Discovery of novel urea derivatives as ferroptosis and autophagy inducer for human colon cancer treatment.

A series of novel urea derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their inhibitory activities against HT-29 cells, and structure-activity relationships (SAR) were summarized. Compound 10p stood out from these derivatives, exhibiting the most potent antiproliferative activity. Further biological studies demonstrated that 10p arrested cell cycle at G2/M phase via regulating cell cycle-related proteins CDK1 and Cyclin B1. The underlying molecular mechanisms demonstrated that 10p induced cell death through ferroptosis and autophagy, but not apoptosis. Moreover, 10p-induced ferroptosis and autophagy were both related with accumulation of ROS, but they were independent of each other. Our findings substantiated that 10p combines ferroptosis induction and autophagy trigger in single molecule, making it a potential candidate for colon cancer treatment and is worth further development.

Recent Progress in CDK4/6 Inhibitors and PROTACs.

Cell division in eukaryotes is a highly regulated process that is critical to the life of a cell. Dysregulated cell proliferation, often driven by anomalies in cell Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) activation, is a key pathological mechanism in cancer. Recently, selective CDK4/6 inhibitors have shown clinical success, particularly in treating advanced-stage estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer. This review provides an in-depth analysis of the action mechanism and recent advancements in CDK4/6 inhibitors, categorizing them based on their structural characteristics and origins. Furthermore, it explores proteolysis targeting chimers (PROTACs) targeting CDK4/6. We hope that this review could be of benefit for further research on CDK4/6 inhibitors and PROTACs.