Synthesis and mechanistic studies of quinolin-chlorobenzothioate derivatives with proteasome inhibitory activity in pancreatic cancer cell lines

Inhibition of proteasome activity blocks the degradation of dysfunctional proteins and induces cancer cell death due to cellular stress. Thus, proteasome inhibitors represent an attractive class of anticancer agents, and bortezomib, carfilzomib and ixazomib have been FDA-approved to treat multiple myeloma. However, cancer cells acquire resistance to these inhibitors through point mutations in the proteasome catalytic subunit or induction of alternative compensatory mechanisms. In this study, we identified a quinolin-chlorobenzothioate, QCBT7, as a new proteasome inhibitor showing cytotoxicity in a panel of cancer cell lines. QCBT7 is a more stable derivative of quinoline-8-thiol that targets the regulatory subunit instead of the catalytic subunit of the proteasome. QCBT7 caused the accumulation of ubiquitylated proteins in the cancer cells, indicating its proteasome inhibitory activity. Additionally, QCBT7 increased the expression of a set of genes (PFKFB4, CHOP, HMOX1 and SLC7A11) at both nascent RNA and protein levels, similarly to the known proteasome inhibitors MG132 and ixazomib. Together, QCBT7 induces proteasome inhibition, hypoxic response, endoplasmic reticulum stress and glycolysis, finally leading to cell death. Importantly, we have identified PFKFB4 as a potential biomarker of proteasome inhibitors that can be used to monitor treatment response. [Display omitted] •QCBT7 was identified as a lead proteasome inhibitor among the 21 novel analogs.•QCBT7 shares a similar transcriptomic profile with MG132 and epoxomicin.•QCBT7 blocks the degradation of ubiquitylated proteins.•QCBT7 induces hypoxia, protein stress and glycolysis at both RNA and protein levels.•PFKFB4 is a potential new biomarker of response to proteasome inhibitors.