U. Luesakul et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
5
showed the highest KSV value of 2.1 Â 104 MÀ1, while the 5b and
glycol derivatives (5b and 5c) showed moderate to strong
cytotoxicity against several cell lines including HepG2, KATO-III
and SW620 cell lines (with IC50 values around 10–30 lM).
amonafide showed smaller values of 4.3 Â 103 and 1.5 Â 104 MÀ1
,
respectively, which is comparable to DNA-intercalator such as
acridine derivative (KSV = 1.5 Â 104 MÀ1).36 From these results, it
can be concluded that the compounds 5b and 5c bind to ct-DNA
via the intercalation mode. Furthermore, the apparent binding
Moreover, the selenium-containing derivative (6a) of cassiarin A
exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against cervical cell line line, CaSki.
The compound 5c with positively charged dimethylamino-ethyl
side chain displayed a strong DNA intercalating property, as dem-
onstrated by its ability to stabilize ct-DNA and by ethidium bromide
displacement assay. The compound 5b, but not 6a, also acts
through intercalative DNA binding mode. The kDNA decatenation
experiments showed that 6a strongly inhibited topoisomerase II.
This suggests that a plausible explanation for cytotoxicity of the
selenium-containing cassiarin A derivative 6a. All three active
compounds showed lower toxicity to normal cell line (WI-38) than
amonafide, which made them a good candidate for new anticancer
agents.
constants (Kapp
)
can be calculated using the equation;
Kapp[compound] = KEtBr[EtBr], where KEtBr = 1.0 Â 107 MÀ1 and
[EtBr] = 10 l
M.34 Compound 5c also showed the highest apparent
binding constant (2.1 Â 106 MÀ1), which confirmed that the inter-
calative binding occurs between compound 5c and ct-DNA. The
DNA-binding studies correlate well with the cytotoxicity to cancer
cell lines, the strongest DNA binding compound (5c) is the most
cytotoxic compound. As 6a showed only weak DNA binding, its
moderate cytotoxicity against CaSki cell line may arise from a
different mode of action. Many reports showed that selenium
compound could play multi-roles such as cancer prevention, DNA
damage or topoisomerase II poison.22,23 Subsequently, compound
6a was further explored for other plausible mechanisms of action
such as the inhibition of topoisomerase II.
The evaluation of cytotoxicity was based on the reduction of
MTT dye by viable cells to give purple formazan products, which
can be measured spectrophotometrically at 540 nm. One hundred
microliters of cancer cells were seeded into 96-well plates at
Topoisomerase II inhibition: Topoisomerase II is the key cellular
enzyme that regulates the topological state of the DNA in cells. It
plays an important role in replication and transcription process
by breaking and rejoining of phosphodiester backbone of DNA
stands.11 Amonafide is a known DNA intercalator and can inhibit
topoisomerase II by stabilizing the enzyme–DNA complex.10 In this
work, we also determined the ability of compound 5b, 5c and 6a to
inhibit topoisomerase II decatenation of kDNA.37 Both forms of
kDNA including (i) catenated kDNA (C) and (ii) nicked open circular
decatenated kDNA (NOC) which is formed by the action of topoiso-
merase II were monitored. Catenated kDNA appears at the top and
cannot enter into the gel because of its size, while decatenated
product can readily move into the gel.38
5 Â 103 cell/well and incubated at 37 °C. After 24 h, 1
ll of each
compound (200, 100, 10 and 1 lM) was mixed into triplicate wells
and incubated as above for 3 days. Then, 10
(5 mg/ml) was added and incubated again for 4 h. After removal
of media and solubilization of forman crystals in 150 L of DMSO,
ll of MTT solution
l
the absorbance was measured at 540 nm. The cytotoxicity activity
was measured as % cell viability. The IC50 values were calculated
using software GraphPad Prism 5 (GraphPad. Software Inc.),
using a nonlinear regression of ‘log(inhibitor) versus response’:
Y = bottom + (top À bottom)/(1 + 10^((X À LogIC50))).
Thermal denaturation of ct-DNA: The thermal denaturation
experiments were performed to study the effect of each compound
on the stability of ct-DNA by determination of melting temperature
(Tm) value. The ct-DNA was prepared in phosphate buffer (pH 7.4).
The Tm of ct-DNA were measured using CARY 100 Bio UV–visible
The results shown in Figure 7 demonstrated that at a concentra-
tion of 100 lM, the selenium-containing compound 6a displayed a
strong topoisomerase II inhibitory activity with more than 95%
inhibition. The compound 5c exhibited a weak inhibitory effect
(30.1%), whereas compound 5b did not inhibit topoisomerase II.
The positive control, amonafide, showed a moderate activity of
61.8%. Moreover, 6a inhibited topoisomerase II with 31.5%, 75.7%
spectrophotometer with a temperature control attachment.
Absorption at 260 nm of DNA complements was measured with
rate 1 °C/min.
Ethidium bromide displacement assay: DNA binding studies were
performed with fluorescent intercalator displacement assay using
Ethidium bromide (EtBr) as intercalator.34 The experiments were
and 95.7% inhibition 10, 30 and 50 lM, respectively.
In conclusion, cassiarin A derivatives were synthesized and their
cytotoxicity against six cancer cell lines (BT474, CHAGO, HepG2,
KATO-III, SW620 and CaSki) were investigated. The preliminary
results demonstrated that alkanoyl (3a–3d), aroyl (4a–4d) and eth-
yleneglycol (5a) derivatives showed low cytotoxic activity against
all tested cell lines. Two hydroxy/amino-substituted ethylene
performed by adding the compound (0–70
l
M) into a solution of
ct-DNA (50 M base pairs) and ethidium bromide (10
l
l
M) in
phosphate buffer (pH 7.4). The fluorescence spectra (kex = 520 nm)
were recorded at room temperature. The data were plotted as
Stern–Volmer equation: I0/I = 1 + KSVQ where I0 and I denoted the
fluorescence emission intensity (at kem = 595 nm) in the absence
and presence of the quencher, KSV is the Stern–Volmer quenching
constant and Q is the concentration of the quencher.35 The
apparent binding constant (Kapp) was calculated from the equation
KEtBr[EtBr] = Kapp[compound],
where
KEtBr = 1.0 Â 107 MÀ1
,
[EtBr] = ethidium bromide concentration and [compound] is the
compound concentration at 50% reduction of fluorescence
intensity of complex EtBr-ct-DNA was observed.39
The kDNA decatenation assay was performed in order to study
the ability of topoisomerase II decationation of kDNA by using
amonafide as a positive control.
Stock solutions of the cassiarin A derivatives (10 mM) were
prepared in DMSO. The reaction mixture contain 250 ng kDNA
(TopoGEN), 4 units of topo IIa (USB Affymetrix) and the indicated
concentrations of compounds were incubated for 1 h at 37 °C in
10Â reaction buffer (USB Affymetrix) in final volume of 20
l
L.
The reaction was stopped by adding 3
l
L of 6Â loading dye (USB
Figure 7. Inhibitory effect of the tested compounds on human DNA topoisomarase
II decatenation. Lane 1, decatenated kDNA marker; lane 2, kDNA; lane 3, kDNA + 4
units of Topo II; lanes 4–7, kDNA + 4 units of Topo II + amonafide, 5b, 5c and 6a
Affymetrix). Samples were electrophoresed in 1% SDS in TBE buffer
for 90 min at 75 V. The gel was stained with ethidium bromide and
photographed under a UV transilluminator.
(100 lM); lanes 8–10, 6a at 10, 30 and 50 lM.