Evaluation of the radiosensitizing effect of MEK inhibitor KZ-001 on non-small cell lung cancer cells in vitro.

Background: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has a poor prognosis and usually presents resistance against radiotherapy. MEK inhibitors have been proven to possess a radiosensitization effect. The compound KZ-001 as a particular MEK inhibitor is superior to the listed MEK inhibitor AZD6244. Objective: To investigate whether KZ-001 could enhance the radiosensitivity of NSCLC cell lines in vitro. Methods: MTT and colony formation assay were used to evaluate the radiosensitivity effect of KZ-001. Immunofluorescence, cell cycle, apoptosis staining, and western blot experiments were used to explore the radiosensitivity mechanism. Results: KZ-001 significantly decreased A549 cell viability at 6 Gy and 8 Gy radiation doses and caused the radiosensitivity at 1 Gy, 4 Gy, and 6 Gy in colony formation experiments. The A549 apoptosis ratio induced by irradiation (IR) combined with KZ-001 increased significantly in comparison with that by IR monotherapy (10.57% vs. 6.23%, P = 0.0055). The anti-apoptosis marker Bcl-XL was found downregulated in KZ-001 and IR-treated A549/H460 cells, but apoptosis marker Bax was downregulated in H460. Extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK1/2) phosphorylation of H460 cells could be blocked both by IR alone and IR combined with KZ-001. IR combined with KZ-001 is able to inhibit ERK activation of A549 cells apparently. KZ-001 increased the proportion of G2 phase in irradiated cells from 21.24% to 32.22%. KZ-001 could also significantly increase the double-strand break damage cell ratio to more than 30% compared to the irradiation alone group. Conclusions: MEK1/2 inhibitor KZ-001 is a potential radiosensitizer for clinical applications.

Preclinical characterization of tunlametinib, a novel, potent, and selective MEK inhibitor.

Background: Aberrant activation of RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK signaling pathway has been implicated in more than one-third of all malignancies. MEK inhibitors are promising therapeutic approaches to target this signaling pathway. Though four MEK inhibitors have been approved by FDA, these compounds possess either limited efficacy or unfavorable PK profiles with toxicity issues, hindering their broadly application in clinic. Our efforts were focused on the design and development of a novel MEK inhibitor, which subsequently led to the discovery of tunlametinib. Methods: This study verified the superiority of tunlametinib over the current MEK inhibitors in preclinical studies. The protein kinase selectivity activity of tunlametinib was evaluated against 77 kinases. Anti-proliferation activity was analyzed using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) or (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium) (MTS) assay. ERK and phospho-ERK levels were evaluated by Western blot analysis. Flow cytometry analysis was employed to investigate cell cycle and arrest. Cell-derived xenograft (CDX) and Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models were used to evaluate the tumor growth inhibition. The efficacy of tunlametinib as monotherapy treatment was evaluated in KRAS/BRAF mutant or wild type xenograft model. Furthermore, the combination studies of tunlametinib with BRAF/KRASG12C/SHP2 inhibitors or chemotherapeutic agent were conducted by using the cell proliferation assay in vitro and xenograft models in vivo. Results: In vitro, tunlametinib demonstrated high selectivity with approximately 19-fold greater potency against MEK kinase than MEK162, and nearly 10-100-fold greater potency against RAS/RAF mutant cell lines than AZD6244. In vivo, tunlametinib resulted in dramatic tumor suppression and profound inhibition of ERK phosphorylation in tumor tissue. Mechanistic study revealed that tunlametinib induced cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase and apoptosis of cells in a dose-proportional manner. In addition, tunlametinib demonstrated a favorable pharmacokinetic profile with dose-proportionality and good oral bioavailability, with minimal drug exposure accumulation. Furthermore, tunlametinib combined with BRAF/KRASG12C/SHP2 inhibitors or docetaxel showed synergistically enhanced response and marked tumor inhibition. Conclusion: Tunlametinib exhibited a promising approach for treating RAS/RAF mutant cancers alone or as combination therapies, supporting the evaluation in clinical trials. Currently, the first-in-human phase 1 study and pivotal clinical trial of tunlametinib as monotherapy have been completed and pivotal trials as combination therapy are ongoing.

Polycysteine as a new type of radio-protector ameliorated tissue injury through inhibiting ferroptosis in mice.

Amifostine has been the only small molecule radio-protector approved by FDA for decades; however, the serious adverse effects limit its clinical use. To address the toxicity issues and maintain the good potency, a series of modified small polycysteine peptides had been prepared. Among them, compound 5 exhibited the highest radio-protective efficacy, the same as amifostine, but much better safety profile. To confirm the correlation between the radiation-protective efficacy and the DNA binding capability, each of the enantiomers of the polycysteine peptides had been prepared. As a result, the L-configuration compounds had obviously higher efficacy than the corresponding D-configuration enantiomers; among them, compound 5 showed the highest DNA binding capability and radiation-protective efficacy. To our knowledge, this is the first study that has proved their correlations using direct comparison. Further exploration of the mechanism revealed that the ionizing radiation (IR) triggered ferroptosis inhibition by compound 5 could be one of the pathways for the protection effect, which was different from amifostine. In summary, the preliminary result showed that compound 5, a polycysteine as a new type of radio-protector, had been developed with good efficacy and safety profile. Further study of the compound for potential use is ongoing.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of 1H-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine and 1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine derivatives as c-Met inhibitors.

Five novel 1H-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine or 1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine derivatives, with a methylene, sulfur, sulfoxide or cyclopropyl group as a linker, were designed, synthesized and biologically evaluated against c-Met and ALK. The development of these methods of compound synthesis may provide an important reference for the construction of novel 7-azaindole and 7-azaindazole derivatives with a single atom linker. The enzyme assay and cell assay in vitro showed that compound 9 displayed strong c-Met kinase inhibition with IC50 of 22.8nM, moderate ALK kinase inhibition, and strong cell inhibition with MKN-45 IC50 of 329nM and EBC-1 IC50 of 479nM. In order to find the better candidate compounds, compounds 8, 9 and 10 have been selected as tool compounds for further optimization.