Examining the Impact of Antimicrobial Fluoroquinolones on Human DNA Topoisomerase IIα and IIβ

Fluoroquinolones are a class of widely prescribed antibiotics with a broad range of activity against Gram-positive, Gram-negative, and some atypical microbes. Unfortunately, these drugs are associated with significant adverse events including neuropathy, tendinopathy, cardiac rhythm abnormalities, and mental health side effects. The mechanism by which fluoroquinolones cause many of these toxicities is unknown. The antibacterial mechanism of action involves disruption of the catalytic mechanism of type-II topoisomerases in bacteria, namely topoisomerase IV and DNA gyrase. Fluoroquinolones inhibit the ability of the enzymes to ligate cleaved DNA and result in single- and double-stranded DNA breaks. Thus, there is an interest in investigating whether human topoisomerase II is involved in mediating the adverse events associated with quinolones. Previous studies demonstrate some response of human topoisomerase IIα and IIβ to high levels of ciprofloxacin. However, it is not clear whether the concentration of ciprofloxacin utilized in those studies corresponds to concentrations that would be routinely achievable in patients. Therefore, this study set out to examine three clinically relevant fluoroquinolones along with two older agents to determine whether these compounds display activity against topoisomerase IIα and IIβ at drug concentrations that more closely approximate typical patient plasma values. On the basis of our evidence, none of the quinolones studied were able to poison DNA cleavage by either human enzyme. Ciprofloxacin, desethylene-ciprofloxacin, and the recently removed from market gemifloxacin were able to inhibit topoisomerase II-mediated DNA relaxation at concentrations of 200-300 μM. On the basis of these data, we propose that human topoisomerase II is not likely to be the main cause of these adverse events and that additional targets need to be identified to clarify the mechanisms underlying quinolone toxicities.