Abstract

Resistance to anticancer agents has been an obstacle to developing therapeutics and reducing medical costs. Whereas sorafenib is used for the treatment of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), resistance limits its efficacy. p62, a multifunctional protein, is overexpressed in several HCC cell lines, such as Huh-1 cells. Phosphorylated p62 (p-p62) inhibits the protein–protein interaction (PPI) between Keap1 and Nrf2, resulting in the Nrf2 overactivation that causes drug resistance. We have found a unique Nrf2 inactivator, named K67, that inhibited the PPI between Keap1 and p-p62 and attenuated sorafenib resistance in Huh-1 cells. Herein, we designed and synthesised novel K67 derivatives by modification of the substituent at the 4-position of the two benzenesulfonyl groups of K67. Although these new derivatives inhibited the Keap1-p-p62 PPI to a level comparable to or weaker than that of K67, the isopropoxy derivative enhanced the sensitivity of Huh-1 cells to sorafenib to a greater extent than K67 without any influence on the viability of Huh-7 cells, which is a non-resistant HCC cell line. The isopropoxy derivative also increased the sensitivity of Huh-1 cells to regorafenib, which suggests that this derivative has the potential to be used as an agent to overcome chemoresistance based on Nrf2 inactivation.

摘要

对抗癌药物的耐药性一直是开发治疗方法和降低医疗成本的障碍。虽然索拉非尼用于治疗人类肝细胞癌 (HCC)，但耐药性限制了其疗效。p62 是一种多功能蛋白，在几种 HCC 细胞系（例如 Huh-1 细胞）中过表达。磷酸化的 p62 ( p -p62) 抑制 Keap1 和 Nrf2 之间的蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用 (PPI)，导致 Nrf2 过度激活，从而导致耐药性。我们发现了一种独特的 Nrf2 灭活剂，名为 K67，它抑制了 Keap1 和p之间的 PPI-p62 并减弱 Huh-1 细胞中的索拉非尼耐药性。在此，我们通过修饰 K67 的两个苯磺酰基的 4 位取代基，设计并合成了新型 K67 衍生物。尽管这些新衍生物抑制 Keap1- p- p62 PPI 的水平与 K67 相当或更弱，但异丙氧基衍生物比 K67 更大程度地增强了 Huh-1 细胞对索拉非尼的敏感性，而对细胞活力没有任何影响。 Huh-7 细胞，这是一种非抗性 HCC 细胞系。异丙氧基衍生物还增加了 Huh-1 细胞对瑞戈非尼的敏感性，这表明该衍生物有可能用作克服基于 Nrf2 失活的化学抗性的药物。