Interactions of the phenylpyrazolo steroid cortivazol with glucocorticoid receptors in steroid-sensitive and -resistant human leukemic cells.

The interactions of glucocorticoids with their receptors somehow determine the cellular responses seen. The high potency glucocorticoid cortivazol differs from the usual glucocorticoids in two ways, structurally and in binding to receptors. Cortivazol contains a phenylpyrazol fused at carbon atoms 2 and 3 to the A ring of the cyclophenathrene, replacing the supposedly essential 3-keto,4,5-double bond pattern of glucocorticoids. Cortivazol binds to the glucocorticoid receptor in the cytosol from CEM C7 cells (a human acute lymphoblastic leukemia line) in a fashion consistent with interaction with at least two sites. Standard glucocorticoids show only one-site binding. In mutant leukemia cells derived from CEM C7, resistant to kill by 10(-6) M dexamethasone and deficient in standard glucocorticoid binding sites, cortivazol still finds a binding site and kills the cells. In wild-type leukemia cells, the binding sites of cortivazol, those with both higher (Kd approximately 5 x 10(-10) M) and lower (Kd approximately 1 x 10(-8] affinity appear to be on forms of the glucocorticoid receptor itself, and not on two different classes of molecules.