The antitumor activity of
pladienolide B, a novel splicing inhibitor, against
gastric cancer is totally unknown and no predictive
biomarker of
pladienolide B efficacy has been reported. We investigated the antitumor activity of
pladienolide B and its derivative on
gastric cancer cell lines and primary cultured
cancer cells from carcinomatous
ascites of
gastric cancer patients. The effect of
pladienolide B and its derivative on six
gastric cancer cell lines was investigated using a MTT assay and the mean IC50 values determined to be 1.6 ± 1.2 (range, 0.6-4.0) and 1.2 ± 1.1 (range, 0.4-3.4) nM, respectively, suggesting strong antitumor activity against
gastric cancer. The mean IC50 value of
pladienolide B derivative against primary cultured cells from 12
gastric cancer patients was 4.9 ± 4.7 nM, indicative of high antitumor activity. When 18 SCID mice xenografted with primary cultured cells from three patients were administered the
pladienolide B derivative intraperitoneally, all
tumors completely disappeared within 2 weeks
after treatment. Histological examination revealed a pathological complete response for all
tumors. In the xenograft
tumors after treatment with
pladienolide B derivative, immature
mRNA were detected and apoptotic cells were observed. When the expressions of
cell-cycle proteins p16 and
cyclin E in biopsied
gastric cancer specimens were examined using immunohisctochemistry, positivities for p16 and
cyclin E were significantly and marginally higher, respectively, in the low-IC50 group compared with the high-IC50 group, suggesting the possibility that they might be useful as predictive
biomarkers for
pladienolide B. In conclusion,
pladienolide B was very active against
gastric cancer via a mechanism involving splicing impairment and apoptosis induction.