Abstract
The development of anticancer drugs has relied primarily on two traditional approaches. Synthetic or natural compounds are routinely screened for anticancer activities using a cell-based assay. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has relied on a panel of human tumor cell lines to search for compounds that inhibit cell growth (1,2). Inhibitors identified in this screen are then further characterized for toxicity and antitumor activity in animal models. A strategy that is highly popular in industry is high-throughput screens for compounds that inhibit the in-vitro activities of specific enzymes or proteins (kinases, phosphatases, etc.) (3). This approach relies on the establishment of a robust in-vitro assay for the protein of interest. Although kinases are the preferred substrates because many of the existing chemical libraries were designed to identify kinase inhibitors, screens for other cellular targets are limited only by the development of an appropriate assay.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alley, M. C., Scudiero, D. A., Monks, A., et al. (1988) Feasibility of drug screening with panels of human tumor cell lines using a microculture tetraolium assay. Cancer Res. 48, 589–601.
Paull, K. D., Shoemaker, R. H., Hodes, L., et al. (1989) Display and analysis of patterns of differential activity of drugs against human tumor cell lines: development of mean graph and COMPARE algorithm. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 81, 1088–1092.
Panek, R. L., Lu, G. H., Klutchko, S. R., et al. (1997) In vitro pharmacological characterization of PD 166285, a new nanomolar potent and broadly active protein tyrosine kinase inhibitor. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 283, 1433–1444.
Mayer, T. U., Kapoor, T. M., Haggarty, S. J., et al. (1999) Small molecule inhibitor of mitotic spindle bipolarity identified in a phenotype-based screen. Science (1999) 286, 971–974.
Blangy, A., Lane, H. A., D’Herin, P. D., Harper, M., Kress, M., and Nigg, E. A. (1995) Phos-phorylation by p34cdc2 regulates spindle association of human eg5, a kinesin-related motor essential for bipolar spindle formation in vivo. Cell 83, 1159–1169.
Sawin, K. E., Leguellec, K., Philippe, M., and Mitchison, T. J. (1992) Mitotic spindle organization by a plus-end-directed microtubule motor. Nature 359, 480–481.
White, R. J. (1982) Microbiological models as screening tools for anticancer agents: potentials and limitations. Ann. Rev. Microbiol. 36, 415–433.
Renan, M. J. (1993) How many mutations are required for tumorigenesis? Implications from human cancer data. Mol. Carcinog. 7, 139–146.
Hartwell, L. H., Szankasi, P., Roberts, C. J., Murray, A. W., and Friend, S. H. (1997) Integrating genetic approaches into the discovery of anticancer drugs. Science 278, 1064–1068.
Guthrie, C. and Fink, G. R. (1991) Guide to yeast genetics and molecular biology, in Methods in Enzymology (Abelson, J. N. and Simon, M. I., eds.). Academic Press, New York, Vol. 194.
Simon, J. A., Szankasi, P., Nguyen, D. K., et al. (2000) Differential toxicities of anticancer agents among DNA repair and checkpoint mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Cancer Res. 60, 328–333.
Goffeau, A., Barrell, B. G., Bussey, H., et al. (1996) Life with 6000 genes. Science 274, 5463–5467.
McCammon, M. T., Hartmann, M. A., Bottema, C. D., and Parks, L.W. (1984) Sterol methylation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. J. Bacteriol. 157, 475–483.
Gaber, R. F., Copple, D. M., Kennedy, B. K., Vidal, M., and Bard, M. (1989) The yeast gene ERG6 is required for normal membrane function but is not essential for biosynthesis of the cell-cycle-sparking sterol. Mol. Cell. Biol. 9, 3447–3456.
Balzi, E. and Goffeau, A. (1995) Yeast multidrug resistance: the PDR network. J. Bioenerg. Biomembr. 27, 71–76.
Kolaczkowski, M., Van der Rest, M., Cybularz-Kolaczkowska, A., Soumillion, J. P., Konings, W. N., and Goffeau, A. (1996) Anticancer drugs, ionophoric peptides, and steroids as substrates of the yeast multidrug transporter Pdr5p. J. Biol. Chem. 271, 31543–31548.
Friedberg, E. C., Walker, G. C., and Siede, W. (1995) DNA Repair and Mutagenesis. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC.
Weinert, T. A. and Hartwell, L. H. (1988) The RAD9 gene controls the cell cycle response to DNA damage in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Science 241, 317–322.
Weinert, T. A., Kiser, G. L., and Hartwell, L. H. (1994) Mitotic checkpoint genes in budding yeast and the dependence of mitosis on DNA replication and repair. Genes Dev. 8, 652–665.
Straight, A. F. and Murray, A. W. (1997) The spindle assembly checkpoint in budding yeast. Meth. Enzymol. 283, 425–440.
Watt, P. M., Hickson, I. D., Borts, R. H., and Louis, E. J. (1996) SGS1, a homologue of the Bloom’s and Werner’s syndrome genes, is required for maintenance of genome stability in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics 144, 935–945.
Prakash, L. (1981) Characterization of postreplication repair in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and effects of rad6, rad18, rev3, and rad52 mutations Mol. Gen. Genet. 184, 471–478.
Prakash, S., Sung, P., and Prakash, L. (1993) DNA repair genes and proteins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Annu. Rev. Genet. 27, 33–70.
McIntosh, E. M., Kunz, B. A., and Haynes, R. H. (1986) Inhibition of DNA replication in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by araCMP. Curr. Genet. 10, 579–585.
Yamagata, K., Kato, J., Shimamoto, A., Goto, M., Furuichi, Y., and Ikeda, H. (1998) Bloom’s and Werner’s syndrome genes suppress hyperrecombination in yeast sgs1 mutant: implication for genomic instability in human diseases. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 8733–8738.
Xiao, W., Derfler, B., Chen, J., and Samson, L. (1991) Primary sequence and biological functions of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae O6 methylguanine/O4 methylthymine DNA repair methyltransferase gene. EMBO J. 10, 2179–2186.
Kokkinakis, D. M., Ahmed, M. M., Delgado, R., Fruitwala, M. M., Mohiuddin, M., and Albores-Saavedra, J. (1997) Role of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase in the resistance of pancreatic tumors to DNA alkylating agents. Cancer Res. 57, 5360–5368.
Sherr, C. J. (1996) Cancer cell cycles. Science 274, 1672–1677.
Sherr, C. J. (2000) The Pezcoller Lecture: cancer cell cycles revisited. Cancer Res. 60, 3689–3695.
Moorthamer, M., Panchal, M., Greenhalf, W., and Chaudhuri, B. (1998) The p16(INK4A) protein and flavopiridol restore yeast cell growth inhibited by Cdk4. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 250, 791–797.
Lorch, Y. and Kornberg, R. D. (1985) A region flanking the GAL7 gene and a binding site for GAL4 protein as upstream activating sequences in yeast. J. Mol. Biol. 186, 821–824.
Johnston, M. (1987) A model fungal gene regulatory mechanism: the GAL genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Microbiol. Rev. 51, 458–476.
Nasmyth, K. A. and Reed, S. I. (1980) Isolation of genes by complementation in yeast: molecular cloning of a cell-cycle gene. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77, 2119–2123.
Timblin, B. K., Tatchell, K., and Bergman, L. W. (1996) Deletion of the gene encoding the cyclin-dependent protein kinase Pho85 alters glycogen metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics 143, 57–66.
Balciunas, D. and Ronne, H. (1995) Three subunits of the RNA polymerase II mediator complex are involved in glucose repression. Nucleic Acids Res. 23, 4421–4425.
Lee, J. M. and Greenleaf, A. L. (1991) CTD kinase large subunit is encoded by CTK1, a gene required for normal growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Gene Exp. 1, 149–167.
Valay, J. G., Simon, M., and Faye, G. (1993) The kin28 protein kinase is associated with a cyclin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. J. Mol. Biol. 234, 307–310.
Tao, W., Kurschner, C., and Morgan, J. I. (1998) Bcl-xs and Bad potentiate the death suppressing activities of Bcl-xl, Bcl-2, and A1 in yeast. J. Biol. Chem. 273, 23704–23708.
Xu, Q., Jurgensmeier, J. M., and Reed, J. C. (1999) Methods of assaying Bcl-2 and Bax family proteins in yeast. Methods 17, 292–304.
Decaudin, D., Geley, S., Hirsch, T., et al. (1997) Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL antagonize the mitochondrial dysfunction preceding nuclear apoptosis induced by chemotherapeutic agents. Cancer Res. 57, 62–67.
Li, X. and Chang, Y. G. (1995) Amino-terminal protein processing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an essential function that requires two distinct methionine aminopeptidases. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 12357–12361.
Hoyt, M. A., He, L., Totis, L., and Saunders, W. S. (1993) Loss of function of Saccharomyces cerevisiae kinesin-related CIN8 and KIP1 is suppressed by KAR3 motor domain mutations. Genetics 135, 35–44.
Straight, A. F. and Murray, A. W. (1997) The spindle assembly checkpoint in budding yeast. Meth. Enzymol. 283, 425–440.
Hoyt, M. A., Totis, L., and Roberts, B. T. (1991) S. cerevisiae genes required for cell cycle arrest in response to loss of microtubule function. Cell 66, 507–517.
Hardwick, K. G., Li, R., Mistrot, C., et al. (1999) Lesions in many different spindle components activate the spindle checkpoint in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics 152, 509–518.
Cahill, D. P., Lengauer, C., Yu, J., et al. (1998) Mutations of mitotic checkpoint genes in human cancers. Nature 392, 300–303.
Hoyt, M. A. and Geiser, J. R. (1996) Genetic analysis of the mitotic spindle. Annu. Rev. Genet. 30, 7–33.
Parsons, R., Li, G. M., Longley, M. J., et al. (1993) Hypermutability and mismatch repair deficiency in RER+ tumor cells. Cell 75, 1227–1236.
Fujiwara, T., Stolker, J. M., Watanabe, T., et al. (1998) Accumulated clonal genetic alterations in familial and sporadic colorectal carcinomas with widespread instability in microsatellite sequences. Am. J. Pathol. 153, 1063–1078.
Elledge, S. J. and Davis, R. W. (1990) Two genes differentially regulated in the cell cycle and by DNA-damaging agents encode alternative regulatory subunits of ribonucleotide reductase. Genes Dev. 4, 740–751.
Price, C., Nasmyth, K., and Schuster, T. (1991) A general approach to the isolation of cell cycleregulated genes in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. J. Mol. Biol. 218, 543–556.
Delsal, G., Loda, M., and Pagano, M. (1996) Cell cycle and cancer: critical events at the G1 restriction point. Crit. Rev. Oncogen. 7, 127–142.
Funk, J. O. (1999) Cancer cell cycle control. Anticancer Res. 19, 4772–4780.
Richardson, H. E., Wittenberg, C., Cross, F., and Reed, S. I. (1989) An essential G1 function for cyclin-like proteins in yeast. Cell 59, 1127–1133.
Reed, S. I., Dulic, V., Lew, D. J., Richardson, H. E., and Wittenberg, C. (1992) G1 control in yeast and animal cells. Ciba Found. Symp. 170, 7–15; discussion 15–19.
Visintin, R., Craig, K., Hwang, E. S., Prinz, S., Tyers, M., and Amona, A. (1998) The phosphatase Cdc14 triggers mitotic exit by reversal of Cdk-dependent phosphorylation. Mol. Cell 2, 709–718.
Marelli, M., Aitchison, J. D., and Wozniak, R. W. (1998) Specific binding of the karyopherin Kap121p to a subunit of the nuclear pore complex containing Nup53p, Nup59p, and Nup170p. J. Cell Biol. 143, 1813–1830.
Rine, J., Hansen, W., Hardeman, E., and Davis, R. W. (1983) Targeted selection of recombinant clones through gene dosage effects. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80, 6750–6754.
Barnes, G., Hansen, W. J., Holcomb, C. L., and Rine, J. (1984) Asparagine-linked glycosylation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: genetic analysis of an early step. Mol. Cell. Biol. 4, 2381–2388.
Ishida, R., Hamatake, M., Wasserman, R. A., Nitiss, J. L., Wang, J. C., and Andoh, T. (1995) DNA topoisomerase II is the molecular target of bisdioxopiperazine derivatives ICRF-159 and ICRF-193 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Cancer Res. 55, 2299–2303.
Winzeler, E. A., Shoemaker, D. D., Astromoff, A., et al. (1999) Functional characterization of the S. cerevisiae genome by gene deletion and parallel analysis. Science 285, 901–906.
Giaever, G., Shoemaker, D. D., Jones, T. W., et al. (1999) Genomic Profiling of drug sensitivities via induced haploinsufficiency. Nat. Genet. 21, 278–283.
Licitra, E. J. and Liu, J. O. (1996) A three-hybrid system for detecting small ligand-protein receptor interactions. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 12817–12821.
Griffith, E. C., Su, Z., Turk, B. E., et al. (1997) Methionine aminopeptidase (type 2) is the common target for angiogenesis inhibitors AGM-1470 and ovalicin. Chem. Biol. 4, 461–471.
Sin, N., Meng, L., Wang, M. Q., Wen, J. J., Bornmann, W. G., and Crews, C. M. (1997) The anti-angiogenic agent fumagillin covalently binds and inhibits the methionine aminopeptidase, metap-2. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 6099–6103.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Humana Press Inc.
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Simon, J.A., Yen, T.J. (2003). Novel Approaches to Screen for Anticancer Drugs Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae . In: El-Deiry, W.S. (eds) Tumor Suppressor Genes. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 223. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-329-1:555
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-329-1:555
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-987-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-329-3
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols