Alberta Bergamo

Ruthenium antimetastatic agents

NAMI-A, i. e. (imH)[trans-RuCl(4)(dmso-S)(im)] (im = imidazole, dmso = dimethylsulfoxide), is a Ru(III) complex that, after extensive preclinical investigations that evidenced its remarkable and specific activity against metastases, has recently and successfully completed a Phase I trial (first ruthenium complex ever to reach clinical testing). This review article, after a brief summary of the main chemical and pharmacological aspects of NAMI-A, focuses on the development of new classes of ruthenium complexes originated from the NAMI-A frame. In particular, the chemical and biological features of the following classes of compounds will be treated: i) NAMI-A-type complexes, derived from NAMI-A by changing the nature of the N-ligand, ii) dinuclear NAMI-A-type compounds containing heterocyclic bridging N-N ligands, iii) new Ru-dmso nitrosyls broadly derived from NAMI-A-type complexes. Several of these new compounds were found to have antimetastatic activity comparable to, or even better than, NAMI-A; however, the nature of the target(s) responsible for the antimetastatic activity remains unclear. Common to any type of NAMI-A-type compound, both monomeric and dimeric, cell cytotoxicity (which is generally very low) is not sufficient to explain their potent and peculiar antitumor activity. All active NAMI-A-type compounds share the capacity to modify important parameters of metastasis such as tumor invasion, matrix metallo proteinases activity and cell cycle progression.

Approaching tumour therapy beyond platinum drugs: Status of the art and perspectives of ruthenium drug candidates

The study of metal complexes for the treatment of cancer diseases has resulted in the identification of some unique properties of ruthenium-based compounds. Among these inorganic-based agents, two of them, namely the ruthenium(III) drugs NAMI-A and KP1019 have undertaken with some success the clinical evaluations of phase I and preliminary phase II trials in patients. Here we highlight the strategies that have led to the discovery of metal-based (NAMI-A and KP1019) and of organometallic (RM175, RAPTA-T, RDC11 and DW1/2) ruthenium-based complexes, and we report their main biological/pharmacological characteristics and expectations for further development.

Ruthenium anticancer compounds: myths and realities of the emerging metal-based drugs

Ruthenium anticancer drugs have attracted an increasing interest in the last 20 years and two of them have entered clinical trials. Compared to platinum drugs, the complexes based on ruthenium are often identified as less toxic and capable of overcoming the resistance induced by platinum drugs in cancer cells. These activities were attributed to the transportation to tumour cells by transferrin and to the selective activation to more reactive species by the reducing environment of solid tumours as compared to healthy tissues. Ruthenium anticancer drugs have been almost always designed to mimic platinum drugs, particularly for targeting DNA. Indeed, none of the above properties has never been clearly demonstrated even for the ruthenium drugs that entered clinical trials. The suggestion for the future is to change the perspective when designing new chemical entities, abandoning the philosophy that guided the actual panel of ruthenium drugs and to look further into the fine mechanism by which the most relevant ruthenium complexes available kill the target tumour cells, then focusing on targets selective of tumour cells and responsible for cell growth and malignancy.

Influence of chemical stability on the activity of the antimetastasis ruthenium compound NAMI-A

The influence of chemical stability on the antimetastatic ruthenium(III) compound imidazolium trans-imidazoletetrachlorodimethylsulphoxideruthenium(III) (NAMI-A) in aqueous solution was studied both in vitro and in vivo. The loss of dimethyl-sulphoxide (DMSO) ligand from the compound was tested by using a NAMI-A solution acidified with HCl at pH 3.0 and aged for 0, 4, 8 and 24 h prior to intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection into CBA mice bearing advanced MCa mammary carcinoma. The activity of NAMI-A on lung metastases showed no change even after the loss of DMSO ligand from up to 50% of the molecules. The reduction of NAMI-A did not modify the number of KB cells blocked in the S+G2M phases, independent of whether the reduction occurred outside the cells or after loading the cells with the compound prior to treatment with the reductants (ascorbic acid, glutathione or cysteine). In vivo, the complete reduction of NAMI-A with equivalent amounts of ascorbic acid, glutathione or cysteine prior to administration to mice bearing advanced MCa mammary carcinoma was more active than NAMI-A alone. The data show that NAMI-A, although undergoing a series of chemical modifications, maintains its antimetastatic activity in a broad range of experimental conditions.

In vivo tumour and metastasis reduction and in vitro effects on invasion assays of the ruthenium RM175 and osmium AFAP51 organometallics in the mammary cancer model

We have compared the organometallic arene complexes [(eta(6)-biphenyl)M(ethylenediamine)Cl](+) RM175 (M=Ru(II)) and its isostructural osmium(II) analogue AFAP51 (M=Os(II)) for their ability to induce cell detachment resistance from fibronectin, collagen IV and poly-l-lysine, and cell re-adhesion after treatment, their effects on cell migration and cell viability, on matrix metalloproteinases production, and on primary tumour growth of MCa mammary carcinoma, the effect of human serum albumin on their cytotoxicity. There are differences between ruthenium and osmium. The Os complex is up to 6x more potent than RM175 towards highly-invasive breast MDA-MB-231, human breast MCF-7 and human epithelial HBL-100 cancer cells, but whereas RM175 was active against MCa mammary carcinoma in vivo and caused metastasis reduction, AFAP51 was not. Intriguingly the presence of human serum albumin in the growth medium enhanced the cytotoxicity of both compounds. RM175 increased the resistance of MDA-MB-231 cells to detachment from substrates and both compounds inhibited the production of MMP-2. These data confirm the key role of ruthenium itself in anti-metastatic activity. It will be interesting to explore the activity of osmium arene complexes in other tumour models and the possibility of changing the non-arene ligands to tune the anticancer activity of osmium in vivo.

Inhibition of endothelial cell functions and of angiogenesis by the metastasis inhibitor NAMI-A

NAMI-A is a ruthenium-based compound with selective anti-metastasis activity in experimental models of solid tumours. We studied whether this activity was dependent on anti-angiogenic ability of NAMI-A. We thus investigated its in vitro effects on endothelial cell functions necessary for angiogenesis to develop, as well as its in vivo effects in the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane model. Endothelial cell proliferation, chemotaxis, and secretion of the matrix-degrading enzyme metalloproteinase-2 were inhibited by NAMI-A in a dose-dependent manner, and without morphologic signs of cell apoptosis or necrosis. Lastly, NAMI-A displayed a dose-dependent in vivo anti-angiogenic activity in the chorioallantoic membrane model. These data suggest that the anti-angiogenic activity of NAMI-A can contribute to its anti-metastatic efficacy in mice bearing malignant solid tumours.

DNA-adduct formation-guided design: thoughts about the future of metal based anticancer drugs

The development of metal-based anticancer drugs is mainly governed by the experience accumulated with cisplatin and its analogues. The synthesis is focused on adding appropriate leaving and non-leaving groups to a transition metal in order to get more favorable DNA binding properties, and the biological activity is tested in vitro, always in a second step, looking for the cell line that is killed at the lowest drug concentration. This strategy seems unproductive today for the area of new drug development where the knowledge on cancer genomics is suggesting the use of targets selectively expressed, or overexpressed by cancer cells. These targets almost always are proteins, constituting membrane receptors or components of crucial biochemical pathways. Some data indicate that the antitumor activity of cisplatin might also be due to the interaction with protein targets. This critical review examines the possibilities for metal-based drugs to challenge tumors with innovative strategies, based on genomic approaches, capitalizing on the chemical experiences with metals in medicine and focusing on the nature of the ligands which are added to a metal depending on the selected tumor cells and on their molecular targets.

Biological role of adduct formation of the ruthenium(III) complex NAMI-A with serum albumin and serum transferrin.

NAMI-A is an innovative ruthenium(III) complex with a very encouraging preclinical profile of metastasis inhibition, which is undergoing initial phases of clinical trials. To assess the pharmacological relevance of the drug fraction associated to plasma proteins, adducts of NAMI-A with either serum albumin or serum transferrin were prepared and their biological effects tested in vitro and in vivo. Specifically, adducts of NAMI-A with either serum albumin or serum transferrin, prepared and characterized at a ruthenium-to-protein molar ratio of 4:1, were evaluated in vitro on the KB human tumor cell line and in vivo on the MCa mammary carcinoma tumor. The effects of NAMI-A/protein adducts on cell viability and on cell cycle progression were found to be far smaller than those produced by free NAMI-A. GFAAS measurements point out that the amount of ruthenium that gets into cells is drastically reduced when NAMI-A is presented in its protein-bound form. In vivo use of NAMI-A adducts with albumin and transferrin resulted markedly less effective on lung metastasis reduction, than free NAMI-A. Overall, the present results suggest that binding to plasma proteins causes a drastic decrease of NAMI-A bioavailability and a subsequent reduction of its biological activity, implying that association to plasma proteins essentially represents a mechanism of drug inactivation.

Down-regulation of tumour gelatinase/inhibitor balance and preservation of tumour endothelium by an anti-metastatic ruthenium complex

The anti‐metastatic ruthenium complex Na[trans‐RuCl4(DMSO)1m] was given i.p. at 22 and 44 mg/kg/day, on days 8–13 after tumour implantation, to mice carrying s.c. implants of MCa mammary carcinoma. The aim of the study was to compare the effects on lung metastasis formation with those on primary tumour cells. This investigation was based on flow cytometry analysis after propidium iodide and acridine orange staining, histology of tumour parenchyma and RT‐PCR analysis for the type‐IV collagenases MMP‐9 and MMP‐2 and their respective inhibitors TIMP‐1 and TIMP‐2 mRNAs. Na[trans‐RuCl4(DMSO)1m] is not cytotoxic for tumour cells but has the capacity of interacting with nucleic acids, giving a general reduction of nucleic acid content as shown by a marked reduction of acridine orange staining and a tendency to a reduction of DNA polyploidy with marked reduction of 8n and 4n cell populations. Na[trans‐RuCl4(DMSO)1m] also influences a proteolytic system which has the potential of degrading the basement membrane and has been related to metastatic aggressiveness: it markedly reduces, in a dose‐dependent manner, MMP‐2/TIMP‐2 balance, but not that of MMP‐9/TIMP‐1. The different enzyme/inhibitor mRNA levels between untreated and treated tumours seem to be unaffected by tumour‐infiltrating lymphocytes and are paralleled by the maintenance of connective tissue around blood vessels in the tumour mass. Correspondingly, lung metastasis formation is markedly reduced, to less than 10% of that seen in controls.

Effects of ruthenium complexes on experimental tumors: irrelevance of cytotoxicity for metastasis inhibition

A series of 18 ruthenium(III) complexes, structurally related to the selective antimetastatic drug Na[trans-RuCl4(DMSO)Im], and characterized by the presence of sulfoxide and nitrogen-donor ligands were tested on TLX5 lymphoma and some of them on MCa mammary carcinoma to evaluate the dependence of the degree of cytotoxicity and of antimetastatic activity on the chemical properties. In vitro cytotoxicity is present only at high concentrations (> 10(-4) M), depends upon lipophilicity and is markedly affected by the presence of 5% serum or plasma samples in the culture medium. The comparison of the effects on in vitro cytotoxicity with in vivo antitumor and antimetastatic action points out that these compounds reduce metastasis formation by a mechanism unrelated to a direct tumor cell cytotoxicity. If on one hand Na[trans-RuCl4(TMSO)Iq], the compound that shows the most potent in vitro cytotoxic effects, is the least effective against metastases, on the other Na[trans-RuCl4(DMSO)Im], the compound that better reduces metastasis formation, is rather devoid of cytotoxic effects on tumor cells kept in vitro. In particular, Na[trans-RuCl4(DMSO)Im] seems to distinguish between artificially induced metastases and spontaneous metastases and reduces only the former by a cytotoxic mechanism. Out of all the tested compounds, with the exception of Na[trans-RuCl4(DMSO)Ox], Na[trans-RuCl4(DMSO)Im] is confirmed to be the most selective antimetastatic agent of the group.