Mechanism of tumor cell killing by HO-221, a novel antitumor compound

The mechanism of tumor cell killing by HO-221, a novel benzoylphenylurea derivative that shows broad-spectrum antitumor activities, was studied. HO-221 strongly inhibited the activity of mammalian DNA polymerase alpha but not that of DNA polymerases beta or gamma. The inhibition was equivalent to that induced by aphidicolin and ara-CTP, which were selective inhibitors of the enzyme. Furthermore, the inhibition by HO-221 of DNA polymerase alpha was found to be non-competitive with respect to dCTP as a substrate, unlike that induced by aphidicolin and ara-CTP. The inhibition was reduced the addition of an excess of DNA polymerase alpha but not by excess amounts of activated DNA as a template primer. These results suggest that HO-221 inhibits the activity of DNA polymerase alpha by direct interaction with the enzyme in contrast to the impairment of template activity through intercalation into DNA induced by anthracycline compounds. On the other hand, HO-221 showed almost no effect on RNA polymerase activity, the reverse transcriptase activity of avian myeloblastosis virus or protein synthesis in a cell-free system. The flow-cytometry analysis revealed that HO-221 accumulated HL-60 cells in G1-S phases at a low concentration but increased the number of cells in the G1 phase at a higher concentration, stopping cell-cycle progression. The results suggest a correlation between cell-cycle progression and inhibition by HO-221 of DNA polymerase alpha, which plays a role in DNA replication during the S phase in living cells.