Molecular Modeling, Synthesis, and Preliminary Biological Evaluation of Glutathione-S-Transferase Inhibitors as Potential Therapeutic Agents

Novel conjugates with dual suppression of glutathione S-transferases and tryptophan-2,3-dioxygenase activities for improving hepatocellular carcinoma therapy

Tryptophan-2,3-dioxygenase (TDO) is an immune checkpoint enzyme expressed in human tumors and involved in immune evasion and tumor tolerance. While glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are pharmacological targets for several cancer. Here we demonstrated the utility of NBDHEX (GSTs inhibitor) and TDO inhibitor by the combinatorial linker design. Two novel conjugates with different linkers were prepared to reverse tumor immune suppression. The conjugates displayed significant antitumor activity against TDO and GSTs expression of HepG2 cancer cells. Further study indicated that compound 4 could induce higher apoptotic effect than its mother compounds via a mitochondrial-dependent pathway, simultaneously more effective to inhibit TDO and GSTs protein expression. Further study indicated that 4 could decrease the production of kynurenine and deactivate aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), leading to CD3⁺T-cell activation and proliferation to involve in antitumor immune response.

Defining regional infusion treatment strategies for extremity melanoma: comparative analysis of melphalan and temozolomide as regional chemotherapeutic agents

Five different human melanoma xenografts were used in a xenograft model of extremity melanoma to evaluate the variability of tumor response to regionally administered melphalan or temozolomide and to determine if various components of pertinent drug resistance pathways for melphalan [glutathione S-transferase (GST)/glutathione] and temozolomide [O(6)-alkylguanine DNA alkyltranferase (AGT)/mismatch repair (MMR)] could be predictive of tumor response. Xenograft-bearing rats underwent regional isolated limb infusion with either melphalan (90 mg/kg) or temozolomide (2,000 mg/kg). The levels of AGT activity, GST activity, glutathione level, and GST/AGT expression were examined in this group of xenografts and found to be quite heterogeneous. No correlation was identified between melphalan sensitivity and the GST/glutathione cellular detoxification pathway. In contrast, a strong correlation between the levels of AGT activity and percentage increase in tumor volume on day 30 (r = 0.88) was noted for tumors treated with temozolomide. Regional therapy with temozolomide was more effective when compared with melphalan for the xenograft with the lowest AGT activity, whereas melphalan was more effective than temozolomide in another xenograft that had the highest AGT activity. In three other xenografts, there was no significant difference in response between the two chemotherapy agents. This study shows that AGT activity may be useful in predicting the utility of temozolomide-based regional therapy for advanced extremity melanoma tumors. Our observations also point out the limited ability of analysis of the GST/glutathione pathway to predict response to chemotherapies like melphalan whose resistance is primarily mediated through a complex mechanism of detoxification.

Synthesis, characterization, and application of chiral ionic liquids and their polymers in micellar electrokinetic chromatography

Two amino acid-derived (leucinol and N-methylpyrrolidinol) chiral ionic liquids are synthesized and characterized in both monomeric and polymeric forms. Leucinol-based chiral cationic surfactant is a room-temperature ionic liquid, and pyrrolidinol-based chiral cationic surfactant melts at 30-35 degrees C to form an ionic liquid (IL). The monomeric and polymeric ILs are thoroughly characterized to determine critical micelle concentration, aggregation number, polarity, optical rotation, and partial specific volume. Herein, we present the first enantioseparation using chiral IL as a pseudostationary phase in capillary electrophoresis. Chiral separation of two acidic analytes, (+/-)-alpha-bromophenylacetic acid and (+/-)-2-(2-chlorophenoxy)propanoic acid (+/-)-(2-PPA) can be achieved with both monomers and polymers of undecenoxycarbonyl-L-pryrrolidinol bromide (L-UCPB) and undecenoxycarbonyl-L-leucinol bromide (L-UCLB) at 25 mM surfactant concentration using phosphate buffer at pH 7.50. The chiral recognition seems to be facilitated by the extent of interaction of the acidic analytes with the cationic headgroup of chiral selectors. Polysodium N-undecenoxycarbonyl-L-leucine sulfate (poly-L-SUCLS) and polysodium N-undecenoxycarbonyl-L-leucinate (poly-L-SUCL) were compared at high and low pH for the enantioseparation of (+/-)-(2-PPA). At pH 7.5, poly-L-SUCLS, poly-L-SUCL, and (+/-)-(2-PPA) are negatively charged resulting in no enantioseparation. However, chiral separation was observed for (+/-)-(2-PPA) using poly-L-SUCLS at low pH (pH 2.00) at which the analyte is neutral. The comparison of chiral separation of anionic and cationic surfactants demonstrates that the electrostatic interaction between the acidic analyte and cationic micelle plays a profound role in enantioseparation.