Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, February 2007, p. 667-672, Vol. 51, No. 2
0066-4804/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AAC.01064-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Division of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Centre for Infection, St. George's University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE, Great Britain,1 Swiss Tropical Institute, Socinstrasse 57, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland,2 F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Grenzacherstrasse 124, CH-4070 Basel, Switzerland3
Received 23 August 2006/ Returned for modification 26 October 2006/ Accepted 20 November 2006
|
|
|---|
|
|
|---|
RBX11160 is one such fully synthetic peroxidic antimalarial under clinical development as an alternative to artemisinins (12). In RBX11160, the critical peroxidic pharmacophore of the artemisinins is present within a 1,2,4-trioxolane rather than a 1,2,4-trioxane heterocycle. As artemisinins are proposed to interact with a Plasmodium falciparum-encoded calcium-transporting ATPase (PfATP6) to kill parasites (1, 8), we tested the idea that PfATP6 may also be inhibited specifically by RBX11160. In addition, other aspects of the behavior of RBX11160, such as subcellular distribution, iron dependency, and interaction with artemisinins, have also been examined to increase the understanding of the mechanism of action of this drug, which is currently in an advanced stage of clinical development.
|
|
|---|
25 ng/egg) encoding PfATP6 or control material (RNase-free water) or cRNA encoding PfHT, the P. falciparum hexose transporter (15), and incubated for 4 to 7 days before the membranes were harvested for the assay. Oocyte membranes were prepared by a two-step centrifugation process, and ATPase activity was measured (pCa 5.5, 10 µg protein/assay, 25°C, at 340 nm) using a coupled enzyme assay as described previously (7). For inhibitor studies, comparisons were made between ATPase activities in preparations without inhibitors (but with solvent) added and those in the same batch of oocytes tested with an inhibitor. Control oocyte membrane preparations were assayed to confirm that PfATP6 was expressed. To estimate apparent Ki (half-maximal inhibition) values for Ca2+-dependent ATPase activity, single-site competition models were fitted to the data (GraphPad Prism, version 3). Control experiments also included a preparation of mammalian sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) (1). RBX11160 tosylate was kindly provided by J. L. Vennerstrom (University of Nebraska) and artesunate by Dafra Pharma, and desferrioxamine (DFO) was from Sigma.
PfHT glucose uptake experiments. Competitive uptake on glucose was carried out as described previously (15) and assayed between 36 and 48 h after microinjection, at room temperature for 20 to 30 min, on groups of eight oocytes in Barth's medium containing D-glucose (D-[U-14C]glucose; specific activity, 10.4 GBq/mmol; Amersham Biosciences) and unlabeled glucose (35 µM) with 50 µM RBX11160. At least three independent experiments were carried out.
Culture of parasites and isobolograms. Parasites (clone 3D7) were cultured using standard techniques (11). After determination of 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) values (within 48 h of addition of antimalarials/inhibitors), fixed ratios of concentrations of inhibitor A to those of inhibitor B were used (A/B ratios of 10:0, 9:1, 7:3, 5:5, 3:7, 1:9, and 0:10). The middle concentration of the inhibitors (5:5) was aimed to be the IC50 of each drug. Subsequently, the molar ratios of each drug were calculated, and the IC50s of the mixtures are presented in relation to the IC50s of the individual drugs.
Dye loading of P. falciparum. P. falciparum clone 3D7 was washed twice in Ringer's solution (122.5 mM NaCl, 5.4 mM KCl, 1.2 mM CaCl2, 0.8 mM MgCl2, 11 mM D-glucose, 10 mM HEPES, 1 mM NaHPO4, pH 7.4) and incubated in 500 nM endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-Tracker Blue-White Dapoxyl (DPX) in Ringer's solution in the presence of Pluronic F-127 (0.025%, 45 min, 37°C) and in 500 nM TAMRA (6-carboxytetramethylrhodamine)-RBX11160 (20 min, 37°C).
Immunofluorescence microscopy. Confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy was performed using a Zeiss LSM510 META (Carl Zeiss, Jena, Germany). Images were obtained with a 63x lens and an image resolution of 512 by 512 pixels. The laser lines and filter settings used in Multi-Track mode were as follows: ER-Tracker Blue-White DPX was excited at 364 nm, with emission detected using a band-pass 505- to 530-nm filter (blue channel), and TAMRA-RBX11160 was excited at 543 nm, with emission detected using a band-pass 560- to 615-nm filter (green channel). Throughout, a pinhole of 1.5 µm was chosen. Conventional immunofluorescence microscopy was performed after NF54 cells were incubated in 600 nM TAMRA-RBX11160 (40 min, 37°C, slow shaking) and then washed three times with culture medium, diluted 1:6 in a 50% glycerine-50% phosphate-buffered saline solution.
Statistical analyses. Parametric comparisons were made with Student's unpaired t test, and nonparametric comparisons were made with the Mann-Whitney U statistic.
|
|
|---|
![]() View larger version (11K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 1. RBX11160 inhibition of transporter activities. (a) Inhibition of PfATP6 activity by RBX11160 (50 µM) compared with results for control preparations (n = 6 for both groups; P = 0.0018). (b) Inhibition of mammalian SERCA by RBX11160 (100 µM; P = 0.13) and thapsigargin (10 µM; P = 0.0007) compared with results for control experiments. (c) Uptake of D-glucose in water-injected (diethyl pyrocarbonate [DEPC]) and PfHT-expressing oocytes is shown. There is no inhibition of PfHT activity by RBX11160 (50 µM, n 9 per column; P > 0.5). DMSO, dimethyl sulfoxide.
|
An assay of the apparent inhibitory constants (Ki) of RBX11160 and artemisinin for PfATP6 (Fig. 2) was carried out as previously described (7). The Ki for RBX11160 is 7,700 nM, compared with a value of 79 nM for artemisinin, showing that PfATP6 is less susceptible to inhibition by RBX11160 than by artemisinin in these assays. The differences in Ki for RBX11160 and artemisinin are in contrast to the relative potencies of these drugs in killing parasites. For example, the IC50 values for parasite strain NF54 (means ± standard errors of the means) are 1.6 ± 0.21 nM for RBX11160, compared to 4.2 ± 0.26 nM for artesunate (12).
![]() View larger version (8K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 2. Apparent inhibitory constants for PfATP6 of RBX11160 and artemisinin. The apparent Ki values are 7,700 nM for RBX11160 (filled circles) (n = 3 for each value) and 79 nM for artemisinin (filled squares) (n = 5 for each value).
|
![]() View larger version (10K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 3. Effects of desferrioxamine on RBX11160. (a) Inhibition of PfATP6 activity by RBX11160 (gray column) (10 µM, n = 5) is abrogated by desferrioxamine (black column) (100 µM, P = 0.037, n = 9). (b) Isobologram of desferrioxamine and RBX11160. The summed fractional inhibitory concentration index (FIC) for this assay [geometric mean (range)] is 1.36 (0.97 to 2).
|
Localization of RBX11160 in parasites. P. falciparum (NF54) was exposed to TAMRA-labeled RBX11160 (whose structure is shown in Fig. 4a) to determine the subcellular distribution of the fluorescent derivative. The IC50 value for TAMRA-RBX11160 (85 ± 3 nM [mean ± standard error of the mean]) is about 50-fold higher than that for unlabeled RBX11160 (see above). Parasites display two different patterns of distribution, observed in at least three independent experiments. Some parasites show the label in the cytosol only, with no staining of the food vacuole. Others show more-intense staining of the food vacuole, with relatively poorly stained cytosol. This differential pattern of staining does not appear to be a result of differences in parasite growth or metabolism, as illustrated by the staining of two parasites that are at similar stages of development in a single erythrocyte (Fig. 4b and c), where one shows diffuse cytosolic staining and the other predominant staining of the food vacuole.
![]() View larger version (37K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 4. Immunofluorescence labeling of trophozoites. (a) Chemical structure of RBX11160-TAMRA. (b) Immunofluorescent staining of two parasites in a single erythrocyte by labeled RBX11160 (a). One trophozoite shows intense staining of the food vacuole (indicated by a long white arrow), whereas the other shows negative staining of the pigment-containing food vacuole (short white arrow) with diffuse cytosolic staining. (c) Bright-field view of panel b. Black arrows indicate parasite pigments in the food vacuole.
|
![]() View larger version (52K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 5. Confocal imaging of trophozoite stage. (a) Trophozoite labeled with ER-Tracker Blue showing cytosolic staining with negative staining of the food vacuole. (b) Corresponding bright-field image of panel a. (c) Parasite from panel a showing labeling with RBX11160-TAMRA. (d) Merged images (panels a to c).
|
![]() View larger version (7K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 6. Isobologram of RBX11160 and artesunate. Points lying above the line of additivity indicate antagonistic effects. The summed fractional inhibitory concentration index (FIC) for this assay [geometric mean (range)] is 2.4 (1.85 to 4.2).
|
|
|
|---|
RBX11160 inhibits PfATP6 with relatively low potency (apparent Ki = 7,700 nM) compared with artemisinins. This activity is similar to that observed for artemisinin inhibition of Plasmodium berghei SERCA (Ki = 6,000 nM) and is approximately 2 log orders less potent than the activity against PfATP6 (Ki
100 nM). The difference between the concentrations of drug needed to kill parasites (as shown in measurements of IC50 values that are approximately 1.5 nM for RBX11160) and the potency of inhibition of PfATP6 suggests that there may be different mechanisms of action for RBX11160 and artemisinins. However, there are also many aspects that overlap in their mechanisms of action. The antimalarial activities of artemisinin and RBX11160 are both abrogated by DFO, which also inhibits the activity of RBX11160 against PfATP6 (Fig. 3). RBX11160 inhibits mammalian SERCA variably (by a median of
50%) at relatively high concentrations (100 µM), with dichotomous results in experiments carried out on the same SERCA preparations (some data points showing little inhibition and others showing obvious inhibition). However, RBX11160 does not inhibit the malarial hexose transporter PfHT at all, confirming that these inhibitory properties are not seen with all integral membrane transport proteins.
Both types of antimalarial (artemisinins and RBX11160) are concentrated in intraerythrocytic parasites 200- to 300-fold compared with extracellular concentrations (2, 9). The subcellular distribution of RBX11160 is similar to that of artemisinin in some parasite preparations where it is found in the parasite cytosol. Under identical circumstances, however, some parasites show accumulation of RBX11160 in the parasite's food vacuole whereas this is not a feature of the subcellular distribution of artemisinins (1). Also consistent with these findings is the observation that artesunate antagonizes the antimalarial activity of RBX11160 when this is examined in isobologram analysis of cultured parasites.
Other studies show that there is a positive correlation between the IC50 values for artesunate and RBX11160 determined for field isolates in Gabon (r2 = 0.5, P = 0.002, n = 38) and not, for example, between those for chloroquine or mefloquine and RBX11160 (5). Also, the stage specificity of antimalarial action of RBX11160 is very similar to that assessed for artemisinins (such as artemisinin itself and artemether) (9, 11).
Knowledge of the mechanism of action of antimalarials is critical to many aspects of their development and use. Drug prototypes may be improved by increasing their efficacy, minimizing their toxicity, and improving their pharmacokinetic behavior. If resistance to a drug is mediated by alterations in a target, this can be monitored once a target is identified (14). It may also be possible to bypass this type of resistance mechanism by appropriate alterations in drug structure.
These preliminary studies on the mechanism of antimalarial activity of RBX11160 illustrate many aspects that overlap with the mechanisms of action for artemisinin derivatives. However, there are also interesting differences in the behavior of the two types of antimalarial, particularly in the potencies of their inhibition of PfATP6 and the variability in the subcellular localization pattern of RBX11160. It will be of interest to test their relative potencies against stable artemisinin resistance parasites, a resource that is becoming available in animal models as well as more recently in in vitro studies of parasites obtained from French Guiana (8). In this way, the understanding of both mechanisms of action and resistance may be improved.
This work was supported by Medicines for Malaria Venture.
Published ahead of print on 4 December 2006. ![]()
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»