Design and evaluation of novel inhibitors for the treatment of clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Abstract

The efficacy of conventional chemotherapies in treating clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is often limited due to its high molecular diversity, generally low response rates to standard treatments, and prevalent drug resistance. Recent advancements in the molecular understanding of ccRCC, alongside the discovery of novel therapeutic agents targeting specific proteins, have significantly altered the treatment landscape for ccRCC. Here, we synthesized 27 new compounds that are derivatives of TG-101209 to modulate BUB1B (BUB1 mitotic checkpoint serine/threonine kinase B). BUB1B has been recently identified as a drug target for the development of effective ccRCC treatment based on global transcriptomics profiling of ccRCC tumours and gene co-expression network analysis. We characterized the molecular structures of these 27 compounds by 1H and 13C NMR and Mass spectrometry. We evaluated the effect of these 27 compounds by analysing the modulation of the BUB1B expression. Our primary objective was to design and assess the efficacy of these new compounds in reducing the viability of Caki-1 cells, a ccRCC cell line. We performed the computational docking studies by the Schrödinger Maestro software and demonstrated that three of these compounds (13a, 5i, and 5j) effectively downregulated BUB1B expression and eventually triggered necrosis and apoptosis in the Caki-1 cell line based on the structure–activity relationship (SAR) analysis. The IC50 values for compounds 13a, 5i, and 5j were calculated as 2.047 µM, 10.046 µM, and 6.985 µM, respectively, indicating their potent inhibitory effects on cell viability. Our study suggests that these compounds targeting BUB1B could offer a more effective and promising approach for ccRCC treatment compared to the conventionally used tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Our study underscores the potential of leveraging targeted therapies against specific molecular pathways in ccRCC may open new avenues for the development of effective treatment strategies against ccRCC.