Cellular uptake as a determinant of cytotoxicity of quaternized ellipticines to human brain tumor cells
Vistica, D.T.; Kenney, S.; Hursey, M.L.; Boyd, M.R.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 200(3): 1762-1768
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0006-291X PMID: 8185636 Document Number: 438015
The quaternized ellipticine derivative, 9-methoxy-N-2-methylellipticinium acetate (MMEA), is representative of a group of ellipticinium compounds found preferentially cytotoxic to human brain tumor cell lines comprising a subpanel of the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI)'s in vitro "disease-oriented" anticancer drug discovery screen. The present studies indicate that the accumulation and cytotoxicity of MMEA in these susceptible cells are mediated in part by a cellular transport process having substrate and inhibitor specificities similar to those found in glial-derived cells which presumably comprise part of the structural (non-neuronal) elements of normal brain.