Tumor therapy of neoplastic diseases with tumor cells and neuraminidase

The therapeutic effect of i.d. injection of tumor cells mixed with Vibrio cholerae neuraminidase (VCN) on tumor progression in dogs with spontaneous mammary tumors was investigated. The i.d. injections were performed in a chessboard-like manner: different numbers (10(5), 10(6), 10(7), and 10(8) of mitomycin-treated autologous tumor cells (M-TC) were each mixed with different amounts (10, 50, and 100 mU) of VCN. These different mixtures were injected i.d. at different sites in dogs on the day of resection of a part of multiple tumors.     

Influence of mitomycin C on endothelial monolayer regeneration in vitro.

This study examines the effect of Mitomycin C, a fungal toxin which inhibits DNA synthesis, on the regeneration of partially denuded large vessel endothelium in vitro. Monolayers of bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells were treated with Mitomycin C prior to or immediately following partial denudation and were incubated in the continuing presence of Mitomycin C; the effects of this treatment on monolayer repair, cell proliferation, and other aspects of endothelial phenotype were monitored. Cell proliferation, DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis were all reduced in a dose dependent manner in treated cultures. Incubation with Mitomycin C for 48 h or longer resulted in reduced cell spreading, and rounding up and loss of cells from both intact and partially denuded cultures. Effects were less severe with lower doses and shorter incubation times. However, significant reductions in monolayer regeneration occurred within 8 h of incubation, sufficiently early to suggest that Mitomycin C may affect aspects of the regeneration process independent of cell proliferation. Polarization/spreading of cells at the denudation edge was monitored by fluorescence staining for golgi with C5-DMB-ceramide, and for centrioles with antibodies to tubulin. Centrioles and golgi rapidly reoriented to a location at the putative leading edge of control cultures. Mitomycin C treatment had no effect on centriole reorientation, but caused a significant delay in golgi localization. These results suggest that Mitomycin C inhibits endothelial monolayer regeneration by mechanisms independent of cell proliferation and DNA synthesis, perhaps by interfering with cell spreading or translocation at the wound edge.     

Regulation of purine metabolism. Adenylosuccinate synthetase from Novikoff ascites tumor cells.

Adenylosuccinate synthetase has been partially purified from Novikoff ascites tumor cells. The properties of the protein are quite different from the enzyme from rat liver in that the Km for asparate is higher and the K1 for the feedback inhibitor AMP is also higher. The antibiotic hadacidin has a preferential inhibitory effect on the tumor enzyme. These results suggest that the Novikoff ascites tumor enzyme is less sensitive to normal feedback controls but may be more sensitive to specific antitumor drugs.     

Purification of thioredoxin reductase from the Novikoff rat tumor.

Thioredoxin reductase (E.C.1.6.4.5.) has been purified to about 95% homogeneity from the Novikoff ascites rat tumor. The enzyme contained two subunits of approximately 58,000 daltons, with one FAD per subunit. The amino acid analysis is reported. An immunoadsorbent was prepared and used for affinity chromatography in order to improve the yield of the enzyme.     

Effect of tumor promoter TPA on spontaneous and mitomycin C induced mitotic recombination in Drosophila melanogaster

It has been proposed that mitotic recombination is involved in tumor promotion. To test this idea, we investigated the effect of a tumor promoter, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), on spontaneous and mitomycin C (MMC)-induced mitotic recombination in Drosophila melanogaster. The test system used was the wing-spot assay. Third instar larvae (mwh+/+flr) were treated with MMC (0-0.3 mM) for 6 h and fed media containing TPA (0-10 micrograms/ml), and the wings of surviving adults were analyzed for the presence of mutant spots. The results are: (1) MMC induced twin spots as well as single spots dose dependently (0.03-0.3 mM). (2) TPA itself did not induce twin spots or single spots in the range of doses examined (0.1-10 micrograms/ml). (3) TPA did not enhance the frequencies of twin or single spots induced by MMC. These results indicate that TPA induced neither mitotic recombination nor mutations under these experimental conditions. Thus the results would not support the mitotic recombination theory in tumor promotion. Rather, in this study, TPA posttreatment resulted in reduced frequencies of mutant single spots induced by MMC.     

Effects of mitomycin C on the rate of DNA synthesis in normal and Fanconi anaemia cells

The effect of low doses mitomycin C (MMC) on DNA synthesis of fibroblast cell lines derived from normal individuals or patients with Fanconi anaemia (FA) was studied. Using low doses of MMC (12 ng/ml), little or no effect was observed on DNA synthesis of normal cells, whereas DNA synthesis of FA cells was greatly inhibited 24 and 48 h after treatment. This effect was due to a decrease in the number of DNA-synthesizing cells, while the amount of radioactivity incorporated per cell (as measured with grain counting in autoradiograms) remained the same. These findings indicate that the inhibition of semiconservative DNA synthesis induced by MMC in FA cells is not due to an inhibitory effect of unrepaired lesions on the rate of DNA synthesis but rather to a block in cell cycle progression.     

Intercellular junctions between Novikoff hepatoma cells and hepatic cells

In the course of an ultrastructural study of liver invasion by Novikoff hepatoma transplanted in rat liver, several instances of intercellular junctions between tumor cells and non-neoplastic hepatic cells were noted. Such junctions were of the macula adherens type. This finding is interpreted as evidence of differentiation of the tumor cells.     

Osmotic permeability of Novikoff hepatoma cells

The osmotic permeability coefficient (P_f) for water movement across Novikoff hepatoma cells was found to be 82 ± 3 (S.E.) · 10^?5 cm · s^?1 at 20°C. The corresponding diffusional permeability coefficient for ³HHO (P_d) was 97 ± 10 (S.E.) · 10^?5 cm · s^?1, therefore the ratio $\text{P}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>f</mtext>}}\text{P}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>d</mtext>}}$ is close to unity. The apparent activation energy for water filtration was 10.4 ± 0.4 (S.E.) kcal · mol^?1. This value is significantly greater than the activation energy for the self diffusion of water. The product of the hydraulic permeability coefficient and the viscosity coefficient for water was temperature-dependent. However, the product of the hydraulic permeability coefficient and the viscosity coefficient for membrane lipid did not vary with temperature. These data are interpreted as evidence for water movement across a lipid membrane barrier rather than through aqueous channels.     

Purification and characterization of Novikoff ascites tumor protein kinase.

A protein kinase, designed KII, has been purified 5000-fold from Novikoff ascites tumor cells. The purification procedure also allows for the purification of a second major protein kinase, designated KI, as well as RNA polymerase I and II. Purified KII has a sedimentation constant of 7.6 S and a Stokes radius of 39 A, suggesting a molecular weight of about 122000. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the enzyme in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate suggests the enzyme is composed of subunits of molecular weights 44 000, 40 000, and 26 000 present in a molar ratio of 1:1:2. Incubation of the enzyme alone in the presence of [gamma-32P]ATP results in the phosphorylation of the 26 000-dalton subunit. Protein kinase II actively phosphorylates phosvitin, casein, and nonhistone chromosomal proteins but does not phosphorylate basic proteins such as histones or protamine to an appreciable extent. Km values of 3.6 micron for ATP and 6.5 micronM for GTP were determined in the presence of 4mM Mg2+. The enzyme is neither stimulated by cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate or cyclic guanosine 3', 5'-monophosphate nor inhibited by the regulatory subunit of rabbit muscle protein kinase. Its activity is stimulated by KCl at concentrations below 0.2 M and inhibited by higher concentrations.     

Accessibility of plasma membrane sialoglycoconjugates of novikoff tumor cells to exogenous neuraminidase and proteases

Plasma membrane glycoconjugates of Novikoff tumor cells were radioactively labeled by oxidation with NaIO₄ followed by reduction with NaB³H₄ Submission of the radioactively labeled glycoconjugates to polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate followed by fluorography revealed the presence of at least ten major glycoproteins and a glycolipid fraction. The glycolipid fraction contained 34% of the cell-surface radioactive label. Pretreatment of cells with neuraminidase from Vibrio cholerae reduced radioactive labeling of the glycoproteins by 71% and that of the glycolipids by 39%. Sequential treatment of cells with papain and neuraminidase further reduced radioactive labeling of the glycolipid fraction, indicating that resistance of this fraction to the hydrolytic action of neuraminidase was determined, at least in part, by steric factors. Incubation of cells with papain resulted in extensive degradation of most of the radioactively labeled glycoproteins with the exception of a subset of glycoproteins having apparent molecular weights of $\text{48 000 ± 5000}$. Trypsin was more selective, degrading three glycoproteins having apparent molecular weights of 200 000, 140 000 and 37 000.     

Enzymatic modification of Novikoff hepatoma lamins A and C

A significant increase in the molecular weights of lamin A and more so of lamin C was observed when isolated Novikoff hepatoma chromatin was incubated in the presence of Ca2+. This increase did not occur to any significant degree in similar preparations of normal rat liver nuclei. Although detectable in Coomassie Brilliant Blue stained gels, this increase to a higher molecular weight (by approximately 2000 Mr) was much more visible when the electrophoretically separated lamins were transferred to nitrocellulose sheets and stained (using peroxidase-antiperoxidase) with polyclonal antiserum to the three major lamin proteins. This modification could also be induced when whole Novikoff hepatoma cell lysates were incubated in the presence of calcium. Again, this change did not occur in normal rat liver cells treated in the same manner. Further analysis has provided evidence that this modification is most likely mediated by the transaminating activity of an intrinsic nuclear transglutaminase forming a cross-link between the affected lamins and an unknown low molecular weight (approximately equal to 2000 Mr) moiety.     

Immunotherapy of spontaneous mammary tumors in mongrel dogs with autologous tumor cells and neuraminidase

Summary The effect produced on tumor progression by the injection of either VCN-treated tumor cells or tumor cells mixed with VCN to dogs with spontaneous mammary tumors was investigated. Dogs of different breeds and ages with at least two palpable spontaneous mammary tumors were selected. One tumor was left in the animal for further clinical examination, whereas the other tumor(s) was (were) excised for histologic diagnosis and for preparation of a single-cell suspension. Autologous M-cells were treated with VCN, subsequently extensively washed and injected SC into the neck of the dog on the day of operation and on the next day or different numbers of autologous M tumor cells (10⁵, 10⁶, 10⁷, 5×10⁷, 10⁸) were mixed with different amounts of VCN (0, 0.65, 6.5, 65 mU), and these various mixtures were injected ID at different sites to each dog on the day of operation. This procedure has been called chessboard vaccination (Seiler and Sedlacek, 1978). Altogether 79 dogs were blindly distributed into six groups in three consecutive studies. The results show that the therapeutic effect of the injection of VCN-treated autologous tumor cells depends on the number of tumor cells injected: injection of 2×10⁷ tumor cells repeatedly induced regression of the residual tumor mass (Studies I, II, and III) in most dogs and prevention of metastasis (Study I), while the application of 1×10⁸ tumor cells caused enhanced tumor proliferation in all and early metastasis in most of the dogs (Study I). The injection of 2×10⁶ tumor cells induced only a transient regression, with subsequent progression of the residual mammary tumor (Study II). Repetition of the injection of 2×10⁶ tumor cells three times every 4 weeks did not improve this effect (Study II). The chessboard vaccination proved to be at least as effective as the injection of 2×10⁷ VCN-treated tumor cells (Study III), although 1×10⁸ or more tumor cells had been injected; this number of cells caused tumor enhancement when the cells were treated with VCN only and injected SC (Study I). Moreover, the DTH reaction after ID injection of autologous tumor cells could be increased by the addition of VCN: low numbers of tumor cells and high amounts of VCN or high numbers of tumor cells and low amounts of VCN caused the most pronounced skin response. The relevance of these data to overcoming the risk of tumor enhancement after injection of an inadequate number of VCN-treated tumor cells and the possible diagnostic and therapeutic relevance of the DTH response after chessboard vaccination will be discussed.The abbreviations used in this work are: VCN, vibrio cholerae neuraminidase; M, mitomycin-treated; M-VCN, treated with mitomycin and VCN; DTH, delayed-type hypersensitivity; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline