Selective inhibition of topoisomerases from Pneumocystis carinii compared with that of topoisomerases from mammalian cells

Abstract

Type I and II topoisomerase activities were partially purified from Pneumocystis carinii. The catalytic (strand-passing) activities of both enzymes were selectively inhibited by members of a series of dicationicsubstituted bis-benzimidazoles compared with those of topoisomerases of mammalian (calf thymus) origin.The most active inhibitors of the parasite enzymes were also highly effective in an in vivo animal model of P.carinii pneumonia. Selected dicationic-substituted bis-benzimidazoles also strongly inhibited the induction of the topoisomerase I-and 11-mediated cleavable complex, suggesting that the biologically active DNA minor groove-binding molecules inhibit the enzyme-DNA binding step of the topoisomerase reaction sequence. The apparent selectivities for the parasite enzymes and the low levels of toxicity to mammalian cells for the biologically active bis-benzimidazoles suggest that these compounds hold promise as effective therapeutic agents in the treatment of a life-threatening AIDS-related disease, P. carinii pneumonia.Dicationic-substituted aromatic molecules related to pentamidine have long been known to be effective antiparasitic agents (35). Recent studies have found that a number of direct analogs of pentamidine have activity against Pneumocystis carinii (19), Giardia lamblia (3), Toxoplasma gondii (25), Cryptosporidium parvum (7), Leishmania amazonensis subsp. mexicana (5), and Plasmodium falciparum (5). A strong correlation was observed between compound activity against G. lamblia in vitro and DNA-binding ability (3). On the basis of those initial results, studies of antiparasitic compounds were extended to a series of compounds with much stronger DNA-binding affinities, the dicationic bis-benzimidazoles. As observed with the pentamidine analogs, a strong correlation was found between DNA binding strength and antigiardial activity for the bisbenzimidazole series [r2 = 0.96 versus calf thymus DNA and i2 = 0.97 versus poly(dA) * (dT)](4). Other studies confirmed that the effective antigiardial compounds were strong DNA minor groove-binding agents with an AT base pair preference (14). Molecular modeling calculations in that study showed that the DNA-binding strength for this class of compound depended on the radius of curvature on the basis of four defined moieties within the molecules, the distance between cationic moieties, the electronic effects from cationic substituents, and hydrogen bonding. There was no evidence of either an intercalative or a covalent interaction of these compounds with nucleic acids. The antigiardiasis study also revealed a convincing correlation between antitopoisomerase II activity and in vitro activity against G. lamblia for the dicationic bis-benzimidazoles (r2 = 0.91) (4). It is unclear whether these compounds manifest their antiparasitic activity primarily by binding to DNA, topoisomerase, or the enzyme-DNA binary complex.As part of a continuing investigation to determine the mechanism of the anti-P. carinii action of these dicationic molecules and to develop new ag...

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