Disruption of autophagic degradation with ROC-325 antagonizes renal cell carcinoma pathogenesis

Autophagy plays important roles in malignant pathogenesis and drug resistance. We used medicinal chemistry approaches to generate a series of novel agents that inhibit autophagic degradation. ROC-325 was selected as a lead compound for further evaluation. Comprehensive in vitro and in vivo studies were conducted to evaluate the selectivity, tolerability, and efficacy of ROC-325 in preclinical models of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). ROC-325 exhibited superior in vitro anticancer effects than the existing autophagy inhibitor hydroxychloroquine in 12 different tumor models with diverse genetic backgrounds. Focused studies of the mechanism of action and efficacy of ROC-325 in RCC cells showed that drug treatment induced hallmark characteristics of autophagy inhibition including accumulation of autophagosomes with undegraded cargo, lysosomal deacidification, p62 stabilization, and disruption of autophagic flux. Subsequent experiments showed that ROC-325 antagonized RCC growth and survival in an ATG5/7-dependent manner, induced apoptosis, and exhibited favorable selectivity. Oral administration of ROC-325 to mice bearing 786-0 RCC xenografts was well tolerated, significantly more effective at inhibiting tumor progression than HCQ, and inhibited autophagy in vivo.

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Carew JS, Espitia CM, Zhao W, Han Y, Visconte V, Phillips J, Nawrocki ST