the present invention provides a pharmaceutical composition for cancer immunotherapy treatment comprising a compound selected from formula i and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier , wherein formula i comprises : wherein “ a ” is independently — ch 2 —, — o —, — nh —, — co —, phenyl , or pyrimidnyl ; wherein r 1 , r 2 , r 3 , r 4 , r 5 , r 6 , r 7 , r 8 and r 9 each independently h , c 1 - 6 alkyl , c 1 - 6 alkenyl , c 1 - 6 alkoxy , or phenyl ; wherein “ x ” is a linker moiety selected from the group consisting of c 2 - 10 alkyl , c 2 - 10 alkenyl , and r 10 - r 11 ═ r 10 ; wherein r 10 is independently c 1 - 4 alkyl or c 2 - 4 alkenyl , and wherein r 11 is selected from the group consisting of oxo , phenyl , toluenyl , pyrimidinyl , amino , and — o —; wherein “ b ” is a liner moiety independently selected from the group consisting of straight or branched c 1 - 6 alkyl , straight or branched c 2 - 6 alkenyl , straight or branched c 1 - 6 alkyl substituted with an amine moiety , and straight or branched c 2 - 6 alkenyl substituted with an amine moiety ; wherein “ d ” is a nitrogen - containing moiety selected from the group consisting of pyrimidinyl , piperidyl , pyridinyl , — ch — ch 2 — nh 2 , — ch — ch 2 — ch — nh 2 , — ch — nh 2 , and piprazinyl ; preferably , r 1 is h ; r 2 through r 9 is h or c 1 - 3 alkyl . the preferred compounds of formula i are : wherein the upper structure has a designation compound 38 and the bottom structure is called “ 214140 ”. the present invention further provides a method for treating a patient with cancer , comprising administering an effective amount of a compound selected from the group consisting of formula i , formula ii and formula iii , wherein formula i comprises : wherein “ a ” is independently — ch 2 —, — o —, — nh —, — co —, phenyl , or pyrimidnyl ; wherein r 1 , r 2 , r 3 , r 4 , r 5 , r 6 , r 7 , r 8 and r 9 are each independently h , c 1 - 6 alkyl , c 1 - 6 alkenyl , c 1 - 6 alkoxy , or phenyl ; wherein “ x ” is a linker moiety selected from the group consisting of c 2 - 10 alkyl , c 2 - 10 alkenyl , and r 10 - r 11 ═ r 10 ; wherein r 10 is independently c 1 - 4 alkyl or c 2 - 4 alkenyl , and wherein r 11 is selected from the group consisting of oxo , phenyl , toluenyl , pyrimidinyl , amino , and — o —; wherein “ b ” is a linker moiety independently selected from the group consisting of straight or branched c 1 - 6 alkyl , straight or branched c 2 - 6 alkenyl , straight or branched c 1 - 6 alkyl substituted with an amine moiety , and straight or branched c 2 - 6 alkenyl substituted with an amine moiety ; wherein “ d ” is a nitrogen - containing moiety selected from the group consisting of pyrimidinyl , piperidyl , pyridinyl , — ch — ch 2 — nh 2 , — ch — ch 2 — ch 2 — nh 2 , — ch — nh 2 , and piprazinyl ; wherein “ b ” and “ d ” are independently defined as in formula ii . preferably , r 1 is h ; r 2 through r 9 is h or c 1 - 3 alkyl . the preferred compounds of formula i are : wherein the upper structure has a designation compound 38 and the bottom structure is called “ 214140 ”. each of the foregoing preferred compounds are available commercially as research reagents ( aldrich ). compound 38 , for example , has industrial applications in plastics and synthetic textiles but no pharmaceutical uses . the pro - inflammatory cytokines tnf , il - 1 , il - 6 , mip - 1 α and mip - 1 β play an important role in stimulating the early stages of acute inflammation , including recruitment and activation of inflammatory cells , stimulation of endothelial activation and direct cytotoxicity . these “ inflammatory ” cytokines play an important role for recovery from infection or injury , however , normal counter - regulatory mechanisms are also critical to the success of an immune response , because inappropriate or excessive production of pro - inflammatory cytokines can lead to shock or tissue injury . counter - regulatory mechanism has focused upon the cytokine inhibitory roles of the glucocorticoid hormones , the anti - inflammatory cytokines , such as tgf - β and il - 10 , and prostaglandin pge 2 . specifically , local production of proinflammatory cytokines mediates a host response to inflammation , infection and injury whereas overexpression of these mediators can injure or kill the host . spermine plays an important counter - regulatory role for pro - inflammatory cytokine production and that an excessive counter - regulatory response , mediated by excessive spermine production , can be a mechanism protecting tumors against host defense mechanisms . thus , spermine is an important point of therapeutic intervention for immunotherapy of cancers , particular solid tumors , by inhibiting an excessive counter - regulatory response and allowing endogenous immune and inflammatory mechanisms to take place . moreover , local administration of spermine in vivo protected mice against the development of acute footpad inflammation induced by carageenan . spermine can effectively inhibit cytokine synthesis in serum - free conditions and in the presence of the polyamine oxidase inhibitor aminoguanidine . oxidative metabolism of spermine is not required for the counter - regulatory activity of spermine on cytokine synthesis . the spermine concentrations are readily achievable in vivo as high spermine concentrations have been reported in tumors and in patients infected with bacteria , mycobacteria and viruses ( kuihara et al ., neurosurg . 32 : 372 - 375 , 1993 ; susuki et al ., experimentia 40 : 838 - 839 , 1984 ; seiler et al ., biochem j . 225 : 219 - 226 , 1985 ; and cipolla et al ., eur . urol . 24 : 124 - 131 , 1993 ). the counter - regulatory activity of spermine also appears to act via a different cellular mechanism from that of the glucocorticoids . others have shown that lps stimulation of monocytes activates spermine uptake via a protein kinase c ( pkc )- dependent mechanism ( khan et al ., j . cell . physiol . 157 : 493 - 501 , 1993 ; and ding et al ., j . biol . chem . 264 : 3924 - 3929 , 1989 ). net spermine uptake occurs following lps stimulation in human pbmcs ( peripheral blood mononuclear cells ). the present compounds that exhibit immunotherapeutic activity have been described structurally according to three formulae . the compounds exhibit cancer immunotherapeutic pharmacologic activity by inhibiting spermine - induced counter - regulatory activity that tumor cells induce to protect themselves from a host defense immune response . therefore , the inventive pharmaceutical compositions stimulate an immune response of the host against tumor cells by inhibiting an immune - inhibitory response , or a double negative makes a positive . tumors , particularly solid tumors , are typically found to be unaffected by macrophages capable of participating in a vigorous host immune response against the tumor tissue . however , for the most part , these macrophages are not active ( i . e ., are dormant ) against the invading rumor tissue . therefore , it appears that the tumor cells are able to counter - regulate or suppress macrophage immune functions likely by influencing an endogenous counter - regulatory mechanism , which in view of data showing high spermine concentrations in solid tumor tissue , is mediated by spermine . therefore , it is desirable to inhibit the spermine counter - regulatory effect for therapeutic benefit . the compounds and pharmaceutical compositions found to be immunotherapeutically active , in the described in vitro assays and in an in vivo murine predictive model , exhibited anti - cancer activity by restoring the anti - tumor activity of cultured macrophage cells activated by lps but counter - regulated by spermine . macrophage activation was measured by release of tnf into macrophage cell culture supernatants . compounds from each of the three formulae exhibited therapeutic activity in vitro by restoring tnf release from lps - activated macrophage cell cultures whose activation was counter - regulated by spermine . the drug therapeutic activity was exhibited in a dose - response fashion ( see fig1 - 2 ) at readily achievable plasma concentrations in vitro . in addition , compounds 38 and 91 were found to shrink solid tumor masses in mice when administered parenterally ( see example 3 and fig5 - 6 ). therefore , these in vivo data in an established animal model of cancer therapy , helps to further establish the predictability of the in vitro models used for drug candidate screening . compound 38 is n , n ′- bis ( 2 , 2 , 6 , 6 - tetramethyl - 4 - piperidyl ) hexamethylenediamine . this compound has been used as an ultraviolet stabilizer for polymeric materials . one process to synthesize compound 38 is described in maiz et al . chemical industry v . 47 ( catal . org . react ), 369 - 371 , marcel dekker , 1992 . briefly , the synthetic process involves a reductive alkylation of 2 , 2 , 6 , 6 - tetramethyl - 4 - piperdone with hexamethylenediamine . this synthetic process is illustrated in fig8 . crude n , n ′- bis ( 2 , 2 , 6 , 6 - tetramethyl - 4 - piperidyl ) hexamethylenediamine can be synthesized with 1047 parts of 2 , 2 , 6 ,- tetramethyl - 4 - piperidone and 373 parts of hexamethylenediamine , and 2260 parts of methanol and 5 . 5 parts of platinum - on - carbon catalyst charged into an autoclave . the temperature of this mixture is gradually elevated from 30 ° c . the mixture is subject to hydrogenation at a hydro pressure of 5 kg / cm2 while the temperature is maintained at 60 - 70 ° c . it takes about 8 hours under the foregoing reaction conditions to complete the hydrogenation process . the product is filtered at about 50 ° c . to remove the catalyst . the filtrate is then subject to distillation to remove solvent and water formed as a by - product during the reaction . this process obtains about 1325 parts of crude n , n ′- bis ( 2 , 2 , 6 , 6 - tetramethyl - 4 - piperidyl ) hexamethylenediamine having a purity of 92 . 9 %, and an unreacted 2 , 2 , 6 , 6 - tetramethylpiperidone content of about 0 . 8 %. the product can be further purified by , for example crystalization . briefly , about 100 parts of crude n , n ′- bis ( 2 , 2 , 6 , 6 - tetramethyl - 4 - piperidyl ) hexamethylenediamine is added to 80 parts of acetone and the mixture heated to boiling to dissolve the n , n ′- bis ( 2 , 2 , 6 , 6 - tetramethyl - 4 - piperidyl ) hexamethylenediamine . the vessel containing this mixture is cooled from the outside walls . crystals begin to precipitate at about 29 ° c . cooling is continued until the product reaches a temperature of about 5 - 10 ° c . the crystals formed are separated by filtration , washed with pure acetone , and then dried to obtain about 79 . 6 parts of pure n , n ′- bis ( 2 , 2 , 6 , 6 - tetramethyl - 4 - piperidyl ) hexamethylenediamine having a purity of about 99 . 5 % and good long term stability . because of their pharmacological properties , the compounds of the formulae i - iii can be used especially as immunotherapeutic agents to treat patients suffering from cancer . use of pharmaceutically acceptable carriers to formulate the compounds herein disclosed for the practice of the invention into dosages suitable for systemic administration is within the scope of the invention . with proper choice of carrier and suitable manufacturing practice , the compositions of the present invention , in particular , those formulated as solutions , may be administered parenterally , such as by intravenous injection . the compounds can be formulated readily using pharmaceutically acceptable carriers well - known in the art into dosages suitable for oral administration . such carriers enable the compounds of the invention to be formulated as tablets , pills , capsules , liquids , gels , syrups , slurries , suspensions and the like , for oral ingestion by a patient to be treated . pharmaceutical compositions suitable for use in the present invention include compositions wherein the active ingredients are contained in an effective amount to achieve its intended purpose . determination of the effective amounts is well within the capability of those skilled in the art , especially in light of the detailed disclosure provided herein . in addition to the active ingredients these pharmaceutical compositions may contain suitable pharmaceutically acceptable carriers comprising excipients and auxiliaries which facilitate processing of the active compounds into preparations which can be used pharmaceutically . the preparations formulated for oral administration may be in the form of tablets , dragees , capsules , or solutions . the pharmaceutical compositions of the present invention may be manufactured in a manner that is itself known , e . g ., by means of conventional mixing , dissolving , granulating , dragee - making , levitating , emulsifying , encapsulating , entrapping or lyophilizing processes . pharmaceutical formulations for parenteral administration include aqueous solutions of the active compounds in water - soluble form . additionally , suspensions of the active compounds may be prepared as appropriate oily injection suspensions . suitable lipophilic solvents or vehicles include fatty oils such as sesame oil , or synthetic fatty acid esters , such as ethyl oleate or triglycerides , or liposomes . aqueous injection suspensions may contain substances which increase the viscosity of the suspension , such as sodium carboxymethyl cellulose , sorbitol , or dextran . optionally , the suspension may also contain suitable stabilizers or agents which increase the solubility of the compounds to allow for the preparation of highly concentrated solutions . pharmaceutical preparations for oral use can be obtained by combining the active compounds with solid excipient , optionally grinding a resulting mixture , and processing the mixture of granules , after adding suitable auxiliaries , if desired , to obtain tablets or dragee cores . suitable excipients are , in particular , fillers such as sugars , including lactose , sucrose , mannitol , or sorbitol ; cellulose preparations such as , for example , maize starch , wheat starch , rice starch , potato starch , gelatin , gum tragacanth , methyl cellulose , hydroxypropylmethyl - cellulose , sodium carboxymethylcellulose , and / or polyvinylpyrrolidone ( pvp ). if desired , disintegrating agents may be added , such as the cross - linked polyvinyl pyrrolidone , agar , or alginic acid or a salt thereof such as sodium alginate . dragee cores are provided with suitable coatings . for this purpose , concentrated sugar solutions may be used , which may optionally contain gum arabic , talc , polyvinyl pyrrolidone , carbopol gel , polyethylene glycol , and / or titanium dioxide , lacquer solutions , and suitable organic solvents or solvent mixtures . dyestuffs or pigments may be added to the tablets or dragee coatings for identification or to characterize different combinations of active compound doses . pharmaceutical preparations which can be used orally include push - fit capsules made of gelatin , as well as soft , sealed capsules made of gelatin and a plasticizer , such as glycerol or sorbitol . the push - fit capsules can contain the active ingredients in admixture with filler such as lactose , binders such as starches , and / or lubricants such as talc or magnesium stearate and , optionally , stabilizers . in soft capsules , the active compounds may be dissolved or suspended in suitable liquids , such as fatty oils , liquid paraffin , or liquid polyethylene glycols . in addition , stabilizers may be added . this example illustrates the in vitro tnf release screening data of several compounds and pharmaceutical compositions . monocytes were isolated and cultured by isolating fresh human pbmcs from edta - blood from healthy donors ( long island blood service , melville , n . y .) by ficoll - paque ( pharmacia , uppsala , sweden ) gradient . cells were suspended in rpmi 1640 medium ( gibco brl , grand island , n . y .) containing 10 % heat - inactivated human serum , 0 . 1 % l - glutamine , and 0 . 01 % gentamycin ), and cultured at 37 ° c . in a humidified atmosphere of 5 % co 2 and 95 % air . pbmcs were plated in 96 - well plates at 5 × 10 5 cells per well for cytokine assay and uptake study or in 24 - well plates at 5 × 10 6 cells per well for rna study . nonadherent cells were removed after overnight culture , and adherent cells ( monocytes ) were then used for experiment . tumor cell cultures were split tumor cells 1 : 3 in fbs - containing rpmi 1640 medium and incubate overnight 20 μ ci / ml 3 h - thymidine was added to tumor cell cultures to label the cells overnight . the cells were washed to remove unabsorbed label . the cells were trypsinized and suspended in 10 ml dpbs , washed and counted . flasks of 7 . 5 × 10 5 , 7 . 5 / 2 × 10 5 , 7 . 5 / 4 × 10 5 , 7 . 5 / 8 × 10 5 , 7 . 5 / 16 × 10 5 and 7 . 7 / 32 × 10 5 cells / ml in rpmi 1640 medium were prepared . the tumor cells ( 200 μ l ) were added to wells containing 3 × 105 monocytes or control wells to make the e / t ratio 2 : 1 , 4 : 1 , 8 : 1 , 16 : 1 , 32 : 1 and 64 : 1 . the cell mixture was incubated for 2 hours and macrophage - mediated cytotoxicity to tumor cells was determined . pbmcs were isolated in a ficoll - paque ( pharmacia ) gradient and plated . after 2 hours of incubation , the nonadherent cells were removed by rinsing with rpmi 1640 medium without serum 3 ×, then add 25 ml human serum - containing rpmi 1640 medium with 2 ng / ml human mcsf to each 75 flask and incubate the cells overnight . the cells were labeled with 20 uci / ml 3 h - thymidine overnight and washed 2 × with dpbs without ca & amp ; mg . the monocytes were isolated and counted , then diluted to 1 . 5 × 10 6 cells / ml in rpmi 1640 . tumor cells were diluted to 7 . 5 × 10 5 , 7 . 5 / 2 × 10 5 , 7 . 5 / 4 × 10 5 , 7 . 5 / 8 × 10 5 , 7 . 5 / 16 × 10 5 and 7 . 7 / 32 × 10 5 cells / ml in rpmi 1640 medium . about 200 μ l tumor cells were added at different concentration to the wells containing 3 × 10 5 monocytes or control wells to make the e / t ratio 2 : 1 , 4 : 1 , 8 : 1 , 16 : 1 , 32 : 1 and 64 : 1 , then incubated for 2 hrs . about 400 μ g / μ l lps was sonicated for 10 min , then 19 . 2 μ l 400 μ g / ml lps was added to 10 ml rpmi 1640 medium . if compounds such as spermine or / and c38 used , 15 . 3 ( 7 . 66 ) μ l of 50 mm spermine or / and 50 mm c38was added to 1 ml medium with lps to make final concentration to 100 ( 50 ) μ m . 30 μ l of lps solution ( without or with spermine or / and c38 ) was added to each well and incubated for 40 - 48 hours . monocytes were activated to release cytokines by treating cells with 100 ng / ml sonicated lps ( sigma , st louis , mo .) and 25 u / ml recombinant human interferon - γ ( boehringer mannheim , mannheim , germany ) except 1 μ g / ml lps alone for il - 1β . for treating cells with spermine , cells were pretreated with spermine ( sigma , st louis , mo .) one hour before lps / ifg stimulation . spermine was made freshly each time in sterile - filtered deionized water at 51 . 2 mm or 35 mm , and then diluted in complete rpmi 1640 medium followed by adding to individual wells to yield the final concentration indicated . control wells received an equal volume of medium only were used in all experiment . a lactate dehydrogenase ( ldh ) assay indicated that spermine at the concentrations indicated did not affect cell viability significantly . to determine an inflammatory rat foot pad edema model with carrageenan , female c3h / hen mice ( 20 - 25g ) were obtained from jackson laboratories , and 5 mice were used in each group to obtain statistically significant results . caarageenan ( sigma , st louis , mo .) was made in pbs at 37 ° c . 3 days or more before using . spermine ( sigma , st . louis , mo .) was made freshly each time . carrageenan ( 50 μ l , 0 . 2 %) was injected into the plantar surface of the left hind paw to induce paw edema in control group . and spermine at the doses indicated was coadministered in 50 μ l pbs in three spermine groups . the right hind paw was injected with the same volume of pbs as control for every groups . the thickness of the two paws was measured double - blindly using a caliper 3 hours and 28 hours later . the difference in the thickness between the two paws was taken as inflammatory index . in order to determine antitumor therapeutic activity in vivo , mice were shaved ( on their backs ), b16 f1 tumor cells from 175 mm flask with 80 % confluent cells and suspend the cells in 5 ml 1 × dpbs were collected . different concentrations of drug ( compound 38 ) were prepared to provide final concentrations of 0 μ m , 50 μ m , 250 μ m and 500 μ m , by adding 50 mm of a compound 38 solution to b16 cells ( 10 6 cells / ml dpbs ), nothing to 0 tube with 2 ml cells , 20 μ l to 500 μ m tube with 2 ml cells , 10 μ l to 250 μ m tube with 2 ml cells , and then transfer 0 . 25 ml of mixture from 250 μ m tube to 50 μ m tube with 1 ml cells . approximately 100 μ l of cells ( 10 5 ) were injected with or without compound 38 into each animal s . c . in the left back region , 5 mice per group . the mice were divided according to the following groups : group 1 10 5 b16 cells ; group 2 10 5 b16 cells plus 50 μ m compound 38 and the same amount of compound 38 on days 3 and 6 ; group 3 10 5 b16 cells plus 250 μ m compound 38 and the same amount of compound 38 on days 3 and 6 ; group 4 10 5 b16 cells plus 500 μ m compound 38 and the same amount of compound 38 on days 3 and 6 ; group 5 10 5 b16 cells plus 250 μ m compound 38 and also on days 3 and 6 ; and group 6 10 5 b16 cells plus 500 μ m compound 38 compound 38 and also on days 3 and 6 . in a second experiment of compound 38 of five mice per group wherein the cells and compound were injected by either sc or ip administration , the groups were as follows : group 1 1 × dpbs s . c . 50 μ l ; group 2 100 μ m compound 38 s . c . 50 μ l ; group 3 500 μ m compound 38 s . c . 50 μ l ; group 4 1000 μ m compound 38 s . c . 50 μ l ; group 5 500 μ m compound 38 i . p . 50 μ l ; and group 6 1000 μ m compound 38 i . p . 50 μ l . during the in vivo experiments , we observed a ratio - dependent tumor cell killing mediated by macrophages ; modulation of tnf synthesis in macrophages by tumor cells ; identification of tumor cell - derived macrophage inactivator .
there is disclosed a class of pharmaceutical compositions useful for the treatment of cancer , particularly solid tumors , and having a mechanism of action as spermine antagonists . the present pharmaceutical compositions are able to inhibit the inhibitory effect of spermine upon macrophage function , and thus prevent spermine - induced immunosuppression .