Slides for fluorescent staining were mounted with VectashieldH HardSetTM mounting medium with DAPI

a more favorable kinetic profile and decreased toxicity. Chlorambucil functions as a mono- or di-alkylating agent by reacting primarily with the N7 of guanine to produce intra- or inter-strand crosslinks. Formation of these crosslinks often stalls replication and transcription, leading to cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Cbl has successfully been used to treat leukemia and while the initial response rate in patients is typically 4060%, complete remission is rare. Instead, patients often develop resistance to the drug necessitating the use of other agents, such as fludarabine. We hypothesized that drug retargeting to a novel cellular location could give the drug access to new targets. In previous work, we redirected Cbl from its primary site of action the nucleus to an alternate location, the mitochondrion, using a novel peptide-based delivery vector . The mitochondrion is the only organelle besides the nucleus containing DNA and is centrally involved in programmed cell death execution. Using a peptide delivery vector, the Cbl compound was delivered specifically to mitochondria with a high percentage localized 17358052 within the mitochondrial matrix as previously determined by fluoresence microscopy and transmission electron microscopy of dye and biotin labelled compounds, respectively. We hypothesized that sending the drug to a new organelle might influence the effectiveness of Cbl especially in resistant cells, and we were able to show this effect in a series of in vitro studies that assessed a panel of cell lines with varying resistance to Cbl. The therapeutic window for CF-101 mt-Cbl was also assessed in isolated patient cells, and was shown to be maintained for the mitochondria-directed drug. Here, we investigate the in vitro mechanism of action and the in vivo characteristics of the first active alkylating agent retargeted to the mitochondria. We present the surprising finding that despite the ability of mt-Cbl to alkylate mtDNA, damage to mitochondrial DNA is not necessarily a dominant factor in mt-Cbl toxicity. In addition, the activity of mt-Cbl was found to occur though the activation of necrosis. Two different forms of mitochondriatargeted Cbl are studied, and both have the same activity profile indicating that this is a general phenomenon for this drug when delivered to mitochondria. Assessing activity in a mouse cancer model, we also show that conjugation of a mitochondriapenetrating peptide to Cbl improves the pharmacokinetic profile of the drug and is effective at killing tumor cells in vivo. Effects of Shifting the Site of Alkylation Damage Lastly, we demonstrate that despite the necrotic character of mtCbl, the drug is well tolerated and no drug-induced toxicity is observed within the therapeutic window. Materials and Methods Compound Synthesis and Characterization Peptide synthesis. Peptide scaffolds were synthesized at a 50 mmol scale on Rink amide MBHA 11121575 resin using a Prelude automated peptide synthesizer. For couplings, Fmocprotected D or L-amino acids, HBTU -N,N,N’,N’tetramethyl-uronium hexafluorophosphate), and NMM were stirred in N,N-dimethyl formamide for 1 hour. Arginine residues were added using double couplings. The Fmoc protecting group on the N termini was removed using piperidine in DMF. Synthesis and characterization of peptide conjugates. Thiazole orange was synthesized as described previously and coupled to peptides using HBTU, and DIPEA in DMF for 3 hours. Cbl was coupled to peptides using HBTU and DIPEA in DMF. For bio