N-ω-chloroacetyl-l-ornithine, a new competitive inhibitor of ornithine decarboxylase, induces selective growth inhibition and cytotoxicity on human cancer cells versus normal cells

Abstract

Many cancer cells have high expression of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and there is a concerted effort to seek new inhibitors of this enzyme. The aim of the study was to initially characterize the inhibition properties, then to evaluate the cytotoxicity/antiproliferative cell based activity of N-ω-chloroacetyl-l-ornithine (NCAO) on three human cancer cell lines. Results showed NCAO to be a reversible competitive ODC inhibitor (K_i = 59 µM) with cytotoxic and antiproliferative effects, which were concentration- and time-dependent. The EC_50,72h of NCAO was 15.8, 17.5 and 10.1 µM for HeLa, MCF-7 and HepG2 cells, respectively. NCAO at 500 µM completely inhibited growth of all cancer cells at 48 h treatment, with almost no effect on normal cells. Putrescine reversed NCAO effects on MCF-7 and HeLa cells, indicating that this antiproliferative activity is due to ODC inhibition.

• Cancer
• cell proliferation
• HeLa
• HepG2
• MCF-7
• ODC inhibitor

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest. This work was partially supported by research grants from the Secretaría de Investigación y Posgrado of the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (SIP-IPN), Mexico. J.G.T.F. and L.R.P. are fellows of the COFAA-IPN and of the SNI-CONACYT. V.A.F. and L.A.F. are fellows of the COFAA-IPN. M.M.M.E. and A.L.V.G. are fellows of the CONACYT and PIFI in the IPN.