Synthesis of curcumin derivatives targeting androgen receptor for castration-resistant prostate cancer therapy

In this work, a series of curcumin derivatives (1a-1h, 2a-2g, and 3a-3c) were synthesized for the suppression of castration-resistant prostate cancer cells. All synthesized compounds were characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HRMS, and melting point. The in vitro cytotoxicity study shows that compounds 1a, 1e, 1f, 1h, 2g, 3a, and 3c display similar or enhanced cytotoxicity against 22Rv1 and C4-2 cells as compared to ASC-J9, other synthesized compounds display reduced cytotoxicity against 22Rv1 and C4-2 cells as compared to ASC-J9. Molecular docking simulation was performed to study the binding affinity and probable binding modes of the synthesized compounds with androgen receptor. The results show that all synthesized compounds exhibit higher cdocker interaction energies as compared to ASC-J9. Compounds 1h, 2g, and 3c not only show strong cytotoxicity against 22Rv1 and C4-2 cells but also exhibit high binding affinity with androgen receptor. In androgen receptor suppression study, compounds 1f and 2g show similar androgen receptor suppression effect as compared to ASC-J9 on C4-2 cells, compound 3c displays significantly enhanced AR suppression effect as compared to ASC-J9, 1f and 2g. Compounds 1a, 1e, 1f, 1h, 2g, 3a and 3c prepared in this work have significant potential for castration-resistant prostate cancer therapy.

Combinatorial approaches of nanotherapeutics for inflammatory pathway targeted therapy of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PC) is the most prevalent male urogenital cancer worldwide. PC patients presenting an advanced or metastatic cancer succumb to the disease, even after therapeutic interventions including radiotherapy, surgery, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), and chemotherapy. One of the hallmarks of PC is evading immune surveillance and chronic inflammation, which is a major challenge towards designing effective therapeutic formulations against PC. Chronic inflammation in PC is often characterized by tumor microenvironment alterations, epithelial-mesenchymal transition and extracellular matrix modifications. The inflammatory events are modulated by reactive nitrogen and oxygen species, inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Major signaling pathways in PC includes androgen receptor, PI3K and NF-κB pathways and targeting these inter-linked pathways poses a major therapeutic challenge. Notably, many conventional treatments are clinically unsuccessful, due to lack of targetability and poor bioavailability of the therapeutics, untoward toxicity and multidrug resistance. The past decade witnessed an advancement of nanotechnology as an excellent therapeutic paradigm for PC therapy. Modern nanovectorization strategies such as stimuli-responsive and active PC targeting carriers offer controlled release patterns and superior anti-cancer effects. The current review initially describes the classification, inflammatory triggers and major inflammatory pathways of PC, various PC treatment strategies and their limitations. Subsequently, recent advancement in combinatorial nanotherapeutic approaches, which target PC inflammatory pathways, and the mechanism of action are discussed. Besides, the current clinical status and prospects of PC homing nanovectorization, and major challenges to be addressed towards the advancement PC therapy are also addressed.

A review of the effects and molecular mechanisms of dimethylcurcumin (ASC-J9) on androgen receptor-related diseases

Dimethylcurcumin (ASC-J9) is a curcumin analogue capable of inhibiting prostate cancer cell proliferation. The mechanism is associated with the unique role of ASC-J9 in enhancing androgen receptor (AR) degradation. So far, ASC-J9 has been investigated in typical AR-associated diseases such as prostate cancer, benign prostatic hypertrophy, bladder cancer, renal diseases, liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cutaneous wound, spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy, ovarian cancer and melanoma, exhibiting great potentials in disease control. In this review, the effects and molecular mechanisms of ASC-J9 on various AR-associated diseases are summarized. Importantly, the effects of ASC-J9 and AR antagonists enzalutamide/bicalutamide on prostate cancer are compared in detail and crucial differences are highlighted. At last, the pharmacological effects of ASC-J9 are summarized and the future applications of ASC-J9 in AR-associated disease control are discussed.