APHIDICOLIN SELECTIVELY KILLS NEUROBLASTOMA-CELLS INVITRO

Aphidicolin is a tetracyclic diterpene antibiotic which is known to inhibit the growth of eucaryotic cells by reversible binding to DNA polymerase a without significant effect on cell viability in most common human cell lines. We observed that aphidicolin at a concentration of 5 X 10(-7) M kills all cells of four human neuroblastoma cell lines. In contrast, viability of normal human embryonal cells and of human continuous cell lines including HeLa, H9, A549 and Caco-2 was influenced only moderately by aphidicolin. In addition, neuroblastoma cells were killed after treatment with 5 X 10(-7) M aphidicolin in cocultures with normal embryonal cells which continued to proliferate after removal of aphidicolin. These results show that aphidicolin provides an agent which selectively kills neuroblastoma cells in vitro.