1. Academic Validation
  2. Prodrugs of a 1-Hydroxy-2-oxopiperidin-3-yl Phosphonate Enolase Inhibitor for the Treatment of ENO1-Deleted Cancers

Prodrugs of a 1-Hydroxy-2-oxopiperidin-3-yl Phosphonate Enolase Inhibitor for the Treatment of ENO1-Deleted Cancers

  • J Med Chem. 2022 Oct 27;65(20):13813-13832. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.2c01039.
Victoria C Yan 1 Cong-Dat Pham 1 Elliot S Ballato 1 Kristine L Yang 1 Kenisha Arthur 1 Sunada Khadka 1 2 Yasaman Barekatain 1 2 Prakriti Shrestha 1 Theresa Tran 1 Anton H Poral 1 Mykia Washington 1 Sudhir Raghavan 1 Barbara Czako 3 Federica Pisaneschi 1 Yu-Hsi Lin 1 Nikunj Satani 1 Naima Hammoudi 1 Jeffrey J Ackroyd 1 Dimitra K Georgiou 1 Steven W Millward 1 Florian L Muller 1
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Cancer Systems Imaging, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77054, United States.
  • 2 Department of Cancer Biology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77054, United States.
  • 3 Institute of Applied Cancer Science, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77054, United States.
Abstract

Cancers harboring homozygous deletion of the glycolytic enzyme Enolase 1 (ENO1) are selectively vulnerable to inhibition of the paralogous isoform, Enolase 2 (ENO2). A previous work described the sustained tumor regression activities of a substrate-competitive phosphonate inhibitor of ENO2, 1-hydroxy-2-oxopiperidin-3-yl phosphonate (HEX) (5), and its bis-pivaloyoxymethyl prodrug, POMHEX (6), in an ENO1-deleted intracranial orthotopic xenograft model of glioblastoma [Nature Metabolism 2020, 2, 1423-1426]. Due to poor pharmacokinetics of bis-ester prodrugs, this study was undertaken to identify potential non-esterase prodrugs for further development. Whereas phosphonoamidate esters were efficiently bioactivated in ENO1-deleted glioma cells, McGuigan prodrugs were not. Other strategies, including cycloSal and lipid prodrugs of 5, exhibited low micromolar IC50 values in ENO1-deleted glioma cells and improved stability in human serum over 6. The activity of select prodrugs was also probed using the NCI-60 cell line screen, supporting its use to examine the relationship between prodrugs and cell line-dependent bioactivation.

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