PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R H Shoemaker

Publications and source records attributed to R H Shoemaker.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Screening of new anticancer agents in vitro using panels of human cell lines derived from non-seminomatous germ cell tumours and transitional cell carcinomas of the bladder.

Metastatic testis tumours are cured in over 80% of patients using combination chemotherapy, and this hypersensitivity is retained by the cells in vitro. To determine whether differential toxicity to testis tumour cells is useful in the screening of novel anticancer agents, we compared the toxicities of 12 compounds against panels of human bladder and testis tumour cell lines using a clonogenic assay. The compounds had screened negative against P388 in vivo, and had been retested using the human tumour colony forming assay (HTCFA) and in selected cases against human tumour xenografts. NSC 339004, chloroquinoxaline sulphonamide, was 7-fold more toxic to testis tumour than bladder cancer cells, comparing the mean of the concentrations reducing colony-forming ability by 70%. This was the only one of the compounds selected by the HTCFA shown to have clinical activity. Compound R was selectively toxic to the bladder cancer cells, and might be of value as an intravesical agent. These data indicate that panels of testis and bladder cancer cell lines might be a useful addition to the disease-oriented screening programme.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1991

Practical spontaneous metastasis model for in vivo therapeutic studies using a human melanoma.

In vivo studies aimed at therapy of spontaneous human tumor metastases have been hampered by the lack of practical experimental models. The LOX amelanotic melanoma model described here represents a transplantation model which rapidly and reproducibly results in spontaneous pulmonary metastasis following s.c. inoculation into athymic mice. Pulmonary lesions can be detected using a simple bioassay procedure which is useful for estimation of metastatic cell killing. Using this model we demonstrate that systemic therapy with cyclophosphamide or dacarbazine can produce metastatic cell killing consistent with complete eradication of established pulmonary metastases. This model may also prove useful for future experimental therapeutic studies aimed at prevention of metastases by manipulating tumor staging interval and treatment schedule.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Comparison of in vitro anticancer-drug-screening data generated with a tetrazolium assay versus a protein assay against a diverse panel of human tumor cell lines.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is implementing a large-scale in vitro drug-screening program that requires a very efficient automated assay of drug effects on tumor cell viability or growth. Many laboratories worldwide have adopted a microculture assay based on metabolic reduction of 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT). However, because of certain technical advantages to use of the protein-binding dye sulforhodamine B (SRB) in a large-scale screening application, a detailed comparison of data generated by each type of assay was undertaken. The MTT and SRB assays were each used to test 197 compounds, on simultaneous days, against up to 38 human tumor cell lines representing seven major tumor categories. On subsequent days, 38 compounds were retested with the SRB assay and 25 compounds were retested with the MTT assay. For each of these three comparisons, we tabulated the differences between the two assays in the ratios of test group values to control values (T/C) for cell survival; calculated correlation coefficients for various T/C ratios; and estimated the bivariate distribution of the values for IC50 (concentration of drug resulting in T/C values of 50%, or 50% growth inhibition) for the two assays. The results indicate that under the experimental conditions used and within the limits of the data analyses, the assays perform similarly. Because the SRB assay has practical advantages for large-scale screening, however, it has been adopted for routine use in the NCI in vitro antitumor screen.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1989

A rapid in vitro method for the evaluation of potential antitumor drugs requiring metabolic activation by hepatic S9 enzymes.

Metabolic activation is a prerequisite for the antitumor activity of certain drugs such as cyclophosphamide. In vitro assays require systems for metabolic activation to reveal the toxicity of such compounds for tumor cells. Although a number of methods utilizing systems for the in vitro metabolic activation of drugs have been published, practical assays applicable to large scale screening for such agents have been lacking. We, therefore, now report that incorporation of a liver subcellular fraction (S9) into a recently established cell growth inhibition assay (microculture tetrazolium assay) significantly increased the cytotoxicity of cyclophosphamide. Under optimal conditions, the 50% growth inhibitory concentration was decreased in the presence of S9 from more than 600 micrograms/ml to less than 4 micrograms/ml, depending upon the cell line. The method also proved suitable for studies investigating metabolic detoxification (enzymatically or non-enzymatically) by conjugation reactions. For example, glutathione (5 mM) markedly reduced the cytotoxicity of activated cyclophosphamide. In contrast, the addition of UDP glucuronate (10 mM) in the presence of the UDP-glucuronosyltransferase activator UDP-N-acetylglucosamine (10 mM) had little effect on cyclophosphamide toxicity.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Display and analysis of patterns of differential activity of drugs against human tumor cell lines: development of mean graph and COMPARE algorithm.

The objective of this study was to develop and investigate an approach to optimally detect, rank, display, and analyze patterns of differential growth inhibition among cultured cell lines. Such patterns of cellular responsiveness are produced by substances tested in vitro against disease-oriented panels of human tumor cell lines in a new anticancer screening model under development by the National Cancer Institute. In the first phase of the study, we developed a key methodological tool, the mean graph, which allowed the transformation of the numerical cell line response data into graphic patterns. These patterns were particularly expressive of differential cell growth inhibition and were conveniently amenable to further analyses by an algorithm we devised and implemented in the COMPARE computer program.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1989

New soluble-formazan assay for HIV-1 cytopathic effects: application to high-flux screening of synthetic and natural products for AIDS-antiviral activity.

We have developed an effective and optimally safe microculture method for rapid and convenient assay of the in vitro cytopathic effects of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) on human lymphoblastoid or other suitable host cells. The assay procedure is applicable to the evaluation of drug effects on in vitro infections induced directly in cultured host cells by cell-free HIV-1 or by coculture with H9 cells chronically infected with HIV-1. The assay uses a newly developed tetrazolium reagent that is metabolically reduced by viable cells to yield a soluble, colored formazan product measurable by conventional colorimetric techniques. This simple microassay minimizes the number of plate manipulations typically required with other assay methods and, coupled with computerized data collection and analysis, facilitates large-scale screening of agents for potential antiviral activity. To support and enhance the discovery of new anti-HIV-1 agents, the National Cancer Institute is offering investigators worldwide the opportunity to submit new candidate agents for anti-HIV-1 screening with this method.

Antiviral Agents↗
PubMed1988

Structure-activity relationships defining the cytotoxicity of catechol analogues against human malignant melanoma.

The cytotoxic activities of three new synthetic catechol analogues, beta-[(p-hydroxyphenyl)amino]alanine (Compound 1), N delta-(p-hydroxyphenyl)ornithine (Compound 2), and N delta-(m-hydroxyphenyl)ornithine (Compound 3), were determined against 10 human melanoma and 5 nonmelanoma cell lines. Activities of L-DOPA and 3,4-dihydroxybenzylamine were also measured. Dose-response curves were obtained and concentrations in micrograms/ml required to give 90% inhibition of colony formation (IC90) were calculated. Using a cutoff IC90 of less than 2.5 as a definition of activity. Compound 2 was active in 6 of 10 melanoma and 0 of 5 nonmelanoma cell lines while both Compound 1 and L-DOPA methyl ester were active in 1 of 10 melanomas and 0 of 5 nonmelanomas. Compound 3 was inactive in all cell lines and all IC90 values exceeded 100. 3,4-Dihydroxybenzylamine was active in 3 of 8 melanomas and 1 of 5 nonmelanomas. Regression analysis of IC90 values for Compound 2 and tyrosinase levels in the 15 cell lines yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.93 (P less than 0.001). By contrast, a similar analysis for 3,4-dihydroxybenzylamine gave a correlation coefficient of 0.17 (P greater than 0.05). Spectrophotometric data indicated that Compounds 1 and 2 were oxidized by tyrosinase to quinones. Cytotoxic activity was blocked by the tyrosinase inhibitor phenylthiocarbamide. Since the rates of activation of Compounds 1 and 2 were identical, the higher activity of Compound 2 was probably due to its higher lipophilicity and greater intracellular accumulation. Compounds 1 and 2 exhibited greater potency and selectivity against malignant melanoma than did the natural product L-DOPA methyl ester.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1988

Evaluation of a soluble tetrazolium/formazan assay for cell growth and drug sensitivity in culture using human and other tumor cell lines.

We have previously described the application of an automated microculture tetrazolium assay (MTA) involving dimethyl sulfoxide solubilization of cellular-generated 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT)-formazan to the in vitro assessment of drug effects on cell growth (M.C. Alley et al., Proc. Am. Assoc. Cancer Res., 27:389, 1986; M.C. Alley et al., Cancer Res. 48:589-601, 1988). There are several inherent disadvantages of this assay, including the safety hazard of personnel exposure to large quantities of dimethyl sulfoxide, the deleterious effects of this solvent on laboratory equipment, and the inefficient metabolism of MTT by some human cell lines. Recognition of these limitations prompted development of possible alternative MTAs utilizing a different tetrazolium reagent, 2,3-bis(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-5-[(phenylamino)carbonyl] -2H- tetrazolium hydroxide (XTT), which is metabolically reduced in viable cells to a water-soluble formazan product. This reagent allows direct absorbance readings, therefore eliminating a solubilization step and shortening the microculture growth assay procedure. Most human tumor cell lines examined metabolized XTT less efficiently than MTT; however, the addition of phenazine methosulfate (PMS) markedly enhanced cellular reduction of XTT. In the presence of PMS, the XTT reagent yielded usable absorbance values for growth and drug sensitivity evaluations with a variety of cell lines. Depending on the metabolic reductive capacity of a given cell line, the optimal conditions for a 4-h XTT incubation assay were 50 micrograms of XTT and 0.15 to 0.4 microgram of PMS per well. Drug profiles obtained with representative human tumor cell lines for several standard compounds utilizing the XTT-PMS methodology were similar to the profiles obtained with MTT. Addition of PMS appeared to have little effect on the metabolism of MTT. The new XTT reagent thus provides for a simplified, in vitro cell growth assay with possible applicability to a variety of problems in cellular pharmacology and biology. However, the MTA using the XTT reagent still shares many of the limitations and potential pitfalls of MTT or other tetrazolium-based assays.

Azo Compounds↗
PubMed1988

Comparison of intrapulmonary, percutaneous intrathoracic, and subcutaneous models for the propagation of human pulmonary and nonpulmonary cancer cell lines in athymic nude mice.

The propagation efficiencies, growth patterns, histological appearances, and roentgenographic demonstration of tumors derived from six continuous human pulmonary tumor cell lines implanted intrathoracically (i.t.) and intrabronchially (i.b.) were compared with the conventional s.c. implantation method at three different tumor cell inocula (N = 184, i.b.; N = 185, i.t.; N = 180, s.c.). A tumor-related mortality of 100% was noted when the six different human lung tumor cell lines, including A549 adenocarcinoma, NCI-H125 adenosquamous carcinoma, NCI-H460 large cell undifferentiated carcinoma, NCI-H69 small cell carcinoma, and NCI-H358 and NCI-H322 bronchioloalveolar cell carcinomas, were implanted i.b. at a 1.0 x 10(6) tumor cell inoculum. A similar (92%) tumor-related mortality was observed when these same lung tumor cell lines were implanted i.t. at a 1.0 x 10(6) tumor cell inoculum (P greater than 0.10), whereas minimal (5%) tumor-related mortality was noted when cells from the six different cell lines were implanted s.c. (P less than 0.001). In addition, a dose-dependent, tumor-related mortality was noted for either i.t. or i.b. implantation when lower (1.0 x 10(5) or 1.0 x 10(4] tumor cell inocula were employed. Histological characteristics and growth patterns of tumors propagated employing the three implantation techniques were closely comparable for all three propagation methods and, in all instances, histological appearances of the tumors were representative of the current tumor cell lines from which they were derived. Approximately 30% of the lung tumors propagated i.t. grew in the chest wall and/or in the lung parenchyma as well as in the pleural space. In contrast, tumors propagated i.b. grew predominantly in the lung parenchyma. When five nonpulmonary human tumor cell lines (including U251 glioblastoma, LOX amelamontic melanoma, HT-29 colon adenocarcinoma, OVCAR 3 ovarian adenocarcinoma, and adriamycin-resistant MCF-7 breast adenocarcinoma) were propagated i.b. or i.t., there was considerable site-specific variability in tumor-related mortality depending on the tumor type. These data demonstrate that both the i.b. and i.t. models should be useful for the in vivo propagation and study of certain human pulmonary and nonpulmonary carcinomas as well as being advantageous for future studies of cancer biology and developmental therapeutics.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Feasibility of drug screening with panels of human tumor cell lines using a microculture tetrazolium assay.

For the past 30 years strategies for the preclinical discovery and development of potential anticancer agents have been based largely upon the testing of agents in mice bearing transplantable leukemias and solid tumors derived from a limited number of murine as well as human sources. The feasibility of implementing an alternate approach, namely combined in vitro/in vivo screening for selective cytotoxicity among panels of human tumor cell lines derived from a broad spectrum of human solid tumors is under investigation. A group of 30 cell lines acquired from a variety of sources and representing 8 lung cancer pathologies as well as 76 cell lines representing 10 other categories of human cancer (carcinomas of colon, breast, kidney, prostate, ovary, head and neck; glioma; leukemia; melanoma; and sarcoma) have exhibited acceptable growth characteristics and suitable colorimetric profiles in a single, standard culture medium. Measurements of in vitro growth in microculture wells by cell-mediated reduction of tetrazolium showed excellent correlation (0.89 less than r2 less than 0.98) with measurements of cellular protein in adherent cell line cultures as well as viable cell count in suspension cell line cultures (0.94 less than r2 less than 0.99). Since the microculture tetrazolium assay provides sensitive and reproducible indices of growth as well as drug sensitivity in individual cell lines over the course of multiple passages and several months' cultivation, it appears suitable for initial-stage in vitro drug screening.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1988

Relationship between in vitro tumor stem cell assay and in vivo antitumor activity using the P388 leukemia.

The relationship between in vitro tumor stem cell sensitivity and in vivo antitumor efficacy using 13 active antineoplastic agents was examined by means of the intraperitoneal P388 mouse leukemia system. The doses, which produced a 50% increase in life span after one, five and nine days of treatment, were all significantly correlated with the in vitro concentration producing a 70% reduction in colony formation during a seven-day continuous drug exposure. The five-day correlation was the best, followed by nine days and one day. Correlations were not improved by corrections for either in vitro drug stability or toxicity (LD50). The highly significant correlations observed in this simple retrospective analysis provide a basis for the development of more sophisticated models for the prediction of in vivo results from in vitro data.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Novel intrapulmonary model for orthotopic propagation of human lung cancers in athymic nude mice.

A major impediment to the study of human lung cancer pathophysiology, as well as to the discovery and development of new specific antitumor agents for the treatment of lung cancer, has been the lack of appropriate experimental animal models. This paper describes a new model for the propagation of human lung tumor cells in the bronchioalveolar regions of the right lungs of athymic NCr-nu/nu mice via an intrabronchial (i.b.) implantation procedure. Over 1000 i.b. implantations have been performed to date, each requiring 3 to 5 min for completion and having a surgery-related mortality of approximately 5%. The model was used successfully for the orthotopic propagation of four established human lung cancer cell lines including: an adenosquamous cell carcinoma (NCI-H125); an adenocarcinoma (A549); a large cell undifferentiated carcinoma (NCI-H460), and a bronchioloalveolar cell carcinoma (NCI-H358). When each of the four cell lines was implanted i.b. using a 1.0 X 10(6) tumor cell inoculum, 100 +/- 0% (SD) tumor-related mortality was observed within 9 to 61 days. In contrast, when the conventional s.c. method for implantation was used at the same tumor cell inoculum, only minimal (2.5 +/- 5%) tumor-related mortality was observed within 140 days (P less than 0.001). Similarly, when a 1.0 X 10(5) or 1.0 X 10(4) cell inoculum was used, a dose-dependent, tumor-related mortality was observed when cells were implanted i.b. (56 +/- 24% or 25 +/- 17%) as compared with the s.c. method (5 +/- 5.7% or 0.0 +/- 0%) (P less than 0.02 and P less than 0.05, respectively). Most (greater than 90%) of the lung tumors propagated by i.b. implantation were localized to the right lung fields as documented by necropsy and/or high-resolution chest roentgenography techniques which were developed for these studies. The intrapulmonary model was also used for establishment and propagation of xenografts derived directly from enzymatically digested, fresh human lung tumor specimens obtained at the time of diagnostic thoracotomy and representing all four major lung cancer cell types as well as a bronchioloalveolar cell carcinoma. Approximately 35% (10 of 29) of the fresh primary human lung tumor specimens and 66% (2 of 3) of tumors metastatic to the lung were successfully propagated i.b. at a 1.0 X 10(6) tumor cell inoculum, whereas only 20% (1 of 5) of the specimens were successfully grown in vivo via the s.c. route from a 1.0 X 10(7) tumor cell inoculum.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Model for estimation of clinically achievable plasma concentrations for investigational anticancer drugs in man.

A major problem related to in vitro testing of new investigational anticancer compounds is the lack of accurate pharmacokinetic data for the drugs in man. Based on the concept of a relationship between certain toxicologic endpoints in animal systems and maximally tolerated doses in man, we hypothesized that a comparable agreement might exist between these experimental animal toxicology data and clinically achievable peak plasma concentrations (PPCs). A retrospective analysis of the known data pairs of 28 commonly used cytotoxic compounds supports the existence of a reasonably good correlation between ip LD50 values (Pearson test) in nontumored mice and PPCs in man (r2 = 0.501; P less than 0.0001). Our data suggest that by use of the resultant statistical regression model a rational starting point can be selected for in vitro screening of entirely new agents for which human PPCs are not available. Additionally, application of this approach may also prove useful in relation to selecting in vitro doses for chemosensitivity assays intended for predictive correlation with clinical response in cancer patients.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Application of a human tumor colony-forming assay to new drug screening.

The applicability of a human tumor colony-forming assay to drug screening was investigated in terms of feasibility, validity, and potential for discovering new antitumor drugs. Feasibility was addressed in a pilot study during which basic methods, appropriate assay quality controls, and a standardized protocol for screening were developed. Considerable variability was noted in the availability and colony growth of different tumor types. The majority of the evaluable experiments utilized breast, colorectal, kidney, lung, melanoma, or ovarian tumors. For many tumor types, little evidence of growth was observed, or only rare specimens formed colonies. Colony-forming efficiencies ranged from 0.05 to 0.11% for the six most useful tumors listed above. A set of quality control measures was developed to address technical problems inherent in the assay. Testing of standard agents in the pilot study established that most of these agents could be detected as active. However, it also identified three assay limitations: compounds requiring systemic metabolic activation are inactive; medium constituents may block the activity of certain antimetabolites; and compounds without therapeutic efficacy may be positive in the assay. The assay categorized nontoxic clinically ineffective agents as true negatives with 97% accuracy. Of 79 compounds which were negative in the current National Cancer Institute prescreen (leukemia P388), 14 were active in the assay. Several demonstrated outstanding in vitro activity and are structurally unrelated to compounds already in development or in clinical trials. A subset of these active compounds were found to lack activity in a P388 in vitro colony-forming assay. This indication of differential cytotoxicity to human tumor cells makes this subset of compounds particularly interesting as antitumor drug leads. The demonstrated sensitivity to most standard agents, discrimination of nontoxic compounds, reproducibility of survival values within assays and between laboratories, and evidence of ability to identify active compounds which were negative in the in vivo prescreen suggest that the human tumor colony-forming assay may be a valuable tool for antitumor drug screening. However, because of technical limitations inherent in the current assay methodology, this must be confined to selected tumor types and limited to screening on a moderate scale.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1985

Stability of the in vivo P388 leukemia model in evaluation of antitumor activity of natural products.

The stability of the P388 mouse leukemia model over 15 years was examined. Eleven natural products and one synthetic compound (5-FU) tested repetitively under the same conditions of dose and schedule were associated with no significant change in their activity. The P388 model, used in conjunction with other in vivo and in vitro tumor models, continues to be of value in the anticancer drug screening process.

Animals↗