Noscapine, a microtubule-interfering agent, has been shown to arrest mitosis, to induce apoptosis, and to have potent antitumor activity. We report herein that two brominated derivatives of noscapine, 5-bromonoscapine (5-Br-nosc) and reduced 5-bromonoscapine (Rd 5-Br-nosc), have higher tubulin binding activity than noscapine and affect tubulin polymerization differently from noscapine. In addition, they are able to arrest cell cycle progression at mitosis at concentrations much lower than noscapine. Interestingly, whereas noscapine-arrested cells have nearly normal bipolar spindles, cells arrested by 5-Br-nosc and Rd 5-Br-nosc form multipolar spindles. Nevertheless, noscapine and the two derivatives all affect the attachment of chromosomes to spindle microtubules and they impair the tension across paired kinetochores to similar degrees. 5-Br-nosc and Rd 5-Br-nosc are also more active than noscapine in inhibiting the proliferation of various human cancer cells, including those that are resistant to paclitaxel and epothilone. Our results thus indicate a great potential for the use of 5-Br-nosc and Rd 5-Br-nosc both as biological tools for studying microtubule-mediated processes and as chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of human cancers.
去甲
纳曲酮,一种微管干扰剂,已被证明能阻止有丝分裂,诱导细胞凋亡,并具有强效的抗肿瘤活性。本文报告了两种
溴化的去甲
纳曲酮衍
生物,即5-
溴去甲
纳曲酮(5-Br-nosc)和还原型5-
溴去甲
纳曲酮(Rd 5-Br-nosc),它们与微管蛋白结合的活性高于去甲
纳曲酮,并且影响微管蛋白聚合的方式与去甲
纳曲酮不同。此外,它们能在比去甲
纳曲酮低得多的浓度下阻止细胞周期在有丝分裂期的进展。有趣的是,尽管去甲
纳曲酮阻止的细胞具有几乎正常的双极纺锤体,但5-Br-nosc和Rd 5-Br-nosc阻止的细胞形成了多极纺锤体。尽管如此,去甲
纳曲酮及其两种衍
生物都影响染色体与纺锤体微管的附着,并且它们对成对着丝粒间的张力损害程度相似。5-Br-nosc和Rd 5-Br-nosc在抑制多种人类癌细胞的增殖方面也比去甲
纳曲酮更活跃,包括对
紫杉醇和
埃博霉素耐药的癌细胞。因此,我们的结果表明5-Br-nosc和Rd 5-Br-nosc具有巨大的潜力,既可作为研究微管介导过程的
生物学工具,也可作为治疗人类癌症的化疗药物。