Targeting tumor antioxidant pathways with novel GSTP1/M2 inhibitors for cancer treatment

Glutathione transferase (GSTP1 and GSTM2) are tractable targets for anticancer drug development. In this work, a series of 6-(7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazol-4-ylthio)hexanol (NBDHEX) based analogues were designed, synthesized, and evaluated both theoretically and experimentally as GSTP1 and GSTM2 inhibitors. Among the synthesized compounds, 3h showed selective inhibition toward GSTP1 while 5b showed selective inhibition of GSTM2. Compounds 5b and 5c exhibited stronger potency while compound 3h showed slightly lower potency against the tested cancer cells than its parent molecule NBDHEX. Comprehensive biological studies were conducted on the effect of 3h, 5b and 5c towards breast cancer MDA-MB-231 and pancreatic MiaPaCa-2 cell lines revealed that 3h, 5b and 5c could activate JNK pathway and induce cell apoptosis. Furthermore in vivo experiments using NSG mice demonstrated that 5b significantly reduced tumor growth when administered in combination with gemcitabine, effectively overcoming gemcitabine resistance in the MiaPaCa-2 cell model through targeted inhibition of GSTM2. These findings suggests that, 5b could become a promising candidate for further development as a potential antitumor agent in cancer therapy.