Cell death-inducing activity of opiates in human oral tumor cell lines.
In screening cytotoxic agents in morphine alkaloids [TE1-10], codeinone [TE8] was cytotoxic against two human oral tumor cells lines (HSC-2 and HSG). The cytotoxic activity of codeinone (CC50=1.0-1.2 microg/mL) against HSC-2 or HSG cells was higher than that of doxorubicin (CC50=1.9-2.0 microg/mL). Human oral gingival fibroblasts (HGF) were relatively resistant to codeinone, as judged by higher SI ratio (3.7) suggesting the tumor-selective cytotoxicity of codeinone. The cytotoxic activity of morphine (CC50=221 microg/mL) against HSC-2 was slightly lower than that of codeine (CC50=186 microg/mL), thebaine (CC50=125 microg/mL), etorphine (CC50=94 microg/mL) or dihydroetorphine (CC50=60 microg/mL). A study of structurally-related compounds suggested that the alpha,beta-unsaturated ketone group of codeinone was responsible for its antitumor cytotoxicity. The cytotoxic activity of codeinone was significantly reduced by N-acetylcysteine, but not affected by FeCl3, CuCl2, CoCl2, sodium ascorbate or catalase. Neither codeinone nor morphine inhibited P-glycoprotein- mediated rhodamine-123 efflux in multidrug resistant mouse T lymphoma L5178 transfected with human MDR 1 gene. These data suggest that codeinone induces cytotoxicity in oral tumor cell lines, possibly by a Michael-like addition of a protein SH or of an amino group to the bouble bond of codeinone.[1]References
- Cell death-inducing activity of opiates in human oral tumor cell lines. Kawase, M., Sakagami, H., Furuya, K., Kikuchi, H., Nishikawa, H., Motohashi, N., Morimoto, Y., Varga, A., Molnár, J. Anticancer Res. (2002)
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