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CHEMOTHERAPY, ANTIBIOTICS, AND GENE THERAPY
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Unité Mixte de Recherche 484, Clermont-Ferrand Cedex, France (M.R., J.C.Mau., J.P., P.L., J.C.Mad., E.M.); Université Clermont-Ferrand 1, Clermont-Ferrand Cedex, France (E.M.); Institut Curie, Laboratoire de Microscopie Ionique, Orsay, France (T.-D.W., A.C., J.L.G.-K.); and INSERM Unité 759, Orsay, France (T.-D.W., A.C., J.L.G.-K.)
Chemoresistance to O6-alkylating agents is a major barrier to successful treatment of melanoma. It is mainly due to a DNA repair suicide protein, O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT). Although AGT inactivation is a powerful clinical strategy for restoring tumor chemosensitivity, it was limited by increased toxicity to nontumoral cells resulting from a lack of tumor selectivity. Achieving enhanced chemosensitization via AGT inhibition preferably in the tumor should protect normal tissue. To this end, we have developed a strategy to target AGT inhibitors. In this study, we tested a new potential melanoma-directed AGT inhibitor [2-amino-6-(4-iodobenzyloxy)-9-[4-(diethylamino) ethylcarbamoylbenzyl] purine; IBgBZ] designed as a conjugate of O6-(4-iododbenzyl)guanine (IBg) as the AGT inactivator and a N,N-diethylaminoethylenebenzamido (BZ) moiety as the carrier to the malignant melanocytes. IBgBZ demonstrated AGT inactivation ability and potentiation of O6-alkylating agents (cystemustine, a chloroethylnitrosourea) in M4Beu highly chemoresistant human melanoma cells both in vitro and in tumor models. The biodisposition study on mice bearing B16 melanoma, the standard model for the evaluation of melanoma-directed agents, and the secondary ion mass spectrometry imaging confirmed the concentration of IBgBZ in the tumor and in particular in the intracytoplasmic melanosomes. These results validate the potential of IBgBZ as a new, more tumor-selective, AGT inhibitor in a strategy of melanoma-targeted therapy.
Address correspondence to: Dr. Emmanuelle Mounetou, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Unité Mixte de Recherche 484, BP 184, F-63005 Clermont-Ferrand Cedex, France. E-mail: mounetou{at}inserm484.u-clermont.fr