diketodithiopiperazine antibiotics , in particular chaetocin and gliotoxin , are able to inhibit the interaction between hif - 1α and p300 , as it has been possibile to demonstrate with a fluorescency assay adapted from freedman s j et al ., nature structural biology 2003 , 10 ( 7 ), 504 - 512 . chaetocin and gliotoxin are therefore useful for the control of angiogenesis and tumor growth . pharmaceutical compositions of these compounds can be conveniently used for the treatment of a number of pathologies wherein angiogenesis is involved as pathogenesis factor , for example different forms of solid tumors , diabetis retinopathy , rheumatoid arthritis , psoriasis , emangioma , scleroderma , neovascular glaucoma . solid tumors that are particularly sensitive to compounds able to inhibit the binding of hif - 1α with the ch1 domain of p300 comprise lung carcinoma , mammarian carcinoma , prostate carcinoma , neuroblastoma , glioblastoma multiforme , melanoma , central nervous system tumors , oro - faryngeal squamous cell cancer , cervix , ovary , esophageal , kidney , colon , head - and - neck tumor and oligodendroglioma . for the envisaged therapeutical uses , said ketodithiopiperazine antibiotics will be administered through the oral , parenteral , transdermal , rectal , topical or equivalent administration route , in dosages that will be determined by the experts in the field according to the pharmaco - toxicology and pharmacokinetic properties of the selected compound and according to the pathology , its severity and progression stage and to the patient &# 39 ; s weight , sex and age . however , the dosages will be typically comprised between 0 . 1 and 100 mg / kg / die with respect to the weight of the patient . chaetocin and / or gliotoxin will optionally be administered in combination with other chemotherapeutic agents , for instance in chemotherapy protocols with potentially synergistic drugs having different mechanism of action . examples of compositions of the invention comprise capsules , tablets , injectable or oral solutions or suspensions , suppositories , controlled - released forms and the like . said compositions can be prepared by means of conventional techniques and excipients , for example those disclosed in remington &# 39 ; s pharmaceutical sciences handbook , xvii ed . mack pub ., n . y ., u . s . a . chaetocin &# 39 ; s ability to prevent interaction between hif - 1α and p300 has been evaluated using the fluorescency assay ( delfia ™) method disclosed by freedman s j at al ., nature structural biology 2003 , 10 ( 7 ), 504 - 512 , suitably modified . the human biotinylated hif - 1α fragment corresponding to c - terminal aminoacids 786 - 826 ( biotinylated hif - 1α 786 - 826 ) was obtained by anaspec inc ( san josé , calif ., usa ) and used without further purifications . a construct expressing the gst - p300 323 - 423 fragment was transformed in the bl21 ( de3 ) strain of e . coli . such construct was obtained by cloning in the expression vector pgex - 4t - 1 ( amersham n . 27 - 45 - 80 - 01 ) the dna sequence which encodes for the p300 region comprised between the 323 - 423 aminoacids ; the dna sequence was obtained through pcr ( polymerase chain reaction ). the expression of the protein was induced with 1 mm isopropyl - 1 - thio - β - d - galactopiranoside ( iptg ). the bacteria were lysed through sonication in the presence of a suitable buffer ( 50 mm tris . hcl ph 8 . 00 , 100 mm nacl , 0 . 1 mm znso4 , 1 mm dtt , 0 . 1 mg / ml lysozime and a tablet of roche protease inhibitor ) and gst fusion protein contained in the soluble fraction was purified on a glutathione - sepharose 4b resin ( amersham biosciences ; no . 27 - 4574 - 01 ). the protein final concentration was determined according to bradford with the biorad assay ( bradford m ., anal . biochem ., 72 , 248 , ( 1976 )). samples purity was evaluated through sds - page . the samples were stored at − 80 ° c . in glycerol 50 %. the assay was carried out as follows , using 96 - wells nunc maxisorp plates . c96 nunc maxisorp plates ( nunc , product no . 446612 ) were incubated overnight with streptavidin ( sigma ; product no . s 4762 ) at a final concentration of 1 μg / ml in pbs buffer ( phosphate buffered saline 10 mm sodium phosphate , 150 mm sodium chloride ph 7 . 4 ). each well was then washed three times with 300 μl of tbst buffer ( 50 mm tris - hcl ph 8 . 0 , 150 mm nacl , 0 . 05 % ( v / v ) tween 20 ). each well was then added with 100 μl of a 10 nm solution of biotinylated hif - 1α 786 - 826 in tbsb ( 50 mm tris - hcl ph 8 . 0 , 150 mm nacl , 5 % ( w / v ) bsa ( sigma , product no . a 2153 )) and incubated 1 h at 25 ° c . in the last row of each plate only tbsb buffer was added . each well was then washed three times with 300 μl of tbst buffer . the plate so prepared was used for the assay . separately , a plate ( daughter plate ) containing in each well 10 μl of a 10 μm solution of each test compound in dmso was prepared . this plate was added with 100 μl of a 111 pm solution of gst - p300 323 - 423 diluted in incubation buffer ( tbsb added with 0 . 1 % ( v / v ) tween 20 , 0 . 5 mm dtt , 10 μm zncl 2 ), mixing the solutions . 100 μl of the mixture contained in the daughter plate were immediately transferred in the assay plate . each daughter plate was prepared with chaetocin at a concentration of 10 μm , safe for the two last well rows , wherein each well was added with 10 μl of dmso . these two rows represented the positive ( row 11 , + hif - 1 ) and negative ( row 12 , - hif - 1 ) control . after incubation for 1 h at 25 ° c ., each well was washed three times with 300 μl tbst buffer ( 50 mm tris - hcl ph 8 . 0 , 150 mm nacl , 0 . 05 % ( v / v ) tween 20 ). each well was then added with 60 . 8 ng of an europium - labeled anti - gst antibody ( delfia eu - n1 labeled ; perkin elmer ; product no . ad 0251 ) dissolved in 100 μl tbsb buffer containing 10 μm zncl 2 . after incubation for 1 h at room temperature , each well was washed three times with 300 μl tbst buffer , then 100 μl of signal - amplifying solution ( enhancement solution , perkin elmer prodotto no . 1244 - 105 ) was added . the plates were then read with a fusion alpha - fp - ht ( perkin elmer ) reader in fluorescence mode for time resolution . chaetocin activity was calculated as follows . the fluorescence mean value of negative controls in row 12 of the test plate was subtracted to the fluorescence value of all the other wells . the resulting fluorescence value for each well was then divided by the mean fluorescence value of the positive controls in row 11 ( which represented the maximum signal value , 100 %), and expressed as percent value . the inhibition value was the difference between 100 and the signal percentage calculated for each well . using daughter plates where the compounds were present at ten different concentrations comprised between 90 μm and 0 . 178 μm in each row , a dose - response curve could be calculated from which the ic 50 could be derived ( concentration of the compound necessary to cause 50 % inhibition of the signal ). rows 11 and 12 containing the vehicle only represented the controls . in this test , chaetocin showed inhibition of the interaction between biot - hif - 1α 786 - 826 and gst - p300 323 / 423 with an ic 50 of 12 . 5 μm . the compounds of the invention were evaluated using a cellular test on genetically modified human epatocarcinoma hep3b cells ( hep3b - vegfluciferase ) in order to stably express a vector wherein luciferase open reading frame is placed under the control of the rat vegf gene promoter . hif - 1 induction with deferoxamine ( which induces hypoxia ) induces luciferase trascription through activation of the vegf promoter , which in turn leads to an increase of luciferase activity which can be measured with a commercially available kit . the compounds interfering with the hif - 1α / p300 complex cause inhibition of hif - dependent luciferase activation , resulting in the reduction of luciferase activity . therefore , this assay allows to evaluate the activity of the compounds towards the vegf promoter , which is essential to vegf production and subsequent tumor angiogenesis . the hep - 3b - vegf luciferase line was obtained according to the following procedure . human epatocarcinoma hep3b cells ( atcc reference no . hb - 8064 ) were seeded onto 6 - well plates at a concentration of 2 . 5 × 10 5 cells / well in 2 ml dmem / 10 % fcs and the day after were transfected with fugene 6 ( roche biochemicals ®). the transfection mixture in each well contained 6 μl of the transfection reaction fugene 6 , 1 μg of the reporter plasmid pxp2 - vegf - luciferase ( rat vegf promoter , ncbi genbank accession no . u22373 , levy et al ., j . biol . chem . 270 ( 22 ), 13333 - 13340 , 1995 ), and 10 ng of pcdna 3 . 1 (+) plasmid ( invitrogen ) which makes cells resistant to neomycin . transfection was carried out according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . the suitable cell population ( phenotypically resistant to neomycin ) was selected through a cloning approach based on the “ limit dilution ” procedure ( sambrook j ., fritsch e . f . and maniatis t . ( 1989 ) molecular cloning , a . laboratory manual ; cold spring harbor laboratori ). the following test of luciferase expression / activity “ luciferase assay ” and test for the quantification of vegf secreted in the supernatant “ secreted vegf elisa test ”) are carried out with stably transfected selected cells . day 1 . hep - 3b - vegf luciferase cells were seeded onto “ blank ” 96 - well plates ( greiner ) at a density of 1 × 10 4 cells / well / 125 μl of medium , then allowed to adhere overnight in a thermostat ( 37 ° c ./ 5 % co 2 ). day 2 . 75 μl of “ 3 . 2 × working solutions ” of compound ( previously prepared in medium so that dmso concentration amounted to 1 . 6 % v / v ) was added to the cells ( partial volume / well = 200 μl , partial concentration the compound = 1 . 2 ×, partial concentration of dmso = 0 . 6 %). after 1 h incubation in thermostat , hypoxia was induced chemically by addition of 40 μl / well of a 6 × ( 600 μm ) stock solution of deferoxamine ( final volume / well = 240 μl , final concentration of the compound = 1 ×, final concentration of dmso = 0 . 5 %, final concentration of deferoxamine = 1 ×≈ 100 μm ). the plates were then placed in a thermostat for further 18 - 20 h . day 3 . the “ luciferase assay ” and the “ secreted vegf elisa test ” were carried out as described in the following . quantification of secreted vegf was carried out using the “ duoset elisa development system human vegf ” kit ( r & amp ; d systems ). 100 μl / well of supernatant from the “ blank ” 96 - well plates seeded with the cells of the hep3b / vegf luciferase clone were transferred into transparent 96 - well plates ( maxisorp ) and assayed according to the instructions of the kit manufacturer . in the elisa test for inhibition of secreted vegf chaetocin and gliotoxin showed ic 50 of 0 . 1 μm and 0 . 2 μm respectively . quantification of expression of luciferase reporter gene was carried out with bright glo reagent ( promega ). after discarding the supernatant and washing once with pbs , 40 μl / well of bright glo reagent were added to “ blank ” 96 - well plates , i . e . plates without human hepatocarcinoma hep3b / vegf - luciferase cells . the reporter gene expression levels were determined reading the plates with a luminometer . in the luciferase assay for the inhibition of the vegf promoter chaetocin and gliotoxin showed an ic 50 ( concentration of the compound that causes 50 % inhibition of luciferase signal ) of 0 . 04 μm and 0 . 05 μm respectively .
the invention relates to the use of diketodithiopiperazine antibiotics , in particular chaetocin and gliotoxin , for the preparation of pharmaceutical compositions for antitumor therapy .