Indole hydrazide compound ZJQ-24 inhibits angiogenesis and induces apoptosis cell death through abrogation of AKT/mTOR pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Angiogenesis and the activation of AKT/mTOR pathway are crucial for hepatocarcinoma development and progression, the activation of mTORC1/2 and relevant substrates have been confirmed in clinical hepatocarcinoma samples. Therefore, AKT/mTOR pathway represents the major targets for anti-cancer drugs development. Here, we investigated the anti-proliferative activity and mechanisms of ZJQ-24 in hepatocellular carcinoma, both in vivo and in vitro. A hepatocellular carcinoma xenograft model showed that ZJQ-24 significantly inhibited tumor growth with few side effects. MTT assays, flow cytometric analysis, Western blotting and immunohistochemistry identified that ZJQ-24 effectively suppressed hepatocellular carcinoma cell proliferation via G2/M phase arrest and caspase-dependent apoptosis but had no cytotoxic on normal cells. Furthermore, ZJQ-24 significantly blocked AKT/mTOR signaling by down-regulation of mTORC1 molecules, including phospho-p70S6K (Thr389) and phospho-4EBP-1 (Ser65, Thr37/46, Thr70) and phospho-AKT (Ser473) in HCC cells. It is very important that the ZJQ-24 did not induce the mTORC1-depdent PI3K/Akt feedback activation through JNK excitation. Moreover, ZJQ-24 inhibited the cap-dependent translation initiation by impairing the assembly of the eIF4E/eIF4G complex. Immunohistochemistry further confirmed ZJQ-24 inhibited the tumor growth through suppression of VEGF and AKT/mTOR pathways in vivo. Thus, the present study is the first to illustrate that ZJQ-24 triggers antiangiogenic activity and apoptosis via inhibiting the AKT/mTOR pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma cells, providing basic scientific evidence that ZJQ-24 shows great potential function as inhibitor of angiogenesis and tumor growth in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel benzylidene-succinimide derivatives as noncytotoxic antiangiogenic inhibitors with anticolorectal cancer activity in vivo.

A novel series of benzylidene-succinimide derivatives were synthesized, characterized and evaluated for their cytotoxicities against HCT116, and SW480 cancer cells and NCM460 normal human cells. Their antiangiogenic capabilities were evaluated using a chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay. The compound, XCF-37b, was selected as the most potent antiangiogenic inhibitor with noncytotoxicity to evaluate the pharmacological effects on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and cancer cells in vivo and in vitro. The results showed that XCF-37b inhibited HT29-cell colon tumor growth in vivo, without showing cytotoxicity against the five other cancer cell lines in vitro. Experiments confirmed that XCF-37b had obvious antiangiogenic activity by HUVEC migration and invasion and rat aortic ring angiogenesis ex vivo. Mechanism studies showed that XCF-37b inhibited the AKT/mTOR and VEGFR2 signaling pathways, as evidenced by decreased expressions of phosphor-AKT (p-AKT), p-mTOR, p-VEGFR2 (Tyr175), p-Src (Tyr416), p-FAK (Tyr925), and p-Erk1/2 (Thr202/Tyr204). Moreover, XCF-37b significantly decreased the protein expressions of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), MMP-9 and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α). XCF-37b generally regulated angiogenic inhibition through several regulatory pathways, without significantly interfering with colorectal cancer cell growth.