In vitro study | Amonafide treatment results in DNA single-strand breaks (SSB), double-strand breaks (DSB), and DNA protein cross-linking in human myeloid leukemia cells via a topoisomerase II-mediated response. Amonafide treatment dose-dependently inhibits colony formation in leukemic cell lines and normal human bone marrow GM-CFC. Amonafide did not cause topoisomerase I-mediated DNA fragmentation even at 100 μm concentrations. m-AMSA resistant cell lines were less than 2-fold resistant to Amonafide. Amonafide interferes with the DNA break-repolymerization activity of mammalian DNA topoisomerase II, resulting in activation of DNA breaks. The distribution of breaking strength stimulated by Amonafide was significantly different compared to other antineoplastic agents. Aside from guanine and thymine, Amonafide has a high affinity for cytosine at site -1 and a lower affinity for adenine at site -1. Amonafide-induced topoisomerase II-mediated DNA fragmentation was only slightly affected (less than 3-fold) by 1 mM ATP, indicating that compared with doxorubicin,etoposide, and mitoxantrone, amonafide is an ATP-insensitive topoisomerase II inhibitor. Amonafide significantly inhibited the growth of HT-29,HeLa, and PC3 cells with IC50 of 4.67 μm, 2.73 μm, and 6.38 μm, respectively. Unlike those classical topoisomerase II inhibitors (daunorubicin,doxorubicin,idarubicin,etoposide, and mitoxantrone),Amonafide is not affected by P-glycoprotein-mediated efflux. |