Antitumor Effect of Substituted Quinolines in Breast Cancer Cells

Cancer is caused in part by the disruption in cell homeostasis, affecting the ability to respond to extracellular signals, triggering some intracellular events that affect gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC). Cancer cells have reduced or altered GJIC capacity. One feasible approach to reduce growth of cancer cells is to enhance/alter the GJIC. The capability of cells to communicate through the gap junction is negatively related to their growth activity. A computational docking study showed that a new class of substituted quinolines designated as PQs had a relatively high binding to gap junction protein, connexin 43. Thus, PQs were used in this study to assess their effect on human breast cancer cells. Scrape load/dye transfer and colony growth assays were performed to measure GJIC and determine the effect of the PQ compounds on colony formation in human normal mammary epithelial cells (HMEC) and breast cancer cells, respectively. PQs had a significant antitumor effect in human breast cancer cells compared with control without treatment or normal mammary epithelial cells. PQ1 (200 nM) showed a 30% increase in the GJIC in T47D cells; however, there was no effect of PQ treatment on GJIC in normal mammary epithelial cells. In addition to an increase in GJIC, 80-95% growth attenuation was observed by PQ1 in colony growth assay. Moreover, an increase in caspase 3 with PQ-treated cells was observed, suggesting a possible involvement in apoptosis. PQ1-treated animals showed a significant decrease in xenograft tumor growth of T47D cells in nude mice compared with control or tamoxifen-treated animals. The results show that PQ1 has a promising role in exerting antitumor activity in human breast cancer cells. Treatment with PQ1 in T47D cells caused an increase in GJIC activity and active caspase 3, and a decrease in colony growth and cell viability. Drug Dev Res 69: 526-534, 2008. (C) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.