Lung cancer is one of the most prevailed cancer worldwide. Many genes get mutated in lung cancer but the involvement of EGFR, KRAS, PTEN and PIK3CA are more common. Unavailability of potent drugs and resistance to the available drugs are major concern in the treatment of lung cancer. In the present research, mTOR was selected as an important alternative target for the treatment of lung cancer which involves the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. We studied binding interactions of AZD-2014 with the mTOR protein to identify important interactions required to design potent mTOR inhibitors which was supported by QSAR studies. Pharmacophore based virtual screening studies provided core scaffold, THQ. Based on molecular docking interactions, 31 THQ derivatives were synthesized and characterized. All compounds were screened for cellular mTOR enzyme assay along with antiproliferative activity against the panel of cancerous cell lines, from which 6 compounds were further screened for colony forming assay. Two most potent compounds, HB-UC-1 and HB-UC-5, were further screened for flow cytometry analysis, gene expression study and western blot analysis. Gene expression study revealed the efficiency of compound HB-UC-1 against both mTORC1 and mTORC2 by affecting downstream regulators of mTORC1 (E₄BP₄, eIF₄EBP₁) and mTORC2 (PCK1), respectively. In western blot analysis, both compounds, inhibited phosphorylation of AKT S473 which proved the efficiency these compounds against the mTORC2. These two compounds were further screened for in-vivo biological evaluation. Both compounds increased lifespan of cancer-bearing animals with improvement in mean survival time. Further, in bezopyrene induced lung cancer animal model, both compounds showed effectiveness through the biochemical parameters and histopathological evaluation of the lung tissue. In future, potent hit compound from this series could be modified to develop lead mTOR inhibitors for the treatment of lung cancer.

肺癌是全世界最普遍的癌症之一。许多基因在肺癌中发生突变，但 EGFR、KRAS、PTEN 和 PIK3CA 的参与更为常见。有效药物的缺乏和对现有药物的耐药性是肺癌治疗中的主要问题。在目前的研究中，mTOR 被选为治疗肺癌的重要替代靶点，涉及 PI3K/AKT/mTOR 通路。我们研究了 AZD-2014 与 mTOR 蛋白的结合相互作用，以确定设计强效 mTOR 抑制剂所需的重要相互作用，这得到了 QSAR 研究的支持。基于药效团的虚拟筛选研究提供了核心支架 THQ。基于分子对接相互作用，合成并表征了 31 种 THQ 衍生物。筛选所有化合物的细胞 mTOR 酶分析以及针对癌细胞系的抗增殖活性，从中进一步筛选 6 种化合物用于集落形成分析。进一步筛选了两种最有效的化合物 HB-UC-1 和 HB-UC-5，用于流式细胞术分析、基因表达研究和蛋白质印迹分析。基因表达研究揭示了化合物 HB-UC-1 通过影响 mTORC1 的下游调节因子（E₄ BP ₄、eIF ₄ EBP ₁ ) 和 mTORC2 (PCK1)。在蛋白质印迹分析中，这两种化合物都抑制了 AKT S473 的磷酸化，这证明了这些化合物对 mTORC2 的有效性。这两种化合物被进一步筛选用于体内生物学评价。这两种化合物都延长了患癌动物的寿命，并延长了平均存活时间。此外，在苯并芘诱导的肺癌动物模型中，两种化合物均通过肺组织的生化参数和组织病理学评估显示出有效性。未来，该系列的有效命中化合物可以被修改以开发用于治疗肺癌的先导 mTOR 抑制剂。