2-Substituted 3,7,8-trimethylnaphtho[1,2-b]furan-4,5-diones as specific L-shaped NQO1-mediated redox modulators for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.

Based on the scaffold of 3,7,8-trimethylnaphtho[1,2-b]furan-4,5-dione, a series of L-shaped derivatives with substituted side chains at the position of C2 were designed by analyzing the binding mode with NQO1. The drug-like compound 6q (named as DDO-7178) emerged as the most specific substrate of the two-electron oxidoreductase NQO1 and could hardly be reduced by one-electron oxidoreductases CPR (NQO1/CPR = 20.8). In addition, compound 6q showed much improved physicochemical properties such as water solubility than the control β-lap. The follow-up studies indicated that 6q showed a NQO1-expressing cancer-cell-selective killing property. Preliminary mechanism studies on the anticancer effect indicated that 6q induced ROS production in an NQO1 dependent manner and activated Akt/MAPK pathways in a ROS-dependent fashion, thereby inducing apoptosis. In addition, emphasized compound 6q showed more significant antitumor efficacy than β-lap without producing obvious toxic effects in vivo, which gave us a new tool for further investigation of NQO1-mediated redox modulators as anticancer drugs for the treatment of NQO1-overexpressed NSCLC.