Quinobenoxazines: a class of novel antitumor quinolones and potent mammalian DNA topoisomerase II catalytic inhibitors.

The antineoplastic quinobenoxazines A-62176 and A-74932 were shown to be potent inhibitors of mammalian DNA topoisomerase II in vivo. This was demonstrated by their selective inhibition of the SV40 DNA replication stages that require topoisomerase II. Neither drug stabilized a covalent complex of the enzyme with SV40 DNA, which suggests that they are not poisons of DNA topoisomerase II. A-77601, an analog having little antitumor activity, barely inhibited DNA topoisomerase II in vivo, even at high concentrations. These findings were supported by in vitro studies which showed that A-62176 and A-74932, but not A-77601, strongly inhibited the catalytic activity of mammalian DNA topoisomerase II. A-62176 did not cause topoisomerase II-mediated DNA strand breaks in vitro under conditions in which adriamycin produced extensive DNA breakage. The antineoplastic and topoisomerase inhibitory activities of the quinobenoxazines correlate with their ability to unwind DNA. A-62176 antagonized the poisoning of topoisomerase II by VM-26 in vivo and in vitro, but had no effect on DNA breakage induced by camptothecin, a DNA topoisomerase I poison. A-62176 and A-74932 thus inhibit DNA topoisomerase II reactions at a step prior to the formation of the "cleavable complex" intermediate. These findings indicate that stabilization of the DNA topoisomerase II-DNA cleavable complex is not necessary for the antitumor activity of this class of quinolones and that the catalytic inhibition of DNA topoisomerase II may contribute significantly to the anticancer activity of other DNA topoisomerase II inhibitors.