Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Aurigene Discovery Technologies Pte Ltd, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Curr Pharm Biotechnol, 2020;21(15):1654-1665.
PMID: 32525770 DOI: 10.2174/1389201021666200611113734

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The re-emerging of targeting Dihydroorotate Dehydrogenase (DHODH) in cancer treatment particularly Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) has corroborated the substantial role of DHODH in cancer and received the attention of many pharmaceutical industries.

OBJECTIVE: The effects of Brequinar Sodium (BQR) and 4SC-101 on lymphoblastoid cell lines were investigated.

METHODS: DHODH expression and cell proliferation inhibition of lymphoblastoid and lymphoma cell lines were analyzed using Western blot analysis and XTT assay, respectively. JC-1 probe and ATP biochemiluminescence kit were used to evaluate the mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP generation in these cell lines. Furthermore, we explored the cell cycle progression using Muse™ Cell Cycle Kit.

RESULTS: Ramos, SUDHL-1 and RPMI-1788 cells are fast-growing cells with equal expression of DHODH enzyme and sensitivity to DHODH inhibitors that showed that the inhibition of DHODH was not cancer-specific. In ATP depletion assay, the non-cancerous RPMI-1788 cells showed only a minor ATP reduction compared to Ramos and SUDHL-1 (cancer) cells. In the mechanistic impact of DHODH inhibitors on non-cancerous vs cancerous cells, the mitochondrial membrane potential assay revealed that significant depolarization and cytochrome c release occurred with DHODH inhibitors treatment in Ramos but not in the RPMI-1788 cells, indicating a different mechanism of proliferation inhibition in normal cells.

CONCLUSION: The findings of this study provide evidence that DHODH inhibitors perturb the proliferation of non-cancerous cells via a distinct mechanism compared to cancerous cells. These results may lead to strategies for overcoming the impact on non-cancerous cells during treatment with DHODH inhibitors, leading to a better therapeutic window in patients.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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