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Hematopoiesis |
1 III. Medizinische Klinik, Medizinische Fakultät Mannheim der Universität Heidelberg, Mannheim
2 Clinical Cooperation Unit Molekulare Hämatologie/Onkologie, DKFZ and Department of Internal Medicine V, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg
3 MLL Münchner Leukämielabor GmbH, München, Germany
Correspondence: Alice Fabarius, III. Medizinische Klinik, Medizinische Fakultät Mannheim der Universität Heidelberg, Mannheim, Wiesbadener Straße 7-11, 68305 Mannheim, Germany. E-mail:alice.fabarius{at}med3.ma.uni-heidelberg.de
| ABSTRACT |
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Design and Methods: Human dermal fibroblasts, Chinese hamster cells, human osteosarcoma cells, and blood and bone marrow mononuclear cells from 32 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, and systemic mastocytosis as well as from six healthy individuals were investigated. The effects of dasatinib were compared with those of the ABL inhibitors imatinib and nilotinib, the SRC inhibitor PP2, and the ABL/LYN inhibitor INNO-406.
Results: Dasatinib induced G1 phase arrest in all cell lines and this was associated with a decline in cyclin D1 levels. In vitro, centrosomal aberrations, a decrease of mitotic spindles, and G1 phase arrest were observed. In patients, centrosome alterations were found in a median of 17% (range, 10–22%) of cells with a decrease of spindles in 8/18 patients. In comparison, imatinib, nilotinib and PP2 led to centrosome aberrations without G1 phase arrest. INNO-406 was associated with centrosome aberrations and cell cycle arrest in G1 phase.
Conclusions: Dasatinib blocks the G1/S transition and inhibits cell growth. It induces centrosomal aberrations and a decrease of mitotic spindles. The effects suggest an involvement of SRC and ABL inhibition.
Key words: chronic myeloid leukemia, cytogenetics, centrosomes, spindles, tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
| Introduction |
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Imatinib (GleevecTM/Glivec®) has been introduced as first line therapy for CML and targets the tyrosine kinase activity of ABL-associated human leukemias. Apart from BCR-ABL, imatinib occupies the ATP binding sites of several other tyrosine kinases (c-KIT, PDGFRA, PDGFRB, ARG, LCK, FRK, FYN and c-FMS).3–6 Despite good cytogenetic responses to imatinib, BCR-ABL point mutations associated with clinical resistance may occur in chronic and advanced stage disease.7 In addition, clonal cytogenetic evolution, being also a major cause of resistance, plays a fundamental role in the progression of CML to advanced disease.7,8 To overcome resistance, higher doses and combination therapy of imatinib with other drugs have been applied with moderate success.
The novel drug dasatinib (SPRYCEL®, Bristol-Myers Squibb, New York, NY, USA) is an ATP-competitive, dual SRC/ABL kinase inhibitor with antiproliferative activity against hematologic and solid tumor cell lines that is postulated to bind to the active, as well as to the inactive, conformations of the ABL kinase domains and is, therefore, effective against most imatinib-resistant forms of BCR-ABL, except the T315I BCR-ABL mutation.9,10 SRC, a non-receptor tyrosine kinase, is a key mediator for multiple signaling pathways that regulate critical cellular functions and is often aberrantly activated in cancers. Inhibition of the SRC family members LYN and HCK, up-regulated in imatinib-resistant cells, and simultaneous inhibition of ABL are the important features of dasatinib, which also inhibits all other SRC-family members11 and has shown activity against c-KIT and PDGFRB.9,12,13 The efficacy and safety of dasatinib have been demonstrated in patients with Ph-positive leukemias after the failure of imatinib and the drug has been advanced into clinical trials for solid human epithelial tumors.10,14–18
Despite good response rates and acceptable tolerability of tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment, little is known about long-term toxicity. Given the multitargeted function it is assumed that undesired adverse effects influencing other drug-sensitive kinases could occur. In 2000, the first cases of Ph-independent clonal evolution were observed under imatinib treatment8,19–23 and such cases have now also been observed in a limited number of dasatinib-treated patients.24 The question arises as to whether these alterations, presumably resulting from genetic chromosomal instability of CML patients, were uncovered by a simultaneous gradual elimination of Ph-positive clones or were induced by treatment. Although patients with aberrations in Ph-negative hematopoiesis are rare, data suggest an association with a higher risk of developing secondary myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) or acute myeloid leukemias (AML).25 The long-term effects of dasatinib have not been investigated as yet. Although SRC has been well studied, its exact role in the physiology of normal and malignant cells is complex and not completely understood.26
We recently showed that 30% of centrosomes in the chronic phase of CML are aberrant. Centrosome hypertrophy is an early event in the transformation process and precedes karyotype instability.27 The occurrence of chromosomal aberrations in BCR-ABL-negative cells from patients being treated with imatinib raises the question of whether centrosome-associated mechanisms may be responsible. Furthermore, centrosome and chromosome aberrations were detected in vitro in normal human cells after treatment with imatinib or nilotinib (an imatinib derivative and second generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor; Tasigna®; Novartis Pharma, Basel, Switzerland), suggesting that both drugs may themselves play a role in the emergence of aberrations in Ph-negative cells in CML patients.28,29
In this study we sought to evaluate the potential of the new tyrosine kinase inhibitor dasatinib on cell proliferation, chromosomes, centrosome status, spindle formation, and cell cycle progression in vitro and in vivo. We used other compounds targeting a different spectrum of tyrosine kinases (ABL: imatinib, nilotinib; SRC: PP2; ABL/LYN: INNO-406) to pinpoint whether observed effects were of ABL or SRC-related origin.
| Design and Methods |
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Primary cells and cell lines
Normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF, Promocell, Heidelberg, Germany) and Chinese hamster embryonal fibroblasts (CHE), both with normal karyotypes (46,XY and 22,XY respectively) were grown in 100-mm tissue culture dishes in RPMI 1640 containing 10% fetal bovine serum (Invitrogen, Karlsruhe, Germany) and 1% penicillin-streptomycin (100 mM; Invitrogen) in a humidified incubator at 37°C in an atmosphere of 95% air and 5% CO2 as described before.28 The human osteosarcoma cell line U2OS (ATCC) was grown in McCoys 5A (Invitrogen) with 10% fetal bovine serum, 1% penicillin-streptomycin and 0.5% neomycin (Sigma, Taufkirchen, Germany).
Inhibitory assays
Drug concentrations were chosen in accordance with clinically applied doses including Cmax and IC50 values measured for NHDF cells and compounds in vitro. NHDF cell cultures were treated for a period of 3 weeks with: (i) 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500 nM, 1, and 2 µM dasatinib (when administered to patients twice a day at a dose of 70 mg, the plasma half-life was 3–4 h and the Cmax 90 nM).30 Dasatinib inhibited cell growth of NHDF cells with an IC50 of 50 nM; (ii) 500 nM, 1, 2, 5 and 10 µM nilotinib (when administered to patients twice a day at a dose of 400 mg, the plasma half-life was 15–24 h and the Cmax 3.6 µM).30 Nilotinib inhibited NHDF cell growth with an IC50 of 10 µM; (iii) 5, 10, and 20 µM imatinib (when administered to patients once a day at a dose of 400 mg, the plasma half-life was 19.3 h and the Cmax 4.6 µM).2 Imatinib inhibited cell growth of NHDF cells with an IC50 of 5 µM; (iv) 500 nM, 1, and 2 µM PP2 (IC50 2 µmol/L in NHDF cells; Cmax 10 µmol/L);31 (v) 100, 500 nM, 1, and 2 µM INNO-406 (when administered to Balb/c mice twice a day at a dose of 100 mg/kg, the Cmax value was 4 µM).32 INNO-406 inhibited NHDF cell growth with an IC50 of 1 µM. In addition, NHDF cells were treated with imatinib (5 µM) and PP2 (2 µM) simultaneously (the IC50 doses of imatinib and PP2 in NHDF cells) for a period of 3 weeks. For comparison of species and cell types, CHE fibroblasts and U2OS cells were treated with 500 nM, 1, and 2 µM dasatinib for a period of 3 weeks. All cell culture experiments were carried out in triplicate, accompanied by control cultures treated with corresponding concentrations of DMSO (maximum 0.2% DMSO). Controls did not show any effect of DMSO. The medium was changed and drugs were added three times a week. Confluent cell cultures were divided and transferred to fresh culture dishes once a week.
Cytogenetic analysis
At least 20 metaphases per sample (cell cultures, bone marrow/peripheral blood) were analyzed by the G-banding technique and the results presented according to the International System for Human Cytogenetic Nomenclature (ISCN, 2005), as described elsewhere.27–29,33
Centrosome and spindle staining
For centrosome staining, cells were immunostained with an antibody to pericentrin (Covance, Richmond, CA, USA), followed by a Cy3-conjugated secondary antibody. At least 100 cells per sample were examined.27–29
Spindle staining was performed in combination with centrosome staining using a polyclonal antibody to
-tubulin (#T6074, Sigma) at a dilution of 1:500 in 1 x phosphate-buffered saline containing 2% horse serum in addition to the anti-pericentrin antibody. Twenty spindles per sample were examined.29
Cell proliferation
NHDF cells (3–4x105) were plated in triplicate in 100 mm tissue culture dishes in complete medium containing dasatinib (1 nM - 2 µM). For comparison cells were treated with PP2 (100 nM - 2 µM), INNO-406 (100 nM - 2 µM), imatinib (500 nM-5 µM) and nilotinib (500 nM - 2 µM) or an equal volume of DMSO (control). To assess cell proliferation, cells were harvested with trypsin, stained with trypan blue, and counted manually after 24 h, 48 h and 72 h of incubation in the presence or absence of the inhibitors. Cells that excluded trypan blue were considered viable. All experiments were performed in triplicate. The range of drug concentrations was chosen taking into account the IC50 values for NHDF cells (IC50 of dasatinib, 50 nM; range of drug concentrations, 1 nM to 2 µM). For further information (measure points; standard deviation) see also Online Supplementary Table S1.
Cell cycle analysis
Subconfluent NHDF cells were treated with dasatinib (0.01 nM - 2 µM; taking into the account the IC50 values for NHDF cells) for 1 week. To compare the observed effects of compounds targeting a different spectrum of tyrosine kinases, cells were treated with PP2 (100 nM - 2 µM), INNO-406 (100 nM - 2 µM), imatinib (2 µM - 5 µM), nilotinib (1 µM - 2 µM), and imatinib (5 µM)/PP2 (2 µM) simultaneously for 1 week. Cells were harvested, washed in 1 x phosphate-buffered saline, fixed in ice-cold methanol/acetone (1:1) and stained with propidium iodide. DNA content was measured by fluorescence-activated cell sorting using a flow cytometer (FACScan, Becton Dickinson and Company, San José, CA, USA) according to standard protocols.
Western blot analysis
Subconfluent NHDF cells were grown for 48 h with dasatinib (500 nM), imatinib (5 µM) and in the absence of drugs to confluence (5x105 cells in 100-mm tissue culture dishes). Cells were washed twice in ice-cold phosphate buffered saline (pH 7.4) and lysed for 10 minutes in buffer [50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.6; Sigma), 150 mM NaCl (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany), 1 mM EDTA (pH 8; Sigma), 1 mM EGTA (pH 8; Sigma), 1% Nonidet P-40 (USB #19628), 10% glycerol (Sigma), 50 mM NaF (Sigma) and 1 mM dithiothreitol (DTT; Invitrogen)]. Cells were scraped from plates, and cell lysates were clarified by centrifugation for 20 minutes at 13,000 rpm at 4°C. The supernatant was collected and total protein concentration was determined by the Biorad Assay. Equal protein aliquots were resolved by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) according to standard methods,34 transferred to nitrocellulose membranes, immunoblotted with primary antibody (anti-actin; Calbiochem, Merck) (cyclin D1, D3 and p27; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Heidelberg, Germany) and detected with secondary antibody (goat anti-mouse IgG horse-radish peroxidase conjugate antibody, goat anti-rabbit IgG horse-radish peroxidase conjugate antibody; Promega, Mannheim, Germany).
Patients
Seventeen CML patients in chronic phase (9 males, 8 females) with Ph and BCR-ABL-positive CML after failure of imatinib treatment and one patient with a gastrointestinal stromal tumor on dasatinib treatment (70 mg twice daily; plasma half-life 3–4 h; Cmax of 90 nM) were investigated.30 The duration of therapy was 3 to 16 months and all patients were under treatment at the moment of analysis. The patients had previously been treated with imatinib (n=18), hydroxyurea (n=11), interferon
(n=13), cytosine arabinoside (n=2) and nilotinib (n=1) alone or in combination. All patients on dasatinib were resistant to or intolerant of prior imatinib therapy. For comparison, five patients (three with CML and two with systemic mastocytosis) on nilotinib (400 mg per day; plasma half-life 15–24 h; Cmax value 3.6 µM)30, four CML patients on imatinib (400 mg per day; plasma half-life 19.3 h; Cmax value 4.6 µM),2 five untreated CML patients at diagnosis and six healthy individuals were evaluated (see Table 1 for the patients characteristics). Peripheral blood and bone marrow mononuclear cells from patients were investigated.
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| Results |
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Inhibition of NHDF cell growth after short-term exposure to dasatinib
Dasatinib suppressed the growth of NHDF cells with an IC50 of 50 nM (Figure 1 A and B). Even concentrations of 1 nM inhibited the growth of cells after 24 h, 48 h and 72 h. High concentrations (1 and 2 µM) of dasatinib resulted in a reduction of the total number of cells, induced cell death and appeared generally toxic to NHDF cells (p<0.0001 for all experiments). PP2 and INNO-406 also inhibited growth of NHDF cells (Figure 1 C and D; p<0.0001), but the data and IC50 values (2 µM and 1 µM, respectively) suggest that dasatinib is a more potent inhibitor of cell proliferation. Cells exposed to nilotinib did not show a growth disadvantage compared to untreated controls (Figure 1E; IC50 10 µM; p<0.7796). In contrast, imatinib inhibited cell growth in a concentration-dependent fashion (Figure 1F; IC50 5 µM; p<0.0001; Online Supplementary Table S1). The observed effects were reversible after removing the drugs (data not shown).
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5% centrosome alterations,
10% chromosome aberrations; data not shown).29
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Combined treatment with imatinib and PP2 decreases the number of mitotic cells
To test the assumed synergistic effects of ABL and SRC inhibition, we treated NHDF with imatinib (5 µM; IC50 in NHDF) and PP2 (2 µM; IC50 in NHDF) simultaneously for 3 weeks. In treated cells, the normal tubulin cytoskeleton was absent in 25% of the analyzed cells. Instead of normal spindles, the cap-like tubulin structure similar to that seen after dasatinib and INNO-406 treatment was observed (Figure 2, Table 2). Not only was there a decrease of spindles but there were also spindle defects, as seen in imatinib and nilotinib-treated cells (2%).
Dasatinib induced G1 cell cycle arrest in normal human fibroblasts
The inhibition of normal cell proliferation, induction of centrosome and chromosome aberrations as well as the decrease of spindles in cells exposed to dasatinib raised the question as to whether these phenomena could be related to changes of the cell cycle. We, therefore, measured the DNA content of cells treated with dasatinib using FACS analyses, and compared the results with those obtained using drugs targeting different tyrosine kinases (imatinib, nilotinib, PP2 and INNO-406; Figure 3).
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INNO-406 also caused a G1 arrest at doses above 100 nM (Figure 3B), while PP2 induced S phase arrest (Figure 3C). After treatment with the drug combination of imatinib and PP2, cells showed G1 phase arrest similar to that observed after dasatinib and INNO-406 treatment (Figure 3D). Imatinib and nilotinib did not show either G1 phase or S phase arrest (data not shown).
Centrosome defects and spindle decreases in dasatinib-treated patients
Since all treated cells and cell lines displayed centrosome and chromosome aberrations as well as a decrease of spindles, we were interested to determine whether patients treated with dasatinib show comparable alterations. In total, 17 CML patients and one patient with a gastrointestinal stromal tumor being treated with dasatinib (70 mg twice a day) were investigated. Five untreated CML patients in chronic phase and six healthy individuals served as controls (Table 1).
Additional chromosomal aberrations occurred in Ph-positive metaphases during dasatinib therapy. However, these aberrations were common secondary changes frequently observed in CML during disease progression. Chromosomal changes in Ph-negative hematopoiesis were observed in three CML patients. Centrosome aberrations occurred in a median of 17% (range, 10–22%) of cells. Of note, all patients were in chronic phase and had no blastic cells in the bone marrow or peripheral blood. The phenotype of G1 phase arrest (cap-like tubulin structure), comparable to that observed in vitro, was detected in 8/18 patients (Figure 2A, Table 3). The patient with a gastrointestinal stromal tumor without bone marrow infiltration had centrosome aberrations in 16% of peripheral blood cells and demonstrated the characteristic phenotype of G1 phase arrest (Figure 2B).
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Centrosome alterations and spindle defects in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia and systemic mastocytosis treated with imatinib and nilotinib without the phenotype of G1 phase arrest
In total, we investigated three CML patients in chronic phase being treated with nilotinib after the failure of imatinib, two patients with systemic mastocytosis under nilotinib treatment and four CML patients in chronic phase being treated with imatinib (Table 1). No additional chromosomal aberrations were observed in Ph-positive metaphases in patients under nilotinib and imatinib therapy and there were no chromosomal changes in Ph-negative hematopoiesis. However, centrosome aberrations occurred in a median of 13% (range, 10–16%) of cells from patients being treated with nilotinib and in 26% (range, 25–28%) of cells from patients being treated with imatinib. Defective spindles were observed in 7% (range, 5–10%) of bone marrow cells but no characteristic phenotypes of G1 phase arrest occurred (Table 3). This suggests that imatinib and nilotinib affect centrosomes and spindles in vivo (Cmax values of 4.6 µM and 3.6 µM, respectively, are achievable in treated patients),30 but do not influence the cell cycle in the way that dasatinib treatment does. Two patients with systemic mastocytosis without bone marrow infiltration showed elevated rates of centrosome alterations (16%) and spindle defects (5%).
Dasatinib treatment resulted in reduced cyclin D1 levels
We examined the effect of dasatinib on the key regulatory molecules cyclin D1, cyclin D3 and p27 involved in G1-S cell cycle progression that can be regulated by SRC.35 The G1 arrest resulting from dasatinib was associated with a decline in cyclin D1 levels, whereas no changes were observed in imatinib-treated NHDF or in untreated controls. No changes in the protein levels of cyclin D3 and p27 were observed in either dasatinib or imatinib-treated cells (data not shown).
| Discussion |
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In this study, we found that dasatinib had effects on NHDF in vitro at concentrations which are achievable in vivo under treatment (see Design and methods section, inhibitory assays, Table 2). These effects included induction of chromosome and centrosome alterations (p<0.0001) and inhibition of proliferation (p<0.0001). In addition, G1 phase arrest and a decrease of spindles with a characteristic phenotype of G1 phase arrest were observed (p<0.0001). Comparable results were obtained when bone marrow and peripheral blood cells of patients on dasatinib therapy were analyzed. It is, however, important to note that all patients had been treated with other drugs, including imatinib, prior to dasatinib therapy (Table 1). Because of the absence of data from patients on first line dasatinib therapy, an influence of the previous therapy on the observed chromosome and centrosome alterations cannot be excluded. Furthermore, the doses of drugs and the times of sample collection after oral administration of the drugs varied from patient to patient which could have affected the analysis and complicate interpretation of the results. Data from dasatinib-treated CHE fibroblasts and U2OS cells were comparable, suggesting that the alterations induced by dasatinib are cell and species independent.
The molecular mechanisms for the observed effects of dasatinib on karyotype stability, centrosomes and spindles may be the inhibition of one or more of its known targets. ABL tyrosine kinases interact with several proteins such as p73,36 DNA-PK and37 ATM,38 involved in DNA repair mechanisms. In addition, cABL is an essential regulator of the RAD51 protein that plays a fundamental role in homologous recombination and in DNA repair.39,40 Inhibition of c-ABL could enhance homologous recombination resulting in genetic instability and supernumerary functional centrosomes.41,42 LCK and FYN (members of the SRC family), which have been identified as target molecules of dasatinib, may also be important for centrosome maintenance.43 The association of LCK in human T cells with pericentrosomal vesicles and of FYN in Jurkat T cells and T lymphoblasts with the centrosome and mitotic spindle suggests that these kinases may be crucial for cell cycle regulation.44 Inhibition may, therefore, affect centrosomal fidelity resulting in centrosome hypertrophy and genetic instability.
G1 phase arrest and a decrease of spindles as indicators of a reduction of cells in mitosis after dasatinib treatment cannot be explained by inhibition of ABL or LCK and FYN alone, because these effects have never been observed in vitro or in vivo after either imatinib or nilotinib treatment. Our data appear to suggest that other members of the SRC family that play a role in vivo and are required for progression through the initial phase of mitosis may be important by inhibiting the cell cycle and inducing the observed G1 phase arrest in normal human cells. The fact that INNO-406 (which also inhibits FYN)32 produces the same results supports this concept.
In normal cells c-SRC activation is essential for PDGF-induced G1/S transition and DNA replication. Consequently, the inhibition of SRC results in kinase-inactive SRC inducing a G1/S block and delayed G1/S transition.45–48 However, SRC inhibitors induced dose-dependent anemia, edema and erythema and affected the ovaries and liver in rats.49 Limited enzymatic selectivity, which is not correlated to the compounds core structure and which led to inhibition of other kinases in non-targeted tissues, may be possible. Since the cell cycle is important in many tissues, a common protein kinase-dependent mechanism is conceivable. These findings concur with our results obtained in dasatinib-treated normal cells, showing deregulation of the cell cycle. In prostate cancer cells, dasatinib treatment blocked the kinase activities of LYN and SRC at low nanomolar concentrations resulting in partial inhibition of cell proliferation due to G1 arrest.11 Other studies have shown that in vitro dasatinib treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cell lines caused dose-dependent inhibition of cell growth and the cell lines showed decreased percentages of cells in G2-M and S phases and an increased number of cells in the sub-G0 population, consistent with cell cycle blockage in the G1-to-S transition and induction of apoptosis.50
Furthermore, studies have shown that induction of the key regulator molecule p27 in dasatinib-treated cancer cell lines is associated with a decline in the levels of the proteins cyclin D1 and D3 which play important roles in regulating cell cycle progression and survival.35,51 We found an effect of dasatinib on the regulatory molecule cyclin D1 involved in cell cycle progression which can be regulated by SRC.26,35 SRC inhibition by dasatinib could, therefore, lead to a decrease in cyclin D1 levels resulting in G1 cell cycle arrest and a decreased rate of spindle formation.
Unexpectedly, NHDF treated with the specific SRC inhibitor PP2 showed S phase arrest. In contrast, simultaneous PP2 and imatinib treatment resulted in less G1 phase arrest and decreased rates of mitotic spindles. This suggests synergistic inhibitory effects of members of the tyrosine kinases (e.g., c-ABL, c-KIT) and of SRC kinases (LYN or others). Despite the previously mentioned effect, only marginal inhibition was observed and seemed to be dependent on drug potency (different IC50 values of drugs for NHDF).31
In conclusion, dasatinib blocks G1/S transition and thereby inhibits cell growth in both normal and neoplastic cells. In addition, it induces centrosomal aberrations and decreases mitotic spindles. These effects may not be due to SRC inhibition alone but may be the result of a combination of SRC and ABL inhibition or non-specific effects on multiple kinases (c-KIT, ABL, and PDGFR) or other targets. Dasatinib is registered for the treatment of CML patients after the failure of imatinib therapy.14,15 The adverse effects of this drug, such as neutropenia and grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia which occurred in 45% of patients in chronic phase and 89% of patients in accelerated phase/blast crisis and treatment-related pleural effusions,10,30 may be caused by prolonged tissue regeneration times. Since G1 phase arrest was observed in normal, leukemic and tumor cells, dasatinib should be considered a drug that inhibits normal and neoplastic cell growth with a strong targeted component, resulting in preferential inhibition of cells carrying a specific target, such as BCR-ABL.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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AH and RH received research support from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, and Innovive. None of the other authors declare any conflict of interest.
AF: principal investigator with primary responsibility for the publication; AF, MG, BR, AK, OF, CH, WS, PD, RH and AH: contributed to the design of the study, to the work and to the interpretation of the results. All authors checked the final version of the manuscript
The online version of this article contains a supplemental appendix.
Received for publication January 22, 2008. Revision received March 3, 2008. Accepted for publication March 21, 2008.
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