are also very heterogeneous. As a consequence, mixing of these two protein polymorphisms leads to the formation of functionally-distinct microtubules. We have shown that polyglutamylation, the major posttranslational modification of neuronal tubulin, was used as a progressive regulator in the binding of structural and motor microtubule-associated proteins, in modulating gradually the conformation of the tubulin carboxy-terminal domain, playing thus a crucial role in microtubule dynamics.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

A novel method for boronating antibodies without loss of immunoreactivity, for use in neutron capture therapy.

The search for suitable boron containing compounds for 10B neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is based on the principle that boron atoms must be delivered specifically to tumour cells at a concentration high enough to be effective without being toxic to normal cells. Specificity may be achieved through monoclonal antibodies. However, it has been difficult to conjugate large numbers of boron atoms to the antibody molecules without inactivating them. We have devised a strategy to do this indirectly through the use of a boronated glutamate-lysine polymer in conjunction with biotin and streptavidin.

Antibodies↗
PubMed1997

gamma-Glutamyl hydrolase and folylpolyglutamate synthetase activities predict polyglutamylation of methotrexate in acute leukemias.

Decreased methotrexate (MTX) long-chain polyglutamate formation is associated with MTX resistance whereas high levels of MTX polyglutamate accumulation are found in the blasts of leukemia patients who respond to therapy and have improved outcome. The steady-state level of long-chain MTX polyglutamates depends on the balance of activities of two enzymes: folylpolyglutamate synthetase (FPGS), which adds glutamates to MTX in a gamma-carboxyl linkage, and gamma-glutamyl hydrolase (GGH) or conjugase, which sequentially removes the terminal glutamate residue of MTX polyglutamates. FPGS and GGH activities as well as the formation of total and long-chain MTX polyglutamates were measured after incubation with [3H]MTX in 15 blast samples from patients with acute leukemias (myeloid and lymphoid). The ratio between GGH and FPGS activities was better at predicting the amount of polyglutamate accumulated in the 24-h [3H]MTX assay compared to the determination of either activity alone. The linear regression curve relating the relative levels of long-chain polyglutamates/total polyglutamates with the ratio of GGH/FPGS showed an r value of 0.81 (P < 0.001). These data suggest that the evaluation of both these enzymes at diagnosis may be used as a predictor of MTX polyglutamylation and therefore for response to MTX therapy and outcome.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evidence for negative feedback of extracellular methotrexate on blasts of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in vitro.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To explore the value of high-dose methotrexate (MTX). SUBJECTS: Blast cells from 15 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. INTERVENTIONS: We compared uptake and polyglutamation of [3H]-MTX by freshly isolated leukemic blasts in vitro after 24-hour exposure to 1, 10, and 50 microM [3H]-MTX. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Mean MTX uptake (pmol/10(6) cells) was 0.78 +/- 0.19, 2.3 +/- 0.54, and 5.9 +/- 1.9, respectively, and mean polyglutamation was 82%, 66%, and 46%. Consequently, mean MTX polyglutamates were 0.68 +/- 0.18, 1.5 +/- 0.47, and 2.2 +/- 0.67 pmol/10(6) cells. Three of 15 patient samples had no detectable polyglutamation of MTX at 50 microM but MTX polyglutamates were detectable at 1 microM. Two of these three had a decrease in MTX polyglutamates at 10 versus 1 microM. In eight precursor B cell samples there was a significant difference in median MTX polyglutamates at 1 versus 10 microM but not 10 versus 50 microM. CONCLUSION: Increasing extracellular MTX concentrations may be counterproductive for some patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. If MTX polyglutamates are important for efficacy, optimal delivery of MTX may have to be determined by individual metabolism rather than by targeting a specific drug concentration.

Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic↗
PubMed1974

Formation of 10-formylfolic acid, a potent inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase, in rat liver slices incubated with folic acid.

During investigation of folate polyglutamate biosynthesis in rat liver slices utilizing [2-(14)C]folic acid, a folate compound that behaved like a polyglutamate form in the Sephadex G-15 gel filtration system was found to accumulate. Subsequent chromatographic, spectral, chemical, and enzymic studies have indicated that the compound formed in liver slices incubated with [(14)C]folic acid with and without methotrexate was 10-formyl folate. This folate is of interest in that it is the most potent natural inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase known and may be capable of serving a regulatory function within the cell.

Animals↗