Potentiation of Melphalan-Induced Cytotoxicity through Targeting of the Base Excision Repair Pathway in Multiple Myeloma.
Authors: Reed April M. , Fishel Melissa L. , Kelley Mark R. , Abonour Rafat 
Published: October 2019

Melphalan (M) is an active agent against multiple myeloma (MM). One of the obstacles with M treatment is the patient’s ability to tolerate side effects such as mucositis and pancytopenia. This is especially true for those patients >70 years of age. We hypothesize that potentiation of M-induced cytotoxicity is possible in MM with agents that target, and therefore further imbalance, multiple DNA repair pathways. A key protein in the Base Excision Repair (BER) pathway, Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease/ redox factor (APE1/Ref-1 or APE1) plays a major role in the repair of damage caused by chemotherapeutic agents including M and Temozolomide (TMZ), interacts with a number of transcription factors (HIF1-a, p53, AP1, NFkB, etc) to regulate their function through oxidation/reduction (redox) signaling, and is overexpressed in refractory/relapsed MM cells. Furthermore, a reduction in APE1 protein sensitizes MM cells to melphalan indicating that inhibition of this protein may have therapeutic potential in MM. In order to decipher the importance of APE1’s redox and repair functions in MM cells’ response to DNA damage via melphalan and TMZ, we have available to us small molecule APE1 inhibitors that affect only the repair activity or only the redox activity of APE1. The mechanism of action of MLP is primarily via monoadduct leading to DNA interstrand cross-link (ICL) formation which is processed by the Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) pathway. MLP also causes N7methyl-G and N3methyl-A adduct formation which are repaired by the BER pathway. For these studies, we treated RPMI 8226 cells with several chemotherapeutic agents:

M; TMZ, which creates primarily N7methyl-G and N3methyl-A adducts; Methoxyamine (MX), which has been shown to inhibit further processing by the BER pathway; and a small molecule which blocks the redox function of APE1. Our purpose was to overwhelm the DNA repair pathways by causing the accumulation of DNA repair intermediates and inducing apoptosis.

M-induced cytotoxicity is enhanced by TMZ (CI=0.08), MX (CI=0.89), and E3330 (CI=0.06), and this effect was synergistic as determined by CalcuSyn software which generates median effect and combinational index (CI) values, with CI<1 indicative of synergy. Using MX to inhibit APE1 in combination with TMZ results in an increase in DNA damage and an increase in apoptosis in 8226 cells. Furthermore, the combination of the redox inhibitor + MX which blocks both functions of APE1 also results in an increase in apoptosis in the MM cells. Further studies include the addition of M to these combinations that are demonstrating an increase in efficacy in MM cells. These results indicate that using these DNA repair-targeted agents in addition to MLP may be a feasible way to increase the effect of the M on MM cells. The potential advantages to patients would be that they would be able to tolerate more treatments and that the combination treatments would be more effective than treatment with M alone. We anticipate that effective modulation of M and/or TMZ will overcome resistance without compromising efficacy and help to alleviate some of the side effects patients have to endure with melphalan treatment. This may be particularly advantageous to the more elderly patients.