Targeting HSP47 for cancer treatment.

Heat shock protein 47 (HSP47) serves as an endoplasmic reticulum residing collagen-specific chaperone and plays an important role in collagen biosynthesis and structural assembly. HSP47 is encoded by the SERPINH1 gene, which is located on chromosome 11q13.5, one of the most frequently amplified regions in human cancers. The expression of HSP47 is regulated by multiple cellular factors, including cytokines, transcription factors, microRNAs, and circular RNAs. HSP47 is frequently upregulated in a variety of cancers and plays an important role in tumor progression. HSP47 promotes tumor stemness, angiogenesis, growth, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and metastatic capacity. HSP47 also regulates the efficacy of tumor therapies, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy. Inhibition of HSP47 expression has antitumor effects, suggesting that targeting HSP47 is a feasible strategy for cancer treatment. In this review, we highlight the function and expression of regulatory mechanisms of HSP47 in cancer progression and point out the potential development of therapeutic strategies in targeting HSP47 in the future.

MitoCur-1 induces ferroptosis to reverse vemurafenib resistance in melanoma through inhibition of USP14.

Melanoma is an aggressive malignant tumor with a poor prognosis. Vemurafenib (PLX4032, vem) is applied to specifically treat BRAF V600E-mutated melanoma patients. However, prolonged usage of vem makes patients resistant to the drug and finally leads to clinical failure. We previously tested the combination regimen of tubulin inhibitor VERU-111 with vem, as well as USP14 selective inhibitor b-AP15 in combination with vem, both of which have showed profound therapeutic effects in overcoming vem resistance in vitro and in vivo. Most importantly, we discovered that vem-resistant melanoma cell lines highly expressed E3 ligase SKP2 and DUB enzyme USP14, and we have demonstrated that USP14 directly interacts and stabilizes SKP2, which contributes to vem resistance. These works give us a clue that USP14 might be a promising target to overcome vem resistance in melanoma. MitoCur-1 is a curcumin derivative, which was originally designed to specifically target tumor mitochondria inducing redox imbalance, thereby promoting tumor cell death. In this study, we have demonstrated that it can work as a novel USP14 inhibitor, and thus bears great potential in providing an anti-tumor effect and sensitizing vem-resistant cells by inducing ferroptosis in melanoma. Application of MitoCur-1 dramatically induces USP14 inhibition and inactivation of GPX4 enzyme, meanwhile, increases the depletion of GSH and decreases SLC7A11 expression level. As a result, ferrous iron-dependent lipid ROS accumulated in the cell, inducing ferroptosis, thus sensitizes the vem-resistant melanoma cell. Interestingly, overexpression of USP14 antagonized all the ferroptosis cascade events induced by MitoCur-1, therefore, we conclude that MitoCur-1 induces ferroptosis through inhibition of USP14. We believe that by inhibition of USP14, vem resistance can be reversed and will finally benefit melanoma patients in future.

A dual-channel fluorescence probe for simultaneously visualizing cysteine and viscosity during drug-induced hepatotoxicity.

Cysteine (Cys), one of the important participants in protecting cells from oxidative stress, is closely associated with the occurrence and development of various diseases. Moreover, cell viscosity as a pivotal microenvironmental parameter has recently attracted increasing attention due to its dominant role in governing intracellular signal transduction and diffusion of reactive metabolites. Thus, simultaneous detection of Cys and viscosity is imperative for investigating their pathophysiological functions and cross-link. Herein we present a mitochondria-targetable dual-channel fluorescence probe ABDSP by grafting the acrylate modified pyridinium unit to dimethylaminobenzene. Whilst the probe is a seemingly simple, it could simultaneously discriminate Cys and viscosity in a fashion of distinguishable signals. Furthermore, the probe was successfully employed for visualizing mitochondrial Cys and viscosity, and probe into their cross-link during acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity.

Cellular and Intravital Imaging of NAD(P)H by a Red-Emitting Quinolinium-Based Fluorescent Probe that Features a Shift of Its Product from Mitochondria to the Nucleus.

NAD(P)H is a vital hydrogen donor and electron carrier involved in numerous biological processes. The development of small-molecule tools for intravital imaging of NAD(P)H is significant for further exploring their pathophysiological roles. Herein, we rationally designed a fluorescent probe NADH-R by a simple graft of pyridiniumylbutenenitrile on a 1-methylquinolinium moiety in the 3-position. Benefited from the reduction of quinolinium by NAD(P)H, this probe releases the free push-pull fluorophore NADH-RH, allowing a turn-on red-emitting fluorescence response together with an ultralow detection limit of 12 nM. Under the assistance of the probe, we first monitored exogenous and endogenous generation of NAD(P)H in living cells, subsequently observed dynamic changes of NAD(P)H levels in living cells under different metabolic perturbations, and finally visualized the declined NAD(P)H levels in live mouse brain in a stroke model. Unexpectedly, the time-dependent colocalization experiment revealed that the probe reacts with mitochondrial NAD(P)H, followed by a shift of its reduced product NADH-RH from mitochondria to the nucleus, highlighting that NADH-RH is a novel nucleus-directed dye scaffold, which would facilitate the development of nucleus-targeting fluorescent probes and drugs.

Michael acceptor-dependent pro-oxidative intervention against angiogenesis by [6]-dehydroshogaol, a pungent constituent of ginger.

Accumulating evidence suggests that ginger and its pungent constituents harbor a wealth of biological activities including cancer chemopreventive activity. However, relatively few researches focus on [6]-dehydroshogaol (6-DHS) compared with other ginger pungent constituents such as [6]-shogaol (6S). In this work, we selected three ginger compounds, 6-DHS, 6S and [6]-paradol (6P) differentiated by the presence and number of the Michael acceptor units, to probe structural basis and mechanism of 6-DHS in inhibiting angiogenesis, a key step for tumor growth and metastasis. It was found that their antiangiogenic activity is significantly dependent on the presence and number of Michael acceptor units. Benefiting from its two Michael acceptor units, 6-DHS is the most potent inhibitor of thioredoxin reductase and depletor of glutathione, thereby being the most active generator of reactive oxygen species, which is responsible for its strongest ability to inhibit angiogenesis. This work highlights 6-DHS being a Michael acceptor-dependent pro-oxidative angiogenesis inhibitor.

Fast Imaging of Mitochondrial Thioredoxin Reductase Using a Styrylpyridinium-Based Two-Photon Ratiometric Fluorescent Probe.

Thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) is a pivotal antioxidant enzyme, but there remains a challenge for its fast imaging. This work describes the combination of a hydroxyl styrylpyridinium scaffold as the push-pull fluorophore with a carbonate-bridged 1,2-dithiolane unit as the reaction site to develop a fast mitochondrial TrxR2 probe, DSMP. It manifested a plethora of excellent properties including a rapid specific response (12 min), large Stokes shift (170 nm), ratiometric two-photon imaging, favorable binding with TrxR (Km = 12.5 ± 0.2 µM), and the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. With the aid of DSMP, we visualized the increased mitochondrial TrxR2 activity in cancer cells compared to normal cells. This offers the direct imaging evidence of the connection between the increased TrxR2 activity and the development of cancer. Additionally, the probe allowed the visualization of the loss in TrxR2 activity in a cellular Parkinson's disease model and, more importantly, in mouse brain tissues of a middle cerebral artery occlusion model for ischemic stroke.

Redox-Based Strategy for Selectively Inducing Energy Crisis Inside Cancer Cells: An Example of Modifying Dietary Curcumin to Target Mitochondria.

Reprograming of energy metabolism is a major hallmark of cancer, but its effective intervention is still a challenging task due to metabolic heterogeneity and plasticity of cancer cells. Herein, we report a general redox-based strategy for meeting the challenge. The strategy was exemplified by a dietary curcumin analogue (MitoCur-1) that was designed to target mitochondria (MitoCur-1). By virtue of its electrophilic and mitochondrial-targeting properties, MitoCur-1 generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) more effectively and selectively in HepG2 cells than in L02 cells via the inhibition of mitochondrial antioxidative thioredoxin reductase 2 (TrxR2). The ROS generation preferentially mediated the energy crisis of HepG2 cells in a dual-inhibition fashion against both mitochondrial and glycolytic metabolisms, which could hit the metabolic plasticity of HepG2 cells. The ROS-dependent energy crisis also allowed its preferential killing of HepG2 cells (IC50 = 1.4 µM) over L02 cells (IC50 = 9.1 µM), via induction of cell-cycle arrest, apoptosis and autophagic death, and its high antitumor efficacy in vivo, in nude mice bearing HepG2 tumors (15 mg/kg). These results highlight that inhibiting mitochondrial TrxR2 to produce ROS by electrophiles is a promising redox-based strategy for the effective intervention of cancer cell energy metabolic reprograming.

Designing an ESIPT-based fluorescent probe for imaging of hydrogen peroxide during the ferroptosis process.

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), depending on its levels, plays a crucial role in either modulating various biological processes as a signal molecule, or mediating oxidative damage as a toxin. Therefore, monitoring intracellular H2O2 levels is pivotal for exploring its physiological and pathological roles. Using a modified 2-(2'-hydroxyphenyl) benzothiazole (HBT) as the fluorophore, and a pinacol phenylborate ester as the responsive group, herein we developed an excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT)-based probe BTFMB. The probe exhibited turn-on fluorescence response, large Stokes shift (162 nm) and low detection limit (109 nM) toward H2O2, and was successfully applied for monitoring exogenous and endogenous production of H2O2, and identifying accumulation of H2O2 during the ferroptosis process.

Inhibiting NF-κB-Mediated Inflammation by Catechol-Type Diphenylbutadiene via an Intracellular Copper- and Iron-Dependent Pro-Oxidative Role.

Chronic inflammation mediated by nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) plays a crucial role in the development of cancer. As part of our continuous efforts placed on investigating anticancer mechanisms of dietary catechols, we further applied catechol-type diphenylbutadiene (3,4-DHB) as a model molecule to probe whether it inhibits inflammation by its pro-oxidative role. Employing lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW264.7 cells as a model of inflammation, we validated that benefiting from its catechol moiety, 3,4-DHB inhibited significantly the LPS-induced formation of NO (11.48 ± 0.39 µM) compared with the only LPS-stimulated group (31.8 ± 1.78 µM) with an inhibitory rate of 64% at 5 µM, expression of iNOS and COX-2 proteins, phosphorylation of IkB kinase and IkBα, and nuclear translocation of NF-κB. Noticeably, its inhibitory activity against the NF-κB-mediated inflammation can be obviously revised by pretreatment of the cells with dithiothreitol (a quencher of both electrophilic o-quinone and ROS), neocuproine (a specific chelating agent for copper ions), and deferoxamine (a specific chelating agent for iron ions). The above results support that depending on intracellular copper and iron ions, 3,4-DHB, a pro-electrophile, can be converted into its corresponding o-quinone electrophile together with the generation of ROS, a pro-oxidative event that mediates its inhibitory activity against NF-κB signaling and inflammation. The copper- and iron-dependent inhibition against inflammation supports that dietary catechols are probably pro-oxidative anti-inflammatory agents.

Rational design of an ESIPT-based fluorescent probe for selectively monitoring glutathione in live cells and zebrafish.

Glutathione (GSH), an extremely important antioxidant, is a major participant in maintaining redox homeostasis and tightly associated with various clinical diseases. Thus, accurate and rapid detection of intracellular GSH is imperative to elucidate its role in physiological and pathological processes. Herein, by modifying 2-(2'-hydroxyphenyl) benzothiazole (HBT) scaffold, we developed an excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT)-based fluorescent probe BTFMD for tracking GSH, which exhibited good selectivity, excellent water solubility, a large Stokes shift (181 nm) and fast response rate (within 10 min). Furthermore, the probe was successfully applied for imaging of endogenous GSH in live cells and zebrafish, and probing into the role of GSH in the development of cancer and Parkinson's disease.

A promising redox cycle-based strategy for designing a catechol-type diphenylbutadiene as a potent prooxidative anti-melanoma agent.

Developing anti-melanoma agents with increased activity and specificity is highly desirable due to the increasing incidence, highly metastatic malignancy, and high mortality rate of melanoma. Abnormal redox characteristics such as higher levels of tyrosinase, NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase-1 (NQO1) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) observed in melanoma cells than in other cancer cells and normal cells illustrate their redox vulnerability and have opened a window for developing prooxidative anti-melanoma agents (PAAs) to target the vulnerability. However, how to design PAAs which promote selectively the ROS accumulation in melanoma cells remains a challenge. This work describes a promising redox cycle-based strategy for designing a catechol-type diphenylbutadiene as such type of PAA. This molecule is capable of constructing an efficient catalytic redox cycle with tyrosinase and NQO1 in melanoma B16F1 cells to induce selectively the ROS (mainly including hydrogen peroxide, H2O2) accumulation in the cells, resulting in highly selective suppression of melanoma B16F1 cells over tyrosinase-deficient HeLa and normal L-02 cells.

Designing dichlorobinaphthoquinone as a prooxidative anticancer agent based on hydrogen peroxide-responsive in situ production of hydroxyl radicals.

Compared with normal cells, cancer cells harbor increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) including hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and therefore are more vulnerable to further ROS production. This biochemical difference favors the idea of developing new powerful selective prooxidative anticancer agents. However, it still remains a challenge to design them by targeting this difference. Herein, we report the designed dichlorobinaphthoquinone as a prooxidative anticancer agent which is capable of exploiting increased levels of H2O2 of cancer cells to produce in situ lethal hydroxyl radicals (HO•) and thereby kill them selectively, a design strategy inspired from Zhu et al.'s work on the molecular mechanism for metal-independent production of HO•.

Applying an Electrophilicity-Based Strategy to Develop a Novel Nrf2 Activator Inspired from Dietary [6]-Shogaol.

Activation of nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a crucial cellular defense mechanisms against oxidative stress and also an effective means to decrease the risk of oxidative stress-related diseases including cancer. Thus, identifying novel Nrf2 activators is highly anticipated. Inspired from [6]-shogaol (6S), an active component of ginger, herein we developed a novel potent Nrf2 activator, (1E,4E)-1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-7-methylocta-1,4,6-trien-3-one (SA) by an electrophilicity-based strategy. Compared with the parent 6S, SA bearing a short but entirely conjugated unsaturated ketone chain manifested the improved electrophilicity and cytoprotection (cell viability for the 10 µM 6S- and SA-treated group being 48.9 ± 5.3% and 76.1 ± 3.2%, respectively) against tert-butylhydroperoxide ( t-BHP)-induced cell death (cell viability for the t-BHP-stimulated group being 42.4 ± 0.4%) of HepG2. Mechanistic study uncovers that SA works as a potent Nrf2 activator by inducing Keap1 modification, inhibiting Nrf2 ubiquitylation and phosphorylating ERK in a Michael acceptor-dependent fashion. Taking 6S as an example, this works illustrates the feasibility and importance of applying an electrophilicity-based strategy to develop Nrf2 activators with dietary molecules as an inspiration due to their low toxicity and extraordinarily diverse chemical scaffolds.