Effect of the diaminocyclohexane carrier ligand on platinum adduct formation, repair, and lethality

Abstract

Platinum compounds with the diaminocyclohexane (dach) carrier ligand are of particular interest because cell lines that have developed resistance to platinum compounds in general often retain sensitivity to dach-platinum compounds, suggesting that the dach carrier ligand affects the formation, repair, or lethality of platinum-DNA adducts. The effect of the dach ligand on platinum adduct formation was assessed by using the (HaeIII-HindIII)146 fragment of pBR322 treated to give equal amounts of dach- or ethylenediamine-platinum adducts. The sites of adduct formation were mapped by digestion with Escherichia coli ABC excinuclease. There were no significant effects of the dach carrier ligand on the types or sites of platinum adduct formation. The effect of the dach ligand on platinum adduct repair was determined by using synthetic oligomers designed to have single, specific platinum adducts (G monoadduct; GG, AG, or GNG diadduct) with either the dach or ethylenediamine (en) carrier ligand. These adducts differed significantly in their ability to serve as substrates for ABC excinuclease with GNG .gtoreq. G > AG > GG. The dach carrier ligand had little effect on the recognition of AG and GG adducts by ABC excinuclease, but significantly improved the ability of ABC excinuclease to excise G monoadducts and GNG diadducts. These data suggest that if the carrier ligand has any effect on the repair of platinum adducts, it is more likely to exert that effect on the repair of platinum monoadducts or GNG diadducts rather than on the more abundant AG or GG diadducts. [14C] Thiourea incorporation was used to quantitate the rate of monoadduct to diadduct conversion. The dach carrier ligand was found to slow the rate of monoadduct to diadduct conversion by a factor of 2.4 compared to the en ligand and 1.8 compared to the diammine ligands. Finally, the effect of the dach ligand on platinum adduct lethality was assessed by determining the effect of dach- and en-platinum adducts on the transformation efficiency of pBR322 into a repair-deficient (recA- uvrA-) strain of E. coli. In the range of 1-14 adducts/pBR322, platinum adducts with the dach carrier ligand were significantly more effective than those with the en ligand at inhibiting transformation. These data suggest that the dach carrier ligand can significantly affect the ability of platinum-DNA adducts to block essential processes such as replication and transcription.