oxadiazoles and Colonic-Neoplasms

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) is the enzyme catalyzing the oxidative metabolism of tryptophan, which accounts for cancer immunosuppression in tumor microenvironment. Several compounds targeting IDO1 have been reported and epacadostat shows strong inhibitory activity against IDO1, which is further studied in clinic trails. However, its pharmacokinetic profiles are not satisfactory. The half-life of epacadostat is 2.4 h in human and dosage is 50 mg BID in the phase III clinic trial. To overcome the shortcomings of epacadostat, structure-based drug design was performed to improve the pharmacokinetic profiles via changing the metabolic pathway of epacadostat and to enhance anti-tumor potency. A novel series of 1,2,5-oxadiazole-3-carboximidamide derivatives bearing cycle in the side chain were designed, synthesized, and biologically evaluated for their anti-tumor activity. Most of them exhibited potent activity against hIDO1 in enzymatic assays and in HEK293T cells over-expressing hIDO1. Among them, compound 23, 25 and 26 showed significant inhibitory activity against hIDO1 (IC

Topics: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Apoptosis; CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes; Cell Proliferation; Colonic Neoplasms; Drug Design; Enzyme Inhibitors; Female; Humans; Indoleamine-Pyrrole 2,3,-Dioxygenase; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Nude; Molecular Structure; Oxadiazoles; Oximes; Sulfonamides; Tumor Cells, Cultured; Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Topics: Adenocarcinoma; Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Apoptosis; Caspase 3; Cell Line, Tumor; Colonic Neoplasms; Cyclic GMP; Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterases, Type 5; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; Drug Synergism; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Humans; Hypoxia; Male; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Nitroso Compounds; Oxadiazoles; Oxazines; Phosphodiesterase 5 Inhibitors; Plant Extracts; Reactive Oxygen Species; Serum Albumin, Human; Soluble Guanylyl Cyclase; Vardenafil Dihydrochloride

A series of 1,2,5-oxadiazoles were synthesized as new potential antiproliferative agents. The in vitro cytotoxic activity evaluation of title compounds through MTT assay revealed that some of them showed significant activity against the HCT-116 cancer cell line. The field-based disparity analysis provided indications about the electrostatic, hydrophobic, and shape features underlying the cytotoxicity, suggesting that increasing the negative electrostatic field on the heterocyclic core of the structure has positive effects on the activity. The structure-activity relationships (SAR) around a particular compound can be explained allowing for a structural rationale for the differences in activity. The SAR provided by this series of compounds can be exploited to carry out further lead optimization.

Topics: Antineoplastic Agents; Cell Proliferation; Colonic Neoplasms; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; HCT116 Cells; Humans; Models, Molecular; Oxadiazoles; Structure-Activity Relationship

A lead compound A was identified previously as an stearoyl coenzyme A desaturase (SCD) inhibitor during research on potential treatments for obesity. This compound showed high SCD1 binding affinity, but a poor pharmacokinetic (PK) profile and limited chemical accessibility, making it suboptimal for use in anticancer research. To identify potent SCD1 inhibitors with more promising PK profiles, we newly designed a series of 'non-spiro' 4, 4-disubstituted piperidine derivatives based on molecular modeling studies. As a result, we discovered compound 1a, which retained moderate SCD1 binding affinity. Optimization around 1a was accelerated by analyzing Hansch-Fujita and Hammett constants to obtain 4-phenyl-4-(trifluoromethyl)piperidine derivative 1n. Fine-tuning of the azole moiety of 1n led to compound 1o (T-3764518), which retained nanomolar affinity and exhibited an excellent PK profile. Reflecting the good potency and PK profile, orally administrated compound 1o showed significant pharmacodynamic (PD) marker reduction (at 0.3mg/kg, bid) in HCT116 mouse xenograft model and tumor growth suppression (at 1mg/kg, bid) in 786-O mouse xenograft model. In conclusion, we identified a new series of SCD1 inhibitors, represented by compound 1o, which represents a promising new chemical tool suitable for the study of SCD1 biology as well as the potential development of novel anticancer therapies.

Topics: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Colonic Neoplasms; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; Enzyme Inhibitors; HCT116 Cells; Humans; Inhibitory Concentration 50; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Nude; Microsomes, Liver; Oxadiazoles; Piperidines; Protein Binding; Pyridazines; Spiro Compounds; Stearoyl-CoA Desaturase; Structure-Activity Relationship; Transplantation, Heterologous

Furoxans, or 1,2,5-oxadiazole-N-oxides, are a class of nitric oxide (NO)-donating compounds that release NO in response to thiol-containing molecules. In this study, polymeric micelles bearing furoxan moieties are prepared from an amphiphilic block copolymer consisting of a hydrophobic furoxan-bearing block and a hydrophilic poly(N-acryloylmorpholine) block. The block copolymer is prepared using a combination of the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization and the copper-catalyzed Huisgen cycloaddition techniques. The block copolymers form spherical micelles with a diameter of 50 nm by self-assembly in water. The micelles release NO in response to cysteine and show improved stability against hydrolytic decomposition. Furthermore, the micelles show a synergistic anti-proliferative effect with ibuprofen in human colon cancer cells.

Topics: Cell Line, Tumor; Colonic Neoplasms; Drug Carriers; Humans; Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; Ibuprofen; Micelles; Nitric Oxide; Oxadiazoles; Polymers

This study investigated the in vitro and in vivo antitumor effects of 5-[2,3-Dichloro-4-(2-methylene-1-oxobutyl) phenoxymethyl]-3-methyl-1,2,4- oxadiazole (6r), a novel ethacrynic acid (EA) derivative. The in vitro effect of 6r on cell proliferation of human colon, leukemia, prostate, lung, breast, ovarian and cervical tumor cell lines was assessed using MTT assay and the in vivo effect was determined with an SW620 xenografts nude mice model. The effect of 6r on expressions of GST P1-1 and apoptosis-related proteins were measured by western blotting and the effect on cell apoptosis was analysed by Hoechst 33258 nuclear staining as well as by cell surface staining of annexin V/propidium iodide. The effect on cell cycle was assessed by flow cytometry. Results showed that 6r inhibit proliferation of a range of human cancer cells in vitro and growth of SW620 tumor xenografts in vivo. The anti-proliferative effect of 6r is associated with cell apoptosis as a result of increased ratio of cellular Bax/bcl-2 expression and subsequent cytochrome-c and caspase-3 activation. Unlike EA, 6r did not show any influence on cellular GST P1-1 expression and its anti-proliferative action was associated with cell cycle arrest in G1/S-phase. In conclusion, 6r has the potential to be developed as a chemotherapeutic agent by induction of cell apoptosis but not regulating GST P1-1.

Topics: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Apoptosis; Blotting, Western; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Proliferation; Colonic Neoplasms; Female; Flow Cytometry; G1 Phase Cell Cycle Checkpoints; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Glutathione S-Transferase pi; Humans; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Nude; Neoplasms; Oxadiazoles; S Phase Cell Cycle Checkpoints; Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is a protein constitutively activated by aberrant upstream tyrosine kinase activities in a broad spectrum of human solid and blood tumors. Therefore, the availability of drugs affecting STAT3 may have important therapeutic potential for the treatment of cancer. Pursuing our efforts in exploring the influence of the substitution pattern of the ureido 1,2,5-oxadiazole moiety on the molecular conformation, new compounds substituted at positions 3 and 4 on the furazane ring were synthesized. The inhibition properties vs. STAT3 of the novel compounds were evaluated in a dual-luciferase assay, using HCT-116 cells, and the results evidenced a moderate activity only for the compounds endowed with a planar arrangement. Crystallographic studies of the new derivatives were performed in order to evidence the peculiar chemical behavior and to evaluate how structural modulations affected the biological properties.

Topics: Antineoplastic Agents; Breast Neoplasms; Cell Line, Tumor; Colonic Neoplasms; Female; Humans; Molecular Conformation; Oxadiazoles; STAT3 Transcription Factor; Uridine

The tumor suppressor p53 plays an important role in cellular emergency mechanisms through regulating the genes involved in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. To identify small molecules that can activate p53-responsive transcription, we performed chemical screening using genetically engineered HCT116 reporter cells. We found that TopIn (7-phenyl-6H-[1,2,5]oxadiazolo[3,4-e]indole 3-oxide) efficiently activated p53-mediated transcriptional activity and induced phosphorylation of p53 at Ser15, thereby stabilizing the p53 protein. Furthermore, TopIn upregulated the expression of p21(WAF1/CIP1), a downstream target of p53, and suppressed cellular proliferation in various colon cancer cells. Additionally, TopIn induced DNA fragmentation, caspase-3/7 activation and poly ADP ribose polymerase cleavage, typical biochemical markers of apoptosis, in p53 wild-type and mutated colon cancer cells. Finally, we found that TopIn inhibited topoisomerase I activity, but not topoisomerase II, in vitro and induced the formation of the topoisomerase I-DNA complex in HCT116 colon cancer cells. Unlike camptothecin (CPT) and its derivative SN38, TopIn did not affect the activity of the ATP-binding cassette transporter breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) or multidrug-resistant protein-1 (MDR-1). These results suggest that TopIn may present a promising new topoisomerase I-targeting anti-tumor therapeutics.

Topics: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Apoptosis; ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Subfamily B, Member 1; ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Subfamily G, Member 2; ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters; Cell Line; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Proliferation; Colonic Neoplasms; DNA Topoisomerases, Type I; Dogs; Humans; Indoles; Neoplasm Proteins; Oxadiazoles; Topoisomerase I Inhibitors; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53

This paper reports a second generation MEK inhibitor. The previously reported potent and efficacious MEK inhibitor, PD-184352 (CI-1040), contains an integral hydroxamate moiety. This compound suffered from less than ideal solubility and metabolic stability. An oxadiazole moiety behaves as a bioisostere for the hydroxamate group, leading to a more metabolically stable and efficacious MEK inhibitor.

Topics: Antineoplastic Agents; Benzamides; Colonic Neoplasms; Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; Esters; Humans; Hydroxamic Acids; Microsomes, Liver; Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases; Molecular Structure; Oxadiazoles; Structure-Activity Relationship