The cytochrome P450 (CYP) gene family strongly influences drug development. We determined potency values for 17,143 compounds against recombinant CYP 1A2, 2C9, 2C19, 2D6, and 3A4 enzymes through an in vitro bioluminescent assay. The compound collections included substances from typical libraries and FDA-approved drugs. Cross-library isozyme inhibition (30–78%) was observed with important differences between collections. While only 7% of the typical screening library was inactive against all five isozymes, 33% of FDA-approved drugs were inactive, reflecting the optimized pharmacological properties of the latter. Unexpectedly, drugs exhibited less activity towards the CYP 2C9 and 2C19 isozymes compared to un-optimized collections. We then identified substructures that differentiated between the five isozymes as well as substructures trending towards active or inactive categories. We describe here a pharmacological compendium to further the understanding of CYP isozymes.

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Prostate cancer (PCa) therapy typically involves administration of “classical” antiandrogens, competitive inhibitors of androgen receptor (AR) ligands, dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and testosterone (tes), for the ligand-binding pocket (LBP) in the ligand-binding domain (LBD) of AR. Prolonged LBP-targeting leads to resistance, and alternative therapies are urgently required. We report the identification and characterization of a novel series of diarylhydrazides as selective disruptors of AR interaction with coactivators through application of structure and ligand-based virtual screening. Compounds demonstrate full (“true”) antagonism in AR with low micromolar potency, selectivity over estrogen receptors α and β and glucocorticoid receptor, and partial antagonism of the progesterone receptor. MDG506 (5) demonstrates low cellular toxicity in PCa models and dose responsive reduction of classical antiandrogen-induced prostate specific antigen expression. These data provide compelling evidence for such non-LBP intervention as an alternative approach or in combination with classical PCa therapy.

The discovery that some selective serotonin transporter- (SSRI) and norepinephrine transporter- (NSRI) targeting antidepressants have the potential to act as anticancer agents adds greatly to their diverse pharmacological application. We report that the SSRI fluoxetine and the NSRI maprotiline are potent antiproliferative agents against human Burkitt lymphoma (BL), having little effect on normal blood cells. The results of this study show that although there is low-level expression of the norepinephrine transporter (NET) in some BL cells, NET is not involved in fluoxetine- or maprotiline-mediated cell death, as neither norepinephrine nor other NET inhibitors prevented this death. Of other NET ligands investigated for activity, only desipramine was found to have a similar effect to maprotiline and fluoxetine, suggesting the existence of a common selective structural modality for cell death and aiding in the future development of more potent analogs. In this study, we also show evidence to support previous reports that the serotonin transporter (SERT) has no involvement in antidepressant-mediated cell death, as SERT-specific ligands were unable to prevent fluoxetine or maprotiline cell death and not all SERT ligands could induce cell death. Although no target has yet been identified for the action of these compounds, the cell death elicited is potent, selective, and worthy of future investigation.

The cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) possesses unique tautomerase enzymatic activity, which contributes to the biological functional activity of MIF. In this study, we investigated the effects of blocking the hydrophobic active site of the tautomerase activity of MIF in the pathogenesis of lung cancer. To address this, we initially established a Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) murine model in Mif-KO and wild-type (WT) mice and compared tumor growth in a knock-in mouse model expressing a mutant MIF lacking enzymatic activity (Mif P1G). Primary tumor growth was significantly attenuated in both Mif-KO and Mif P1G mice compared with WT mice. We subsequently undertook a structure-based, virtual screen to identify putative small molecular weight inhibitors specific for the tautomerase enzymatic active site of MIF. From primary and secondary screens, the inhibitor SCD-19 was identified, which significantly attenuated the tautomerase enzymatic activity of MIF in vitro and in biological functional screens. In the LLC murine model, SCD-19, given intraperitoneally at the time of tumor inoculation, was found to significantly reduce primary tumor volume by 90% (p < 0.001) compared with the control treatment. To better replicate the human disease scenario, SCD-19 was given when the tumor was palpable (at d 7 after tumor inoculation) and, again, treatment was found to significantly reduce tumor volume by 81% (p < 0.001) compared with the control treatment. In this report, we identify a novel inhibitor that blocks the hydrophobic pocket of MIF, which houses its specific tautomerase enzymatic activity, and demonstrate that targeting this unique active site significantly attenuates lung cancer growth in in vitro and in vivo systems.

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Our results suggest that pro-apoptotic PBOX compounds may be potential candidates for the treatment of P-glycoprotein- or BCRP-associated MDR cancers.