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  2. Discovery and Identification of Small Molecules as Methuosis Inducers with in Vivo Antitumor Activities

Discovery and Identification of Small Molecules as Methuosis Inducers with in Vivo Antitumor Activities

  • J Med Chem. 2018 Jun 28;61(12):5424-5434. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.8b00753.
Wei Huang 1 2 Xihuan Sun 1 2 Yunzhan Li 1 2 Zhixiang He 1 2 Li Li 1 2 Zhou Deng 1 2 Xiaoxing Huang 1 2 Shang Han 1 2 Ting Zhang 1 2 Jiaji Zhong 1 2 3 Zheng Wang 1 2 Qingyan Xu 1 2 Jianming Zhang 4 Xianming Deng 1 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, Innovation Center for Cell Signaling Network, School of Life Sciences , Xiamen University , Xiamen , Fujian 361102 , China.
  • 2 State-Province Joint Engineering Laboratory of Targeted Drugs from Natural Products , Xiamen University , Xiamen , Fujian 361102 , China.
  • 3 Medical College of Xiamen University , Xiamen , Fujian 361102 , China.
  • 4 Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital , Harvard Medical School , Boston , Massachusetts 02129 , United States.
Abstract

Methuosis is a novel nonapoptotic mode of cell death characterized by vacuole accumulation in the cytoplasm. In this article, we describe a series of azaindole-based compounds that cause vacuolization in MDA-MB-231 cells. The most potent vacuole inducer, compound 13 (compound 13), displayed differential cytotoxicities against a broad panel of Cancer cell lines, such as MDA-MB-231, A375, HCT116, and MCF-7, but it did not inhibit the growth of the nontumorigenic epithelial cell line MCF-10A. A mechanism study confirmed that the cell death was caused by inducing methuosis. Furthermore, compound 13 exhibited substantial pharmacological efficacy in the suppression of tumor growth in a xenograft mouse model of MDA-MB-231 cells without apparent side effects, which makes this compound the first example of a methuosis inducer with potent in vivo efficacy. These results demonstrate that methuosis inducers might serve as novel therapeutics for the treatment of Cancer.

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