Antitumor Activity of Lankacidin Group Antibiotics Is Due to Microtubule Stabilization via a Paclitaxel-like Mechanism

J Med Chem. 2016 Oct 27;59(20):9532-9540. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.6b01264. Epub 2016 Oct 18.

Abstract

Lankacidin group antibiotics show strong antimicrobial activity against various Gram-positive bacteria. In addition, they were shown to have considerable antitumor activity against certain cell line models. For decades, the antitumor activity of lankacidin was associated with the mechanism of its antimicrobial action, which is interference with peptide bond formation during protein synthesis. This, however, was never confirmed experimentally. Due to significant similarity to paclitaxel-like hits in a previous computational virtual screening study, we suggested that the cytotoxic effect of lankacidin is due to a paclitaxel-like action. In this study, we tested this hypothesis computationally and experimentally and confirmed that lankacidin is a microtubule stabilizer that enhances tubulin assembly and displaces taxoids from their binding site. This study serves as a starting point for optimization of lankacidin derivatives for better antitumor activities. It also highlights the power of computational predictions and their aid in guiding experiments and formulating rigorous hypotheses.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / chemistry
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / isolation & purification
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / chemistry
  • Antineoplastic Agents / isolation & purification
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Binding Sites / drug effects
  • Brain / metabolism
  • Cell Survival / drug effects
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
  • HeLa Cells
  • Humans
  • Macrolides / chemistry
  • Macrolides / isolation & purification
  • Macrolides / pharmacology*
  • Microtubules / drug effects*
  • Molecular Conformation
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Paclitaxel / pharmacology*
  • Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Swine
  • Tubulin / metabolism
  • Tumor Cells, Cultured

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Macrolides
  • Tubulin
  • lankacidins
  • Paclitaxel