A major hurdle in the treatment of cancer is chemoresistance induced under hypoxia that is characteristic of tumor microenvironment. Triptolide, a potent inhibitor of eukaryotic transcription, possesses potent antitumor activity. However, its clinical potential has been limited by toxicity and water solubility. To address those limitations of triptolide, the present disclosure designed and synthesized glucose-triptolide conjugates (glutriptolides) and demonstrated their antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo. The glutriptolides disclosed herein possess improved stability in human serum, greater selectivity towards cancer over normal cells and increased potency against cancer cells. Importantly, the glutriptolides are more potent against cancer cells under hypoxic conditions in contrast to existing cytotoxic drugs. These glutriptolides also exhibit sustained antitumor activity, prolonging survival in a prostate cancer metastasis animal model. Together, these findings suggest a new strategy to overcome chemoresistance through conjugation of cytotoxic agents to glucose.
在癌症治疗中的一个主要障碍是在肿瘤微环境中特有的缺氧诱导的化疗耐药性。雷公藤是一种强效的真核转录
抑制剂,具有强大的抗肿瘤活性。然而,其临床潜力受到毒性和
水溶性的限制。为了解决雷公藤的这些限制,本公开设计并合成了
葡萄糖-雷公藤共轭物(
葡萄糖雷公藤),并展示了它们在体外和体内的抗肿瘤活性。本公开的
葡萄糖雷公藤在人血清中具有改善的稳定性,对癌细胞的选择性更大,对癌细胞的毒性也增加。重要的是,与现有的细胞毒性药物相比,这些
葡萄糖雷公藤在缺氧条件下对癌细胞更具毒性。这些
葡萄糖雷公藤还表现出持续的抗肿瘤活性,在前列腺癌转移动物模型中延长了生存时间。总的来说,这些发现表明通过将细胞毒性药物与
葡萄糖结合的新策略可以克服化疗耐药性。