Piceatannol, a natural trans-stilbene compound, inhibits human glyoxalase I.

Human glyoxalase I (GLO I), a rate-limiting enzyme for detoxification of methylglyoxal (MG), a by-product of glycolysis, is known to be a potential therapeutic target for cancer. Here, we searched new scaffolds from natural compounds for designing novel GLO I inhibitors and found trans-stilbene scaffold. We examined the inhibitory abilities to human GLO I of commercially available trans-stilbene compounds. Among them, piceatannol was found to have the most potent inhibitory activity against human GLO I. Piceatannol could inhibit the proliferation of human lung cancer NCI-H522 cells, which are dependent on GLO I for survival, in a dose- and time-dependent manner. In addition, piceatannol more significantly inhibited the proliferation of NCI-H522 cells than that of NCI-H460 cells, which are less dependent on GLO I. Importantly, overexpression of GLO I in NCI-H522 cells resulted in less sensitive to the antiproliferative activity of piceatannol. Taken together, this is the first report demonstrating that piceatannol inhibits GLO I activity and the GLO I-dependent proliferation of cancer cells. Furthermore, we determined a pharmacophore for novel inhibitors of human GLO I by computational simulation analyses of the binding mode of piceatannol to the enzyme hot spot in the active site. We suggest that piceatannol is a possible lead compound for the development of novel GLO I inhibitory anticancer drugs.

Piceatannol lowers the blood glucose level in diabetic mice.

We previously found that passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) seeds contained a high amount of piceatannol (3,5,3',4'-trans-tetrahydroxystilbene), a natural analog of resveratrol (3,5,4'-trans-trihydroxystilbene). Resveratrol has been proposed as a potential anti-metabolic disorder compound, by its activation of sirtuin and AMP-activated protein kinase. Many reports show that resveratrol ameliorates diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance. However, it is not known whether piceatannol also affects diet-induced obesity. We explored the effect of piceatannol on high fat diet-fed mice. The results showed that piceatannol did not affect high fat diet-induced body weight gain or visceral fat gain in mice. However, piceatannol did reduce fasting blood glucose levels. Furthermore, to explore the potential of passion fruit seed extract containing piceatannol as a functional food, passion fruit seed extract was administered in a genetic diabetic mouse model (db/db mice). Single administration of passion fruit seed extract, as well as piceatannol reduced the blood glucose levels of these db/db mice. These results suggest that piceatannol and passion fruit seed extract may have potential application in the prevention of diabetes.

Discovery and structure-activity relationships of a novel class of quinazoline glucokinase activators.

We describe design, syntheses and structure-activity relationships of a novel class of 4,6-disubstituted quinazoline glucokinase activators. Prototype quinazoline leads (4 and 5) were designed based on the X-ray analyses of the previous 2-aminobenzamide lead classes. Modifications of the quinazoline leads led to the identification of a potent GK activator (21d).

The design and optimization of a series of 2-(pyridin-2-yl)-1H-benzimidazole compounds as allosteric glucokinase activators.

The optimization of a series of benzimidazole glucokinase activators is described. We identified a novel and potent achiral benzimidazole derivative as an allosteric GK activator. This activator was designed and synthesized via removal of the chiral center of the lead compound, 6-(N-acylpyrrolidin-2-yl)benzimidazole. The activator exhibited good PK profiles in rats and dogs, and significant hypoglycemic efficacy at 1 mg/kg po dosing in a rat OGTT model. The binding site and binding mode of the benzimidazole class of GKA with GK protein was confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis.

Discovery of novel 2-(pyridine-2-yl)-1H-benzimidazole derivatives as potent glucokinase activators.

The synthesis and structure-activity-relationships (SARs) of novel 2-(pyridine-2-yl)-1H-benzimidazole glucokinase activators are described. Systematic modification of benzimidazole lead 5a identified from a high-throughput screening led to the discovery of a potent and metabolically stable glucokinase activator 16p(R) with greater structural diversity from GKAs reported to date. The compound also demonstrated acute oral glucose lowering efficacy in rat OGTT model.

Transcriptional regulation of human fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 by E2F-1.

Overexpression of fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs) has been observed in many types of human tumors; however, the regulatory mechanism of human FGFR expression is still largely unknown. In the present study, we first identified the transcriptional initiation site in the human FGFR 1 gene by 5'-RACE. Furthermore, we show that the expression of human FGFR 1 is regulated by E2F-1. Characterization of the human FGFR 1 promoter demonstrated that two non-consensus E2F binding sequences at positions +4 to +22 and +25 to +43 relative to our identified transcriptional initiation site in the human FGFR 1 gene were critical for E2F-1-mediated transactivation of human FGFR 1 promoter. Mutations of these sites completely abolished the response of human FGFR 1 promoter to E2F-1 as well as E2F-1 binding in electrophoretic mobility-shift assays. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation assay showed that E2F-1 was able to bind in vivo to the human FGFR 1 promoter. Moreover, human FGFR 1 protein expression was up-regulated by the overexpression of E2F-1, but down-regulated by the overexpression of pRB in situ, suggesting that the expression of human FGFR 1 is regulated by the pRB/E2F pathway. Because disruption of the pRB/E2F pathway is frequently observed in tumor cells, our findings provide valuable information for studying the role of FGFR 1 in tumor progression.

Metabolic impact of overexpression of liver glycogen synthase with serine-to-alanine substitutions in rat primary hepatocytes.

To investigate the effect of elevation of liver glycogen synthase (GYS2) activity on glucose and glycogen metabolism, we performed adenoviral overexpression of the mutant GYS2 with six serine-to-alanine substitutions in rat primary hepatocytes. Cell-free assays demonstrated that the serine-to-alanine substitutions caused constitutive activity and electrophoretic mobility shift. In rat primary hepatocytes, overexpression of the mutant GYS2 significantly reduced glucose production by 40% and dramatically induced glycogen synthesis via the indirect pathway rather than the direct pathway. Thus, we conclude that elevation of glycogen synthase activity has an inhibitory effect on glucose production in hepatocytes by shunting gluconeogenic precursors into glycogen. In addition, although intracellular compartmentation of glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) remains unclear in hepatocytes, our results imply that there are at least two G6P pools via gluconeogenesis and due to glucose phosphorylation, and that G6P via gluconeogenesis is preferentially used for glycogen synthesis in hepatocytes.

Regulation of FGF receptor-2 expression by transcription factor E2F-1.

Fibroblast growth factors (FGF) and their receptors play an important role in cell proliferation, angiogenesis and embryonal development. In this study, we show that expression of the FGF receptor-2 (FGFR-2) protein is induced in the mid-to-late G1 phase of the cell cycle in serum-starved mouse NIH3T3 cells released from starvation. Transcription of mouse FGFR-2 was activated by E2F-1. Analysis of various mouse FGFR-2 promoter mutant constructs showed that a sequence located +57/+64 downstream of the transcriptional initiation site, related to the consensus E2F-responsive sequence, is necessary for the activation. The promoter activity of the mouse FGFR-2 gene is also positively regulated by E2F-2 and E2F-3, but not by E2F-4 and E2F-5. Moreover, the E2F-1-induced activation of mouse FGFR-2 gene transcription is suppressed by pRB. Taken together, the results demonstrate that FGFR-2 is a new class of targets for E2F, and expression of mouse FGFR-2 in mid-to-late G1 phase would be mediated, at least in part, by the activation of a pRB/E2F pathway.

Overexpression of cyclin D1 contributes to malignancy by up-regulation of fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 via the pRB/E2F pathway.

Overexpression of cyclin D1 due to gene rearrangement, gene amplification, or simply increased transcription occurs frequently in several types of human cancers. However, overexpression of cyclin D1 in cell culture system is insufficient, by itself, to cause malignant transformation. In the present study, we found that when rodent fibroblasts that overexpress cyclin D1, but not normal fibroblasts, were treated with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), there was enhanced cell cycle progression, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 activation, induction of anchorage-independent growth, and enhanced invasion of a Matrigel barrier. These enhanced responses to bFGF appear to be due to increased expression of fibroblast growth factor receptor 1, at both the mRNA and protein levels, in the cyclin D1-overexpressing cells. We obtained evidence that this increase in fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 expression is mediated through cyclin D1 activation of the pRB/E2F pathway. Taken together, these results suggest that in vivo cyclin D1 overexpression can enhance tumor progression, at least in part, by potentiating the stimulatory efforts of bFGF, which is often produced by stromal cells, and the growth of adjacent tumor cells.