Patent Abstract:
disclosed are neuroblastoma tumor - initiating cell inhibiting compositions comprising chemical entities capable of affecting neuroblastoma tumor - initiating cells . pharmaceutical preparations that include these chemical entities are also provided for the treatment of neuroblastoma . these pharmaceutical preparations are suitable for the treatment of humans , and are particularly suited for the treatment of children of 12 years of age or younger having neuroblastoma . the compositions and pharmaceutical preparations posses reduced normal cell cytotoxicity . the compositions and pharmaceutical preparations may be used alone or together with other conventional neuroblastoma preparations as part of a clinical regimen in the treatment and management of neuroblastoma .

Detailed Description:
where the definition of terms departs from the commonly used meaning of the term , applicant intends to utilize the definitions provided below , unless specifically indicated . for the purposes of the present invention , “ a ”, “ an ” and “ the ” include reference to the plural unless the context as herein presented clearly indicates other wise . for purposes of the present invention , the term “ active agent ” is defined as a chemical entity , group of chemical entities or compound that is capable of providing an affect on neuroblastoma tumor initiating cells or neuroblastoma cells in vitro or in vivo . the affect of the active agent may be a reduction in cytotoxicity relative to the level of cytotoxicity demonstrated in the absence of the active agent under similar conditions , or a cytostatic affect on neuroblastoma or on neuroblastoma tumor initiating cells that results in a reduced rate of neuroblastoma or neuroblastoma tumor - initiating cell proliferation and / or growth , or a reduction of the rate or occurrence of differentiation into neuroblastoma cell types , precursors , or any other cell type that is related to the progression of a neuroblastoma pathology , or to an increase in the inducement of the differentiation of neuroblastoma tumor - initiating cells into cell types ( for example , neurons ) that no longer proliferate ( for example , retinoic acid is a common differentiation therapy for neuroblastoma that is used as an adjunct therapy after removal of a tumor , differentiation therapy ). for purposes of the present invention , the term “ enriched ” is defined as containing at least 50 % of the identified biological moiety , such as a cancer stem cell . for purposes of the present invention , the term “ neuroblastoma tumor initiating cell ” ( nb tic ) is defined as a cell that is capable of giving rise to neuroblastoma or a tumor cell that is identifiable with a condition of neuroblastoma , such as a tumor cell that may be identified to have particular identifiable cell surface markers associated with neuroblastoma ( such as nb84 , cd44 , trka , gd2 , cd34 , p75ntr , and / or versican ) and / or is without cell surface markers that are characteristic of tumor cells that are not from neuroblastoma ( such as cd133 , trkb , and / or cd31 ). for purposes of the present invention , the term “ neuroblastoma tumor - initiating cell inhibiting activity ” is defined as an activity for affecting neuroblastoma tumor - initiating cell survival , proliferation , or that promotes cell differentiation into benign cell types . for purposes of the present invention , the term , “ effective amount ” is defined as an amount of a compound that will inhibit and / or reduce neuroblastoma tumor initiating cell survival , proliferation , or that will promote the differentiation of neuroblastoma tumor - initiating cells into benign cell types . the present example provides a description of the screening method used to identify the chemical entities capable of affecting neuroblastoma cells reported in the present series of studies . malignant neuroblastoma ( nb ) is the most common extra - cranial solid tumor in children . survival of patients older than 1 year remains less than 30 % with conventional therapies . candidate nb tumor - initiating cells ( tics ) were isolated , and it was hypothesized that tics are related to skps ( skin - derived precursors ). both skps and tics originate from the neural crest , express similar neural crest markers , and differentiate in vitro into similar cell types . the availability of two neural crest stem cell sources , one from the nb tumor and the other from the skin of the same patient , affords us a unique opportunity for therapeutic target discovery . to identify compounds that suppress the growth and survival of neuroblastoma ( nb ) tumor - initiating cells and not nontransformed normal cells ( skps ), a cell - based assay was established and used in which nb tumor - initiating cells from a multiple relapse nb patient ( nb12 , passage 6 - 17 ) and normal skps ( fs90 , passage 2 - 5 ) were tested in parallel to detect specific alterations of cell viability / proliferation . for each cell type , cells were passaged 5 days prior to screening . three thousand ( 3000 ) cells in 100 □ l skps growth media ( b27 , bfgf , egf , p / s , fungizone in dmem : f12 with 50 % hfs conditioned media ) were robotically plated in uncoated 96 well plates and treated with test compound for 30 hours , prior to a 24 hour incubation in the presence of alamar blue and subsequent fluorometric reading . under these conditions , the alamar blue signal displayed a linear response with time , background was minimal , and the dynamic range satisfactory ( i . e . the alamar blue reading at 0 hours vs . 24 hours was & gt ; 10 fold different ). the robustness of the screen was initially evaluated by using a collection of 1280 bioactive compounds ( lopac library , sigma ). for both normal skps and nb tumor - initiating cells , variability of signals was low , with cv values ranging between 3 . 5 - 4 . 5 % across the plates , and the dimensionless , statistical parameters z ′ and z factors were & gt ; 0 . 5 , suggesting an excellent assay quality . “ hits ” were defined as the compounds whose signals were shifted away by at least 3 × standard deviations ( 99 . 73 % confidence interval ) from the mean of the general sample population . the screen of the lopac library at 5 μm yielded 13 “ hits ” which were found to affect both normal and nb cells . we also identified 18 compounds that selectively target nb cells . four compounds selectively targeted normal cells . the prestwick library was screened at 5 μm using fs90 and nb12 and at 1 μm using nb12 only due to the high number of “ hits ” at 5 μm . this screen identified 9 compounds that selectively target nb12 and 15 compounds that affect both nb12 and fs90 . the results from the lopac and prestwick screens were confirmed using fs90 , fs105 , and nb12 . thirty - six ( 36 ) compounds were confirmed that specifically affect nb12 and 29 compounds that affect fs90 / 105 and nb12 . thirty - two ( 32 ) compounds were selected for ic 50 determinations using fs90 , fs105 , and nb12 . ic 50 for the remaining compounds of interest will be tested at a later date ( in combination with hits from additional libraries ). table 9 32 compounds selected for ic50 determinations using fs90 , fs105 , and nb12 : ( s )-(+)- camptothecin ammonium pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate amodiaquin dihydrochloride dihydrate antimycin a avermectin b1 azaguanine - 8 chelerythrine chloride clofazimine colchicine dequalinium analog , c - 14 linker dequalinium dichloride ( lopac compound ) dequalinium dichloride ( prestwick compound ) digoxin dihydroouabain diphenyleneiodonium chloride dl - stearoylcarnitine chloride etoposide idarubicin loratadine mg 624 myophenolic acid paclitaxel parthenolide podophyllotoxin primaquine diphosphate quinacrine dihydrochloride sanguinarine chloride scoulerine strophanthidin terfenadine vinblastine sulfate salt vincristine sulfate the spectrum collection was screened using the same protocol . at 5 μm , the initial screen identified 35 hits that affect nb12 and fs90 , no hits that specifically target fs90 , and 41 hits that specifically target nb12 . the screen was repeated at 5 μm and 1 μm using nb12 and fs90 to confirm these hits and identified 34 hits that affect nb12 and fs90 , no hits that specifically target fs90 , and 33 hits that specifically target nb12 . following the spectrum confirmatory screen , ic 50 determinations for an additional 32 compounds were performed . the present example provides a description of the screening method used to identify and select chemical entities capable of affecting ( i . e ., reducing and / or inhibiting ) neuroblastoma cells . the screening method is used here with the lopac compound collection . ( lopac library , sigma ). candidate nb tumor - initiating cells ( tics ) were isolated . these tics were used in the screening assay for the identification of these kinds of compounds because they are related to skps ( skin - derived precursors ). for example , both skps and tics originate from the neural crest , express similar neural crest markers , and differentiate in vitro into similar cell types . the availability of two neural crest stem cell sources , one from the nb tumor and the other from the skin of the same patient , affords an approach for the therapeutic target discovery provided here . to identify compounds that specifically target neuroblastoma tics , a cell - based assay in which tics from a nb patient and normal skps were tested in parallel . cells were treated with test compound prior to incubation with a cell viability dye . for both cell sources , signal variability was low and the z ′ and z factors were & gt ; 0 . 5 , suggesting excellent assay quality . hits were defined as compounds whose signals were shifted at least 3 standard deviations from the mean . from 3 libraries of compounds , the lopac collection , the prestwick collection and the spectrum collection , 46 compounds were found to affect both normal and nb cells . these 46 compounds are listed in table 13 . table 14 neuroblastoma specific hits 10 - hydroxycamtothecin 2 . 3 - dimethoxy - 1 . 4 - naphthoquinone 4 ′- demethylepipodophyllotoxin amodiaquin dihydrochloride dihydrate amsacrine hydrochloride ancitabine hydrochloride andrographolide antimycin a azaguanine - 8 benzalkonium chloride benzethonium chloride bepridil hydrochloride beta - peltatin camptothecin ( s .+) cetylpyridinium chloride cgp - 74514a hydrochloride chelerythrine chloride cholestan - 3beta . 5alpha . 6beta - triol ciclopirox ethanolamine clofazimine convallatoxin crassin acetate crinamine cycloheximide cytosine - 1 - beta - d - arabinofuranoside hydrochloride dequalinium analog . c - 14 linker dequalinium dichloride diphenyleneiodonium chloride dl - stearoylcarnitine chloride doxorubicin hydrochloride erysolin etoposide gambogic acid idarubicin imidaclopride limonin loratadine mechlorethamine meclizine hydrochloride mg 624 mycophenolic acid ouabain oxybendazole paclitaxel pararosaniline pamoate parthenolide podophyllotoxin primaquine diphosphate quinacrine dihydrochloride scoulerine taxol teniposide vinblastine sulfate salt vincristine sulfate four ( 4 ) compounds selected from the lopac collection , prestwick collection and the spectrum collection , were found to successfully treat a nb patient and were selected as nb specific hits according to the assay criteria provided herein . these compounds serve as positive controls in the selection and screening methods . these results emphasize the validity of the assay in identifying active agents for treating neuroblastoma . these 4 compounds are listed in table 15 . table 15 : 4 identified compounds that are used to treat the nb patient patient hits ( i . e . drugs that were used to treat patient and were selected as nb specific hits ) these results suggest that patient - specific therapeutics as well as novel molecular effectors of neuroblastoma can be identified using this assay . the present example presents the tabulated data obtained with the various chemical library screens conducted . the present example demonstrates the utility of the present invention for providing a composition suitable for the inhibition of neuroblastoma , and for the treatment of neuroblastoma . forty - seven ( 47 ) compounds were selected based on differential cell toxicity and compound mechanism of action . forty are novel compounds for the treatment of neuroblastoma . none of these 40 compounds have been used clinically in neuroblastoma therapy nor have they been examined in clinical trials . seven compounds have been previously used for neuroblastoma treatment ( marked with asterisk ), and serve as positive controls in the selection and screening process of new chemical entities that may be used in the treatment of neuroblastoma according the present invention . the standard of care for poor prognosis neuroblastoma tumors is intensive induction chemotherapy with cisplatin , etoposide , cyclophosphamide , and doxorubicin , high - dose myeloablative therapy with bone marrow transplant , surgery , radiation therapy , and biologic or maintenance therapy to eradicate minimal residual disease . the chemotherapy regimen is designed to induce massive genomic damage and subsequent cell death in proliferating cells . this strategy results in the death of both tumor and normal cells and is extremely debilitating to young patients . additionally , this strategy does not target the tumor - initiating cells ( tics ). the survival of nb tics may contribute to tumor relapse . the compounds identified in the present invention target cellular pathways specific to neuroblastoma tumor - initiating cells while having little or no effect on normal cells ( fig5 ). therefore , the compositions and pharmaceutical preparations of the present invention will provide a treatment method for neuroblastoma having fewer and / or less intense or pronounced toxic side effects in patients . all documents , patents , journal articles and other materials cited in the present application are hereby incorporated by reference . although the present invention has been fully described in conjunction with several embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings , it is to be understood that various changes and modifications may be apparent to those skilled in the art . such changes and modifications are to be understood as included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims , unless they depart therefrom . the references listed below as well as the references cited throughout the specification are incorporated herein by reference to the extent that they supplement , explain , provide a background for or teach methodology , techniques and / or compositions employed herein . 1 . brodeur g m . 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