Micheliolide Derivative DMAMCL Inhibits Glioma Cell Growth In Vitro and In Vivo

Background There is no highly effective chemotherapy for malignant gliomas to date. We found that dimethylaminomicheliolide (DMAMCL), a selective inhibitor of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) stem/progenitor cells, inhibited the growth of glioma cells. Methods The distribution of DMAMCL in brain was analyzed by an ultraperformance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) system. The anti-tumor evaluations of DMAMCL in vitro were performed by MTT, FACS and RT-PCR. In vivo, the mixture of C6 cells and matrigel was injected into caudatum, and the anti-tumor activity of DMAMCL was evaluated by tumor growth and rat survival. The toxicity of DMAMCL was evaluated by body weight, daily food intake, hematological or serum biochemical analyses, and histological appearance of tissues. Results The IC50 values of DMAMCL against the C6 and U-87MG cell lines in vitro were 27.18 +/- 1.89 mu M and 20.58 +/- 1.61 mu M, respectively. DAMMCL down-regulated the anti-apoptosis gene Bcl-2 and increased apoptosis in C6 and U-87MG cells in a dose-dependent manner. In a C6 rat tumor model, daily administration of DMAMCL for 21 days reduced the burden of C6 tumors by 60% to 88% compared to controls, and more than doubled the mean lifespan of tumor-bearing rats. Distribution analysis showed that the DMAMCL concentration was higher in the brain than in plasma. Evaluations for toxicity revealed that oral administration of DMAMCL at 200 or 300 mg/kg once a day for 21 days did not result in toxicity. Conclusions These results suggest that DMAMCL is highly promising for the treatment of glioma.