1189449_Rozario,A_2021.pdf (5.73 MB)
Nanoscale characterization of drug-induced microtubule filament dysfunction using super-resolution microscopy
journal contribution
posted on 2022-05-06, 01:24 authored by AM Rozario, S Duwé, C Elliott, RB Hargreaves, GW Moseley, P Dedecker, Donna WhelanDonna Whelan, TDM BellBackground: The integrity of microtubule filament networks is essential for the roles in diverse cellular functions, and disruption of its structure or dynamics has been explored as a therapeutic approach to tackle diseases such as cancer. Microtubule-interacting drugs, sometimes referred to as antimitotics, are used in cancer therapy to target and disrupt microtubules. However, due to associated side effects on healthy cells, there is a need to develop safer drug regimens that still retain clinical efficacy. Currently, many questions remain open regarding the extent of effects on cellular physiology of microtubule-interacting drugs at clinically relevant and low doses. Here, we use super-resolution microscopies (single-molecule localization and optical fluctuation based) to reveal the initial microtubule dysfunctions caused by nanomolar concentrations of colcemid. Results: We identify previously undetected microtubule (MT) damage caused by clinically relevant doses of colcemid. Short exposure to 30–80 nM colcemid results in aberrant microtubule curvature, with a trend of increased curvature associated to increased doses, and curvatures greater than 2 rad/μm, a value associated with MT breakage. Microtubule fragmentation was detected upon treatment with ≥ 100 nM colcemid. Remarkably, lower doses (< 20 nM after 5 h) led to subtle but significant microtubule architecture remodelling characterized by increased curvature and suppression of microtubule dynamics. Conclusions: Our results support the emerging hypothesis that microtubule-interacting drugs induce non-mitotic effects in cells, and establish a multi-modal imaging assay for detecting and measuring nanoscale microtubule dysfunction. The sub-diffraction visualization of these less severe precursor perturbations compared to the established antimitotic effects of microtubule-interacting drugs offers potential for improved understanding and design of anticancer agents.
Funding
Support from the Australian Research Council through its Discovery program (DP170104477) is gratefully acknowledged. Dr. Whelan is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Australian Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE200100584) funded by the Australian Government.
History
Publication Date
2021-12-01Journal
BMC BiologyVolume
19Issue
1Article Number
ARTN 260Pagination
16p.Publisher
BMCISSN
1741-7007Rights Statement
© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.Publisher DOI
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Science & TechnologyLife Sciences & BiomedicineBiologyLife Sciences & Biomedicine - Other TopicsSuper-resolutionMicrotubulesFilament curvatureLive cell imagingdSTORMSOFIAntimitoticColcemidCOLCHICINETUBULINRESOLUTIONAGENTSPOLYMERIZATIONORGANELLEBINDINGTARGETCytoskeletonDemecolcineMicroscopy, FluorescenceDevelopmental Biology