Melanoma is considered the most aggressive form of skin cancer, showing high metastatic potential and persistent high mortality rates despite the introduction of immunotherapy and targeted therapies. Thus, it is important to identify new drug candidates for melanoma. The design of hybrid molecules, with different pharmacophore fragments combined in the same scaffold, is an interesting strategy for obtaining new multi-target and more effective anticancer drugs. We designed nine hybrid compounds bearing piperine and chlorogenic acid pharmacophoric groups and evaluated their antitumoral potential on melanoma cells with distinct mutational profiles SK-MEL-147, CHL-1 and WM1366. We identified the compound named PQM-277 (3a) to be the most cytotoxic one, inhibiting mitosis progression and promoting an accumulation of cells in pro-metaphase and metaphase by altering the expression of genes that govern G2/M transition and mitosis onset. Compound 3a downregulated FOXM1, CCNB1, CDK1, AURKA, AURKB, and PLK1, and upregulated CDKN1A. Molecular docking showed that 3a could interact with the CUL1-RBX1 complex, which activity is necessary to trigger molecular events essential for FOXM1 transactivation and, in turn, G2/M gene expression. In addition, compound 3a effectively induced apoptosis by increasing BAX/BCL2 ratio. Our findings demonstrate that 3a is an important antitumor candidate prototype and support further investigations to evaluate its potential for melanoma treatment, especially for refractory cases to BRAF/MEK inhibitors.
黑色素瘤被认为是皮肤癌中最具侵略性的形式,表现出高转移潜力和持续的高死亡率,尽管引入了免疫疗法和靶向治疗,但仍然很重要识别黑色素瘤的新药物候选者。设计混合分子,将不同的药效团片段组合在同一支架中,是获得新的多靶点和更有效的抗癌药物的有趣策略。我们设计了九种带有胡椒碱和绿原酸药效团的混合化合物,并评估它们对黑色素瘤细胞的抗肿瘤潜力,这些细胞具有不同的突变谱系SK-MEL-147、CHL-1和WM1366。我们确定了名为PQM-277(3a)的化合物是最具细胞毒性的化合物,通过改变调控G2/M转换和有丝分裂起始的基因的表达,抑制有丝分裂进程,并促进细胞在前中期和中期的积累。化合物3a下调了FOXM1、CCNB1、CDK1、AURKA、AURKB和PLK1,上调了CDKN1A。分子对接显示,3a可以与CUL1-RBX1复合物相互作用,这种活性对于触发FOXM1转录激活以及G2/M基因表达至关重要。此外,化合物3a通过增加BAX/BCL2比例有效诱导细胞凋亡。我们的研究结果表明,3a是一个重要的抗肿瘤候选原型,并支持进一步研究以评估其在黑色素瘤治疗中的潜力,尤其是对于BRAF/MEK抑制剂难治性病例。