Discovery of Natural Ah Receptor Antagonists from Bunge and Synthesis of Analogs for Tumor Immunotherapy.

IDO/TDO/Kyn/AhR signaling plays a crucial role in regulating innate and adaptive immunity, and targeting Ah receptor (AhR) inhibition can potentially redirect immune cells toward an antitumoral phenotype. Therefore, AhR is an attractive drug target for novel small molecule cancer immunotherapies. In this study, natural products tanshinolic A-D (), the first adducts composed of -naphthoquinone-type tanshinone and phenolic acid featuring a unique 1,4-benzodioxan hemiacetal structure, were isolated and characterized from the roots of Bunge. Luciferase reporter gene assay revealed that these adducts exhibited significant AhR inhibitory activity. A linear strategy was developed to construct a -3,4-disubstituted 1,4-benzodioxan hemiacetal structure. Encouragingly, in both and experiments, (±)- demonstrated the ability to inhibit tumor cell proliferation, promote INF-γ secretion in CD8 T cells, and inhibit PD-1/PD-L1 signal transduction, which could exert tumor inhibition properties by inhibiting AhR activity, positioning it as a promising candidate for tumor immunotherapy.