FAK inhibitors as promising anticancer targets: present and future directions

Author(s):  
Muhamad Mustafa ◽  
Amer Ali Abd El-Hafeez ◽  
Dalia A Abdelhafeez ◽  
Dalia Abdelhamid ◽  
Yaser A Mostafa ◽  
...  

FAK, a nonreceptor tyrosine kinase, has been recognized as a novel target class for the development of targeted anticancer agents. Overexpression of FAK is a common occurrence in several solid tumors, in which the kinase has been implicated in promoting metastases. Consequently, designing and developing potent FAK inhibitors is becoming an attractive goal, and FAK inhibitors are being recognized as a promising tool in our armamentarium for treating diverse cancers. This review comprehensively summarizes the different classes of synthetically derived compounds that have been reported as potent FAK inhibitors in the last three decades. Finally, the future of FAK-targeting smart drugs that are designed to slow down the emergence of drug resistance is discussed.

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. P. Rakesh ◽  
Shi-Meng Wang ◽  
Jing Leng ◽  
L. Ravindar ◽  
Abdullah M. Asiri ◽  
...  

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. There is always a huge demand for novel anticancer drugs and diverse new natural or synthetic compounds are developed continuously by scientists. Presently, a large number of drugs in clinical practice have showed pervasive side effect and multidrug resistance. Sulfonyl or sulfonamide hybrids became one of the most attractive subjects due to their broad spectrum of pharmacological activities. Sulfonyl hybrids were broadly explored for their anticancer activities and it was found that they possess minimum side effect along with multi-drug resistance activity. This review describes the most recent applications of sulfonyl hybrid analogues in anticancer drug discovery and further discusses the mechanistic insights, structure-activity relationships and molecular docking studies for the potent derivatives.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 1438-1453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafat M. Mohareb ◽  
Amr S. Abouzied ◽  
Nermeen S. Abbas

Background: Dimedone and thiazole moieties are privileged scaffolds (acting as primary pharmacophores) in many compounds that are useful to treat several diseases, mainly tropical infectious diseases. Thiazole derivatives are a very important class of compounds due to their wide range of pharmaceutical and therapeutic activities. On the other hand, dimedone is used to synthesize many therapeutically active compounds. Therefore, the combination of both moieties through a single molecule to produce heterocyclic compounds will produce excellent anticancer agents. Objective: The present work reports the synthesis of 47 new substances belonging to two classes of compounds: Dimedone and thiazoles, with the purpose of developing new drugs that present high specificity for tumor cells and low toxicity to the organism. To achieve this goal, our strategy was to synthesize a series of 4,5,6,7-tetrahydrobenzo[d]-thiazol-2-yl derivatives using the reaction of the 2-bromodimedone with cyanothioacetamide. Methods: The reaction of 2-bromodimedone with cyanothioacetamide gave the 4,5,6,7-tetrahydrobenzo[d]- thiazol-2-yl derivative 4. The reactivity of compound 4 towards some chemical reagents was observed to produce different heterocyclic derivatives. Results: A cytotoxic screening was performed to evaluate the performance of the new derivatives in six tumor cell lines. Thirteen compounds were shown to be promising toward the tumor cell lines which were further evaluated toward five tyrosine kinases. Conclusion: The results of antitumor screening showed that many of the tested compounds were of high inhibition towards the tested cell lines. Compounds 6c, 8c, 11b, 11d, 13b, 14b, 15c, 15g, 21b, 21c, 20d and 21d were the most potent compounds toward c-Met kinase and PC-3 cell line. The most promising compounds 6c, 8c, 11b, 11d, 13b, 14b, 15c, 15g, 20c, 20d, 21b, 21c and 21d were further investigated against tyrosine kinase (c-Kit, Flt-3, VEGFR-2, EGFR, and PDGFR). Compounds 6c, 11b, 11d, 14b, 15c, and 20d were selected to examine their Pim-1 kinase inhibition activity the results revealed that compounds 11b, 11d and 15c had high activities.


Blood ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eun Ji Gang ◽  
Hye Na Kim ◽  
Yao-Te Hsieh ◽  
Yongsheng Ruan ◽  
Heather A. Ogana ◽  
...  

Abstract Resistance to multimodal chemotherapy continues to limit the prognosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This occurs in part through a process called adhesion-mediated drug resistance, which depends on ALL cell adhesion to the stroma through adhesion molecules, including integrins. Integrin α6 has been implicated in minimal residual disease in ALL and in the migration of ALL cells to the central nervous system. However, it has not been evaluated in the context of chemotherapeutic resistance. Here, we show that the anti-human α6-blocking Ab P5G10 induces apoptosis in primary ALL cells in vitro and sensitizes primary ALL cells to chemotherapy or tyrosine kinase inhibition in vitro and in vivo. We further analyzed the underlying mechanism of α6-associated apoptosis using a conditional knockout model of α6 in murine BCR-ABL1+ B-cell ALL cells and showed that α6-deficient ALL cells underwent apoptosis. In vivo deletion of α6 in combination with tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment was more effective in eradicating ALL than treatment with a TKI (nilotinib) alone. Proteomic analysis revealed that α6 deletion in murine ALL was associated with changes in Src signaling, including the upregulation of phosphorylated Lyn (pTyr507) and Fyn (pTyr530). Thus, our data support α6 as a novel therapeutic target for ALL.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 2533
Author(s):  
Moupriya Nag ◽  
Dibyajit Lahiri ◽  
Dipro Mukherjee ◽  
Ritwik Banerjee ◽  
Sayantani Garai ◽  
...  

The biggest challenge in the present-day healthcare scenario is the rapid emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance due to the rampant use of antibiotics in daily therapeutics. Such drug resistance is associated with the enhancement of microbial virulence and the acquisition of the ability to evade the host’s immune response under the shelter of a biofilm. Quorum sensing (QS) is the mechanism by which the microbial colonies in a biofilm modulate and intercept communication without direct interaction. Hence, the eradication of biofilms through hindering this communication will lead to the successful management of drug resistance and may be a novel target for antimicrobial chemotherapy. Chitosan shows microbicidal activities by acting electrostatically with its positively charged amino groups, which interact with anionic moieties on microbial species, causing enhanced membrane permeability and eventual cell death. Therefore, nanoparticles (NPs) prepared with chitosan possess a positive surface charge and mucoadhesive properties that can adhere to microbial mucus membranes and release their drug load in a constant release manner. As the success in therapeutics depends on the targeted delivery of drugs, chitosan nanomaterial, which displays low toxicity, can be safely used for eradicating a biofilm through attenuating the quorum sensing (QS). Since the anti-biofilm potential of chitosan and its nano-derivatives are reported for various microorganisms, these can be used as attractive tools for combating chronic infections and for the preparation of functionalized nanomaterials for different medical devices, such as orthodontic appliances. This mini-review focuses on the mechanism of the downregulation of quorum sensing using functionalized chitosan nanomaterials and the future prospects of its applications.


Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 630
Author(s):  
Hawon Yoo ◽  
Seul-Ki Choi ◽  
Jaeok Lee ◽  
So Hyeon Park ◽  
You Na Park ◽  
...  

Relationships between heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) and cancer aggressiveness, metastasis, drug resistance, and poor patient outcomes in various cancer types including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were reported, and inhibition of HSP27 expression is suggested to be a possible strategy for cancer therapy. Unlike HSP90 or HSP70, HSP27 does not have an ATP-binding pocket, and no effective HSP27 inhibitors have been identified. Previously, NSCLC cancer cells were sensitized to radiation and chemotherapy when co-treated with small molecule HSP27 functional inhibitors such as zerumbone (ZER), SW15, and J2 that can induce abnormal cross-linked HSP27 dimer. In this study, cancer inhibition effects of NA49, a chromenone compound with better solubility, longer circulation time, and less toxicity than J2, were examined in combination with anticancer drugs such as cisplatin and gefitinib in NSCLC cell lines. When the cytotoxic drug cisplatin was treated in combination with NA49 in epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFRs) WT cell lines, sensitization was induced in an HSP27 expression-dependent manner. With gefitinib treatment, NA49 showed increased combination effects in both EGFR WT and Mut cell lines, also with HSP27 expression-dependent patterns. Moreover, NA49 induced sensitization in EGFR Mut cells with a secondary mutation of T790M when combined with gefitinib. Augmented tumor growth inhibition was shown with the combination of cisplatin or gefitinib and NA49 in nude mouse xenograft models. These results suggest the combination of HSP27 inhibitor NA49 and anticancer agents as a candidate for overcoming HSP27-mediated drug resistance in NSCLC patients.


Author(s):  
Zhi-Min Yuan ◽  
Surender Kharbanda ◽  
Ralph Weichselbaum ◽  
Donald Kufe

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