Biomedical subjects

Tatiana Okouneva

Publications and source records attributed to Tatiana Okouneva.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

2-Methoxyestradiol suppresses microtubule dynamics and arrests mitosis without depolymerizing microtubules.

2-Methoxyestradiol (2ME2), a metabolite of estradiol-17beta, is a novel antimitotic and antiangiogenic drug candidate in phase I and II clinical trials for the treatment of a broad range of tumor types. 2ME2 binds to tubulin at or near the colchicine site and inhibits the polymerization of tubulin in vitro, suggesting that it may work by interfering with normal microtubule function. However, the role of microtubule depolymerization in its antitumor mechanism of action has been controversial. To determine the mechanism by which 2ME2 induces mitotic arrest, we analyzed its effects on microtubule polymerization in vitro and its effects on dynamic instability both in vitro and in living MCF7 cells. In vitro, 2ME2 (5-100 micromol/L) inhibited assembly of purified tubulin in a concentration-dependent manner, with maximal inhibition (60%) at 200 micromol/L 2ME2. However, with microtubule-associated protein-containing microtubules, significantly higher 2ME2 concentrations were required to depolymerize microtubules, and polymer mass was reduced by only 13% at 500 micromol/L 2ME2. In vitro, dynamic instability was inhibited at lower concentrations. Specifically, 4 micromol/L 2ME2 reduced the mean growth rate by 17% and dynamicity by 27%. In living interphase MCF7 cells at the IC50 for mitotic arrest (1.2 micromol/L), 2ME2 significantly suppressed the mean microtubule growth rate, duration and length, and the overall dynamicity, consistent with its effects in vitro, and without any observable depolymerization of microtubules. Taken together, the results suggest that the major mechanism of mitotic arrest at the lowest effective concentrations of 2ME2 is suppression of microtubule dynamics rather than microtubule depolymerization per se.

2-Methoxyestradiol↗

PubMed2005

The primary antimitotic mechanism of action of the synthetic halichondrin E7389 is suppression of microtubule growth.

E7389, which is in phase I and II clinical trials, is a synthetic macrocyclic ketone analogue of the marine sponge natural product halichondrin B. Whereas its mechanism of action has not been fully elucidated, its main target seems to be tubulin and/or the microtubules responsible for the construction and proper function of the mitotic spindle. Like most microtubule-targeted antitumor drugs, it inhibits tumor cell proliferation in association with G(2)-M arrest. It binds to tubulin and inhibits microtubule polymerization. We examined the mechanism of action of E7389 with purified microtubules and in living cells and found that, unlike antimitotic drugs including vinblastine and paclitaxel that suppress both the shortening and growth phases of microtubule dynamic instability, E7389 seems to work by an end-poisoning mechanism that results predominantly in inhibition of microtubule growth, but not shortening, in association with sequestration of tubulin into aggregates. In living MCF7 cells at the concentration that half-maximally blocked cell proliferation and mitosis (1 nmol/L), E7389 did not affect the shortening events of microtubule dynamic instability nor the catastrophe or rescue frequencies, but it significantly suppressed the rate and extent of microtubule growth. Vinblastine, but not E7389, inhibited the dilution-induced microtubule disassembly rate. The results suggest that, at its lowest effective concentrations, E7389 may suppress mitosis by directly binding to microtubule ends as unliganded E7389 or by competition of E7389-induced tubulin aggregates with unliganded soluble tubulin for addition to growing microtubule ends. The result is formation of abnormal mitotic spindles that cannot pass the metaphase/anaphase checkpoint.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

The effects of vinflunine, vinorelbine, and vinblastine on centromere dynamics.

Vinflunine is a novel fluorinated Vinca alkaloid currently in Phase II clinical trials, which in preclinical studies exhibited superior antitumor activity to that of two clinically useful Vinca alkaloids, vinorelbine and vinblastine. All three of the drugs block mitosis at the metaphase/anaphase transition, leading to apoptosis. The mechanism of the mitotic block is not known. On the basis of results with purified microtubules and in living interphase cells, we hypothesized that it involves suppression of spindle microtubule dynamics. Here we measured the effects of the three Vinca alkaloids on dynamics of centromeres and spindle kinetochore-microtubules by a novel approach involving quantitative time-lapse confocal microscopy in living mitotic human U2OS cells. Green fluorescent protein-labeled centromere-binding protein B was used to mark centromeres and kinetochore-microtubule plus ends. In controls, pairs of centromeres on sister chromatids alternated under tension between increasing and decreasing separation (stretching and relaxing). All three of the Vinca alkaloids suppressed centromere dynamics similarly at concentrations that block mitosis. At concentrations approximating the IC(50)s for mitotic accumulation (18.8 nM vinflunine, 7.3 nM vinorelbine, and 6.1 nM vinblastine), centromere dynamicity decreased by 44%, 25%, and 26%, respectively, and the time centromeres spent in a paused state increased by 63%, 52%, and 36%, respectively. Centromere relaxation rates, stretching durations, and transition frequencies all decreased. Thus all three of the drugs decreased the normal microtubule-dependent spindle tension at the centromeres/kinetochores, thereby preventing the signal for mitotic checkpoint passage. The strong correlation between suppression of kinetochore-microtubule dynamics and mitotic block indicates that the primary mechanism by which the Vinca alkaloids block mitosis is suppression of spindle microtubule dynamics.

Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic↗