Dissection of cancer cell and stromal cell-derived signals in melanoma xenografts following treatment with the stromal-targeting agent DMXAA

5,6-Dimethylxanthenone-4-acetic acid (DMXAA), a tumor vascular disrupting agent, is shown here to have substantial activity as a single agent against human A375 melanoma xenografts in nude mice (94 % hemorrhagic necrosis after 24 h, and 26 days growth delay following single dose at 25 mg/kg). CD45+ cells in tumor tissue increased 5-fold over the first 3 days after treatment, which was due largely to an influx of CD11b+ Ly6G+ neutrophils. Using murine and human multiplex cytokine assays to dissect the cytokines produced by host stromal cells or by the melanoma cells, it was shown that both the stromal cells and the A375 melanoma cells produced cytokines capable of attracting neutrophils into the tumor. The same xenografts were also analyzed using human and mouse Affymetrix microarrays to separately identify tumor cell-specific (human) and stromal cell-specific (mouse) gene expression changes. DMXAA induced numerous stromal cytokine mRNAs, including IP-10, IL-6, MIP-1/, MIP-2, KC, RANTES, MIG, MCP-1 and IL-1, many of which were also elevated at the protein level. Numerous human cytokine mRNAs were also induced including MCP-1, IL-8, GRO, VEGF, GM-CSF and IL-6, which again was in line with our protein data. Pathway analysis indicated that significant numbers of the stromal mRNAs induced by DMXAA are regulated downstream of TNF-, interferon- and NFB. Our results suggest that DMXAA may have utility in combination therapy for human melanoma through the activation of pro-inflammatory signalling pathways and cytokine expression from both stromal and tumor cells, leading to haemorrhagic necrosis, neutrophil influx and growth inhibition.

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Henare K, Wang L, Wang LC, Thomsen L, Tijono S, Chen CJ, Winkler S, Dunbar PR, Print C, Ching LM