Assessment of antitumor activity of BP-C1, a platinum-based anticancer agent with a lignin-derived polymeric ligand, in autochthonous induced and spontaneous carcinogenesis rodent models

A standard approach to study the anticancer activity of novel drugs is their testing in animals with inoculated tumors, which has some limitations. An alternative is the use of spontaneous or carcinogen-induced tumor models as they have better translation potential. The carcinogen-induced and transgenic tumor models were used to assess the antitumor activity of BP-C1, a platinum-containing drug with lignin-derived polymeric ligand. We used female Swiss-H-derived mice and Wistar female rats to induce autochthonous tumors via exposure to benzo[a]pyrene and 1,2-dimethylhydrazine, respectively. Additionally, transgenic HER-2/neu FVB/N female mice, prone to the development of spontaneous mammary carcinomas, were used. Antitumor activity of BP-C1 was observed in soft tissue sarcomas, induced by benzo[a]pyrene. The animals treated with BP-C1 exhibited more stabilizations and therapy responses compared to placebo controls. The efficacy of BP-C1 was somewhat reduced compared to cyclophosphamide; however, their combination resulted in an enhanced antitumor effect. For the 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-induced rat colon cancer model, BP-C1 reduced tumor multiplicity by 21–41 %. For mammary adenocarcinomas in HER-2/neu FVB/N mice, short-termed complete responses were observed in the BP-C1 groups with a frequency of 12–13 %, while complete responses were absent in the placebo group. The results acquired indicated a wide spectrum of antitumor activity of BP-C1. •The in vivo models of spontaneous carcinogenesis were validated.•Anticancer activity of BP-C1 was tested in these models.•BP-C1 showed varying degree of antitumor activity in different models.