| 1. |
- Fryknäs, Mårten, et al.
(författare)
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Iron chelators target both proliferating and quiescent cancer cells
- 2016
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2045-2322. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Poorly vascularized areas of solid tumors contain quiescent cell populations that are resistant to cell cycle-active cancer drugs. The compound VLX600 was recently identified to target quiescent tumor cells and to inhibit mitochondrial respiration. We here performed gene expression analysis in order to characterize the cellular response to VLX600. The compound-specific signature of VLX600 revealed a striking similarity to signatures generated by compounds known to chelate iron. Validation experiments including addition of ferrous and ferric iron in excess, EXAFS measurements, and structure activity relationship analyses showed that VLX600 chelates iron and supported the hypothesis that the biological effects of this compound is due to iron chelation. Compounds that chelate iron possess anti-cancer activity, an effect largely attributed to inhibition of ribonucleotide reductase in proliferating cells. Here we show that iron chelators decrease mitochondrial energy production, an effect poorly tolerated by metabolically stressed tumor cells. These pleiotropic features make iron chelators an attractive option for the treatment of solid tumors containing heterogeneous populations of proliferating and quiescent cells.
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| 2. |
- Berglund, Åke, et al.
(författare)
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First-in-human, phase I/IIa clinical study of the peptidase potentiated alkylator melflufen administered every three weeks to patients with advanced solid tumor malignancies
- 2015
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Ingår i: Investigational new drugs. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0167-6997 .- 1573-0646. ; 33:6, s. 1232-1241
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose Melflufen (melphalan flufenamide, previously designated J1) is an optimized and targeted derivative of melphalan, hydrolyzed by aminopeptidases overexpressed in tumor cells resulting in selective release and trapping of melphalan, and enhanced activity in preclinical models. Methods This was a prospective, single-armed, open-label, first-in-human, dose-finding phase I/IIa study in 45 adult patients with advanced and progressive solid tumors without standard treatment options. Most common tumor types were ovarian carcinoma (n = 20) and non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC, n = 11). Results In the dose-escalating phase I part of the study, seven patients were treated with increasing fixed doses of melflufen (25-130 mg) Q3W. In the subsequent phase IIa part, 38 patients received in total 115 cycles of therapy at doses of 30-75 mg. No dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) were observed at 25 and 50 mg; at higher doses DLTs were reversible neutropenias and thrombocytopenias, particularly evident in heavily pretreated patients, and the recommended phase II dose (RPTD) was set to 50 mg. Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST) evaluation after 3 cycles of therapy (27 patients) showed partial response in one (ovarian cancer), and stable disease in 18 patients. One NSCLC patient received nine cycles of melflufen and progressed after 7 months of therapy. Conclusions In conclusion, melflufen can safely be given to cancer patients, and the toxicity profile was as expected for alkylating agents; RPTD is 50 mg Q3W. Reversible and manageable bone marrow suppression was identified as a DLT. Clinical activity is suggested in ovarian cancer, but modest activity in treatment of refractory NSCLC.
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| 3. |
- Carlier, Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Preclinical activity of melflufen (J1) in ovarian cancer
- 2016
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Ingår i: Oncotarget. - : Impact Journals, LLC. - 1949-2553. ; 7:37, s. 59322-59335
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ovarian cancer carries a significant mortality. Since symptoms tend to be minimal, the disease is often diagnosed when peritoneal metastases are already present. The standard of care in advanced ovarian cancer consists of platinum-based chemotherapy combined with cytoreductive surgery. Unfortunately, even after optimal cytoreduction and adjuvant chemotherapy, most patients with stage III disease will develop a recurrence. Intraperitoneal administration of chemotherapy is an alternative treatment for patients with localized disease. The pharmacological and physiochemical properties of melflufen, a peptidase potentiated alkylator, raised the hypothesis that this drug could be useful in ovarian cancer and particularily against peritoneal carcinomatosis. In this study the preclinical effects of melflufen were investigated in different ovarian cancer models. Melflufen was active against ovarian cancer cell lines, primary cultures of patient-derived ovarian cancer cells, and inhibited the growth of subcutaneous A2780 ovarian cancer xenografts alone and when combined with gemcitabine or liposomal doxorubicin when administered intravenously. In addition, an intra-and subperitoneal xenograft model showed activity of intraperitoneal administered melflufen for peritoneal carcinomatosis, with minimal side effects and modest systemic exposure. In conclusion, results from this study support further investigations of melflufen for the treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis from ovarian cancer, both for intravenous and intraperitoneal administration.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Eriksson, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Drug screen in patient cells suggests quinacrine to be repositioned for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia
- 2015
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Ingår i: Blood Cancer Journal. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2044-5385. ; 5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To find drugs suitable for repositioning for use against leukemia, samples from patients with chronic lymphocytic, acute myeloid and lymphocytic leukemias as well as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were tested in response to 1266 compounds from the LOPAC1280 library (Sigma). Twenty-five compounds were defined as hits with activity in all leukemia subgroups (<50% cell survival compared with control) at 10 mu M drug concentration. Only one of these compounds, quinacrine, showed low activity in normal PBMCs and was therefore selected for further preclinical evaluation. Mining the NCI-60 and the NextBio databases demonstrated leukemia sensitivity and the ability of quinacrine to reverse myeloid leukemia gene expression. Mechanistic exploration was performed using the NextBio bioinformatic software using gene expression analysis of drug exposed acute myeloid leukemia cultures (HL-60) in the database. Analysis of gene enrichment and drug correlations revealed strong connections to ribosomal biogenesis nucleoli and translation initiation. The highest drug-drug correlation was to ellipticine, a known RNA polymerase I inhibitor. These results were validated by additional gene expression analysis performed in-house. Quinacrine induced early inhibition of protein synthesis supporting these predictions. The results suggest that quinacrine have repositioning potential for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia by targeting of ribosomal biogenesis.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Eriksson, Anna, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Towards repositioning of quinacrine for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia - Promising synergies and in vivo effects.
- 2017
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Ingår i: Leukemia Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 0145-2126 .- 1873-5835. ; 63, s. 41-46
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We previously reported that the anti-malarial drug quinacrine has potential to be repositioned for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). As a next step towards clinical use, we assessed the efficacy of quinacrine in an AML-PS mouse model and investigated possible synergistic effects when combining quinacrine with nine other antileukemic compounds in two AML cell lines. Furthermore, we explored the in vivo activity of quinacrine in combination with the widely used AML agent cytarabine. The in vivo use of quinacrine (100mg/kg three times per week for two consecutive weeks) significantly suppressed circulating blast cells at days 30/31 and increased the median survival time (MST). The in vitro drug combination analysis yielded promising synergistic interactions when combining quinacrine with cytarabine, azacitidine and geldanamycin. Finally, combining quinacrine with cytarabine in vivo showed a significant decrease in circulating leukemic blast cells and increased MST compared to the effect of either drug used alone, thus supporting the findings from the in vitro combination experiments. Taken together, the repositioning potential of quinacrine for treatment of AML is reinforced by demonstrating significant in vivo activity and promising synergies when quinacrine is combined with different agents, including cytarabine, the hypomethylating agent azacitidine and HSP-90 inhibitor geldanamycin.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Fryknäs, Mårten, et al.
(författare)
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Phenotype-based screening of mechanistically annotated compounds in combination with gene expression and pathway analysis identifies candidate drug targets in a human squamous carcinoma cell model
- 2006
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Ingår i: Journal of Biomolecular Screening. - : Elsevier BV. - 1087-0571 .- 1552-454X. ; 11:5, s. 457-468
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The squamous cell carcinoma HeLa cell line and an epithelial cell line hTERT-RPE with a nonmalignant phenotype were interrogated for HeLa cell selectivity in response to 1267 annotated compounds representing 56 pharmacological classes. Selective cytotoxic activity was observed for 14 of these compounds dominated by cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) selective phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors, which tended to span a representation of the chemical descriptor space of the library. The PDE inhibitors induced delayed cell death with features compatible with classical apoptosis. The PDE inhibitors were largely inactive when tested against a cell line panel consisting of hematological and nonsquamous epithelial phenotypes. In a genome-wide DNA microarray analysis, PDE3A and PDE2A were found to be significantly increased in HeLa cells compared to the other cell lines. The pathway analysis software PathwayAssist was subsequently used to extract a list of proteins and small molecules retrieved from Medline abstracts associated with the hit compounds. The resulting list consisted of major parts of the cAMP-protein kinase A pathway linking to ERK, P38, and AKT. This molecular network may provide a basis for further exploitation of novel candidate targets for the treatment of squamous cell carcinoma.
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