AbstractAnticancer drug conjugates are an emerging approach for future cancer treatment. Here, we report a series of hybrid ligands merging the neurohormone melatonin with the approved histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor vorinostat, using melatonin's amide side chain (3a–e), its indolic nitrogen (5a–d), and its ether oxygen (7a–d) as attachment points. Several hybrid ligands showed higher potency thanvorinostat in both HDAC inhibition and cellular assays on different cultured cancer cell lines. In the most potent HDAC1 and HDAC6 inhibitors, 3e, 5c, and 7c, the hydroxamic acid moiety of vorinostat is linked to melatonin through a hexamethylene spacer. Hybrid ligands 5c and 7c were also found to be potent growth inhibitors of MCF‐7, PC‐3M‐Luc, and HL‐60 cancer cell lines. As these compounds showed only weak agonist activity at melatonin MT1 receptors, the findings indicate that their anticancer actions are driven by HDAC inhibition.
摘要抗癌药物共轭物是未来治疗癌症的一种新兴方法。在此,我们以褪黑素的酰胺侧链(3a-e)、吲哚氮(5a-d)和醚氧(7a-d)为连接点,报道了一系列将神经激素褪黑素与已获批准的组蛋白去乙酰化酶(HDAC)抑制剂伏立诺他结合在一起的混合配体。在对不同培养的癌细胞系进行 HDAC 抑制和细胞检测时,几种混合配体都显示出比伏立司他(vorinostat)更高的效力。在最有效的 HDAC1 和 HDAC6 抑制剂 3e、5c 和 7c 中,伏立诺他的羟肟酸分子通过六亚甲基间隔与褪黑素相连。研究还发现,混合配体 5c 和 7c 是 MCF-7、PC-3M-Luc 和 HL-60 癌细胞株的强效生长抑制剂。由于这些化合物在褪黑激素 MT1 受体上只表现出微弱的激动剂活性,研究结果表明它们的抗癌作用是由 HDAC 抑制作用驱动的。