Abstract 4792: The effects of KPT-330, a selective inhibitor of nuclear export, on nuclear topoisomerase II alpha levels and etoposide activity in human myeloid leukemia HL-60 cells

Proceedings: AACR 107th Annual Meeting 2016; April 16-20, 2016; New Orleans, LA DNA topoisomerase IIa (topo II) is a known cargo protein for exportin 1 (XPO1, CRM1) (Seminars Cancer Biol. 27: 62-73, 2014) for nuclear export. Here we utilized KPT-330, a selective inhibitor of nuclear export, to evaluate its cytotoxicity, its effects on the nuclear content of topo II in human myeloid leukemia HL60 cells and on the subsequent activity of the topo II targeting agent etoposide. Since KPT-330 is a potential michael acceptor and is known to interact with the CRM1 active site Cys528 to inhibit its activity, we first analyzed interaction of KPT-330 with glutathione (GSH)-containing cysteine. In an in vitro binding study KPT-330 was weakly bound to GSH with a Kd = 130+/-24 μM. In contrast, the natural product compound parthenolide, also a michael acceptor, bound to GSH with 30-fold greater affinity. Depletion of cellular GSH with buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) did not significantly alter the 72 hr growth inhibitory effects of KPT-330 yielding I50-values of 109 +/- 19 and 80 +/- 44 nM (p = 0.133) in the absence and presence of BSO. In contrast, GSH depletion significantly enhanced the activity of parthenolide yielding I50-values of 2.59 +/- 0.16 and 1.35 +/- 0.15 μM (p<0.001) in the absence or presence of BSO. KPT-330 (50 μM) did not alter cellular GSH levels in HL60 cells. Using 3’-(p-hydroxyphenyl) fluorescein, KPT-330 was antioxidant in GSH replete and depleted HL60 cells. Together results indicate that conjugation with GSH does not play a significant role in KPT-330 activity. Less than additive cytotoxicity (trypan blue) and apoptosis (Hoescht) were observed using a single fixed ratio of KPT-330 and etoposide incubated either simultaneously or after overnight pre-incubation with KPT-330. Similarly, using the Chou and Talalay technique, KPT-330/etoposide combinations were less than additive in exponentially growing HL60 cells. The mechanism(s) for this apparent antagonism using this combination are under investigation. Using fluorescently labeled topo II antibody, nuclear content of exponentially growing HL60 cells was 85.9 +/- 2.3% of total in the absence of KPT-330 and 86.5+/- 1.8% after an 16 hr incubation with 100 nM KPT-330. In plateau phase cells there was a statistically significant decrease in nuclear topoisomerase IIa to 74.1+/-1.8% compared to exponentially growing cells (p<0.05). In these plateau phase cells, a similar 16 hr incubation with 100 nM KPT-330 resulted in a significant increase in nuclear topoisomerase IIa to 82.6+/-2.5% of total compared to controls (p<0.05). Results are in accord with the known CRM1-mediated shuttling of topo II from the nucleus only in cells approaching or in plateau phase (Exp. Cell Res. 313: 627-637, 2007). Studies are underway to evaluate etoposide-mediated DNA damage and topo II-covalent complexes in HL60 cells in various growth phases after KPT-330 treatment as a correlate with nuclear topo II residency. Citation Format: Erica Godley, Ragu Kanagasabai, Soumendrakrishna Karmahapatra, Jack C. Yalowich. The effects of KPT-330, a selective inhibitor of nuclear export, on nuclear topoisomerase II alpha levels and etoposide activity in human myeloid leukemia HL-60 cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 4792.