Background: Hemithioindigo is a promising molecular photoswitch that has only recently been applied as a photoswitchable pharmacophore for control over bioactivity in cellulo. Uniquely, in contrast to other photoswitches that have been applied to biology, the pseudosymmetric hemithioindigo scaffold has allowed the creation of both dark-active and lit-active photopharmaceuticals for the same binding site by a priori design. However, the potency of previous hemithioindigo photopharmaceuticals has not been optimal for their translation to other biological models.
Results: Inspired by the structure of tubulin-inhibiting indanones, we created hemithioindigo-based indanone-like tubulin inhibitors (HITubs) and optimised their cellular potency as antimitotic photopharmaceuticals. These HITubs feature reliable and robust visible-light photoswitching and high fatigue resistance. The use of the hemithioindigo scaffold also permitted us to employ a para-hydroxyhemistilbene motif, a structural feature which is denied to most azobenzenes due to the negligibly short lifetimes of their metastable Z-isomers, which proved crucial to enhancing the potency and photoswitchability. The HITubs were ten times more potent than previously reported hemithioindigo photopharmaceutical antimitotics in a series of cell-free and cellular assays, and allowed robust photocontrol over tubulin polymerisation, microtubule (MT) network structure, cell cycle, and cell survival.
Conclusions: HITubs represent a powerful addition to the growing toolbox of photopharmaceutical reagents for MT cytoskeleton research. Additionally, as the hemithioindigo scaffold allows photoswitchable bioactivity for substituent patterns inaccessible to the majority of current photopharmaceuticals, wider adoption of the hemithioindigo scaffold may significantly expand the scope of cellular and in vivo targets addressable by photopharmacology.
背景:Hemithioindigo是一种有前途的分子光开关,最近才被应用作为细胞内生物活性控制的可光开关药效基团。与已应用于生物学的其他光开关相比,伪对称的Hemithioindigo骨架独特地通过先验设计允许在同一结合位点上创建暗活性和亮活性的光药物。然而,先前的Hemithioindigo光药物的效力对于它们在其他生物模型中的转化并不理想。
结果:受到抑制微管的吲哚酮结构的启发,我们创建了基于Hemithioindigo的类似吲哚酮的微管抑制剂(HITubs),并优化了它们作为抗有丝分裂光药物的细胞效力。这些HITubs具有可靠和强大的可见光光开关性能和高疲劳抗性。Hemithioindigo骨架的使用还使我们能够采用一个对大多数偶氮苯来说是被拒绝的para-羟基半亚苄基团,这对于增强效力和光开关性至关重要。在一系列无细胞和细胞实验中,HITubs比先前报道的Hemithioindigo光药物抗有丝分裂活性物质更有效,可以可靠地控制微管聚合、微管网络结构、细胞周期和细胞存活。
结论:HITubs是对微管细胞骨架研究不断增长的光药物试剂工具箱的强大补充。此外,由于Hemithioindigo骨架允许对大多数当前光药物无法访问的取代模式进行光开关生物活性,广泛采用Hemithioindigo骨架可能显著扩大细胞和体内靶标的范围,从而扩展光药理学的适用范围。