We demonstrated that phlorotannins promote NREMS by modulating the BZD site of the GABAA receptor. These results suggest that phlorotannins can be potentially used as an herbal medicine for insomnia and as a promising structure for developing novel sedative-hypnotics.

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A series of new 2-anilinoquinolines 6a-o possessing the substantial N-methylpicolinamide motif at C5 has been designed and synthesized as sorafenib analogs. The antiproliferative activities of the target compounds were preliminarily appraised against a panel of three human cancer cell lines (MCF-7, SK-BR3, and HCT116), and a selected array was further tested over a panel of approximately 60 cancer cell lines at NCI at 10 μM concentration. Interestingly, compounds 6c, 6d, 6j, 6k, and 6l showed promising selective anticancer activities (growth inhibition >80%) toward certain cancer cells at 10 μM testing dose. Compounds 6d and 6j were advanced to five-dose testing mode to determine their GI values and compared with our previously reported ureidoquinoline B and sorafenib as reference compounds. The 4-chloro-3-trifluoromethylaniline derivative 6j manifested superior potency than both compound B and sorafenib over eleven and eight cell lines, respectively. It showed GI values of 0.36, 0.66, 0.68, and 0.60 μM against the breast MDA-MB-468, renal A498, and melanoma SK-MEL-5 and UACC-62 cell lines, respectively. Moreover, both 6d and 6j exerted low cytotoxic effects against HFF-1 normal cell line. Furthermore, compounds 6d and 6j were tested against both B-Raf and C-Raf kinases and displayed modest inhibitory activities, which were justified by molecular docking study. Compound 6j could serve as a promising candidate for further development of potent anticancer chemotherapeutics.

Rationale: Chemoradiation (CRT) is commonly used as an adjuvant or neoadjuvant treatment for colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. However, resistant cells manage to survive and propagate after CRT, increasing the risk of recurrence. Thus, better understanding the mechanism of resistant cancer cells is required to achieve better clinical outcomes. Methods: Here, we explored gene expression profiling of CRC patient tumors to identify therapy resistance genes and discovered that protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type C ( PTPRC ), which encodes CD45, was increased in remnant tumor tissues after CRT and correlated with metastasis. Through multiple validations using patient tumors and CRC cell lines, we found for the first time the increase of CD45 expression in CRC (EpCAM+) epithelial cells surviving after CRT. Thus, we investigated the biological role and downstream events of CD45 were explored in human CRC cells and CRC mouse models. Results: Increased CD45 expression in cancer cells in pretreated primary tumors accounts for poor regression and recurrence-free survival in CRT-treated patients. High CD45 expression promotes CRC cell survival upon 5-fluorouracil or radiation treatment, while CD45 depletion sensitizes CRC cells to CRT. Intriguingly, CD45 is preferentially expressed in cancer stem-like cells (CSCs), as determined by spheroid culture and the expression of CSC markers, and is required for the distinct functions of CSCs, such as cancer initiation, repopulation, and metastasis. Mechanistically, CD45 phosphatase activity promotes Wnt transcriptional activity by stabilizing the β-catenin protein, which collectively enhances stemness and the therapy-resistant phenotype. Conclusions: Our results highlight a novel function of CD45 as a mediator of CRT resistance and provide a potential therapy strategy for CRC therapy.