Discovery of cyanoguanidine derivatives as biased µ-opioid receptor agonists.

Opioid agonists, including morphine and its derivatives, have historically been utilized in conventional pain relief therapies. However, the morphine-like side effects associated with these compounds have constrained their broader application in clinical environments. Fortunately, novel compounds that selectively activate µ-opioid receptors (MOR) without activating the ß-arrestin2 pathway, such as PZM21 and TRV130, demonstrate the potential to mitigate side effects while maintaining analgesic efficacy. In this study, we structurally modified PZM21 to get a series of compounds with a 2-cyanoguanidine scaffold, the majority of which display significant analgesic effects. Notably, Compound I-11 exhibited an analgesic effect comparable to that of morphine and selectively activates µ-opioid receptors while avoiding the activation of the ß-arrestin2 pathway. Our work not only introduces a novel biased µ-opioid receptor agonist but also serves as a valuable reference for the further optimization of PZM21.

Discovery of highly potent PARP7 inhibitors for cancer immunotherapy.

PARP7 has been proven to play an important role in immunity. Substantial upregulation of PARP7 is observed in numerous cancerous cell types, consequently resulting in the inhibition of type Ⅰ interferon signaling pathways. Therefore, inhibiting the activity of PARP7 can enhance type Ⅰ interferon signaling to exert an anti-tumor immune response. In this study, we reported the identification of a newly found PARP7 inhibitor (XLY-1) with higher inhibitory activity (IC50 = 0.6 nM) than that of RBN-2397 (IC50 = 6.0 nM). Additionally, XYL-1 displayed weak inhibitory activity on PARP1 (IC50 > 1.0 µM). Mechanism studies showed that XYL-1 could enhance the type Ⅰ interferon signaling in vitro. Pharmacodynamic experiments showed that 50 mg/kg XYL-1 could significantly inhibit tumor growth (TGI: 76.5 %) and related experiments showed that XYL-1 could restore type Ⅰ interferon signaling and promote T cell infiltration in tumor tissues. Taken together, XYL-1 shows promise as a potential candidate for developing cancer immunotherapy agents.

Design, synthesis, and antitumor activity evaluation of 1,2,3-triazole derivatives as potent PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors.

A series of 1,2,3-triazole derivatives targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway were designed, synthesized, and evaluated both in vitro and in vivo. Among them, compound III-4 demonstrated exceptional inhibitory activity against the interaction of PD-1/PD-L1 and showed great binding affinity with hPD-L1, with an IC50 value of 2.9 nM and a KD value of 3.33 nM. In the co-culture of Hep3B/OS-8/hPD-L1 cells and CD3+ T cells assay, III-4 relieved the inhibition of PD-L1 on PD-1 and promoted the expression of IFN-γ, which shared a comparable effect to that of the PD-1 monoclonal antibody Pembrolizumab (5 µg/mL). Moreover, compound III-5, an ester prodrug derived from III-4, demonstrated significant antitumor effects in the hPD-L1-MC38 C57BL/6 mouse model (TGI: 49.6 %) by oral administration. These findings suggest that compound III-5 holds promise as an inhibitor of the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction for cancer immunotherapy.

Association between prenatal exposure to alkylphenols and intelligence quotient among preschool children: sex-specific effects.

BACKGROUND: While prenatal exposure to alkylphenols (APs) has been demonstrated to be associated with neurodevelopmental impairments in animals, the evidence from epidemiological studies remains limited and inconclusive. This study aimed to explore the link between AP exposure during pregnancy and the intelligence quotient (IQ) of preschool children. METHODS: A total of 221 mother-child pairs from the Guangxi Zhuang Birth Cohort were recruited. Nonylphenol (NP), 4-tert-octylphenol (4-T-OP), 4-n-nonylphenol (4-N-NP), and 4-n-octylphenol were measured in maternal serum in early pregnancy. Childhood IQ was evaluated by the Fourth Edition of Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of the Intelligence at 3 to 6 years of age. The impact of APs on childhood IQ were evaluated by generalized linear models (GLMs), restricted cubic spline (RCS), and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR). RESULTS: In GLMs, prenatal exposure to NP and the second tertile of 4-T-OP exhibited an inverse association with full-scale IQ (FSIQ) (ß = -2.38; 95% CI: -4.59, -0.16) and working memory index (WMI) (ß = -5.24; 95% CI: -9.58, -0.89), respectively. Prenatal exposure to the third tertile of 4-N-NP showed a positive association with the fluid reasoning index (ß = 4.95; 95% CI: 1.14, 8.77) in total children, as well as in girls when stratified by sex. A U-shaped relationship between maternal 4-T-OP and WMI was noted in total children and girls by RCS (all P nonlinear < 0.05). The combined effect primarily driven by NP, of maternal AP mixtures at concentrations above the 50th percentile exhibited an inverse trend on FSIQ in total children and girls in BKMR. CONCLUSIONS: Prenatal exposure to various APs affects IQ in preschool children, and there may be nonmonotonic and sex-specific effects. Further investigation across the population is required to elucidate the potential neurotoxic effects of APs.

High-efficiency fourth harmonic generation and polarization smoothing based on an orthogonal cascade of DKDP crystals: publisher's note.

This publisher's note corrects an error in Appl. Opt.63, 1411 (2024)APOPAI0003-693510.1364/AO.512229.

High-efficiency fourth harmonic generation and polarization smoothing based on an orthogonal cascade of DKDP crystals.

Because of the high efficiency of frequency conversion and beam-target coupling, a fourth harmonic (4ω) laser has a splendid application prospect in a high-power laser facility. The polarization smoothing (PS) crystal is preferably after the frequency conversion crystal to flexibly obtain the best uniformity illumination of the target. However, as a high irradiance 4ω laser beam propagates through the PS crystal, the transverse stimulated Raman scattering (TSRS) effect of the PS crystal will be stronger, resulting in significant energy dissipation and crystal damage. This paper proposes a novel, to the best of our knowledge, fourth harmonic generation (FHG) scheme based on an orthogonal cascade of the DKDP crystals. This orthogonal cascaded FHG (OC-FHG) scheme employs two cascaded FHG crystals with orthogonal optical axes, and the PS crystal is in the middle. The PS crystal can rotate the polarization direction of the 2ω laser by 90°, while the polarization direction of the 4ω laser is maintained to a great extent. This OC-FHG scheme realizes the FHG by two steps, and the laser intensity at the PS crystal cuts down nearly 50%. The output intensity of the 4ω laser can be increased from 1.8G W/c m 2 to about 3.6G W/c m 2 under the condition of effectively inhibiting the TSRS effect. Meanwhile, the output 4ω laser contains two orthogonal polarized beams realizing in-beam polarization smoothing instantaneously. In addition, the novel FHG scheme can also have a high conversion efficiency and bandwidth tolerance.

Discovery of novel dual Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) and Janus kinase 3 (JAK3) inhibitors as a promising strategy for rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronically systemic autoimmune disorder, which is related with various cellular signal pathways. Both BTK (Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase) and JAK3 (Janus Kinase 3) play important roles in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. Herein, we reported the discovery of dual BTK/JAK3 inhibitors through bioisosterism and computer-aided drug design based on the structure of BTK inhibitor ibrutinib. We reported the discovery of dual BTK/JAK3 inhibitors which are based on the structure of BTK inhibitor ibrutinib via the method of bioisosterism and computer-aided drug design) Most of the target compounds exhibited moderate to strong inhibitory activities against BTK and JAK3. Among them, compound XL-12 stood out as the most promising candidate targeting BTK and JAK3 with potent inhibitory activities (IC50 = 2.0 nM and IC50 = 14.0 nM respectively). In the in vivo studies, compound XL-12 (40 mg/kg) exhibited more potent antiarthritic activity than ibrutinib (10 mg/kg) in adjuvant arthritis (AA) rat model. Furthermore, compound XL-12 (LD50 > 1600 mg/kg) exerted improved safety compared with ibrutinib (LD50 = 750 mg/kg). These results indicated that compound XL-12, the dual BTK/JAK3 inhibitor, might be a potent drug candidate for the treatment of RA.

Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Potent and Selective Inhibitors of Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated and Rad3-Related (ATR) Kinase for the Efficient Treatment of Cancer.

Ataxia telangiectasia mutated and Rad3-related (ATR), a vital member of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-related kinase (PIKK) family, plays a critical role in the DNA damage response (DDR). Tumor cells with a loss of DDR function or defects in the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene are generally more dependent on ATR for survival, suggesting that ATR is an attractive anticancer drug target based on its synthetic lethality. Herein, we present a potent and highly selective ATR inhibitor, ZH-12 (IC50 = 0.0068 µM). It showed potent antitumor activity as a single agent or in combination with cisplatin in the human colorectal adenocarcinoma LoVo tumor xenograft mouse model. Overall, ZH-12 may be a promising ATR inhibitor based on the principle of synthetic lethality and deserves further in-depth study.

Discovery of novel potent covalent inhibitor-based EGFR degrader with excellent in vivo efficacy.

Although several Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors have been approved for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLC), acquired drug resistance and side effects largely encumbered their application in clinic. The emerging technology Proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) could be an alternative strategy to overcome these problems. Here, we reported the discovery of Dacomitinib-based EGFR degraders. Promising compound 13 can effectively induce degradation of EGFRdel19 with DC50 value of 3.57 nM in HCC-827 cells, but not to other EGFR mutant, wild-type EGFR protein and the same family receptors (HER2 and HER4). Of note, 13 is the first EGFR-PROTAC to evaluate antitumor effect in vivo, and exhibited excellent antitumor efficacy (TGI = 90%) at a dose of 30 mg/kg without causing observable toxic effects. The preliminary mechanism study demonstrated that 13 can efficiently induce EGFR protein degradation through ubiquitin proteasome pathway and inhibit phosphorylation of downstream pathways in vitro and in vivo, which indicated that 13 exerted antitumor effect by degradation of EGFR protein in tumor tissue. Overall, our study provided further evidence to validate EGFR-PROTACs as a promising strategy for lung cancer therapy.

Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel and Potent Protein Arginine Methyltransferases 5 Inhibitors for Cancer Therapy.

Protein arginine methyltransferases 5 (PRMT5) is a clinically promising epigenetic target that is upregulated in a variety of tumors. Currently, there are several PRMT5 inhibitors under preclinical or clinical development, however the established clinical inhibitors show favorable toxicity. Thus, it remains an unmet need to discover novel and structurally diverse PRMT5 inhibitors with characterized therapeutic utility. Herein, a series of tetrahydroisoquinoline (THIQ) derivatives were designed and synthesized as PRMT5 inhibitors using GSK-3326595 as the lead compound. Among them, compound 20 (IC50: 4.2 nM) exhibits more potent PRMT5 inhibitory activity than GSK-3326595 (IC50: 9.2 nM). In addition, compound 20 shows high anti-proliferative effects on MV-4-11 and MDA-MB-468 tumor cells and low cytotoxicity on AML-12 hepatocytes. Furthermore, compound 20 possesses acceptable pharmacokinetic profiles and displays considerable in vivo antitumor efficacy in a MV-4-11 xenograft model. Taken together, compound 20 is an antitumor compound worthy of further study.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel molecules as potent PARP-1 inhibitors.

Two series of novel compounds with inhibition activity against PARP-1 were designed and synthesized. All target compounds were evaluated for their PARP-1 inhibition activity, and compounds with high PARP-1 inhibition activity were selected to assess for cellular assays in vitro. Among them, compound II-4 displayed impressive results in both PARP-1 enzyme inhibition with IC50 value of 0.51 nM and anti-proliferation activity against HCT116 and HCC1937 cell lines with IC50 values of 6.62 nM and 12.65 nM, respectively. Also, II-4 exhibited good metabolic stability in vitro with t1/2 of 173.25 min and CLint of 0.04 mL/min/mg. Prediction of molecular properties and protein docking were applied to structure design. Our study provides potential lead compounds and design directions for the development of PARP-1 inhibitors.

Discovery of novel IDO1 inhibitors targeting the protein's apo form through scaffold hopping from holo-IDO1 inhibitor.

Immunomodulating enzyme IDO1 plays an important role in tumor immune resistance. Inhibiting IDO1 by small molecules with new mechanism of action is a potential strategy in IDO1 inhibitor development. Based on our urea derived compound originally binding with holo-IDO1, through scaffold hopping, a series of diisobutylaminophenyl hydroxyamidine compounds were designed. Unexpectedly, this novel class of IDO1 inhibitor does not target the holo form of IDO1 protein but displaces heme and binds to its apo form. Representative compound I-4 exhibits moderate potency with IC50 value of 0.44 µM in cell-based IDO1 assay, which has the potential to be developed for IDO1-related cancer treatment.

Discovery of Novel Small-Molecule Inhibitors of PD-1/PD-L1 Interaction via Structural Simplification Strategy.

Blockade of the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) interaction is currently the focus in the field of cancer immunotherapy, and so far, several monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have achieved encouraging outcomes in cancer treatment. Despite this achievement, mAbs-based therapies are struggling with limitations including poor tissue and tumor penetration, long half-life time, poor oral bioavailability, and expensive production costs, which prompted a shift towards the development of the small-molecule inhibitors of PD-1/PD-L1 pathways. Even though many small-molecule inhibitors targeting PD-1/PD-L1 interaction have been reported, their development lags behind the corresponding mAb, partly due to the challenges of developing drug-like small molecules. Herein, we report the discovery of a series of novel inhibitors targeting PD-1/PD-L1 interaction via structural simplification strategy by using BMS-1058 as a starting point. Among them, compound A9 stands out as the most promising candidate with excellent PD-L1 inhibitory activity (IC50 = 0.93 nM, LE = 0.43) and high binding affinity to hPD-L1 (KD = 3.64 nM, LE = 0.40). Furthermore, A9 can significantly promote the production of IFN-γ in a dose-dependent manner by rescuing PD-L1 mediated T-cell inhibition in Hep3B/OS-8/hPD-L1 and CD3-positive T cells co-culture assay. Taken together, these results suggest that A9 is a promising inhibitor of PD-1/PD-L1 interaction and is worthy for further study.

A Fluorogenic Trehalose Probe for Tracking Phagocytosed Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis (TB) disease is a global epidemic caused by the pathogenic Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Tools that can track the replication status of viable Mtb cells within macrophages are vital for the elucidation of host-pathogen interactions. Here, we present a cephalosphorinase-dependent green trehalose (CDG-Tre) fluorogenic probe that enables fluorescence labeling of single live Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) cells within macrophages at concentrations as low as 2 µM. CDG-Tre fluoresces upon activation by BlaC, the ß-lactamase uniquely expressed by Mtb, and the fluorescent product is subsequently incorporated within the bacterial cell wall via trehalose metabolic pathway. CDG-Tre showed high selectivity for mycobacteria over other clinically prevalent species in the Corynebacterineae suborder. The unique labeling strategy of BCG by CDG-Tre provides a versatile tool for tracking Mtb in both pre- and postphagocytosis and elucidating fundamental physiological and pathological processes related to the mycomembrane.

Resorcinarene Induced Assembly of Carotene and Lutein into Hierarchical Superstructures.

The manipulation of carotenoid-based hierarchical superstructures affords attractive properties that facilitate application in biology and photosynthesis. Here, tubular suprastructures formed from water-soluble amide-modified resorcinarene and ß-carotene were reported, whereas microsheets were formed when ß-carotene was replaced with lutein. These structures were characterized using various measurements, indicating the differences of binding sites between resorcinarene and ß-carotene/lutein. Subsequently, the assembly mechanism was described by calculating the formation energy of the assemblies.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of N-hydroxy-aminobenzyloxyarylamide analogues as novel selective κ opioid receptor antagonists.

Aminobenzyloxyarylamide derivatives 1a-i and 2a-t were designed and synthesized as novel selective κ opioid receptor (KOR) antagonists. The benzoyl amide moiety of LY2456302 was changed into N-hydroxybenzamide and benzisoxazole-3(2H)-one to investigate whether it could increase the binding affinity or selectivity for KOR. All target compounds were evaluated in radioligand binding assays for opioid receptor binding affinity. These efforts led to the identification of compound 1c (κ Ki = 179.9 nM), which exhibited high affinity for KOR. Moreover, the selectivity of KOR over MOR and DOR increased nearly 2-fold and 7-fold, respectively, compared with (±)LY2456302.

Discovery of novel nonpeptide small-molecule NRP1 antagonists: Virtual screening, molecular simulation and structural modification.

Multifaceted roles of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-neuropilin-1 (NRP1) interaction have been implicated in cancer, but reports on small-molecule inhibitors of VEGF-NRP1 interaction are scarce. Herein, we describe the identification of 1, a novel nonpeptide small-molecule NRP1 antagonist with moderate activity via structure-based virtual screening. Ensemble docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of 1 were carried out and an interesting binding model was obtained. We found that the "aromatic box" enclosed by Tyr297, Trp301 and Tyr353 of NRP1 is critical for NRP1-1 binding. Further structure modification of 1 based on the binding model derived from MD simulations resulted in the identification of 12a with significantly improved activity.

Discovery of deoxylimonin δ-lactam derivative with favorable anti-inflammation and antinociception efficacy from chemical modified limonin/deoxylimonin analogs.

Chemical modifications on the A ring of limonin (1) and deoxylimonin (2) afforded 28 structural characterized derivatives, which were firstly subjected to preliminary in vivo analgesic and anti-inflammatory screen by mice model. The most promising candidate, deoxylimonin analog II-B-2 (70 mg/kg) with 3,4-dimethoxyphenylethyl moiety substitued δ-lactam in the A ring, exhibited better analgesic activity than aspirin (200 mg/kg) and stronger anti-inflammatory efficacy than naproxen (150 mg/kg). Further in vivo evaluation confirmed its advantage over limonin and showed dose-response dependent manner, and follow-up research suggested that the anti-inflammatory effect of compound II-B-2 may be attributed to the downregulation of cyclooxygenase 2 expression and the suppression of prostaglandin E2 formation.

Discovery of Novel Dual Extracellular Regulated Protein Kinases (ERK) and Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase (PI3K) Inhibitors as a Promising Strategy for Cancer Therapy.

Concomitant inhibition of MAPK and PI3K signaling pathways has been recognized as a promising strategy for cancer therapy, which effectively overcomes the drug resistance of MAPK signaling pathway-related inhibitors. Herein, we report the scaffold-hopping generation of a series of 1H-pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine dual ERK/PI3K inhibitors. Compound 32d was the most promising candidate, with potent inhibitory activities against both ERK2 and PI3Kα which displays superior anti-proliferative profiles against HCT116 and HEC1B cancer cells. Meanwhile, compound 32d possessed acceptable pharmacokinetic profiles and showed more efficacious anti-tumor activity than GDDC-0980 and the corresponding drug combination (BVD-523 + GDDC-0980) in HCT-116 xenograft model, with a tumor growth inhibitory rate of 51% without causing observable toxic effects. All the results indicated that 32d was a highly effective anticancer compound and provided a promising basis for further optimization towards dual ERK/PI3K inhibitors.

Diode-side-pumped joule-level square-rod Nd:glass amplifier with 1†Hz repetition rate and ultrahigh gain.

An effective diode-side-pumped joule-level square-rod Nd:glass multipass amplifier with 1 Hz repetition rate is developed. A Pockels cell is used to extend the amplification-pass to twelve-pass. The linear depolarization compensation method and adaptive optics based wavefront aberration correction method are used to minimize the thermal effects. Combined with the relay-imaging technology and beam-shaping method, good beam quality is obtained. Under the small-signal gain of 3.23 and the input energy of 50 µJ, the output energy of 1 J and the net gain of 2×104 are realized. The effective energy-extraction efficiency in the whole aperture of Nd:glass rod is 12%. The total wavefront aberration is 1.1 µm (peak valley). The Strehl Ratio is 0.62, and 90% of far-field energy is concentrated in 3 times the diffraction limit. The near-field modulation index of twelve-pass amplification at 1 J is 1.4.