M. Lishner et al., SENSITIVITY OF HEMATOPOIETIC PROGENITORS OF ACUTE MYELOBLASTIC-LEUKEMIA TO NEW COMPOUNDS DERIVED FROM MARINE ORGANISMS, Leukemia, 9(9), 1995, pp. 1543-1548
Results of chemotherapy in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have improved
slowly or not at all in the last decade. We evaluated the effect of Ei
latin and Norsegoline, two new aromatic alkaloids derived from the Red
Sea purple tunicate Eudistoma sp., on in vitro proliferation and diff
erentiation of leukemic cell lines and blast cells of three AML patien
ts. These biological properties were studied in two complementary cult
ure methods. The first is a clonogenic assay that supports colony form
ation in agar and reflects terminal divisions. The second is a suspens
ion assay where clonogenic cells increase exponentially and reflects s
elf-renewal. Eilatin and Norsegoline, at micromolar concentrations, su
ppressed, in a dose-dependent manner, both primary colony formation in
agar and the recovery of clonogenic cells from suspension culture in
the investigated cell lines and in fresh blasts. Furthermore, both alk
aloids were more effective in inhibiting clonogenic cells grown in sus
pension than primary colonies grown in agar. In addition, these agents
were able to induce immunophenotypic maturation of leukemic cell line
s (upregulation of CD14 and CD11 and down-regulation of CD34 antigens)
. Our results indicate that Eilatin and Norsegoline significantly inhi
bit self-renewal capacity of leukemic progenitors and may provide a us
eful new tool for the treatment of AML patients.