A novel FAK-degrading PROTAC molecule exhibited both anti-tumor activities and efficient MDR reversal effects.

FAK (focal adhesion kinase) is widely involved in cancer growth and drug resistance development. Thus, FAK inhibition has emerged as an effective strategy for tumor treatment both as a monotherapy or in combination with other treatments. But the current FAK inhibitors mainly concentrate on its kinase activity, overlooking the potential significance of FAK scaffold proteins. In this study we employed the PROTAC technology, and designed a novel PROTAC molecule F2 targeting FAK based on the FAK inhibitor IN10018. F2 exhibited potent inhibitory activities against 4T1, MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468 and MDA-MB-435 cells with IC50 values of 0.73, 1.09, 5.84 and 3.05 µM, respectively. On the other hand, F2 also remarkably reversed the multidrug resistance (MDR) in HCT8/T, A549/T and MCF-7/ADR cells. Both the effects of F2 were stronger than the FAK inhibitor IN10018. To our knowledge, F2 was the first reported FAK-targeted PROTAC molecule exhibiting reversing effects on chemotherapeutic drug resistance, and its highest reversal fold could reach 158 times. The anti-tumor and MDR-reversing effects of F2 might be based on its inhibition on AKT (protein kinase B, PKB) and ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinase) signaling pathways, as well as its impact on EMT (epithelial-mesenchymal transition). Furthermore, we found that F2 could reduce the protein level of P-gp in HCT8/T cells, thereby contributing to reverse drug resistance from another perspective. Our results will boost confidence in future research focusing on targeting FAK and encourage further investigation of PROTAC with potent in vivo effects.

An automated streamlined method for the therapeutic drug monitoring of digoxin based on the online-solid-phase extraction liquid chromatography tandem high-resolution mass spectrometry.

RATIONALE: Digoxin is widely used in the clinical treatment of cardiovascular diseases. However, due to its extremely narrow therapeutic window, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is vitally important. In consideration of the time-consuming and labor-intensive nature of the traditional techniques, an automated and efficient method was required for the clinical individualized TDM of digoxin. METHODS: An online solid-phase extraction liquid chromatography tandem high-resolution mass spectrometry (online-SPE-LC-HRMS) method was developed and applied for the determination of digoxin in plasma. The online SPE-LC steps included pretreatment and separation of plasma samples that were carried out using a Waters Oasis HLB cartridge and XBridge Shield RP18 column, respectively. A high-resolution Q Orbitrap mass spectrometer with targeted-selected ion monitoring in negative scan mode was applied to monitor formate-adduct ions [M + HCOO]- m/z 825.42781 for digoxin. RESULTS: Linearity was shown over the range 0.1-10 ng mL-1 for digoxin with correlation coefficients of R2 > 0.999. The lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) for digoxin was 0.1 ng mL-1 . Extraction recoveries ranged from 82.61% to 94.28% for digoxin. The intra- and inter-day precision values were < 5.53% with accuracy ranging from 84.97% to 96.75%. The total running time was 10 min for each sample. CONCLUSION: The established method displayed satisfactory recoveries, accuracy, precision, and stability, and successfully applied on the TDM of digoxin. This automated streamlined method provides a powerful tool to guide the individualized administration of digoxin, which is significant for the practice of precision medicine.

Development of an online solid-phase extraction-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis of oxcarbazepine and its active metabolite licarbazepine from plasma with a direct injection step.

We developed an online solid phase extraction procedure using a hydrophilic-lipophilic balance sorbent, with reversed-phase liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectroscopy for the determination of oxcarbazepine and its active metabolite licarbazepine in plasma samples. The analytes were detected using a high-resolution Q Orbitrap mass spectrometer with targeted-selected ion monitoring (t-SIM) in positive scan mode. Under the optimized conditions, the method was linear with R2 values >0.99. The method was linear from 0.008 to 2.000 µg mL-1 and the lower limit of quantification was 0.008 µg mL-1 for both oxcarbazepine and licarbazepine. Recoveries ranged from 92.34 to 104.27% and from matrix-matched samples from 94.26 to 104.19%. The intraday and interday precision RSD values were <9.13% with an associated accuracy of 92.71 to 104.06%. The total time for the one step online procedure was only 8 min. This method provides a direct and accurate measurement for therapeutic drug monitoring of oxcarbazepine and its active metabolite licarbazepine.