The topoisomerase II-inhibitor NC-190 reduces the level of thymidine kinase mRNA in murine tumor cells.

The novel antitumor compound NC-190 strongly inhibited the growth of FM3A cells with an IC50 of 0.019 microg/ml (0.042 microM) when cultured with NC-190 for 48 h. NC-190 potently suppressed DNA synthesis, with 90% inhibition observed at 0.1 microg/ml of NC-190. RNA and protein syntheses were also suppressed under the same conditions, but to a lesser extent. We then measured the cellular enzymatic activities of DNA polymerase alpha, RNA polymerase, thymidine kinase, thymidylate synthase and Leu-tRNA synthetase of FM3A cells cultured with or without NC-190. Of these 5 enzymes, the activity of thymidine kinase was most strongly suppressed by NC-190, by 77%. Although NC-190 did not directly inhibit the activitiy of thymidine kinase in a cell-free system, expression of mRNA of thymidine kinase was suppressed by 75% in NC-190-treated cells. These results indicate that NC-190 can suppress the expression of the gene for thymidine kinase and the inhibition of thymidine kinase contributes to the inhibition of cell growth by NC-190 together with the inhibition of topoisomerase II.