RESUMO
A benzo[6]annulene, 4-(tert-butyl)-N-(3-methoxy-5,6,7,8-tetrahydronaphthalen-2-yl) benzamide (1a), was identified as an inhibitor against Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) with antiviral activity EC90 = 1.45 µM and viral titer reduction (VTR) of 2.5 log at 10 µM with no observed cytotoxicity (CC50 = 169 µM) in normal human dermal fibroblast cells. Chemistry efforts to improve potency, efficacy, and drug-like properties of 1a resulted in a novel lead compound 8q, which possessed excellent cellular antiviral activity (EC90 = 270 nM and VTR of 4.5 log at 10 µM) and improved liver microsomal stability. CHIKV resistance to an analog of 1a, compound 1c, tracked to a mutation in the nsP3 macrodomain. Further mechanism of action studies showed compounds working through inhibition of human dihydroorotate dehydrogenase in addition to CHIKV nsP3 macrodomain. Moderate efficacy was observed in an in vivo CHIKV challenge mouse model for compound 8q as viral replication was rescued from the pyrimidine salvage pathway.
Assuntos
Antivirais/farmacologia , Derivados de Benzeno/química , Vírus Chikungunya/fisiologia , Replicação Viral/efeitos dos fármacos , Animais , Antivirais/química , Antivirais/farmacocinética , Antivirais/uso terapêutico , Derivados de Benzeno/metabolismo , Derivados de Benzeno/farmacologia , Derivados de Benzeno/uso terapêutico , Sítios de Ligação , Linhagem Celular , Sobrevivência Celular/efeitos dos fármacos , Febre de Chikungunya/tratamento farmacológico , Di-Hidro-Orotato Desidrogenase , Modelos Animais de Doenças , Feminino , Meia-Vida , Humanos , Masculino , Camundongos , Camundongos Endogâmicos C57BL , Microssomos Hepáticos/metabolismo , Simulação de Acoplamento Molecular , Oxirredutases atuantes sobre Doadores de Grupo CH-CH/antagonistas & inibidores , Oxirredutases atuantes sobre Doadores de Grupo CH-CH/metabolismo , Relação Estrutura-AtividadeRESUMO
Non-melanoma skin cancer is one of the major ailments in the United States. Effective drugs that can cure skin cancers are limited. Moreover, the available drugs have toxic side effects. Therefore, skin cancer drugs with less toxic side effects are urgently needed. To achieve this goal, we focused our work on identifying potent lead compounds from marine natural products. Five lead compounds identified from a class of pyrroloiminoquinone natural products were evaluated for their ability to selectively kill squamous cell carcinoma (SCC13) skin cancer cells using an MTT assay. The toxicity of these compounds was also evaluated against the normal human keratinocyte HaCaT cell line. The most potent compound identified from these studies, C278 was further evaluated for its ability to inhibit cancer cell migration and invasion using a wound-healing assay and a trans-well migration assay, respectively. To investigate the molecular mechanism of cell death, the expression of apoptotic and autophagy proteins was studied in C278 treated cells compared to untreated cells using western blot. Our results showed that all five compounds effectively killed the SCC13 cells, with compound C278 being the most effective. Compound C278 was more effective in killing the SCC13 cells compared to HaCaT cells with a two-fold selectivity. The migration and the invasion of the SCC13 cells were also inhibited upon treatment with compound C278. The expression of pro-apoptotic and autophagy proteins with concomitant downregulation in the expression of survival proteins were observed in C278 treated cells. In summary, the marine natural product analog compound C278 showed promising anticancer activity against human skin cancer cells and holds potential to be developed as an effective anticancer agent to combat skin cancer.
