Spermidine/spermine <i>N</i>1-acetyltranferase modulation by novel folate cycle inhibitors in cisplatin-sensitive and -resistant human ovarian cancer cell lines

Objective Polyamines have been shown to play a role in the growth and survival of several solid tumors, including ovarian cancer. Intracellular polyamine depletion by the inhibition of biosynthesis enzymes or by the induction of the catabolic pathway leads to antiproliferative effects in many different tumor cell lines. Recent studies showed that the thymidylate synthase inhibitor 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) affects polyamine metabolism in colon carcinoma cells through the induction of the key catabolic enzyme spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase (SSAT). Methods We therefore examined whether combinations of novel folate cycle inhibitors with quinoxaline structure and drugs that specifically target polyamine metabolism, such as diethylderivatives of norspermine (DENSPM) or spermine (BESpm), have synergistic effect in killing cisplatin-sensitive and drug-resistant daughter human ovarian cell lines. Results Our results showed that simultaneous drug combination or quinoxaline pre-treatment synergistically increased SSAT expression, depleted polyamines, increased reactive oxygen species production, and produced synergistic tumor cell killing in both cell lines. Of note, this combined therapy increased the chemosensitivity of cisplatin-resistant cells and cross-resistant to the polyamine analogues. On the contrary, some pre-treatment regimens of Spm analogues were antagonistic. Conclusions These results show that SSAT plays an important role in novel folate cycle inhibitors effects and suggest that their combination with analogues has potential for development as therapy for ovarian carcinoma based on SSAT modulation