Excessive melanin deposition may lead to a series of skin disorders. The production of melanin is carried out by melanocytes, in which the enzyme tyrosinase performs a key role. In this work, we identified a series of novel tyrosinase inhibitor hybrids with a dihydrochalcone skeleton and resorcinol structure, which can inhibit tyrosinase activity and reduce the melanin content in the skin. Compound 11c possessed the most potent activity against tyrosinase, showing IC 50 values at nanomolar concentration ranges, along with significant antioxidant activity and low cytotoxicity. Furthermore, in vitro permeation tests, supported by HPLC analysis and 3D OrbiSIMS imaging visualization, revealed the excellent permeation of 11c. More importantly, compound 11c reduced the melanin content on UV-induced skin pigmentation in a guinea pig model in vivo. These results suggest that compound 11c may serve as a promising potent tyrosinase inhibitor for the development of a potential therapy to treat skin hyperpigmentation.
High oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) happens in some
tumors,
which depends on OXPHOS for energy supply, particularly in slow-cycling
tumor cells. Therefore, targeting human mitochondrial RNA polymerase
(POLRMT) to inhibit mitochondrial gene expression emerges as a potential
therapeutic strategy to eradicate tumor cells. In this work, exploration
and optimization of the first-in-class POLRMT inhibitor IMT1B and
its SAR led to the identification of a novel compound D26, which exerted a strong antiproliferative effect on several cancer
cells and decreased mitochondrial-related genes expression. In addition,
mechanism studies demonstrated that D26 arrested cell
cycle at the G1 phase and had no effect on apoptosis, depolarized
mitochondria, or reactive oxidative stress generation in A2780 cells.
Importantly, D26 exhibited more potent anticancer activity
than the lead IMT1B in A2780 xenograft nude mice and had no observable
toxic effect. All results suggest that D26 deserves to
be further investigated as a potent and safe antitumor candidate.
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