As a terpenoids natural product isolated from the plant Thunder God Vine,Celastrol is widely studied for its pharmacological activities,including anti-tumor activities.The clinical application of Celastrol is strictly...As a terpenoids natural product isolated from the plant Thunder God Vine,Celastrol is widely studied for its pharmacological activities,including anti-tumor activities.The clinical application of Celastrol is strictly limited due to its severe side effects,whereas previously revealed targets and mechanism of Celastrol seldom reduce its in vivo toxicity via structural optimization.Target identification has a far-reaching influence on the development of innovative drugs,and omics data has been widely used for unbiased target prediction.However,it is difficult to enrich target of specific phenotype from thousands of genes or proteins,especially for natural products with broad promising activities.Here,we developed a text-mining-based web-server tool to enrich targets from omics data of inquired compounds.Then peroxiredoxin 1(PRDX1)was identified as the ROS-manipulating target protein of Celastrol in colorectal cancer.Our solved high-resolution crystal structure revealed the unique covalent binding mode of Celastrol with PRDX1.New derivative compound 19-048 with improved potency against PRDX1 and selectivity towards PRDX2~PRDX6 were synthesized based on crystal structure analysis.Both Celastrol and 19-048 effectively suppressed the proliferation of colorectal cancer cells.The anti-tumor efficacy of Celastrol and 19-048 was significantly diminished on xenograft nude mice bearing PRDX1 knock-down colorectal cancer cells.Several downstream genes of p53 signaling pathway were dramatically up-regulated with Celastrol or 19-048 treatment.Our findings reveal that the side effects of Celastrol could be reduced via structural modification,and PRDX1 inhibition is promising for the treatment of colorectal cancer.展开更多
Multiple cancer immunotherapies including chimeric antigen receptor T cell and immune checkpoint inhibitors(ICIs)have been successfully developed to treat various cancers by motivating the adaptive anti-tumor immunity...Multiple cancer immunotherapies including chimeric antigen receptor T cell and immune checkpoint inhibitors(ICIs)have been successfully developed to treat various cancers by motivating the adaptive anti-tumor immunity.Particularly,the checkpoint blockade approach has achieved great clinic success as evidenced by several U.S.Food and Drug Administration(FDA)-approved antiprogrammed death receptor 1/ligand 1 or anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated protein 4 antibodies.However,the majority of cancers have low clinical response rates to these ICIs due to poor tumor immunogenicity.Indeed,the cyclic guanosine monophosphate-adenosine monophosphate synthase-stimulator of interferon genes-TANK-binding kinase 1(cGAS-STING-TBK1)axis is now appreciated as the major signaling pathway in innate immune response across different species.Aberrant signaling of this pathway has been closely linked to multiple diseases,including auto-inflammation,virus infection and cancers.In this perspective,we provide an updated review on the latest progress on the development of small molecule modulators targeting the cGAS-STING-TBK1 signaling pathway and their preclinical and clinical use as a new immune stimulatory therapy.Meanwhile,highlights on the clinical candidates,limitations and challenges,as well as future directions in this field are also discussed.Further,small molecule inhibitors targeting this signaling axis and their potential therapeutic use for various indications are discussed as well.展开更多
Medulloblastoma(MB)is a common yet highly heterogeneous childhood malignant brain tumor,however,clinically effective molecular targeted therapy is lacking.Modulation of hedgehog(HH)signaling by epigenetically targetin...Medulloblastoma(MB)is a common yet highly heterogeneous childhood malignant brain tumor,however,clinically effective molecular targeted therapy is lacking.Modulation of hedgehog(HH)signaling by epigenetically targeting the transcriptional factors GLI through bromodomain-containing protein 4(BRD4)has recently spurred new interest as potential treatment of HH-driven MB.Through screening of current clinical BRD4 inhibitors for their inhibitory potency against glioma-associated oncogene homolog(GLI)protein,the BRD4 inhibitor 2 was selected as the lead for further structural optimization,which led to the identification of compounds 25 and 35 as the high potency HH inhibitors.Mechanism profiling showed that both compounds suppressed HH signaling by interacting with the transcriptional factor GLI,and were equally potent against the clinical resistant mutants and the wild type of smoothened(SMO)receptor with IC50 values around 1 nmol/L.In the resistant MB allograft mice,compound 25 was well tolerated and markedly suppressed tumor growth at both 5 mg/kg(TGI=83.3%)and 10 mg/kg(TGI=87.6%)doses.Although further modification is needed to improve the pharmacokinetic(PK)parameters,compound 25 represents an efficacious lead compound of GLI inhibitors,possessing optimal safety and tolerance to fight against HH-driven MB.展开更多
基金We are grateful to National Centre for Protein Science Shanghai for their instrument support and technical assistance.We thank the staffs from BL19U1 beamline of National Facility for Protein Science Shanghai(NFPS)at Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility,for assistance during data collection.We gratefully acknowledge the financial supports from the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2020YFE0202200 to H.Z.and 2021ZD0203900 to C.L.)the project of National Multidisciplinary Innovation Team of Traditional Chinese Medicine(ZYYCXTD-202004 to C.L.)+3 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(81903538 to H.Z.,82104064 to H.X.,91853205 to C.L.,91853206 to G.C.,81773565 to A.Z.,81972615 to Y.X.,and 21877120,22177068 to C.D.)the Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China(2019M661673 to H.Z.)the Shanghai Sailing Plan(19YF1457200 to H.Z.)the grants from Shanghai Jiao Tong University(AF1700037,WF220217002,WH101117001,and WF540162618 to A.Z.).
文摘As a terpenoids natural product isolated from the plant Thunder God Vine,Celastrol is widely studied for its pharmacological activities,including anti-tumor activities.The clinical application of Celastrol is strictly limited due to its severe side effects,whereas previously revealed targets and mechanism of Celastrol seldom reduce its in vivo toxicity via structural optimization.Target identification has a far-reaching influence on the development of innovative drugs,and omics data has been widely used for unbiased target prediction.However,it is difficult to enrich target of specific phenotype from thousands of genes or proteins,especially for natural products with broad promising activities.Here,we developed a text-mining-based web-server tool to enrich targets from omics data of inquired compounds.Then peroxiredoxin 1(PRDX1)was identified as the ROS-manipulating target protein of Celastrol in colorectal cancer.Our solved high-resolution crystal structure revealed the unique covalent binding mode of Celastrol with PRDX1.New derivative compound 19-048 with improved potency against PRDX1 and selectivity towards PRDX2~PRDX6 were synthesized based on crystal structure analysis.Both Celastrol and 19-048 effectively suppressed the proliferation of colorectal cancer cells.The anti-tumor efficacy of Celastrol and 19-048 was significantly diminished on xenograft nude mice bearing PRDX1 knock-down colorectal cancer cells.Several downstream genes of p53 signaling pathway were dramatically up-regulated with Celastrol or 19-048 treatment.Our findings reveal that the side effects of Celastrol could be reduced via structural modification,and PRDX1 inhibition is promising for the treatment of colorectal cancer.
基金supported by grants from Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.81773565,21877120,81703327,81430080,81573452,and 81773767,China)Supporting grants from the Key Program of the Frontier Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(No.160621,China)+1 种基金the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(No.XDA12020374,China)a start-up grant to the Research Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology&Frontiers on Drug Discovery from Shanghai Jiao Tong University(China)are also appreciated
文摘Multiple cancer immunotherapies including chimeric antigen receptor T cell and immune checkpoint inhibitors(ICIs)have been successfully developed to treat various cancers by motivating the adaptive anti-tumor immunity.Particularly,the checkpoint blockade approach has achieved great clinic success as evidenced by several U.S.Food and Drug Administration(FDA)-approved antiprogrammed death receptor 1/ligand 1 or anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated protein 4 antibodies.However,the majority of cancers have low clinical response rates to these ICIs due to poor tumor immunogenicity.Indeed,the cyclic guanosine monophosphate-adenosine monophosphate synthase-stimulator of interferon genes-TANK-binding kinase 1(cGAS-STING-TBK1)axis is now appreciated as the major signaling pathway in innate immune response across different species.Aberrant signaling of this pathway has been closely linked to multiple diseases,including auto-inflammation,virus infection and cancers.In this perspective,we provide an updated review on the latest progress on the development of small molecule modulators targeting the cGAS-STING-TBK1 signaling pathway and their preclinical and clinical use as a new immune stimulatory therapy.Meanwhile,highlights on the clinical candidates,limitations and challenges,as well as future directions in this field are also discussed.Further,small molecule inhibitors targeting this signaling axis and their potential therapeutic use for various indications are discussed as well.
基金supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation(Grants Nos.81773565,81703327,81430080,81573452,and 81773767)Supporting grants from the Key Program of the Frontier Science(Grant No.160621,China)of the Chinese Academy of Sciences+1 种基金the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.XDA12020374,China)support from the State Key Laboratory of Esophageal Cancer Prevention and Treatment,Ministry of Education of China,Zhengzhou University(Grant No.K2020-0012,China)
文摘Medulloblastoma(MB)is a common yet highly heterogeneous childhood malignant brain tumor,however,clinically effective molecular targeted therapy is lacking.Modulation of hedgehog(HH)signaling by epigenetically targeting the transcriptional factors GLI through bromodomain-containing protein 4(BRD4)has recently spurred new interest as potential treatment of HH-driven MB.Through screening of current clinical BRD4 inhibitors for their inhibitory potency against glioma-associated oncogene homolog(GLI)protein,the BRD4 inhibitor 2 was selected as the lead for further structural optimization,which led to the identification of compounds 25 and 35 as the high potency HH inhibitors.Mechanism profiling showed that both compounds suppressed HH signaling by interacting with the transcriptional factor GLI,and were equally potent against the clinical resistant mutants and the wild type of smoothened(SMO)receptor with IC50 values around 1 nmol/L.In the resistant MB allograft mice,compound 25 was well tolerated and markedly suppressed tumor growth at both 5 mg/kg(TGI=83.3%)and 10 mg/kg(TGI=87.6%)doses.Although further modification is needed to improve the pharmacokinetic(PK)parameters,compound 25 represents an efficacious lead compound of GLI inhibitors,possessing optimal safety and tolerance to fight against HH-driven MB.
