Benzoquinone ansamycin (BQA) Hsp90 inhibitors such as 17-DMAG and 17-AAG have off-target toxicities in clinical trials including hepatotoxicity. Mechanisms underlying the toxicity of quinones are a function of their ability to redox cycle and/or arylate cellular nucleophiles at the unsubstituted 19-position of the molecule. Therefore, we designed 19-substituted BQAs to prevent glutathione conjugation and non-specific interactions with protein thiols as an approach to reduce the hepatotoxicity and minimize off-target effects of the BQA class of Hsp90 inhibitors. In this study, the results showed that 19-substituted BQAs did not react with glutathione at the 19-position, while marked reactivity was observed using parent BQAs. Importantly, while parent 17-DMAG induced cell death in primary and cultured mouse hepatocytes, 19-phenyl and 19-methyl 17-DMAG showed reduced toxicity, validating the overall approach. There was no significant difference between the redox cycling ability of either 19-phenyl or 19-methyl 17-DMAG with their parental BQAs in both mouse and human liver microsomes. Accordingly, this suggests that arylation reactions at the unsubstituted 19-position are predominantly responsible for hepatotoxicity. 19-substituted17-DMAG inhibited purified Hsp90 ATPase activity in an NQO1-dependent manner that demonstrated increased inhibitory efficacy of the hydroquinone ansamycin relative to its parent quinone. In human breast cancer cells, 19-phenyl BQAs induced growth inhibition in an NQO1-dependent manner with molecular signatures of Hsp90 inhibition, including decreases in client proteins and compensatory induction of Hsp70. These data indicate that 19-substituted BQAs may be useful Hsp90 inhibitors with decreased off target toxicity (Supported by NCI grant CA51210)

Citation Format: Chuan-Hsin Chang, Derek A. Drechsel, Russell R.A. Kitson, David Siegel, Qiang You, Donald S. Backos, Cynthia Ju, Christopher J. Moody, David Ross. 19-Substituted benzoquinone ansamycins. Hsp90 inhibitors with decreased off-target toxicity. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1788. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1788

©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.
2014