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Wang Y, Cheng X, Liu X, Xu J, Wang L, Zhang S, Liu S, Peng T. Design and Synthesis of 3-(2 H-Chromen-3-yl)-5-aryl-1,2,4-oxadiazole Derivatives as Novel Toll-like Receptor 2/1 Agonists That Inhibit Lung Cancer In Vitro and In Vivo. J Med Chem 2024. [PMID: 38498304 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c01984] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/20/2024]
Abstract
Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2 is a transmembrane receptor that participates in the innate immune response by forming a heterodimer with TLR1 or TLR6. TLR2 agonists play an important role in tumor therapy. Herein, we synthesized a series of 3-(2H-chromen-3-yl)-5-aryl-1,2,4-oxadiazole derivatives and identified WYJ-2 as a potent small and selective molecule agonist of TLR2/1, with an EC50 of 18.57 ± 0.98 nM in human TLR2 and TLR1 transient-cotransfected HEK 293T cells. WYJ-2 promoted the formation of TLR2/1 heterodimers and activated the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathway. Moreover, our study indicated that WYJ-2 could induce pyroptosis in cancer cells, mediated by activating the NOD-like receptor pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome. WYJ-2 exhibited effective anti-non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) activity in vitro and in vivo. The discovery that activating TLR2/1 induces pyroptosis in cancer cells may highlight the prospects of TLR2/1 agonists in cancer treatment in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yijie Wang
- Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, 27 Taiping Road, Beijing 100850, P. R. China
| | - Xu Cheng
- Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, 27 Taiping Road, Beijing 100850, P. R. China
| | - Xinru Liu
- Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, 27 Taiping Road, Beijing 100850, P. R. China
| | - Jing Xu
- Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, 27 Taiping Road, Beijing 100850, P. R. China
| | - Lin Wang
- Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, 27 Taiping Road, Beijing 100850, P. R. China
| | - Shouguo Zhang
- Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, 27 Taiping Road, Beijing 100850, P. R. China
| | - Shuchen Liu
- Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, 27 Taiping Road, Beijing 100850, P. R. China
| | - Tao Peng
- Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, 27 Taiping Road, Beijing 100850, P. R. China
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Liang Y, Zheng Y, Yang J, Ke J, Cheng K. Design, synthesis and bioactivity evaluation of a series of quinazolinone derivatives as potent PI3Kγ antagonist. Bioorg Med Chem 2023; 84:117261. [PMID: 37011446 DOI: 10.1016/j.bmc.2023.117261] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2022] [Revised: 03/17/2023] [Accepted: 03/24/2023] [Indexed: 04/05/2023]
Abstract
Targeting PI3Kγ would be a useful strategy for treating inflammatory and cancer diseases. However, the development of selective inhibitors of PI3Kγ is very challenging due to the high structural and sequence homology with other PI3K isoforms. A series of quinazolinone derivatives were designed, synthesized and biologically evaluated as PI3Kγ-selective inhibitors. Among all the 28 compounds, compound 9b was found to be the most potent selective inhibitor with IC50 values of 13.11 nM against PI3Kγ kinase. Additionally, compound 9b could generate toxicity on leukemia cells in a panel of 12 different of cancer cell lines with the IC50 value of 2.41 ± 0.11 μM on Jurkat cell. Preliminary mechanism studies indicated that compound 9b through inhibit the activity of PI3K-AKT in human and murine leukemia cells, and activated phosphorylated p38 and phosphorylated ERK presented potent antiproliferative activity, which provided a potent small molecule for further cancer therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuqing Liang
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Yanjun Zheng
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Junjie Yang
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Jiahua Ke
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Kui Cheng
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China.
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Identification and immunological evaluation of novel TLR2 agonists through structural optimization of Diprovocim. Eur J Med Chem 2022; 243:114771. [PMID: 36174413 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2022.114771] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2022] [Revised: 09/09/2022] [Accepted: 09/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
As an important family member of Toll-like receptors (TLRs), TLR2 can recognize various pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) such as bacteria and viral components. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that TLR2 agonists play a critical role in cancer immunotherapy and infectious diseases. Diprovocim is the most potent small molecule TLR2 agonist known, showing remarkably immune adjuvant activity in mice. However, the further clinical research and development of Diprovocim was hampered because of its structural complexity as well as high molecular weight. Here, we designed and synthesized 21 structurally simplified derivatives of Diprovocim, performed their TLR2 agonistic activities by HEK-Blue hTLR2 SEAP assay, and evaluated the toxicity in two human normal cell lines. Compounds B3-B4 and B9-B12 with excellent TLR2 agonistic activity were found through the structure-activity relationship study. Among them, diastereomer B10 and B12 substituted (S)-2-phenylcyclopropylamide side chain of Diprovocim with simple (R)- and (S)-n-butyl groups exhibited comparable TLR2 agonistic activities with EC50 values of 35 nM and 39 nM, respectively. ELISA and western blot experiments on THP-1 cells showed that B10 and B12 displayed remarkable immunostimulatory activity in the release of various inflammatory cytokines through activating MyD88-dependent NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways. Importantly, B10 and B12 have less structural complexity and better safety compared to Diprovocim, and the chiral center of right pyrrolidine ring has negligible influence on TLR2 activition. Our study provides simplified Diprovocim derivatives with high agonistic activity, providing a clue to further optimize Diprovocim.
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Chen Z, Zhang L, Yang J, Zheng L, Hu F, Duan S, Nandakumar KS, Liu S, Yin H, Cheng K. Design, Synthesis, and Structure-Activity Relationship of N-Aryl- N'-(thiophen-2-yl)thiourea Derivatives as Novel and Specific Human TLR1/2 Agonists for Potential Cancer Immunotherapy. J Med Chem 2021; 64:7371-7389. [PMID: 34029463 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c02266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
The previous virtual screening of ten million compounds yielded two novel nonlipopeptide-like chemotypes as TLR2 agonists. Herein, we present the chemical optimization of our initial hit, 1-phenyl-3-(thiophen-2-yl)urea, which resulted in the identification of SMU-C80 (EC50 = 31.02 ± 1.01 nM) as a TLR2-specific agonist with a 370-fold improvement in bioactivity. Mechanistic studies revealed that SMU-C80, through TLR1/2, recruits the adaptor protein MyD88 and triggers the NF-κB pathway to release cytokines such as TNF-α and IL-1β from human, but not murine, cells. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first species-specific TLR1/2 agonist reported until now. Moreover, SMU-C80 increased the percentage of T, B, and NK cells ex vivo and activated the immune cells, which suppressed cancer cell growth in vitro. In summary, we obtained a highly efficient and specific human TLR1/2 agonist that acts through the MyD88 and NF-κB pathway, facilitating cytokine release and the simultaneous activation of immune cells that in turn affects the apoptosis of cancer cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhipeng Chen
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Lina Zhang
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Junjie Yang
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Lu Zheng
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Fanjie Hu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Siqin Duan
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Kutty Selva Nandakumar
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Shuwen Liu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Hang Yin
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.,Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology, Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Kui Cheng
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Drug Research for Emerging Virus Prevention and Treatment, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
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Kaur A, Kaushik D, Piplani S, Mehta SK, Petrovsky N, Salunke DB. TLR2 Agonistic Small Molecules: Detailed Structure-Activity Relationship, Applications, and Future Prospects. J Med Chem 2020; 64:233-278. [PMID: 33346636 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c01627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are the pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) in microbial species. Among the various TLRs, TLR2 has a special place due to its ability to sense the widest repertoire of PAMPs owing to its heterodimerization with either TLR1 or TLR6, broadening its ligand diversity against pathogens. Various scaffolds are reported to activate TLR2, which include naturally occurring lipoproteins, synthetic lipopeptides, and small heterocyclic molecules. We described a detailed SAR in TLR2 agonistic scaffolds and also covered the design and chemistry for the conjugation of TLR2 agonists to antigens, carbohydrates, polymers, and fluorophores. The approaches involved in delivery of TLR2 agonists such as lipidation of antigen, conjugation to polymers, phosphonic acids, and other linkers to achieve surface adsorption, liposomal formulation, and encapsulating nanoparticles are elaborated. The crystal structure analysis and computational modeling are also included with the structural features that facilitate TLR2 activation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arshpreet Kaur
- Department of Chemistry and Centre of Advanced Studies in Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
| | - Deepender Kaushik
- Department of Chemistry and Centre of Advanced Studies in Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
| | - Sakshi Piplani
- Vaxine Pty Ltd, 11 Walkley Avenue, Warradale, Australia 5046.,College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Bedford Park, Australia, 5042
| | - Surinder K Mehta
- Department of Chemistry and Centre of Advanced Studies in Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
| | - Nikolai Petrovsky
- Vaxine Pty Ltd, 11 Walkley Avenue, Warradale, Australia 5046.,College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Bedford Park, Australia, 5042
| | - Deepak B Salunke
- Department of Chemistry and Centre of Advanced Studies in Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India.,National Interdisciplinary Centre of Vaccine, Immunotherapeutics and Antimicrobials, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
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Bermudez M, Grabowski M, Murgueitio MS, Tiemann M, Varga P, Rudolf T, Wolber G, Weindl G, Rademann J. Biological Characterization, Mechanistic Investigation and Structure-Activity Relationships of Chemically Stable TLR2 Antagonists. ChemMedChem 2020; 15:1364-1371. [PMID: 32333508 PMCID: PMC7496872 DOI: 10.1002/cmdc.202000060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Revised: 04/17/2020] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) build the first barrier in the innate immune response and therefore represent promising targets for the modulation of inflammatory processes. Recently, the pyrogallol-containing TLR2 antagonists CU-CPT22 and MMG-11 were reported; however, their 1,2,3-triphenol motif renders them highly susceptible to oxidation and excludes them from use in extended experiments under aerobic conditions. Therefore, we have developed a set of novel TLR2 antagonists (1-9) based on the systematic variation of substructures, linker elements, and the hydrogen-bonding pattern of the pyrogallol precursors by using chemically robust building blocks. The novel series of chemically stable and synthetically accessible TLR2 antagonists (1-9) was pharmacologically characterized, and the potential binding modes of the active compounds were evaluated structurally. Our results provide new insights into structure-activity relationships and allow rationalization of structural binding characteristics. Moreover, they support the hypothesis that this class of TLR ligands bind solely to TLR2 and do not directly interact with TLR1 or TLR6 of the functional heterodimer. The most active compound from this series (6), is chemically stable, nontoxic, TLR2-selective, and shows a similar activity with regard to the pyrogallol starting points, thus indicating the variability of the hydrogen bonding pattern.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcel Bermudez
- Institute of Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry)Freie Universität BerlinKönigin-Luise-Strasse 2+414195BerlinGermany
| | - Maria Grabowski
- Institute of Pharmacy (Pharmacology and Toxicology)Freie Universität BerlinKönigin-Luise-Strasse 2+414195BerlinGermany
| | - Manuela S. Murgueitio
- Institute of Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry)Freie Universität BerlinKönigin-Luise-Strasse 2+414195BerlinGermany
| | - Markus Tiemann
- Institute of Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry)Freie Universität BerlinKönigin-Luise-Strasse 2+414195BerlinGermany
| | - Péter Varga
- Institute of Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry)Freie Universität BerlinKönigin-Luise-Strasse 2+414195BerlinGermany
| | - Thomas Rudolf
- Institute of Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry)Freie Universität BerlinKönigin-Luise-Strasse 2+414195BerlinGermany
| | - Gerhard Wolber
- Institute of Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry)Freie Universität BerlinKönigin-Luise-Strasse 2+414195BerlinGermany
| | - Günther Weindl
- Institute of Pharmacy (Pharmacology and Toxicology)Freie Universität BerlinKönigin-Luise-Strasse 2+414195BerlinGermany
- Section Pharmacology and ToxicologyPharmaceutical InstituteUniversität BonnGerhard-Domagk-Strasse 353121BonnGermany
| | - Jörg Rademann
- Institute of Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry)Freie Universität BerlinKönigin-Luise-Strasse 2+414195BerlinGermany
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Bi J, Wang W, Du J, Chen K, Cheng K. Structure-activity relationship study and biological evaluation of SAC-Garlic acid conjugates as novel anti-inflammatory agents. Eur J Med Chem 2019; 179:233-245. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2019.06.059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2019] [Revised: 06/17/2019] [Accepted: 06/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
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