2. Academic Validation
  3. Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of novel PI3Kδ/HDAC6 dual inhibitors for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of novel PI3Kδ/HDAC6 dual inhibitors for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

  • Eur J Med Chem. 2025 Oct 15:296:117852. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2025.117852.
Yueqi Zuo 1,  Yongxia Zhu 2,  Peng Luo 3,  Nan Huang 3,  Kun Yao 3,  Ke Zhang 4,  Ningyu Wang 5,  Xingchun Gou 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Institute of Basic and Translational Medicine, Xi'an Medical University, No.1 Xinwang Road, Xi'an 710021, Shaanxi Province, China. Electronic address: zuoyueqi_jzs@xiyi.edu.cn.
  • 2 Department of Pharmacy, Sichuan Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Sichuan Cancer Hospital & Institute, Sichuan Cancer Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
  • 3 School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.
  • 4 Institute of Basic and Translational Medicine, Xi'an Medical University, No.1 Xinwang Road, Xi'an 710021, Shaanxi Province, China.
  • 5 School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China. Electronic address: wangny-swjtu@home.swjtu.edu.cn.
  • 6 Institute of Basic and Translational Medicine, Xi'an Medical University, No.1 Xinwang Road, Xi'an 710021, Shaanxi Province, China. Electronic address: go@xiyi.edu.cn.
PMID: 40516393 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2025.117852
Abstract

PI3Kδ and HDAC6 inhibitors play important roles in the treatment of lymphoma. Herein, a novel series of purine-based PI3Kδ/HDAC6 dual inhibitors have been rationally designed and synthesized by incorporating an HDAC pharmacophore into our previously reported PI3Kδ Inhibitor scaffold. Structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies led to the discovery of the lead compound 22E, which showed potent inhibitory activity towards PI3Kδ and HDAC6, with IC50 values of 2.4 nM and 6.2 nM, respectively. Compound 22E showed significantly enhanced antiproliferative activities against multiple non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) cells compared with either selective PI3Kδ Inhibitor or HDAC6 Inhibitor, with IC50 values of 34 nM and 53 nM against SU-DHL-6 and JEKO-1 cells, respectively. Subsequent mechanistic studies revealed that compound 22E effectively arrested the cell cycle in the G0/G1 phase and induced cell Apoptosis in SU-DHL-6 and JEKO-1 cells. Meanwhile, 22E could simultaneously block the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway as well as increase the acetylation of α-tubulin and histone H3 levels. In addition, 22E prevented tumor growth in both SU-DHL-6 and JEKO-1 xenograft models, and there was no observable toxicity. These results demonstrated that 22E is a promising lead candidate with novel antitumor mechanism for the treatment of NHL.

Keywords

Dual inhibitor; HDAC6; Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL); PI3Kδ.

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