A DNA/HDAC dual-targeting drug CY190602 with significantly enhanced anticancer potency

Overview of the epigenetic/cytotoxic dual-target inhibitors for cancer therapy

Epigenetic dysregulation plays a pivotal role in the initiation and progression of various cancers, influencing critical processes such as tumor growth, invasion, migration, survival, apoptosis, and angiogenesis. Consequently, targeting epigenetic pathways has emerged as a promising strategy for anticancer drug discovery in recent years. However, the clinical efficacy of epigenetic inhibitors, such as HDAC inhibitors, has been limited, often accompanied by resistance. To overcome these challenges, innovative therapeutic approaches are required, including the combination of epigenetic inhibitors with cytotoxic agents or the design of dual-acting inhibitors that target both epigenetic and cytotoxic pathways. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the structures, biological functions and inhibitors of epigenetic regulators (such as HDAC, LSD1, PARP, and BET) and cytotoxic targets (including tubulin and topoisomerase). Furthermore, we discuss recent advancement of combination therapies and dual-target inhibitors that target both epigenetic and cytotoxic pathways, with a particular focus on recent advances, including rational drug design, pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, and clinical applications.

Anticancer benzimidazole derivatives as inhibitors of epigenetic targets: a review article

Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. One of the primary causes of cancer development and progression is epigenetic dysregulation, which is a heritable modification that alters gene expression without changing the DNA sequence. Therefore, targeting these epigenetic changes has emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy. Benzimidazole derivatives have gained attention for their potent epigenetic modulatory effects as they interact with various epigenetic targets, including DNA methyltransferases, histone deacetylases and histone methyltransferases. This review provides a comprehensive overview of benzimidazole derivatives that inhibit different acetylation and methylation reader, writer and eraser epigenetic targets. Herein, we emphasize the therapeutic potential of these compounds in developing targeted, less toxic cancer therapies. Presently, some promising benzimidazole derivatives have entered clinical trials and shown great advancements in the fields of hematological and solid malignancy therapies. Accordingly, we highlight the recent advancements in benzimidazole research as epigenetic agents that could pave the way for designing new multi-target drugs to overcome resistance and improve clinical outcomes for cancer patients. This review can help researchers in designing new anticancer benzimidazole derivatives with better properties.

Genome-wide CRISPR screening identifies critical role of phosphatase and tensin homologous (PTEN) in sensitivity of acute myeloid leukemia to chemotherapy

Although significant progress has been made in the development of novel targeted drugs for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in recent years, chemotherapy still remains the mainstay of treatment and the overall survival is poor in most patients. Here, we demonstrated the antileukemia activity of a novel small molecular compound NL101, which is formed through the modification on bendamustine with a suberanilohydroxamic acid (SAHA) radical. NL101 suppresses the proliferation of myeloid malignancy cells and primary AML cells. It induces DNA damage and caspase 3-mediated apoptosis. A genome-wide clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) library screen revealed that phosphatase and tensin homologous (PTEN) gene is critical for the regulation of cell survival upon NL101 treatment. The knockout or inhibition of PTEN significantly reduced NL101-induced apoptosis in AML and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) cells, accompanied by the activation of protein kinase B (AKT) signaling pathway. The inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) by rapamycin enhanced the sensitivity of AML cells to NL101-induced cell death. These findings uncover PTEN protein expression as a major determinant of chemosensitivity to NL101 and provide a novel strategy to treat AML with the combination of NL101 and rapamycin.

Dual-targeting compounds possessing enhanced anticancer activity via microtubule disruption and histone deacetylase inhibition

Dual-targeting anticancer agents 4-29 are designed by combining the structural features of purine-type microtubule-disrupting compounds and HDAC inhibitors. A library of the conjugate compounds connected by appropriate linkers was synthesized and found to possess HDACs inhibitory activity and render microtubule fragmentation by activating katanin, a microtubule-severing protein. Among various zinc-binding groups, hydroxamic acid shows the highest inhibitory activity of Class I HDACs, which was also reconfirmed by three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) pharmacophore prediction. The purine-hydroxamate conjugates exhibit enhanced cytotoxicity against MDA-MB231 breast cancer cells, H1975 lung cancer cells, and various clinical isolated non-small-cell lung cancer cells with different epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) status. Pyridyl substituents could be used to replace the C2 and N9 phenyl moieties in the purine-type scaffold, which can help to improve the solubility under physiological conditions, thus increasing cytotoxicity. In mice treated with the purine-hydroxamate conjugates, the tumor growth rate was significantly reduced without causing toxic effects. Our study demonstrates the potential of the dual-targeting purine-hydroxamate compounds for cancer monotherapy.

Dual inhibitors of HDAC and other epigenetic regulators: A novel strategy for cancer treatment

A significant advancement in the field of epigenetic drug discovery has been evidenced in recent years. Epigenetic alterations are hereditary, nevertheless reversible variations to DNA or histone adaptations that regulate gene function individualistically of the fundamental sequence. The design and synthesis of various drugs targeting epigenetic regulators open a new door for epigenetic-targeted therapies to parade worthwhile therapeutic potential for haematological and solid malignancies. Several ongoing clinical trials on dual targeting strategy are being conducted comprising HDAC inhibitory component and an epigenetic regulating agent. In this perspective, the review discusses the pharmacological aspects of HDAC and other epigenetic regulating factors as dual inhibitors as an emerging alternative approach for combination therapies.

Alkylating Agents, the Road Less Traversed, Changing Anticancer Therapy

Cancer is considered one of the gruelling challenges and poses a grave health hazard across the globe. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), new cancer diagnoses increased to 18.1 million in 2018, with 9.6 million deaths, bringing the global cancer rate to 23.6 million by 2030. In 1942, the discovery of nitrogen mustard as an alkylating agent was a tremendous breakthrough in cancer chemotherapy. It acts by binding to the DNA, and creating cross linkages between the two strands, leading to arrest of DNA replication and eventual cell death. Nitrogen lone pairs of 'nitrogen mustard' produce an intermediate 'aziridinium ion' at molecular level, which is very reactive towards DNA of tumour cells, resulting in multiple side effects with therapeutic consequences. Owing to its high reactivity and peripheral cytotoxicity, several improvements have been made with structural modifications for the past 75 years to enhance its efficacy and improve the direct transport of drugs to the tumour cells. Alkylating agents were among the first non-hormonal substances proven to be active against malignant cells and also, the most valuable cytotoxic therapies available for the treatment of leukaemia and lymphoma patients. This review focus on the versatile use of alkylating agents and the structure activity relationship (SAR) of each class of these compounds. This could provide an understanding for design and synthesis of new alkylating agents having enhanced target specificity and adequate bioavailability.

Thiazolidinedione "Magic Bullets" Simultaneously Targeting PPARγ and HDACs: Design, Synthesis, and Investigations of their In Vitro and In Vivo Antitumor Effects

Monotargeting anticancer agents suffer from resistance and target nonspecificity concerns, which can be tackled with a multitargeting approach. The combined treatment with HDAC inhibitors and PPARγ agonists has displayed potential antitumor effects. Based on these observations, this work involves design and synthesis of molecules that can simultaneously target PPARγ and HDAC. Several out of 25 compounds inhibited HDAC4, and six compounds acted as dual-targeting agents. Compound 7i was the most potent, with activity toward PPARγ EC50 = 0.245 μM and HDAC4 IC50 = 1.1 μM. Additionally, compounds 7c and 7i were cytotoxic to CCRF-CEM cells (CC50 = 2.8 and 9.6 μM, respectively), induced apoptosis, and caused DNA fragmentation. Furthermore, compound 7c modulated the expression of c-Myc, cleaved caspase-3, and caused in vivo tumor regression in CCRF-CEM tumor xenografts. Thus, this study provides a basis for the rational design of dual/multitargeting agents that could be developed further as anticancer therapeutics.

Targeting miR-21 with NL101 blocks c-Myc/Mxd1 loop and inhibits the growth of B cell lymphoma

Background: NL101 has shown activities against multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukemia, but its anti-lymphoma activity remains unknown. The transcription factor c-Myc is frequently dysregulated in aggressive B cell lymphomas such as double-hit lymphoma, for which the standard of care is still lacking. A novel approach to target c-Myc needs to be explored. Although the role of oncogenic microRNA-21 (miR-21) was well established in an inducible mice model of B cell lymphoma, whether targeting miR-21 could inhibit the growth of B cell lymphoma and its underlying mechanisms is unclear.

Methods: We used MTT assay and flow cytometry to determine the inhibitory effect of NL101 on the cell proliferation of B cell lymphoma in vitro. The lymphoma xenograft mice models were generated to evaluate the anti-lymphoma function in vivo. Western blot and qPCR were applied to measure the expression levels of protein and microRNA, respectively. To investigate the mechanisms of action in NL101, we used genechip to profile differentially-expressed genes upon NL101 induction. Luciferase reporter system and chromatin immunoprecipitation were used for the validation of target gene or miRNA.

Results: Nl101 significantly inhibited B cell lymphoma proliferation through induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. NL101 suppressed the growth of B cell lymphoma in vivo and prolonged the survival of lymphoma xenograft models. Gene expression profiling revealed that miR-21 was significantly decreased upon the induction of NL101 in B cell lymphoma. The miR-21 level was associated with the sensitivity of NL101. miR-21 inhibited Mxd1 expression via directly combining to Mxd1 3'-UTR; c-Myc activated miR-21 expression by directly binding to the miR-21 promoter.

Conclusion: NL101 significantly inhibited the growth of B cell lymphoma in vitro and in vivo. The novel c-Myc/miR-21/Mxd1 positive-feedback loop is critical for the maintenance of B cell lymphoma survival. Targeting miR-21 to block c-Myc/miR-21/Mxd1 loop represents a novel potential strategy of c-Myc-directed therapy.

Comprehensive review for anticancer hybridized multitargeting HDAC inhibitors

Despite the encouraging clinical progress of chemotherapeutic agents in cancer treatment, innovation and development of new effective anticancer candidates still represents a challenging endeavor. With 15 million death every year in 2030 according to the estimates, cancer has increased rising of an alarm as a real crisis for public health and health systems worldwide. Therefore, scientist began to introduce innovative solutions to control the cancer global health problem. One of the promising strategies in this issue is the multitarget or smart hybrids having two or more pharmacophores targeting cancer. These rationalized hybrid molecules have gained great interests in cancer treatment as they are capable to simultaneously inhibit more than cancer pathway or target without drug-drug interactions and with less side effects. A prime important example of these hybrids, the HDAC hybrid inhibitors or referred as multitargeting HDAC inhibitors. The ability of HDAC inhibitors to synergistically improve the efficacy of other anti-cancer drugs and moreover, the ease of HDAC inhibitors cap group modification prompt many medicinal chemists to innovate and develop new generation of HDAC hybrid inhibitors. Notably, and during this short period, there are four HDAC inhibitor hybrids have entered different phases of clinical trials for treatment of different types of blood and solid tumors, namely; CUDC-101, CUDC-907, Tinostamustine, and Domatinostat. This review shed light on the most recent hybrids of HDACIs with one or more other cancer target pharmacophore. The designed multitarget hybrids include topoisomerase inhibitors, kinase inhibitors, nitric oxide releasers, antiandrogens, FLT3 and JAC-2 inhibitors, PDE5-inhibitors, NAMPT-inhibitors, Protease inhibitors, BRD4-inhibitors and other targets. This review may help researchers in development and discovery of new horizons in cancer treatment.

Dual inhibitors of histone deacetylases and other cancer-related targets: A pharmacological perspective

Epigenetic enzymes histone deacetylases (HDACs) are clinically validated anticancer drug targets which have been studied intensively in the past few decades. Although several drugs have been approved in this field, they are still limited to a subset of hematological malignancies (in particular T-cell lymphomas), with therapeutic potential not fully realized and the drug-resistance occurred after a certain period of use. To maximize the therapeutic potential of these classes of anticancer drugs, and to extend their application to solid tumors, numerous combination therapies containing an HDACi and an anticancer agent from other mechanisms are currently ongoing in clinical trials. Recently, dual targeting strategy comprising the HDACs component has emerged as an alternative approach for combination therapies. In this perspective, we intend to gather all HDACs-containing dual inhibitors related to cancer therapy published in literature since 2015, classify them into five categories based on targets' biological functions, and discuss the rationale why dual acting agents should work better than combinatorial therapies using two separate drugs. The article discusses the pharmacological aspects of these dual inhibitors, including in vitro biological activities, pharmacokinetic studies, in vivo efficacy studies, as well as available clinical trials. The review of the current status and advances should provide better analysis for future opportunities and challenges of this field.

Paradigm shift of "classical" HDAC inhibitors to "hybrid" HDAC inhibitors in therapeutic interventions

'Epigenetic' regulation of genes via post-translational modulation of proteins is the current mainstay approach for the disease therapies, particularly explored in the Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) class of enzymes. Mainly sight saw in cancer chemotherapeutics, HDAC inhibitors have also found a promising role in other diseases (neurodegenerative disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and viral infections) and successfully entered in various combination therapies (pre-clinical/clinical stages). The prevalent flexibility in the structural design of HDAC inhibitors makes them easily tuneable to merge with other pharmacophore modules for generating multi-targeted single hybrids as a novel tactic to overcome drawbacks of polypharmacy. Herein, we reviewed the putative role of prevalent HDAC hybrids inhibitors in the current and prospective stage as a translational approach to overcome the limitations of the existing conventional drug candidates (parent molecule) when used either alone (drug resistance, solubility issues, adverse side effects, selectivity profile) or in combination (pharmacokinetic interactions, patient compliance) for treating various diseases.

Dual-Target Inhibitors Based on HDACs: Novel Antitumor Agents for Cancer Therapy

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) play an important role in regulating target gene expression. They have been highlighted as a novel category of anticancer targets, and their inhibition can induce apoptosis, differentiation, and growth arrest in cancer cells. In view of the fact that HDAC inhibitors and other antitumor agents, such as BET inhibitors, topoisomerase inhibitors, and RTK pathway inhibitors, exert a synergistic effect on cellular processes in cancer cells, the combined inhibition of two targets is regarded as a rational strategy to improve the effectiveness of these single-target drugs for cancer treatment. In this review, we discuss the theoretical basis for designing HDAC-involved dual-target drugs and provide insight into the structure-activity relationships of these dual-target agents.

Epigenetic polypharmacology: A new frontier for epi-drug discovery

Recently, despite the great success achieved by the so-called "magic bullets" in the treatment of different diseases through a marked and specific interaction with the target of interest, the pharmacological research is moving toward the development of "molecular network active compounds," embracing the related polypharmacology approach. This strategy was born to overcome the main limitations of the single target therapy leading to a superior therapeutic effect, a decrease of adverse reactions, and a reduction of potential mechanism(s) of drug resistance caused by robustness and redundancy of biological pathways. It has become clear that multifactorial diseases such as cancer, neurological, and inflammatory disorders, may require more complex therapeutic approaches hitting a certain biological system as a whole. Concerning epigenetics, the goal of the multi-epi-target approach consists in the development of small molecules able to simultaneously and (often) reversibly bind different specific epi-targets. To date, two dual histone deacetylase/kinase inhibitors (CUDC-101 and CUDC-907) are in an advanced stage of clinical trials. In the last years, the growing interest in polypharmacology encouraged the publication of high-quality reviews on combination therapy and hybrid molecules. Hence, to update the state-of-the-art of these therapeutic approaches avoiding redundancy, herein we focused only on multiple medication therapies and multitargeting compounds exploiting epigenetic plus nonepigenetic drugs reported in the literature in 2018. In addition, all the multi-epi-target inhibitors known in literature so far, hitting two or more epigenetic targets, have been included.

Interferon-alpha promotes immunosuppression through IFNAR1/STAT1 signalling in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND

An immunosuppressive microenvironment is critical for cancer initiation and progression. Whether interferon alpha (IFNα) can suppress immune and cancer cells and its involved mechanism still remain largely elusive.

METHODS

We examine the expression of interferon alpha/beta receptor-1 (IFNAR1), CD8, CD56 and programmed death ligand 1 (PDL1) in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). The effect of IFNα on PDL1 and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1) expression in tumour cells and immune cells was detected in vitro and in vivo.

RESULTS

Overexpression of IFNAR1, MX1 and signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (Stat1) indicated the endogenous IFNα activation in tumour microenvironment, which correlated with immunosuppression status in HNSCC patients. Moreover, IFNα transcriptionally activated the expression of PDL1 through p-Stat1 (Tyr701) and promoted PD1 expression in immune cells through IFNAR1. The inhibition of IFNα signalling enhanced the cytotoxic activity of nature killer cells. At lastastly, we confirmed the upregulation of PDL1 and PD1 in response to IFNα treatment in both xenograft tumour models and patient-derived xenograft models.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings demonstrate that IFNα-induced PDL1 and PD1 expression is a new mechanism of immunosuppression in HNSCC, suggesting that blocking IFNα signalling may enhance the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade.

Study on the Mechanism of Cell Cycle Checkpoint Kinase 2 (CHEK2) Gene Dysfunction in Chemotherapeutic Drug Resistance of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells

Background

This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of CHEK2 gene dysfunction in drug resistance of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells.

Material/Methods

To perform our study, a stable CHEK2 wild type (CHEK2 WT) or CHEK2 Y390C mutation (CHEK2 Y390C) expressed MDA-MB-231 cell line was established. MTT assay, cell apoptosis assay and cell cycle assay were carried out to analyze the cell viability, apoptosis, and cell cycle respectively. Western blotting and qRT-PCR were applied for related protein and gene expression detection.

Results

We found that the IC₅₀ value of DDP (Cisplatin) to CHEK2 Y390C expressed MDA-MB-231 cells was significantly higher than that of the CHEK2 WT expressed cells and the control cells. After treatment with DDP for 48 h, cells expressing CHEK2 WT showed lower cell viability than that of the CHEK2 Y390C expressed cells and the control cells; compared with the CHEK2 Y390C expressed cells and the control cells, cells expressing CHEK2 WT showed significant G1/S arrest. Meanwhile, we found that compared with the CHEK2 Y390C expressed cells and the control cells, cell apoptosis was significantly increased in CHEK2 WT expressed cells. Moreover, our results suggested that cells expressing CHEK2 WT showed higher level of p-CDC25A, p-p53, p21, Bax, PUMA, and Noxa than that of the CHEK2 Y390C expressed cells and the control cells.

Conclusions

Our findings indicated that CHEK2 Y390C mutation induced the drug resistance of TNBC cells to chemotherapeutic drugs through administrating cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest via regulating p53 activation and CHEK2-p53 apoptosis pathway.

Epigenetic polypharmacology: from combination therapy to multitargeted drugs

The modern drug discovery process has largely focused its attention in the so-called magic bullets, single chemical entities that exhibit high selectivity and potency for a particular target. This approach was based on the assumption that the deregulation of a protein was causally linked to a disease state, and the pharmacological intervention through inhibition of the deregulated target was able to restore normal cell function. However, the use of cocktails or multicomponent drugs to address several targets simultaneously is also popular to treat multifactorial diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders. We review the state of the art with such combinations that have an epigenetic target as one of their mechanisms of action. Epigenetic drug discovery is a rapidly advancing field, and drugs targeting epigenetic enzymes are in the clinic for the treatment of hematological cancers. Approved and experimental epigenetic drugs are undergoing clinical trials in combination with other therapeutic agents via fused or linked pharmacophores in order to benefit from synergistic effects of polypharmacology. In addition, ligands are being discovered which, as single chemical entities, are able to modulate multiple epigenetic targets simultaneously (multitarget epigenetic drugs). These multiple ligands should in principle have a lower risk of drug-drug interactions and drug resistance compared to cocktails or multicomponent drugs. This new generation may rival the so-called magic bullets in the treatment of diseases that arise as a consequence of the deregulation of multiple signaling pathways provided the challenge of optimization of the activities shown by the pharmacophores with the different targets is addressed.

Multitarget Drugs: an Epigenetic Epiphany

Epigenetics refers to changes in a biological phenotype that are not due to an underlying change in genotype. In eukaryotes, epigenetics involves a set of chemical modifications of the DNA and the histone proteins in nucleosomes. These dynamic changes are carried out by enzymes and modulate protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions to determine whether specific genes are expressed or silenced. Both the epigenetic enzymes and recognition domains are currently important drug discovery targets, particularly for the treatment of cancer. This review summarizes the progress of epigenetic targets that have reached a clinical stage: DNA methyltransferases, histone deacetylases, lysine methyltransferases, lysine demethylases, and bromodomains; this is followed by a comprehensive survey of multitarget drugs that have included an epigenetic target as one of their mechanisms of action.