Dexin Kong

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitors: promising drug candidates for cancer therapy

Phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinases (PI3K) are a group of lipid kinases that phosphorylate phosphoinositides at the 3‐hydroxyl group of the inositol ring to generate phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5‐trisphosphate, a second messenger with key roles in fundamental cellular responses such as cell proliferation and metabolism. Frequent mutations found in or amplification of the PIK3CA gene and loss of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 function in human tumors suggest that PI3K is a potential target for cancer therapy. During the last 5 years, several specific PI3K inhibitors were developed that were directed against various diseases. Some of them revealed potent anticancer efficacy and are now undergoing clinical trials. Some PI3K inhibitors showed antiangiogenic effects. Combined use of PI3K inhibitors with other chemotherapeutic agents or with radiotherapy produced synergistic therapeutic efficacies in treating cancer and showed reduced side effects. The rapid progress made in developing novel PI3K inhibitors in recent years promises bright prospects for finding a PI3K‐targeted anticancer drug in the near future. (Cancer Sci 2008; 99: 1734–1740)

ZSTK474 is an ATP-competitive inhibitor of class I phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase isoforms

Class I phosphatidylinositol 3 kinases (PI3K) phosphorylate phosphatidylinositol 4,5‐bisphosphate to generate phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5‐trisphosphate. These molecules play an important role in fundamental cellular responses. Four isoforms of class I PI3K are known to have different functions, and abnormalities in their activities have been related to various diseases such as cancer and inflammation. We previously identified a novel PI3K inhibitor, ZSTK474, which showed potent antitumor activity in vivo against a human cancer xenograft without observable toxicity. However, the mode of its molecular action was not investigated in detail. Our previous study only suggested that ZSTK474 possibly competes with ATP for the ATP‐binding pocket of PI3Kγ. In the present study, we have used an in vitro homogenous time‐resolved fluorescence kinase assay to examine whether ZSTK474 is indeed an ATP‐competing inhibitor of PI3K, and also to determine whether the inhibitory activity of ZSTK474 was isoform‐specific. Lineweaver–Burk plot analysis revealed that ZSTK474 inhibits all four PI3K isoforms in an ATP‐competitive manner. Among all of the PI3K isoforms, PI3Kδ was inhibited most potently by ZSTK474 with a Ki of 1.8 nM, and the other isoforms were inhibited at higher doses. We have also used a kinase activity ELISA to determine whether ZSTK474 inhibits mammalian target of rapamycin, a key kinase acting downstream of PI3K to promote protein synthesis and cell proliferation. Even at a concentration of 100 µM, ZSTK474 inhibited mammalian target of rapamycin activity rather weakly. These results indicate that ZSTK474 is an ATP‐competitive pan‐class I PI3K inhibitor. (Cancer Sci 2007; 98: 1638–1642)

Advances in development of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitors.

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3Ks) are a class of lipid kinases that phosphorylate phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) at the 3-OH of the inositol ring to generate phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate (PIP3), which in turn activates Akt and the downstream effectors like mTOR, and therefore play important roles in cell growth, survival, etc. The phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted in chromosome ten (PTEN), acts as the catalytic antagonist of PI3K by dephosphorylating PIP3 to PIP2. PI3K has become an important drug target for cancer therapy, since gain-of-function mutations of PIK3CA encoding PI3Kalpha, as well as loss-of-function mutations of PTEN, have been frequently found in human cancers. The pharmaceutical development of PI3K inhibitors has made a great leap forward during the last 3 years. While PI3Kbeta, delta and gamma isoform-specific PI3K inhibitors (TGX-221, IC87114 and AS-605240) have been developed for therapy of coronary heart disease, asthma, and glomerulonephritis, respectively, a promising PI3Kalpha specific inhibitor is not yet available. Correspondingly, almost all of the promising PI3K inhibitors under development for caner therapy, such as NVP-BEZ235, GDC-0941 and ZSTK474, are pan-PI3K isoform inhibitors. Each of these pan-PI3K inhibitors seems to induce a common G1 phase arrest. All have shown favorable in vivo anticancer efficacies and low toxicities, and therefore most have entered evaluation in clinical trials. P-Akt and p-S6 have been reported to be feasible pharmacodynamic biomarkers for monitoring the efficacy of these agents. In the process of discovery of these and other PI3K inhibitors, detailed structure-activity relationship studies were carried out. This review summarizes key advances in the development of PI3K inhibitors, which is preceded by an introduction of PI3K family and their functions.

Inhibition profiles of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitors against PI3K superfamily and human cancer cell line panel JFCR39.

As accumulating evidences suggest close involvement of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) in various diseases particularly cancer, considerable competition occurs in development of PI3K inhibitors. Consequently, novel PI3K inhibitors such as ZSTK474, GDC-0941 and NVP-BEZ235 have been developed. Even though all these inhibitors were reported to inhibit class I PI3K but not dozens of protein kinases, whether they have different molecular targets remained unknown. To investigate such molecular target specificity, we have determined the inhibitory effects of these novel inhibitors together with classical PI3K inhibitor LY294002 on PI3K superfamily (including classes I, II, and III PI3Ks, PI4K and PI3K-related kinases) by using several novel non-radioactive biochemical assays. As a result, ZSTK474 and GDC-0941 indicated highly similar inhibition profiles for PI3K superfamily, with class I PI3K specificity much higher than NVP-BEZ235 and LY294002. We further investigated their growth inhibition effects on JFCR39, a human cancer cell line panel which we established for molecular target identification, and analysed their cell growth inhibition profiles (fingerprints) by using COMPARE analysis programme. Interestingly, we found ZSTK474 exhibited a highly similar fingerprint with GDC-0941 (r=0.863), more similar than with that of either NVP-BEZ235 or LY294002, suggesting that ZSTK474 shares more in molecular targets with GDC-0941 than with either of the other two PI3K inhibitors, consistent with the biochemical assay result. The biological implication of the difference in molecular target specificity of these PI3K inhibitors is under investigation.

Antiangiogenic effect of ZSTK474, a novel phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor

Angiogenesis is known to be required for tumour growth and metastasis. Recent reports indicated that phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) promoted angiogenesis by inducing expressions of HIF-1alpha and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The present study aims to investigate the antiangiogenic effect of ZSTK474, a novel pan-PI3K inhibitor. ZSTK474 significantly inhibited tumour growth in the RXF-631L xenograft model. Immunohistochemical staining of the tumour tissue with anti-von Willebrand Factor antibody showed a significantly reduced number of microvessels in the ZSTK474-treated mice, suggesting the highly promising antiangiogenic activity in vivo. In human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), submicromolar concentrations of ZSTK474 inhibited cell growth, blocked VEGF-induced cell migration and the tube formation, and thus revealed potent in vitro antiangiogenic activity. Furthermore, ZSTK474 inhibited phosphorylation of Akt at submicromolar concentrations. In RXF-631L cancer cells, on the other hand, ZSTK474 treatment inhibited the expression of HIF-1alpha and secretion of VEGF. Together, these results suggest that ZSTK474 has potent antiangiogenic activity, which could be attributed to dual-target inhibitory properties: inhibition of VEGF secretion by cancer cells and inhibition of PI3K in endothelial cells.

ZSTK474, a novel phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor identified using the JFCR39 drug discovery system

AbstractJFCR39 is an informatic anticancer drug discovery system that utilizes a panel of 39 human cancer cells coupled with a drug-activity database. This system not only provides disease-oriented information but can also predict the mechanism of action of a given antitumor agent. Development of a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor as an anticancer drug candidate has attracted a great deal of attention from both academia and industry because PI3K is known to be closely involved in carcinogenesis. ZSTK474 was identified as a PI3K inhibitor using JFCR39 system in combination with COMPARE analysis program. These findings were based on the similar fingerprint (growth inhibition profiles for JFCR39 human cancer cell line panel) with that of a classical PI3K inhibitor LY294002. Biochemical experiments confirmed ZSTK474 to be a potent pan-class I PI3K inhibitor, with high selectivity over other classes of PI3K and protein kinases. We previously reported the in vitro and in vivo antitumor efficacy of ZSTK474, together with the G0/G1 arrest and antiangiogenic activity. Here, we review the JFCR39 system and summarize recent studies on PI3K biology and the development of PI3K inhibitors before discussing ZSTK474 in some detail.

Antiproliferative and Antiangiogenic Activities of Smenospongine, a Marine Sponge Sesquiterpene Aminoquinone

We previously reported that smenospongine, a sesquiterpene aminoquinone isolated from the marine sponge Dactylospongia elegans, showed antiproliferative or cytotoxic activities on leukemia cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of smenospongine on solid tumors. Since angiogenesis is well known to be closely involved in growth and metastasis of solid tumors, the antiangiogenic effect of smenospongine was determined. We found that smenospongine inhibited proliferation, migration and tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). Moreover, the inhibitory activity of smenospongine on growth of solid tumor cells was investigated. Smenospongine inhibited the growth of 39 human solid cancer cells in vitro, with a mean Log GI50 value of −5.55. In conclusion, smenospongine exhibits antitumor activity on solid tumors via two mechanisms, an antiangiogenic effect on endothelial cells and direct inhibition of growth of tumor cells.

Stellettin B Induces G1 Arrest, Apoptosis and Autophagy in Human Non-small Cell Lung Cancer A549 Cells via Blocking PI3K/Akt/mTOR Pathway

Until now, there is not yet antitumor drug with dramatically improved efficacy on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Marine organisms are rich source of novel compounds with various activities. We isolated stellettin B (Stel B) from marine sponge Jaspis stellifera, and demonstrated that it induced G1 arrest, apoptosis and autophagy at low concentrations in human NSCLC A549 cells. G1 arrest by Stel B might be attributed to the reduction of cyclin D1 and enhancement of p27 expression. The apoptosis induction might be related to the cleavage of PARP and increase of ROS generation. Moreover, we demonstrated that Stel B induced autophagy in A549 cells by use of various assays including monodansylcadaverine (MDC) staining, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), tandem mRFP-GFP-LC3 fluorescence microscopy, and western blot detection of the autophagy markers of LC3B, p62 and Atg5. Meanwhile, Stel B inhibited the expression of PI3K-p110, and the phosphorylation of PDK1, Akt, mTOR, p70S6K as well as GSK-3β, suggesting the correlation of blocking PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway with the above antitumor activities. Together, our findings indicate the antitumor potential of Stel B for NSCLC by targeting PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway.

Smenospongine, a spongean sesquiterpene aminoquinone, induces erythroid differentiation in K562 cells.

The differentiation of K562 chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) cells by smenospongine, which is a sesquiterpene aminoquinone isolated from a marine sponge, was examined. Smenospongine increased hemoglobin production in K562 cells at concentrations of 3–15 μM. In addition, flow cytometric analysis of smenospongine-treated K562 cells with FITC-labeled glycophorin A antibody showed an increase of glycophorin A expression, a marker for erythroid differentiation. Cell-cycle analysis showed G1 arrest in K562 cells after treatment with smenospongine for 24 h. The effect on expression of CIP/KIP family cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors was investigated by Western blotting analysis and the result showed increased expression of p21, which is known to play an important role in differentiation. Furthermore, smenospongine was also found to inhibit the phosphorylation of Crkl, a substrate of Bcr–Abl tyrosine kinase, which is known as a causative protein of CML. In conclusion, our investigation indicated that smenospongine induced the differentiation of K562 cells into erythroblasts along with cell-cycle arrest at G1 phase and the mechanism might be attributed to the increased expression of p21.

JFCR39, a panel of 39 human cancer cell lines, and its application in the discovery and development of anticancer drugs.

Over the past few decades, panels of human cancer cell lines have made a significant contribution to the discovery and development of anticancer drugs. The National Cancer Institute 60 (NCI60), which consists of 60 cell lines from various human cancer types, remains the most powerful human cancer cell line panel for high throughput screening of anticancer drugs. The development of JFCR39, comprising a panel of 39 human cancer cell lines coupled with a drug-activity database, was based on NCI60. Like NCI60, JFCR39 not only provides disease-oriented information but can also predict the action mechanism or molecular target of a given antitumor agent by utilizing the COMPARE algorithm. The molecular targets of ZSTK474 as well as several other antitumor agents have been identified by using JFCR39 and some of these compounds have since entered clinical trials. In this review, we will describe human cancer cell line panels particularly JFCR39 and its application in the discovery and/or development of anticancer drug candidates.