Anticancer drug mithramycin interacts with core histones: An additional mode of action of the DNA groove binder.

ABSTRACT: Mithramycin (MTR) is a clinically approved DNA-binding antitumor antibiotic currently in Phase 2 clinical trials at National Institutes of Health for treatment of osteosarcoma. In view of the resurgence in the studies of this generic antibiotic as a human medicine, we have examined the binding properties of MTR with the integral component of chromatin - histone proteins - as a part of our broad objective to classify DNA-binding molecules in terms of their ability to bind chromosomal DNA alone (single binding mode) or both histones and chromosomal DNA (dual binding mode). The present report shows that besides DNA, MTR also binds to core histones present in chromatin and thus possesses the property of dual binding in the chromatin context. In contrast to the MTR-DNA interaction, association

SUBMITTER: Banerjee A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4247356 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature