The effect of novel small molecule drugs in human explants across the disease sequence in colorectal cancer.

Abstract

e13570 Background: The treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer has been improved by combining cytotoxic chemotherapy with bevacizumab. Newer anti-angiogenic agents are required to improve survival rates as response rates with the current therapies are modest. The preclinical development of such drugs is time-consuming and new methods are required to test the efficacy of lead drugs which represent the entire tumor micro-environment. Methods: Chemical screens were performed in zebrafish larvae to identify hits that affected intersegmental angiogenesis. Five lead drugs were then tested for cytotoxicity using the crystal violet assay. These drugs were tested using ex vivo colorectal tumor explants to determine their effect on secretion of IL-1β, TNF, IL-6 and VEGF. Human explants from 20 patients (Dukes A-D) were cultured for 72 hours and the levels of the above factors measured by ELISA. Comparisons were made between early (Dukes A&B) and late stages (Dukes C&D). Results: One thousand drugs were screened and 5 were found to reduce intersegmental angiogenesis in zebrafish larvae: AM1, AM2, AM3, AM4 and AM5. The drugs did not affect cell growth levels at 10 µM concentration. From the explant studies: AM1 decreased secretion of VEGF in late stages (p=0.005) and IL-6 in early stages (p=0.009). AM2 decreased VEGF in early (p=0.004) and late stages (p=0.02). AM3 decreased TNF secretion in late stages (p=0.02) and IL-6 secretion in early (p=0.009) and late stages (p<0.0001). AM4 decreased VEGF secretion in early stages (p=0.001), IL-6 in early stages (p<0.001) and late stages (p=0.03) and IL-1β in early stages (p=0.002). AM5 decreased IL-6 secretion in the early stages (p=0.03) and IL-1β in the early stages (p=0.001).Overall, IL-1β secretion was reduced by AM4, AM3 and AM5 (p<0.05). IL-6 secretion was reduced by AM1, AM3 and AM4 (p=0.001). TNF secretion was reduced by AM3 (p=0.02) and VEGF secretion was reduced by AM1, AM2 and AM4 (p<0.005). Conclusions: These studies show these drugs have stage-specific effects in colorectal tumor explants and may have the potential as new anti-angiogenic agents in colorectal cancer.