Inhibition of cytotoxic T lymphocyte-mediated lysis and cellular proliferation by isoquinoline sulfonamide protein kinase inhibitors. Evidence for the involvement of protein kinase C in lymphocyte function.

The effects of the isoquinoline sulfonamides, a class of synthetic protein kinase inhibitors, namely 1-(5-isoquinoline sulfonyl)-2-methylpiperazine dihydrochloride (H7), N-[2-(methylamino)ethyl]-5-isoquinoline sulfonamide dihydrochloride (H8), N-(2-aminoethyl)-5-isoquinoline sulfonamide dihydrochloride (H9), and N-(2-guanidinoethyl)-5-isoquinoline sulfonamide hydrochloride (HA1004), on the lytic activity of in vivo-produced (H-2b anti-H-2d alloimmune) cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) were investigated. The hierarchy of inhibition of lysis shown by these compounds resembled that of their inhibition of Ca2+/phospholipid-dependent enzyme (protein kinase C). H7 has the highest affinity for protein kinase C (Hidaka, H., Inagaki, M., Kawamoto, S., and Sasaki, Y. (1984) Biochemistry 23, 5036-5041) and gave the greatest inhibition of lysis by CTL. HA1004 has the weakest affinity for protein kinase C and gave very little inhibition of lysis, whereas H8 and H9 showed intermediate inhibition of lysis. In addition, the effect of the isoquinoline sulfonamides on cellular proliferation was examined. Interestingly, the pattern of inhibition observed for both lymphocytes and tumor cells closely mimicked the effects of these compounds on protein kinase C activity. These results demonstrate that modulation of an early biochemical signal affects both short-term (e.g. CTL-mediated lysis) and long-term (e.g. cellular proliferation) events. These data provide further evidence for the integral role of protein kinase C in the activation of the lytic signal in CTL. In addition, suggestive evidence is provided that protein kinase C, or some other enzyme with similar sensitivity to the isoquinoline sulfonamides, plays an important role in cellular proliferation.