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Bowman-Birk protease inhibitor (BBI), an 8000 mol. wt polypeptide with anti-carcinogenic activity, was coupled to poly(D-lysine) (BBI-SS-PDL) and poly(L-glutamate) (BBI-SS-PLG) with a disulfide-cross-linking agent, N-succinimidyl 3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionate (SPDP). In vitro transformation assays showed that BBI-SS-PDL, but not BBI-SS-PLG, retained the full anticarcinogenic activity of BBI. When administered i.v. to Balb/c mice, a selective localization in the lungs was found with BBI-SS-PDL but not with BBI or BBI-SS-PLG. At 30 min, 3 h and 24 h after the injection of BBI-SS-PDL, the amounts of BBI in the lungs were 118%, 74% and 19% of the injected dose/g of tissue respectively. At the same time points, the amount of radioactivity in the lungs of mice injected with BBI was 5%, 3% and 1% of the injected dose/g of tissue respectively. Therefore, higher amounts of BBI could be targeted to the lungs by injecting BBI as a PDL conjugate. BBI-SS-PDL was also retained in the lungs for a longer period of time than free BBI. In previous studies, BBI has been shown to suppress lung carcinogenesis. The results presented here suggest that BBI-SS-PDL could be more effective than BBI as an anti-carcinogenic agent for the lung.

Model systems in which carcinogenesis by given agents can be prevented or reduced offer a means of gaining insight into the mechanism(s) of action of carcinogens and the feasibility of chemoprevention in humans. In the current study, the ability of the soy-bean derived Bowman-Birk protease (BBI) to suppress esophageal carcinogenesis induced by N-nitrosomethylbenylamine (NMBzA) was examined. Esophageal lesions were produced in male Sprague-Dawley rats by i.p. injection of 2 mg/kg NMBzA twice weekly for 3 weeks. Groups receiving BBI were fed three tablets a week containing 180 mg BBI each in a mixture of Witepsol H15 and peanut butter for the duration of the experiment. The frequency of papillomas and carcinomas was reduced 45% in groups receiving BBI. Furthermore, the frequency of appearance of five separate characteristics of preneoplastic lesions was significantly reduced in the esophagi of BBI-treated animals. The most significant reduction was in the total number of lesions with simple hyperplasia. Groups receiving NMBzA and placebo tablets, containing only Witepsol H15 and peanut butter, did not display statistically significant differences in the frequency of esophageal lesions as compared to animals receiving NMBzA alone. These results demonstrate that BBI can effectively inhibit NMBzA-induced esophageal tumors when given in tablet form separate from the regular diet.

These experiments were designed to define the conditions necessary for the modification of radiation-induced transformation in C3H/10T1/2 cells by TPA and protease inhibitors. The results show that: (i) the lowest effective dose of various protease inhibitors to suppress transformation in vitro varies over several orders of magnitude; on a molar basis, the inhibitors of chymotrypsin appear to be the most effective protease inhibitors at suppression of radiation-induced transformation in vitro, (ii) the protease inhibitors antipain and the Bowman-Birk (soybean) protease inhibitor have no effect on radiation transformation when present only during irradiation, (iii) the protease inhibitor antipain can suppress radiation transformation in vitro when applied to proliferating "initiated' cells as late as 10 days and 13 cell divisions post-irradiation, and (iv) TPA treatment following a 10-day protease inhibitor (anti-pain) exposure of X-irradiated "initiated' cells does not lead to promotion in vitro. These results suggest that protease inhibitor treatment of the initiated cells has irreversibly reverted cells to their original or "uninitiated' condition which existed before irradiation.

We have studied whether the Bowman-Birk protease inhibitor (BBI) could affect the expression of c-fos in BALB/c/3T3 cells stimulated to divide with serum. Our results show that the levels of c-fos message are significantly decreased in the presence of antipain and BBI. When the cells were treated with cycloheximide after being grown in the presence of BBI, there was no significant decrease in mRNA levels. Our experiments suggest that a BBI-inhibitable protease may be necessary for c-fos expression in 3T3 cells and that new protein synthesis is required for this hypothesized protease to be active. As BBI is capable of affecting c-fos gene expression in cells without being present in the nucleus, our results suggest that a novel pathway could be involved in c-fos gene expression.

Normally, when confluent cells are stimulated to divide, they show a transient increase in c-myc RNA levels (1-5). This has led many investigators to believe that the rise in c-myc RNA is causally related to the control and regulation of cell proliferation. However, we report here that the rise in c-myc RNA levels is not observed in stimulated cycling C3H 10T1/2 and 3T3 cells that have been grown to confluence in the presence of the protease inhibitor antipain. Cells continue to progress from the G0/G1 phase to S phase of the cell cycle in the absence of an increase in c-myc RNA; the kinetics of [3H]thymidine incorporation after serum stimulation are comparable to those observed in cells in which c-myc RNA levels rise after serum stimulation. Our observations are of significance because they suggest a dissociation between the transient rise of c-myc RNA which occurs before DNA synthesis and the events that initiate DNA synthesis in quiescent fibroblasts; c-myc may not play as central a role in stimulating noncycling, quiescent cells to progress through the cell cycle, as has been generally assumed.

Early-passage human foreskin fibroblasts were exposed to X-ray doses ranging from 100 to 600 rad. The X-ray treatments resulted in cell killing in a dose-dependent manner as judged by the colony-forming efficiency of the cells. When cultures exposed to radiation were serially passaged and checked at various times for growth in semi-solid medium they showed the presence of cells with the ability to grow under anchorage-independent conditions (in agarose) at 24 population doublings. The frequencies of colonies with the ability to grow in agarose increased with increasing doses of X-rays above the levels observed for control cultures under similar conditions. When assayed for plasminogen activator levels, the X-ray-treated cultures at various passages showed insignificant differences from levels observed in control cultures. However, the amounts of collagenase (type IV collagen-specific) increased significantly by 32 population doublings in the X-ray-treated cultures compared with control cultures. Our results suggest that the production of type IV collagen-specific collagenase could be useful as an in vitro marker for the transformation of human diploid fibroblasts by X-irradiation.

Plasminogen activator (PA) activity was analyzed in normal and transformed 10T1/2 mouse fibroblasts treated with the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and the protease inhibitors antipain, leupeptin, and soybean trypsin inhibitor (SBTI). TPA induced PA activity in normal 10T1/2 cells was inhibited by antipain. Transformed 10T1/2 cells maintained high levels of PA activity which were not further stimulated by the addition of TPA. Similarly, antipain inhibited the PA activity of the transformed cultures. Leupeptin and SBTI had no effect. These findings, in light of the fact that antipain has been shown to suppress the promotional effect of TPA in X-ray induced malignant transformation, may suggest a definite role for proteases in the transformational event or maintenance of the transformed state.

The ability of u.v.-A light (320-400 nm) to induce cellular transformation in vitro and to modify chemical carcinogen-induced cellular transformation was investigated in BALB/c 3T3 cell cultures. When administered as a series of nontoxic exposures, u.v.-A alone was found to induce cellular transformation as a linear function of the numbers of u.v-A exposures. Possible interactions of u.v.-A with environmentally encountered chemical carcinogens were studied by examining the effects of u.v.-A light exposures on cellular transformation in cells exposed to the direct acting carcinogen, beta-propiolactone (BPL), an alkylating agent, with a standard initiation/promotion protocol. Twenty-four hours after a single treatment with 2.5 micrograms/ml of beta-propiolactone, cells were exposed to 3.0 kJ/m2 of u.v.-A light. U.v.-A exposures were repeated weekly for up to 5 weeks, after which cells were fixed, stained and dishes were scored for type III transformed foci. Weekly exposures to u.v.-A alone for 5 weeks induced approximately 3 foci/dish. Treatment with BPL alone induced approximately 1 focus/dish (background was 0.17 foci/dish). A combination of the two treatments resulted in a marked increase in the yield of transformed foci/dish, with the u.v.-A enhancement increasing with increasing numbers of exposures (approximately 10 foci/dish after a single exposure to BPL and five u.v.-A exposures). These results suggest a synergistic interaction between BPL and subsequent u.v.-A exposures in the induction of in vitro neoplastic transformation.

We have investigated the effects of 17 beta-estradiol, given both alone and with X-irradiation, on the induction of malignant transformation in vitro. Treatment with 10(-6)M 17 beta-estradiol for 6 weeks, or 10(-5)M 17 beta-estradiol for only 5 days, induced malignant transformation in C3H 10T1/2 cells. Estradiol also acted as a cocarcinogen for X-ray induced transformation; the results indicate an additive effect when the cells were exposed to both agents together. The protease inhibitors antipain and leupeptin suppressed estradiol induced transformation as well as the additive effect observed for estradiol-radiation transformation.

Ionizing radiation is one of the most potent inducers of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MT) in rat liver in vivo. In this study we show that MT is readily induced in C3H/10T1/2 cells in culture, which provides a system more amenable to determining the molecular events involved in the induction of this repair enzyme. Maximal induction (2- to 3-fold) was observed in logarithmically growing cells 48 h after a dose of 200 rad, similar to the optimal induction time seen in rat liver in vivo. The absolute level of MT observed in C3H/10T1/2 cells which had been at confluence for 24 h was less than in cells in log growth but was still inducible by X-rays, exhibiting an approximately 2-fold increase over unirradiated cells similar to MT induction in logarithmically growing cells. Irradiating cells under anaerobic conditions (saturated N2) abolished MT induction by 100 rad. Cells irradiated with 200 rad under anaerobic conditions exhibited approximately 70% inhibition of induction compared with aerobically irradiated cells. The possibility that MT may be partially inactivated by interaction with radicals produced by ionizing radiation is discussed.

The effect of the Bowman-Birk inhibitor (BBI) and soybean trypsin inhibitor (SBTI) on experimental 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene [(DMBA) CAS: 57-97-6]-induced oral carcinogenesis in Syrian male hamsters was examined. All treatments were applied topically on both cheek pouches for 20 weeks, and the animals were then sacrificed. Gross and microscopic evaluations revealed a statistically significant reduction in the number of invasive carcinomas, the total number of tumors, and the tumor mass for the DMBA + BBI treatment group compared to animals treated with DMBA alone, DMBA and autoclaved BBI (a preparation in which protease inhibitor activity is destroyed), or DMBA + SBTI. A protease activity (with the use of Boc-Val-Pro-Arg-MCA as substrate) was measured and found to be elevated about tenfold in tumorous and nontumorous tissue from DMBA-treated cheek pouches. This protease activity was found to be decreased in the DMBA and BBI treatment group but not in the DMBA + SBTI or DMBA and autoclaved BBI treatment groups, as compared to the protease activity in the DMBA treatment group. Partial characterization of the Boc-Val-Pro-Arg-MCA hydrolyzing activity with diisopropyl fluorophosphate suggests that the proteolytic activity is a serine protease. Iodoacetamide and diethyl pyrocarbonate also inhibit enzyme activity, suggesting that other residues may be necessary for catalysis, possibly including cysteine and histidine. Our results suggest that this protease activity may play a role in DMBA-induced cheek pouch carcinogenesis.