Vascular disrupting activity and the mechanism of action of EHT 6706, a novel anticancer tubulin polymerization inhibitor

Anne-Sophie Belzacq-Casagrande, Florence Bachelot, Catherine De Oliveira, Séverine Coutadeur, Florence Maurier-Mahé, Emeline Throo, Cédric Chauvignac, Laure Pognante, Angélique Petibon, Thierry Taverne, Eric Beausoleil, Bertrand Leblond, Matthew P. Pando, Laurent Désiré

Tumor blood vessels are an important emerging target for anticancer therapy. Here, we characterize the in vitro antiproliferative and antiangiogenic properties of the synthetic small molecule, 7-ethoxy-4-(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzyl)isoquinolin-8-amine dihydrochloride, EHT 6706, a novel microtubule-disrupting agent that targets the colchicine-binding site to inhibit tubulin polymerization. At low nM concentrations, EHT 6706 exhibits highly potent antiproliferative activity on more than 60 human tumor cell lines, even those described as being drug resistant. EHT 6706 also shows strong efficacy as a vascular-disrupting agent, since it prevents endothelial cell tube formation and disrupts pre-established vessels, changes the permeability of endothelial cell monolayers and inhibits endothelial cell migration. Genome-wide transcriptomic analysis of EHT 6706 effects on human endothelial cells shows that the antiangiogenic activity elicits gene deregulations of antiangiogenic pathways. These findings indicate that EHT 6706 is a promising tubulin-binding compound with potentially broad clinical antitumor efficacy.