Antitumor effects of new glycoconjugated Pt-II agents dual-targeting GLUT1 and Pgp proteins

A novel and highly efficient dual-targeting Pt-II system was designed to improve the drug delivery capacity and selectivity in cancer treatment. The dual-targeting monofunctional Pt-II complexes (1-8) having glycosylated pendants as tridentated ligand were achieved by introducing glycosylation modification in the thioaminocarbazone compounds with potential lysosomal targeting ability. The structures and stability of 1-8 were further established by various techniques. Molecular docking studies showed that 2 was efficiently docked into glucose transporters protein 1 (GLUT1) and P-glycoprotein (Pgp) proteins with the optimal CDocker-interaction-energy of -64.84 and -48.85 kcal mol(-1). Complex 2 with higher protein binding capacity demonstrated significant and broad-spectrum antitumor efficacy in vitro, even exhibiting a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value (similar to 10 mu M) than cisplatin (similar to 17 mu M) against human lung adenocarcinoma cells (A549). The inhibitor experiment revealed GLUT-mediated uptake of 2, and the subcellular localization experiment in A549 also proved that 2 could be localized in the lysosome, thereby causing cell apoptosis. Moreover, cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) confirmed the binding of 2 with the target proteins of GLUT1 and Pgp. The above results indicated that 2 represents a potential anticancer candidate with dual-targeting functions.