Biochemical and chemical characterization of phenylglyoxal bis(guanylhydrazone), an aromatic analogue of mitoguazone

Since little has been known about the properties of aromatic analogues of the antineoplastic agent methylglyoxal bis(guanylhydrazone) (MGBG), an investigation was performed on phenylglyoxal bis(guanylhydrazone) (PhGBG). PhGBG competitively inhibited yeast adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (AdoMetDC) with a K i of 65 μM. As compared to MGBG (K i 0.23 μM), PhGBG is a much weaker inhibitor, being even weaker than the unsubstituted congener glyoxal bis(guanylhydrazone) (GBG, K i 18 μM). PhGBG inhibited porcine kidney diamine oxidase (DAO) non-competitively, being a more potent inhibitor (K i 0.12 μM) than GBG (K i 0.17 μM) or MGBG (K i 0.33 μM). Thus, PhGBG has an unfavourably high ratio of K i (AdoMetDC)/K i (DAO) for potential use for selectively inhibiting polyamine biosynthesis. This does not exclude the possibility that PhGBG or other aromatic congeners might have therapeutic value since the corresponding ratio of the antileukaemic congeners GBG and MGBG is also high as compared to many aliphatic non-antileukaemic analogues. The pK a1 and pK a2 values of PhGBG dication were found to be 6.39 ± 0.02 and 8.64 ± 0.02 respectively, their difference being distinctly larger than in the case of GBG or its C-alkylated analogues. This may result from decreased stability of the dication form, caused by the resonance effect or possibly by the inductive effect of the phenyl group. The species distribution of PhGBG (proportion of free base 5.5%, predominant species the monocation) at 37°C resembles that of GBG and MGBG but is clearly different from that of non-antileukaemic C-alkylated analogues. These similarities suggest that PhGBG and its derivatives may be worth antitumour screening. Depending on the conditions used in the crystallization, three different types of crystals of PhGBG sulphate were obtained. Crystallography indicated that, in two of the types, the crystal consisted exclusively of the anti-anti isomer, i.e. the same isomer as has been observed in the case of GBG and its C-alkylated congeners. One crystal type, however, consisted of a different geometrical isomer (anti-syn), suggesting that PhGBG may isomerize more easily than its aliphatic analogues. Previous concepts on the isomerism of GBG and C-alkylated bis(guanylhydrazones) thus cannot be generalized to aromatic congeners. A theory based on resonance, inductive and hyperconjugative effects and electron transfers is presented that is capable of explaining the formation of the two geometrical isomers of PhGBG that were experimentally observed. A similar theory, based on hyperconjugation of C-F bonds, is presented that is capable of explaining the previous finding of the formation of the anti-syn isomer of trifluoromethylglyoxal bis(guanylhydrazone) (CF 3 GBG). Like that of CF 3 GBG, the anti-syn isomer of the PhGBG dication is stabilized by an internal hydrogen bond. The lack of structural rigidity may affect the biological properties of PhGBG, e.g. its ability to inhibit AdoMetDC.