Latest Publications

@article{boudny_novel_2019,

title = {Novel CHK1 inhibitor MU380 exhibits significant single-agent activity in TP53-mutated chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells.},

author = {Miroslav Boudny and Jana Zemanova and Prashant Khirsariya and Marek Borsky and Jan Verner and Jana Cerna and Alexandra Oltova and Vaclav Seda and Marek Mraz and Josef Jaros and Zuzana Jaskova and Michaela Spunarova and Yvona Brychtova and Karel Soucek and Stanislav Drapela and Marie Kasparkova and Jiri Mayer and Kamil Paruch and Martin Trbusek},

doi = {10.3324/haematol.2018.203430},

issn = {1592-8721 0390-6078},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-12-01},

journal = {Haematologica},

volume = {104},

number = {12},

pages = {2443–2455},

abstract = {Introduction of small-molecule inhibitors of B-cell receptor signaling and BCL2 protein significantly improves therapeutic options in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. However, some patients suffer from adverse effects mandating treatment discontinuation, and cases with TP53 defects more frequently experience early progression of the disease. Development of alternative therapeutic approaches is, therefore, of critical importance. Here we report details of the anti-chronic lymphocytic leukemia single-agent activity of MU380, our recently identified potent, selective, and metabolically robust inhibitor of checkpoint kinase 1. We also describe a newly developed enantioselective synthesis of MU380, which allows preparation of gram quantities of the substance. Checkpoint kinase 1 is a master regulator of replication operating primarily in intra-S and G(2)/M cell cycle checkpoints. Initially tested in leukemia and lymphoma cell lines, MU380 significantly potentiated efficacy of gemcitabine, a clinically used inducer of replication stress. Moreover, MU380 manifested substantial single-agent activity in both TP53-wild type and TP53-mutated leukemia and lymphoma cell lines. In chronic lymphocytic leukemia-derived cell lines MEC-1, MEC-2 (both TP53-mut), and OSU-CLL (TP53-wt) the inhibitor impaired cell cycle progression and induced apoptosis. In primary clinical samples, MU380 used as a single-agent noticeably reduced the viability of unstimulated chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells as well as those induced to proliferate by anti-CD40/IL-4 stimuli. In both cases, effects were comparable in samples harboring p53 pathway dysfunction (TP53 mutations or ATM mutations) and TP53-wt/ATM-wt cells. Lastly, MU380 also exhibited significant in vivo activity in a xenotransplant mouse model (immunodeficient strain NOD-scid IL2Rγ(null) ) where it efficiently suppressed growth of subcutaneous tumors generated from MEC-1 cells.},

note = {Place: Italy},

keywords = {*Drug Synergism, *Mutation, Animals, Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic/pharmacology, Apoptosis, B-Cell/*drug therapy/genetics/pathology, Biomarkers, Cell Cycle, Cell Proliferation, Checkpoint Kinase 1/*antagonists & inhibitors, Chronic, Cultured, Deoxycytidine/analogs & derivatives/pharmacology, Drug resistance, Female, gemcitabine, Gene Expression Regulation, Humans, Inbred NOD, Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Mice, Neoplasm/drug effects, Neoplastic/*drug effects, Piperidines/*pharmacology, Protein Kinase Inhibitors/pharmacology, Pyrazoles/*pharmacology, Pyrimidines/*pharmacology, SCID, Tumor Cells, Tumor Suppressor Protein p53/*genetics, Tumor/genetics, Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{prochazkova_adaptive_2018,

title = {Adaptive changes in global gene expression profile of lung carcinoma A549 cells acutely exposed to distinct types of AhR ligands.},

author = {Jiřina Procházková and Simona Strapáčová and Lucie Svržková and Zdeněk Andrysík and Martina Hýžďalová and Eva Hrubá and Kateřina Pěnčíková and Helena Líbalová and Jan Topinka and Jiří Kléma and Joaquín M. Espinosa and Jan Vondráček and Miroslav Machala},

doi = {10.1016/j.toxlet.2018.04.024},

issn = {1879-3169 0378-4274},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-08-01},

journal = {Toxicology letters},

volume = {292},

pages = {162–174},

abstract = {Exposure to persistent ligands of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) has been found to cause lung cancer in experimental animals, and lung adenocarcinomas are often associated with enhanced AhR expression and aberrant AhR activation. In order to better understand the action of toxic AhR ligands in lung epithelial cells, we performed global gene expression profiling and analyze TCDD-induced changes in A549 transcriptome, both sensitive and non-sensitive to CH223191 co-treatment. Comparison of our data with results from previously reported microarray and ChIP-seq experiments enabled us to identify candidate genes, which expression status reflects exposure of lung cancer cells to TCDD, and to predict processes, pathways (e.g. ER stress, Wnt/β-cat, IFNɣ, EGFR/Erbb1), putative TFs (e.g. STAT, AP1, E2F1, TCF4), which may be implicated in adaptive response of lung cells to TCDD-induced AhR activation. Importantly, TCDD-like expression fingerprint of selected genes was observed also in A549 cells exposed acutely to both toxic (benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[k]fluoranthene) and endogenous AhR ligands (2-(1H-Indol-3-ylcarbonyl)-4-thiazolecarboxylic acid methyl ester and 6-formylindolo[3,2-b]carbazole). Overall, our results suggest novel cellular candidates, which could help to improve monitoring of AhR-dependent transcriptional activity during acute exposure of lung cells to distinct types of environmental pollutants.},

note = {Place: Netherlands},

keywords = {A549 Cells, Aryl hydrocarbon receptor, Aryl Hydrocarbon/*agonists/metabolism, Azo Compounds/toxicity, Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors/*agonists/metabolism, Benzo(a)pyrene/toxicity, Carbazoles/toxicity, Dioxins, Environmental Pollutants/*toxicity, Fluorenes/toxicity, Gene Expression Profiling/methods, Gene Expression Regulation, Gene Regulatory Networks/drug effects, Genetic/drug effects, Global gene expression profiling, Humans, Indoles/toxicity, Ligands, Lung cancer, Lung Neoplasms/*genetics/metabolism, Neoplastic/*drug effects, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins/toxicity, Pyrazoles/toxicity, Receptors, Signal Transduction/drug effects, Thiazoles/toxicity, Time Factors, Transcription, Transcriptional Activation/drug effects, Transcriptome/*drug effects},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{kabatkova_inhibition_2015,

title = {Inhibition of β-catenin signalling promotes DNA damage elicited by benzo[a]pyrene in a model of human colon cancer cells via CYP1 deregulation.},

author = {Markéta Kabátková and Ondřej Zapletal and Zuzana Tylichová and Jiří Neča and Miroslav Machala and Alena Milcová and Jan Topinka and Alois Kozubík and Jan Vondráček},

doi = {10.1093/mutage/gev019},

issn = {1464-3804 0267-8357},

year  = {2015},

date = {2015-07-01},

journal = {Mutagenesis},

volume = {30},

number = {4},

pages = {565–576},

abstract = {Deregulation of Wnt/β-catenin signalling plays an important role in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer. Interestingly, this pathway has been recently implicated in transcriptional control of cytochrome P450 (CYP) family 1 enzymes, which are responsible for bioactivation of a number of dietary carcinogens. In the present study, we investigated the impact of inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin pathway on metabolism and genotoxicity of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), a highly mutagenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and an efficient ligand of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, which is known as a primary regulator of CYP1 expression, in cellular models derived from colorectal tumours. We observed that a synthetic inhibitor of β-catenin, JW74, significantly increased formation of BaP-induced DNA adducts in both colorectal adenoma and carcinoma-derived cell lines. Using the short interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting β-catenin, we then found that β-catenin knockdown in HCT116 colon carcinoma cells significantly enhanced formation of covalent DNA adducts by BaP and histone H2AX phosphorylation, as detected by (32)P-postlabelling technique and immunocytochemistry, respectively, and it also induced expression of DNA damage response genes, such as CDKN1A or DDB2. The increased formation of DNA adducts formed by BaP upon β-catenin knockdown corresponded with enhanced production of major BaP metabolites, as well as with an increased expression/activity of CYP1 enzymes. Finally, using siRNA-mediated knockdown of CYP1A1, we confirmed that this enzyme plays a major role in formation of BaP-induced DNA adducts in HCT116 cells. Taken together, the present results indicated that the siRNA-mediated inhibition of β-catenin signalling, which is aberrantly activated in a majority of colorectal cancers, modulated genotoxicity of dietary carcinogen BaP in colon cell model in vitro, via a mechanism involving up-regulation of CYP1 expression and activity.},

note = {Place: England},

keywords = {*DNA Damage, Apoptosis, Aryl Hydrocarbon/genetics/metabolism, Benzo(a)pyrene/*adverse effects, beta Catenin/*antagonists & inhibitors/genetics/metabolism, Blotting, Carcinogens, Cell Proliferation, Colonic Neoplasms/drug therapy/*etiology/*pathology, Cultured, Cytochrome P-450 CYP1A1/antagonists & inhibitors/genetics/*metabolism, DNA Adducts/*adverse effects, Environmental/adverse effects, Enzymologic/*drug effects, Gene Expression Regulation, Humans, Immunoenzyme Techniques, Messenger/genetics, Neoplastic/*drug effects, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Receptors, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, RNA, Small Interfering/genetics, Tumor Cells, Western},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{hruba_gene_2011,

title = {Gene expression changes in human prostate carcinoma cells exposed to genotoxic and nongenotoxic aryl hydrocarbon receptor ligands.},

author = {Eva Hrubá and Jan Vondráček and Helena Líbalová and Jan Topinka and Vítězslav Bryja and Karel Souček and Miroslav Machala},

doi = {10.1016/j.toxlet.2011.07.011},

issn = {1879-3169 0378-4274},

year  = {2011},

date = {2011-10-01},

journal = {Toxicology letters},

volume = {206},

number = {2},

pages = {178–188},

abstract = {Carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are known as efficient mutagens and ligands of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), which has been suggested to play an important role in prostate carcinogenesis. In order to evaluate the complex relationship between the genotoxicity and the AhR-mediated activity of PAHs in prostate cells, we selected benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), as model genotoxic and nongenotoxic AhR ligands, respectively, to explore global changes in gene expression in LNCaP cells by microarray analysis. We identified 112 genes that were differentially expressed in cells treated for 24h with BaP, TCDD or both compounds. Our data indicated that the impacts of BaP and TCDD on transcriptome of LNCaP cells significantly overlap, since over 64% of significantly up-regulated genes and 47% of down-regulated genes were similarly affected by both AhR ligands. This suggested that the activation of AhR played a prominent role in the nongenotoxic effects of BaP in the prostate carcinoma cell model LNCaP. Both AhR ligands suppressed expression of genes associated with cell cycle progression, DNA replication, spindle assembly checkpoint or DNA repair, which probably occurred secondary to inhibition of cell cycle progression. In contrast, we identified Wnt5a, an important regulator of prostate cancer progression, to be induced as early as 6h after exposure to both AhR ligands. The AhR ligand-induced Wnt5a upregulation, together with other observed alterations of gene expression, may further contribute to enhanced cell plasticity of prostate carcinoma cells.},

note = {Place: Netherlands},

keywords = {Aryl Hydrocarbon/*agonists, Benzo(a)pyrene/*toxicity, Carcinogens, Carcinoma/metabolism, Cell Cycle/drug effects, Cell Line, DNA Repair/drug effects, DNA Replication/drug effects, Environmental/*toxicity, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Expression Regulation, Humans, Ligands, Male, Mutagens/*toxicity, Neoplastic/*drug effects, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins/*toxicity, Prostatic Neoplasms/*metabolism, Proto-Oncogene Proteins/genetics/metabolism, Receptors, Spindle Apparatus/drug effects, Time Factors, Tumor, Wnt Proteins/genetics/metabolism, Wnt-5a Protein},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}