Summary
To investigate the mechanism of the generation of immunogenic tumor variants by mutagenic drugs, murine leukemia cells exhibiting different sensitivity to killing by the alkylator 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) and different ability to repairO 6-methylguanine in their DNA were treated in vitro with a series of methylating agents, including triazene derivatives, temozolomide, and streptozotocin. At the population level, we found that BCNU-resistant cells (L1210/BCNU) that appeared to be cross-resistant to killing by a dimethyltriazene and expressed high levels ofO 6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase activity (mer+ phenotype) failed to generate highly immunogenic variant sublines on repeated exposure to the methylating agents. In contrast, all cells (L1210) that were susceptible to DNA alkylation damage and deficient inO 6-methylguanine repair (mer−) developed immunogenic variant sublines. A noticeable exception was represented by streptozotocin treatment, which was equally effective in mer+ and mer− cells. At the clonal level, a single exposure to streptozotocin or a triazene derivative resulted in a high incidence (33% and 50%, respectively) of immunogenic cell generation in mer− cells only. In mer+ cells, streptozotocin treatment led to a 33% incidence of immunogenic clones only when the cells were concurrently exposed toO 6-methylguanine as a free base. The activity ofO 6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase in mer+ cells was greatly reduced by treatment withO 6-methylguanine or streptozotocin, and the combination of the two drugs led to enzyme levels similar to those observed in mer− cells. Taken together, these data suggest that the mechanism ofO 6-alkylation may be operative in the induction of novel tumor-cell antigenicity by methylating agents.
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Abbreviations
- BCNU:
-
1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea
- MT:
-
methyltransferase
- O6-mG:
-
O 6-methylguanine
- TZM:
-
temozolomide; DM-CI, I-(p-chlorophenyl)-3,3-dimethyl-triazene
- DTIC:
-
5-(3,3-dimethyl-1-triazeno)imidazole-4-carboxamide
- STZ:
-
streptozotocin
- MST:
-
median survival time
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Supported by Progetto Finalizzato “Applicazioni cliniche della ricerca oncologica”, CNR-Rome, Italy
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Bianchi, R., Citti, L., Beghetti, R. et al. O 6-Methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase activity and induction of novel immunogenicity in murine tumor cells treated with methylating agents. Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. 29, 277–282 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00685945
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00685945