Antitumor efficacy of a novel class of non-thiol-containing peptidomimeticinhibitors of farnesyltransferase and geranylgeranyltransferase I: Combination therapy with the cytotoxic agents cisplatin, taxol, and gemcitabine

Ras malignant transformation requires posttranslational modification by far nesyltransferase (FTase). Here we report on the design and antitumor activi ty, in monotherapy as well as in combination therapy with cytotoxic agents, of a novel class of non-thiol-containing peptidomimetic inhibitors of FTas e and the closely related family member geranylgeranyltransferase I (GGTase I). The non-thiol-containing FTI-2148 is highly selective for FTase (IC50, 1.4 nM) over GGTase I (IC50, 1700 nM), whereas GGTI-2154 is highly selecti ve for GGTase I (21 nM) over FTase (IC50, 5600 nM). In whole cells, the cor responding methylester prodrug FTI-2153 is >3000-fold more potent at inhibi ting H-Ras (IC50, 10 nM) than Rap1A processing, whereas GGTI-2166 is over 1 00-fold more selective at inhibiting Rap1A (IC50, 300 nM) over H-Ras proces sing. Furthermore, FTI-2153 was highly effective at suppressing oncogenic H -Ras constitutive activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase and human tumor growth in soft agar. FTI-2148 suppressed the growth of the human lung adenocarcinoma A-549 cells in nude mice by 33, 67, and 91% in a dose-depen dent manner. Combination therapy of FTI-2148 with either cisplatin, gemcita bine, or Taxol resulted in a greater antitumor efficacy than monotherapy. G GTI-2154 in similar antitumor efficacy experiments is less potent than FTI- 2148 and inhibits tumor growth by 9, 27, and 46%. Combination therapy of GG TI-2154 with cisplatin, gemcitabine, or Taxol is also more effective. Final ly, FTI-2148 and GGTI-2154 are 30- and 33-fold more selective and 30- and 1 6-fold more potent in whole cells than our previously reported thiol-contai ning FTI-276 and GGTI-297, respectively. Thus, our results demonstrate that this highly potent and selective novel class of non-thiol-containing pepti domimetics inhibits human tumor growth in whole animals and that combinatio n therapy with cytotoxic agents is more beneficial than monotherapy.