Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor nimesulide inhibits the proliferation of various types of cancer cells mainly via COX-2 independent mechanisms, which makes it a good lead compound for anti-cancer drug development. In the presented study, a series of new nimesulide analogs were synthesized based on the structure–function analysis generated previously. Some of them displayed very potent anti-cancer activity with IC50s around 100nM to 200nM to inhibit SKBR-3 breast cancer cell growth. CSUOH0901 (NSC751382) from the compound library also inhibits the growth of the 60 cancer cell lines used at National Cancer Institute Developmental therapeutics Program (NCIDTP) with IC50s around 100nM to 500nM. Intraperitoneal injection with a dosage of 5mg/kg/d of CSUOH0901 to nude mice suppresses HT29 colorectal xenograft growth. Pharmacokinetic studies demonstrate the good bioavailability of the compound.

Heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) is a chaperone protein, and its expression is increased in response to various stress stimuli including anticancer chemotherapy, which allows the cells to survive and causes drug resistance. We previously identified lead compounds that bound to Hsp27 and tubulin via proteomic approaches. Systematic ligand based optimization in the current study significantly increased the cell growth inhibition and apoptosis inducing activities of the compounds. Compared to the lead compounds, one of the new derivatives exhibited much better potency to inhibit tubulin polymerization but a decreased activity to inhibit Hsp27 chaperone function, suggesting that the structural modification dissected the dual targeting effects of the compound. The most potent compounds 20 and 22 exhibited strong cell proliferation inhibitory activities at subnanomolar concentration against 60 human cancer cell lines conducted by Developmental Therapeutic Program at the National Cancer Institute and represented promising candidates for anticancer drug development.

Cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitors Indomethacin and its structural analogs Sulindac exhibit cell growth inhibition and apoptosis inducing activities in various cancer cell lines via COX independent mechanisms. In this study, the molecular structures of Indomethacin and Sulindac were used as starting scaffolds to design novel analogs and their effects on the proliferation of human cancer cells were evaluated. Compared to Indomethacin and Sulindac inhibiting cancer cell proliferation with IC(50)s of more than 1 mM, the derivatives displayed significantly increased activities. Especially, one of the Indomethacin analogs inhibited the growth of a series of cancer cell lines with IC(50)s around 0.5 μM-3 μM. Mechanistic investigation revealed that the new analog was in fact a tubulin inhibitor, although the parental compound Indomethacin did not show any tubulin inhibitory activity. Tubulin polymerization assay indicated this compound inhibited tubulin assembly at high concentrations, but promoted this process at low concentrations which is a very unique mechanism. The binding mode of this compound in tubulin was predicted using the molecular docking simulation.

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