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.

Inhibition of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) has the potential to directly limit NAD production in cancer cells and is an effective strategy for cancer treatment. Using a structure-based strategy, we have designed a new class of potent small-molecule inhibitors of NAMPT. Several designed compounds showed promising antiproliferative activities in vitro. (E)-N-(5-((4-(((2-(1H-Indol-3-yl)ethyl)(isopropyl)amino)methyl)phenyl)amino)pentyl)-3-(pyridin-3-yl)acrylamide, 30, bearing an indole moiety, has an IC50 of 25.3 nM for binding to the NAMPT protein and demonstrated promising inhibitory activities in the nanomolar range against several cancer cell lines (MCF-7 GI50 = 0.13 nM; MDA-MB-231 GI50 = 0.15 nM). Triple-negative breast cancer is the most malignant subtype of breast cancer with no effective targeted treatments currently available. Significant antitumor efficacy of compound 30 was achieved (TGI was 73.8%) in an orthotopic MDA-MB-231 triple-negative breast cancer xenograft tumor model. This paper reports promising lead molecules for the inhibition of NAMPT which could serve as a basis for further investigation.

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