Synthesis and Structure-Activity Relationship Study of 5a-Carbasugar Analogues of SL0101.

The Ser/Thr protein kinase, RSK, is associated with oncogenesis, and therefore, there are ongoing efforts to develop RSK inhibitors that are suitable for use in vivo. SL0101 is a natural product that demonstrates selectivity for RSK inhibition. However, SL0101 has a short biological half-life in vivo. To address this issue we designed a set of eight cyclitol analogues, which should be resistant to acid catalyzed anomeric bond hydrolysis. The analogues were synthesized and evaluated for their ability to selectively inhibit RSK in vitro and in cell-based assays. All the analogues were prepared using a stereodivergent palladium-catalyzed glycosylation/cyclitolization for installing the aglycon. The l-cyclitol analogues were found to inhibit RSK2 in in vitro kinase activity with a similar efficacy to that of SL0101, however, the analogues were not specific for RSK in cell-based assays. In contrast, the d-isomers showed no RSK inhibitory activity in in vitro kinase assay.

Inhibition of histone H3K79 methylation selectively inhibits proliferation, self-renewal and metastatic potential of breast cancer.

Histone lysine methylation regulates gene expression and cancer initiation. Bioinformatics analysis suggested that DOT1L, a histone H3-lysine79 (H3K79) methyltransferase, plays a potentially important role in breast cancer. DOT1L inhibition selectively inhibited proliferation, self-renewal, metastatic potential of breast cancer cells and induced cell differentiation. In addition, inhibitors of S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase (SAHH), such as neplanocin and 3-deazaneplanocin, also inhibited both H3K79 methylation and proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. The activity of SAHH inhibitors was previously attributed to inhibition of H3K27 methyltransferase EZH2. However, inhibition of EZH2 by a specific inhibitor did not contribute to cell death. SAHH inhibitors had only weak activity against H3K27 methylation and their activity is therefore mainly due to DOT1L/H3K79 methylation inhibition. Overall, we showed that DOT1L is a potential drug target for breast cancer.

Structure Activity Relationship Study of the Cleistriosides and Cleistetrosides for Antibacterial/Anticancer Activity.

Two known cleistriosides and six known cleistetrosides were synthesized and evaluated for anticancer and antibacterial activity. This study, for the first time, reports anticancer activity and comprehensively the antibacterial activity for these oligosaccharide natural products. In addition, two new unnatural cleistetroside analogues were synthesized and tested. Biological activities for the ten oligosaccharides against B. subtilis were found to range between 4 and >64 µM, and for NCI-H460 human lung cancer epithelial cells between 7.5 and 90.9 µM. Similar activities were found for seven of the oligosaccharides against the NCI panel of 60 cell lines. The degree of acylation and location of the specific acetate groups had significant effects on the anticancer and antibacterial activity of both the cleistriosides and cleistetrosides.

Improving the affinity of SL0101 for RSK using structure-based design.

Enhanced activity of the Ser/Thr protein kinase, RSK, is associated with transformation and metastasis, which suggests that RSK is an attractive drug target. The natural product, SL0101 (kaempferol 3-O-(3″,4″-di-O-acetyl-α-L-rhamnopyranoside), has been shown to be a RSK selective inhibitor. However, the Ki for SL0101 is 1 µM with a half-life of less than 30 min in vivo. To identify analogues with improved efficacy we designed a set of analogues based on the crystallographic model of SL0101 in complex with the RSK2 N-terminal kinase domain. We identified an analogue with a 5″-n-propyl group on the rhamnose that has > 40-fold improved affinity for RSK relative to SL0101 in an in vitro kinase assay. This analogue preferentially inhibited the proliferation of the human breast cancer line, MCF-7, versus the normal untransformed breast line, MCF-10A, which is consistent with results using SL0101. However, the efficacy of the 5″-n-propyl analogue to inhibit MCF-7 proliferation was only two-fold better than for SL0101, which we hypothesize is due to limited membrane permeability. The improved affinity of the 5″-n-propyl analogue for RSK will aid in the design of future compounds for in vivo use.

C5'-Alkyl Substitution Effects on Digitoxigenin α-l-Glycoside Cancer Cytotoxicity.

A highly regio- and stereo-selective asymmetric synthesis of various C5'-alkyl side chains of rhamnosyl- and amicetosyl-digitoxigenin analogs has been established via palladium-catalyzed glycosylation with post-glycosylated dihydroxylation or diimide reduction. The C5'-methyl group in both α-l-rhamnose and α-l-amicetose digitoxin analogs displayed a steric directed apoptosis induction and tumor growth inhibition against non-small cell human lung cancer cells (NCI-H460). The anti-tumor activity is significantly reduced when the steric hindrance is increased at C5'-stereocenter.

A novel descriptor of amino acids and its application in peptide QSAR.

A novel descriptor, vector of principal component scores (VSW) for weighted holistic invariant molecular index, was derived from the principal component analysis of a matrix of 99 weighted holistic invariant molecular indices of amino acids. The scale was then applied in three panels of peptide QSARs models constructed by partial least square (PLS). The correlative coefficient R(cum)(2) and the cross-validation correlative coefficient Q(LOO)(2) of three models were 0.861 and 0.835 for 58 angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, 0.873 and 0.751 for 48 bitter tasting thresholds, 0.997 and 0.954 for 12 antimicrobial polypeptides, respectively. External validation was also performed to validate the predictive power of resulting models. Compared with other 2D or 3D descriptors, the VSW scales could better characterize structural features of peptides and provide more sound statistical models.