Cell experiment:

Cells grown in DMEM supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum are challenged with serial two fold dilutions of oxamflatin on day 1 after the cells are seeded, and incubated for 2 days for the suspension cell cultures and for 3 days for the adherent cell cultures. Inhibition of the cell growth by oxamflatin is determined by staining with MTT as described previously[1].

Animal experiment:

Mice: Oxamflatin is injected intraperitoneally into BDF1 mice on day 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 and after the intraperitoneal inoculation of single cell suspension of the B16 melanoma cells. The survival days of the animals are recorded and the percent of increased life span (ILS%) is calculated[1].

Oxamflatin is a potent histone deacetylase inhibitor with IC50 value of 15.7 nM [1].

Histone deacetylases (HADC) are a series of enzymes that remove acetyl groups from an ε-N-acetyl lysine amino acid on a histone and make the histones to wrap the DNA more tightly, which prevent transcription.

Oxamflatin is a potent histone deacetylase inhibitor and a novel antitumor compound. In mouse and human tumor cell lines, such as P388, Lewis, Lu-99, HT-29 and HeLa cells, Oxamflatin exhibited antiproliferative activity. In HeLa cells, Oxamflatin changed cell morphology, and significantly reduced the number of the cells in S phase and increased the number of cells in G0/G1 phase [1]. In the HIV-1 latently infected Jurkat T cell line, Oxam?atin increased the acetylation level of histone H3 and histone H4 at the nucleosome 1(nuc-1) site of the HIV-1 LTR and activated HIV-1 gene expression by 2-17 fold, suggesting that Oxam?atin has potential as drug candidates as antilatency therapies [2]. In OVCAR-5 and SKOV-3 ovarian cancer cell lines, oxamflatin decreased cell viability and significantly inhibited DNA synthesis and cell proliferation. Also, oxamflatin reduced the expression of c-Myc, CDK4 and E2F1, and the phosphorylation level of Rb protein, but upregulated p21 [3].

In mice transplanted with B16 murine melanoma, Oxamflatin (20 mg/kg) injected intraperitoneally six times on day 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 significantly increased the days of survival [1].

References:
[1].Kim YB, Lee KH, Sugita K, et al. Oxamflatin is a novel antitumor compound that inhibits mammalian histone deacetylase. Oncogene. 1999 Apr 15;18(15):2461-70.
[2].Yin H, Zhang Y, Zhou X, et al. Histonedeacetylase inhibitor Oxamflatin increase HIV-1 transcription by inducing histone modification in latently infected cells. Mol Biol Rep. 2011 Nov;38(8):5071-8.
[3].Wang YL, Liui HL, Fu RG, et al. HDAC Inhibitor Oxamflatin Induces Morphological Changes and has Strong Cytostatic Effects in Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines. Curr Mol Med. 2016;16(3):232-42.