The synthesis and evaluation of the antiproliferative activity of deacidified GEX1A analogues.

GEX1A/herboxidiene (1) is a natural product isolated from Streptomyces sp. and has been reported to target the pre-mRNA splicing process. Although 1 was shown to have antitumor activity in vivo, weight loss was observed in mice when 1 was consecutively administered.

Hsp90 inhibitors as anti-cancer agents, from basic discoveries to clinical development.

Heat shock protein (Hsp) 90 is an ATP-dependent molecular chaperone which stabilizes various oncogenic kinases, including HER2, EGFR, BCR-ABL, B-Raf and EML4-ALK, which are essential for tumor growth. Several monoclonal antibodies and small molecule kinase inhibitors which target these kinases have been identified as potential new molecular target therapeutics. Previous reports have shown that many oncogenic proteins essential for cancer transformation are chaperoned by the Hsp90 complex, and some of these client proteins have been discovered by using Hsp90 inhibitors, such as geldanamycin (GA) and radicicol (RD).

New molecular and biological mechanism of antitumor activities of KW-2478, a novel nonansamycin heat shock protein 90 inhibitor, in multiple myeloma cells.

Purpose: The heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) plays an important role in chaperoning oncogenic client proteins in multiple myeloma (MM) cells, and several Hsp90 inhibitors have shown antitumor activities both in vitro and in vivo. However the precise mechanism of action of Hsp90 inhibitor in MM has not been fully elucidated.

Experimental Design: We evaluated the antitumor activities of KW-2478, a nonansamycin Hsp90 inhibitor, in MM cells with various chromosomal translocations of immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) loci both in vitro and in vivo.

Inhibition of Hsp90 activates osteoclast c-Src signaling and promotes growth of prostate carcinoma cells in bone.

Hsp90 inhibitors are being evaluated extensively in patients with advanced cancers. However, the impact of Hsp90 inhibition on signaling pathways in normal tissues and the effect that this may have on the antitumor activity of these molecularly targeted drugs have not been rigorously examined. Breast and prostate carcinomas are among those cancers that respond to Hsp90 inhibitors in animal xenograft models and in early studies in patients.

Conformational significance of EH21A1-A4, phenolic derivatives of geldanamycin, for Hsp90 inhibitory activity.

Hsp90 is an attractive chemotherapeutic target because it is essential to maturation of multiple oncogenes. We describe the conformational significance of EH21A1-A4, phenolic derivatives of geldanamycin isolated from Streptomyces sp. Their native free structures are similar to the active form of geldanamycin bound to Hsp90 protein.

Design and synthesis of piperidine farnesyltransferase inhibitors with reduced glucuronidation potential.

The design and synthesis of a novel piperidine series of farnesyltransferase (FTase) inhibitors with reduced potential for metabolic glucuronidation are described. The various substitution and exchange of the phenyl group at the C-2 position of the previously described 2-(4-hydroxy)phenyl-3-nitropiperidine 1a (FTase IC(50)=5.4nM) resulted in metabolically stable compounds with potent FTase inhibition (14a IC(50)=4.

Development of radicicol analogues.

Radicicol, a macrocyclic antibiotic produced by fungi, was originally isolated many years ago, and was described as tyrosine kinase inhibitor. We also rediscovered radicicol as an inhibitor of signal transduction of oncogene products, such as K-ras and v-Src, using yeast and mammalian cell-based assays. In a study of mechanisms of action, it was revealed that radicicol depletes the Hsp90 client signaling molecules in cells, and thus inhibit the signal transduction pathway.

Improvement of biological activity and proteolytic stability of peptides by coupling with a cyclic peptide.

The cyclic moiety of an endothelin antagonist peptide RES-701-1, composed of 10 amino acids with an amide bond between alpha-NH(2) of Gly1 and beta-COOH of Asp9, was coupled to some biologically active peptides aiming to improve their activities and stabilities against proteolytic degradation. Coupling of the cyclic peptide to the N-terminal of RGD-peptides, maximally 4-fold improvement of in vitro activity compared to the original peptide has been achieved. Coupling of it to protein farnesyltransferase inhibiting peptides resulted to improve in vitro activity maximally 3-fold.