Effects of staurosporine, K 252a and other structurally related protein kinase inhibitors on shape and locomotion of Walker carcinosarcoma cells.

The structure/activity relationship of the protein kinase inhibitors, staurosporine and K 252a and their analogues on motility of Walker carcinosarcoma cells has been studied in vitro. Staurosporine and K 252a, similar to phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) and diacylglycerols, suppress cell polarity and locomotor activity of Walker carcinosarcoma cells. Staurosporine inhibits spontaneous and colchicine-induced front-tail polarity (ID50 of about 6.0 x 10(-8) M) as well as spontaneous and colchicine-stimulated locomotion at 10(-7) M. K 252a suppresses cell polarity (ID50 of about 4.5 x 10(-6) M) and inhibits spontaneous and colchicine-stimulated locomotion at 10(-5) M, but suppression of locomotor activity is not complete in the presence of colchicine. CGP 41251, a staurosporine derivative with a much higher specificity for protein kinase C (PKC) than staurosporine, induces a dose-dependent increase in the proportion of polarised cells, and stimulates cell locomotion. Two K252a analogues, KT 5720 and KT 5822, which act preferentially on cyclic nucleotide-dependent protein kinases, and CGP 42700, an inactive staurosporine analogue, had no effect on cell polarity and locomotion. The findings suggest that protein kinase inhibitors acting preferentially on PKC may be of interest in pharmacological regulation of tumour cell locomotion.